Grimaldi's Pizzeria

Pizza, the one food I could eat everyday for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It's ingredients are so simple. You start off with dough, add tomato sauce and cheese then bake. Simplicity at its best. The one thing that is not so simple is putting it all together.

Here in the New Jersey/NYC area, we know how to make pizza. As long as you are north of Trenton, expect to have yourself a descent pie (sorry South Jersey). The dough is the key to a good pizza. Some people say the water in our area gives our pizza dough its distinction (the balance of crispiness and chewiness). Tomato Sauce is the other crucial ingredient of the pizza. It must be simple and yet have character, the sauce must have the correct balance of salt and spices. The tomato's natural sugars should be the only sugar in the sauce. The cheese, the final step in the process. Some people prefer fresh mozzarella, others prefer the the shredded variety. There are some pizzerias who use a blend of cheeses (mozzarella, provolone, cheddar, and/or Parmigiano-Reggiano to name a few). After all these wonderful ingredients are combined they are baked in an oven. This is where the distinction is made from a good pizza and a fantastic pizza.

What makes Grimaldi's Pizzeria one of the best in New Jersey is their pizza oven. Grimaldi's uses a coal fired pizza oven. Coal fired ovens can reach temperatures which wood or natural-gas fired oven can't. Most, if not all, coal fired ovens are lined with brick or stone which help contain all of the heat. Coal fired ovens are rather rare these days; natural-gas is standard for most pizza ovens. The coal oven imparts a smokey flavor upon the pizza. The high temperatures the oven reaches quickly cooks the outside of the pizza while leaving the the inside of the dough light and chewy.

There are several Grimald's pizzeria locations throughout the country but I would suggest trying a pie from one of their original locations (Hoboken, NJ or Brooklyn, NY)


Grimald's is located at 133 Clinton St, Hoboken, New Jersey