L & B Spumoni Gardens

Amy and I like to go on NYC adventures that involve food as often as possible. So when the opportunity to visit a pizza joint called L & B Spumoni Gardens came our way, we were psyched. I had never heard of the place, and I consider myself to know at least a little bit about the must-have pizzas of the tri-state area.



Zack and Beto picked us up and off to Bensonhurst we went. First we stopped to get Big Gulps at the new 7-11 on Greenpoint Avenue. We felt bad about it, but this was our first trip to the 7-11 since it opened months ago. What can I say, we caved. The devil's call of icy fountain soda diet cokes on this particular hot summer night was just too loud to ignore.

It took us a while to find L & B's but when we did it was quite a sight. Green and red neon signs flashed wildly in the night sky and my mouth dropped open at the spectacle that is L & B's. The place is enormous. It's the size of a truck stop off the highway. There is a window to order whole pies, a window for slices, a window for Italian entrees, a window for ice cream and spumoni and a sit-down restaurant. We ordered a half pie and sat outside on the patio. The whole scene reminded of something from Happy Days or a scene from Grease when they are all hanging out at one of those old-school drive-thrus in their classic cars.




The pizza they are famous for at L & B's is the thick-crusted Sicilian variety, so that's what we got. The crust was insane, burnt a bit at the edges and soft in the center. The cheese was slices of mozzarella (not shredded) laid flat UNDERNEATH the sauce - which was sweet and delicious and blanketed the pie.



Zack and Beto and Amy got rainbow spumoni for dessert which was really good and I got a creamsicle swirl soft serve ice cream cone which was also delicious and made me feel like I was 12 years old.






Zack drove us home and we listened to Amy's record and talked about the sad state of immigration laws in this country. More on those things in another blog.

Love,
Jennifer