When Frank Tuttolomondo opened the pizzeria Mama’s Too! in 2017, it was like the side project of his family’s nearby pizzeria, Mama’s, which had been serving workaday slices to Upper West Side neighbors for decades. At the new shop, Tuttolomondo could do his own thing: “I’ve been doing this 20 years, and I’ve been eating at pizzerias all my life,” he says. But at the time, he’d also been frequenting pizza forums, talking with dough-hydration geeks, and messing around in the oven. He developed a style that was like a mixtape of everything he loved about pizza: for his round pies, the robust flavors of Neapolitan, minus the soupy middle, combined with the structure of a New York slice. And for the squares, he married the frico crust of Detroit style with the light airiness of Roman pizza.
Quickly, Mama’s Too! attracted local attention, and pizza hounds took notice. But business really took off after a 2018 review from New York Times critic Pete Wells, who deemed the shop “part of a great reawakening of slice culture.” It’s been packed ever since, with crowds piling into the small space every day. So Tuttolomondo is expanding downtown to a much larger West Village space that will open on March 9.
The new shop is like a director’s cut of Mama’s Too, unbound by any size constraints. Uptown, destination-worthy sandwiches (like a top-tier eggplant parm) are Wednesday and Saturday specials. Here, they’ll serve different sandwiches daily (keep an eye out for the panelle). There’s a gelato station and, of course, both round and square pizza by the slice, topped with sautéed spinach and garlic; poached pear and garlic confit; and fennel sausage with roasted peppers. There are even tables this time (seating approximately 30), plus wine and beer.
At 3,000 square feet, Mama’s Too! Two is sprawling compared to the cramped original. The kitchen has several Magic Chef electric ovens, including two just for reheating pizza; a Hobart spiral mixer that Tuttolomondo says makes a world of difference; and plenty of counter space for kneading dough and, most importantly, keeping the orders flowing. The hope is that, in addition to expanding the shop’s ambition, he can cut down on delays for customers. “Any great establishment you go to, there’s a wait. Katz’s, I waited an hour on line, and that’s just cutting meat and putting it in bread,” Tuttolomondo says. “It is what it is, but we want to eliminate that aspect here and just really have a comfortable, fun, no-stress order experience, unlike what you have uptown.”
When it opens, it will form the final corner in what I’ve decided to call the Downtown Slice Triangle: It’s around the block from L’Industrie and a 20-minute walk from Lucia’s Soho location, which is a good amount of time to work up an appetite for more pizza. If you’ve been to the Mama’s Too! uptown, you’ll know what to expect. Here, it will just be … more pleasant? “We really want to hone on the customer experience here,” says Tuttolomondo, “and just make it just the best one.”
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Chris Crowley , 2024-03-05 15:05:17
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