NYTimes.com reports, “On Nov. 2, Pizza a Casa, a pizza-cooking school on the Lower East Side, surpassed Central Park and the long-running musical “The Lion King’’ to become the second-highest-rated attraction in New York City on the popular travel review Web site TripAdvisor. The storefront on Grand Street improbably trailed only the Top of the Rock, outpacing even the Statue of Liberty. (TripAdvisor lists 660 attractions for New York.)”

“TripAdvisor, which claims 50 million unique monthly visitors, can be highly influential in shaping visitors’ traveling decisions. Mark Bello, the owner of Pizza a Casa, which opened in April 2010, watched in amazement as his small business climbed TripAdvisor’s “Things to Do in New York City” attractions list. The growing number of exuberant four- and five-star reviews propelled its rise and drove both tourists and natives to its weekend pizza-making classes. It had far fewer reviews than many of the city’s more famous attractions — 36 postings by Nov. 7 — but they were all stellar.”