Lucali

By Jonah Turner

I first heard about Lucali’s while watching the Pizza episode of Ugly Delicious. It was ranked one of the best pizza places in the world so I felt I had to go. It is located in Brooklyn. Now I know that pizza anywhere in New York is good, but this had to be better. Unlike many Italian restaraunts, Lucali's menu is short an to the point. Only pizza or calzones, their 8 toppings.

The restaurant has crazy hours. It's open at 5-11pm Wednesday through Monday. Yes, for some reason they aren't open Tuesday. They start taking reservations in-person at 4. With all the great pizza in New York, why are there people waiting in a line a block deep at 3:30. I had to find out.

The first time I went I got there at 4:30. Too late! A block long line only for reservations, not actually getting in. You could either make a reservation for takeout or to eat in. As we waited in line, people who had just made their reservation notified everyone what times were available. As we waited, we heard, “six o’clock”, “seven o’clock”, “9 o’clock”, “10 o’clock”, then only room for takeout at 10:30. What!? New York is filled with great pizza restaurants, why is this one so busy? It had to be good. 

We left to go home since there were no times left when we got to the front of the line. But we would be back.

On MLK weekend, we were back in New York for redemption. We arrived late Friday night planning to start waiting on Saturday at 3. We took the train up. On our taxi ride to Brooklyn, where we were staying, we called the place. They said they had room for take out at 10:30. It was 10. We rushed to get to our place. We dropped the bags and immediately got into my uncle's car. When we got there, it was still super busy. The whole place was full.

We got the pie.

Eh.

It was really nothing special. Maybe it was that it was takeout, or maybe it was that it was cold, or anything else. It was a basic pizza, but nowhere near the best in the world. The crust was burnt as well. They placed random pieces of basil on top that were raw and didn’t add to the overall flavor. I’m glad I did not have to wait in line for an hour. You can find pizza just as good anywhere else in the city.