334 Bowery
New York, NY 10012
(212) 466-3300
Having thoroughly wasted our time at the Museum of the American Gangster (I'll explain on Facebook), Shrink and I decided to grab a very late lunch/very early dinner at Forcella's Bowery location a few blocks away. They also have a location in Williamsburg and one in Kips Bay/Murray Hill. Since we forwent getting a large meal, this won't be a very long review. Long story short, both of us were very impressed with the food, though service was spotty. Too short? Okay fine.
Forcella is a large well-lit space with a well-designed mix of modern and classical touches like its high tin ceiling, chandeliers, and huge floor to ceiling windows. The centralized pizza oven ensures that there's always the smell of dough in the air. I probably would have preferred to sit outside, but it was just cold enough to shy away. Our waitress was very pleasant initially, but became distant once we ordered. For about a half hour, she vanished completely so we asked another server for assistance. He smiled and said "ok" and then forgot we had spoken to him. Forcella had been busy, I'd be more forgiving, but it was far from busy.
This one issue aside, Forcella's food (at least what we tried) was excellent and inexpensive. Indeed, I can't recall a single item that broke $20. Forcella is primarily chi chi pizza, but there are a handful of more traditional Italian dishes like lasagna and some more American dishes like what Shrink ordered, a Hamburger (I can't remember the name, dammitall) with a small side salad. Shrink loved the dressing and loved the burger, saying that it was the best she could remember having. While I might not go quite that far with regards to the hamburger, it was pretty tasty. Everyone who's written about Forcella has written about their deep fried pizzas and who am I to fight the herd? So, I decided to see what all the hype was about and ordered a Montanara. Essentially, Forcella deep fries the dough before making a pizza out of it. The result is... different. Like I said, I tried the Montanara, which is basically a margherita pizza (sauce, mozzarella, basil) but with fried dough. I liked it, but I can't say I loved it. If you thought that frying the dough would give it a crispy, fried chickeny crust, you're way off. Think funnel cake. The crust was intensely sweet and extremely pillowy. It goes without saying that it was pretty damn greasy, too. The next time I go to a county fair, I'll think of Forcella, but the next time I go to Forcella, I think I'll stick with a standard crust.
In the end, the meal, which included these two dishes, plus two glasses of wine, plus two coffees, plus tax, plus tip totaled $66.62.
It should also be noted that a quick peek at Forcella's website shows that the menus at the three locations are not carbon copies of each other.
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- 4/23/2013
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