Having opened its doors to both indoor dining and delivery on Valentine’s Day, Coco Pazzeria on Spring Street all the way west by Renwick might just be the neighborhood’s first new open business of 2021—it’s certainly the first restaurant one, and comes with an excellent pedigree. Perhaps best known for Coco Pazzo (first on the Upper East Side, now nearby on Prince), restaurateur Pino Luongo is executive chef, with fellow restaurateur Ciro Verdi of Brooklyn’s Da Ciro as head pizzaiolo, and the general manager is Alessandro Blandini from Da Silvano and Coco Pazzo.
We tried a few things from the menu the other day, and while we were slightly underwhelmed by the Amatriciana pizza (even though it had a nice bit of heat to it), we very much loved the pizza-shaped Focaccia Vestita, which their menu describes as “thin focaccia bread filled with robiola cheese, arugula, oven-dried tomatoes & prosciutto di Parma then topped with a drizzle of spicy EVOO.” The latter is an easy frontrunner for one of the top ten most delicious things we’re going to eat this year. A little pricy at $24, but it’ll make a meal for two—or two to three meals for one, if you take it home and don’t share. Can’t blame anyone who’d keep it to themselves, to be honest, as it was delicious even after walking home in the cold!
n.b. All the pizzas can be made with cauliflower dough, for our gluten-free friends. They’re currently open Tuesdays through Sundays, noon till 10 p.m.
Coco Pazzeria
cocopazzeria.com
307 Spring St, at Renwick
New York, NY 10013
(646) 850-1003