Pizza at Anselmo's

1-10-10
I'm said to report on a story I read in Brownstoner that states Anselmo's has closed, 9 months after they opened, they're apparently having difficulty with the landlords and their lease. So sad, this place was great. Hopefully, they'll find another spot to re-open and have success. Good Luck Anselmo's!

There's nothing in the world like good pizza. And it seems like good, brick-oven pizza is having a resurgence lately with all the new places like Anselmo's (354 Van Brunt St., at Sullivan St., 718-313-0169) tossing their hat into the ring. I think this is a good thing, especially when the wait on lines at some places can be two hours or you're told at 7pm that a place is not taking any more names for the night. That, to me, is just crazy-talk. So I'm glad there are new places like Anselmo's to spread the pizza around.

Before we talk pizza, let's take a look at the salad, a nice, big, arugula salad with real croutons, two garlic knots, shaved Grana Padano cheese and toasted walnuts in a lemon dressing. This was fresh and delicious and enough for three people. The garlic knots were also really good; soft and doughy and well-seasoned and not the hard, stale balls they usually are.



We also got an order of the Caprese Salad which was pretty decent. Not the most amazing mozzarella around, but good and creamy and the tomatoes were good as well. The pesto topping was a nice touch, as were the salty, briny olives.



There were a lot of us, so we got two large pies (14 inches) and ended up also needing a small pie (10 inches). You can get a whole range of toppings, or choose the special pizza of the night listed on the board. The crust was perfect, the sauce was savory and not too sweet and everything tasted fresh and was so yummy.



There isn't two inches of crust like on the pizzas I found underwhelming but everybody insists are the best, and the toppings are liberally spread about the pie. While the ambiance is a bit lacking (kind of food court-ish), the staff is friendly, there's absolutely no wait for a table, even on a Saturday night, and everything tastes great. I hope people go to Anselmo's so that they'll always be a more relaxed but still delicious pizza option. They don't have a liquor license, so make sure to bring a few beers or a bottle of wine with you!