By Charlie Pogacar
Would you run 10 miles for a slice of pizza? For pizza influencer Simone Hanlen, it’s all part of the gig—she’s on a mission to run to and sample pies from a pizzeria in each of New York City’s 200-plus ZIP codes. She documents the journey on Instagram for her 18,800+ followers with breezy, lighthearted Reels that show a real aptitude for the world of New York City pizza.
Known on Instagram as @NYCmuncher, Hanlen stumbled into pizza influencing somewhat by accident. As a self-proclaimed foodie and fitness enthusiast, she came up with something she thought might be fun to track on Instagram: trying every donut shop in New York City. She would order the donuts, sample one or two and bring the rest to her gym for others to enjoy. She turned all of that into, no pun intended, bite-sized content for her followers.
Her following grew rapidly, and she began receiving invites from restaurant owners to sample their food. As her ambitions expanded, she started reviewing other desserts and eventually came up with the idea of eating pizza every day for 100 days and documenting the journey. This evolved into her current project: sampling what she refers to as “the most notable” pizzeria in every ZIP code in New York City.
Related: How Jim Mirabelli Became Pizza Royalty in Pennsylvania
“I do try to find the ‘best pizza’ in each ZIP code, but that isn’t possible in all of them,” Hanlen explained. “Some examples of what ‘notable pizza’ could mean: the largest slice, the lowest-rated slice, the most unusual location (like in a subway), or sometimes, the only pizzeria in a ZIP Code.”
Here’s a Q&A with Hanlen, lightly edited for clarity, about her ongoing project.
PMQ: Where did you come up with the idea to try a pizzeria in every NYC ZIP code?
Hanlen: I organized this project by ZIP code because there are over 9,000 pizzerias in all five boroughs of New York City, and the idea of visiting them all sounds delicious, but overwhelming. The city has around 216 total ZIP codes (there is no master list, and new ones sometimes pop up) which makes it manageable to visit them. And it just felt like a fun challenge to run to each one.
PMQ: What makes a pizzeria stand out in a competitive market like New York City?
Hanlen: Places that I love tend to make me say, ‘This is great. This is excellent. You should go here.’ For example, Mama’s Too has a poached pear slice, and I have never had anything like it. Offering unique and memorable dishes can really make a pizzeria stand out.
PMQ: I’m sure you get asked this a lot, but do you have a list of your favorite pizzerias?
Hanlen: I love the diversity of New York City and the fact that I’ve been able to try pizza from a wide array of different cultures, including Algerian, Mexican and Italian. Everything from high end places like Una Pizza Napoletana to dollar slice joints: New York has anything you could possibly want, and that is one reason I love living here. With that said, here is the list I came up with of my favorite New York City pizzerias, which you’ll note does include one from the greater metro area:
Pizza Fenice
Lucia of Ave X
Mama’s TOO!
Kesté
Andrew Bellucci’s
Mano’s
La Rose
Colony Grill (Stamford, CT)
PMQ: Have you found that you now possess an otherworldly knowledge of New York City’s ZIP codes due to this project? Have you been to a trivia night where this paid off or something?
Hanlen: Not yet. The weird thing is, I have a long-distance runner friend who works for the post office, and when I started this project, I asked him if he could find me at least a list of Upper Manhattan ZIP codes, which is where he works. And he was like, “No, there’s none.” And I was just like, “How is that possible?” I’ve been researching everywhere and I can’t find a comprehensive list of these ZIP codes, which is just so bizarre to me.
Oh, and one other thing I’ve learned is that there are buildings in New York City that have their own ZIP code. For example, 30 Rockefeller Plaza is its own ZIP code [10112]. Luckily, there’s a pizzeria inside: Ace’s. Penn Station is like that, too, but they have Rose’s.
But there are about 10 office buildings down Park Avenue without pizzerias inside, so I haven’t figured out how to deal with those yet. I was thinking about bringing outside pizza into them, or maybe hoping a pop-up happens in one of them.
I will also say that I’ve learned so many unique things about New York City that I wouldn’t otherwise know. For example, there’s this neighborhood called The Hole [on the border of Brooklyn and Queens]. It’s called that because it is below sea level. Pretty much nobody lives there because it’s really dangerous. It’s known as a place where the Mob used to dump bodies because it constantly floods. So I was like, oh, I can’t wait to run to this place. There must be a pizzeria. And there is. There’s one pizzeria: It’s a Chuck E. Cheese.
PMQ: No! Oh, wow. Okay, now I want to know what else you’ve learned about New York during your time running around the city and eating pizza?
Hanlen: I think one thing that’s been interesting is the change in New York City. I’ve lived here for 24 years now, and I actually use the New York City Marathon as an example. The neighborhoods the race goes through have changed so much, and being able to run through them, you see the details of the populations, the businesses. The pizza culture in New York has changed a lot alongside of it, I think.
Yesterday, I was in a neighborhood near Pratt [where I did my undergrad], and the whole restaurant scene is different. There are a bunch of new pizzerias. I think that type of change is positive.
And honestly, I’ve always liked meeting people here, so the whole project has been interesting. Pizzeria owners tend to be really friendly. People on the street will just talk to you if they see you stopping and taking pictures of pizza, and they will offer suggestions. When I was doing my run in Staten Island, people kept coming up and saying, “Oh, what are you doing here?” and once I explained, they would offer other places to go. So, there’s still definitely a community in New York, and people are not afraid to talk to each other. So that’s fun.
PMQ: Speaking of pizzeria operators: if a pizzeria operator wants an influencer to come visit their shop, what’s the best way of going about that? What things work for you, and what things make you think “No, thanks”?
Hanlen: Most restaurants that want people to come in will send a direct message or email, saying, ‘We’ll offer you [whatever] if you could come in, in exchange for a social media review.’ The easiest and cheapest way is to just reach out to people directly. [Pizzeria operators] can see the social media style of that person and [decide] if they want that to be representing their brand. One thing I don’t really care for is when they strongly imply they will only pay for my pizza in exchange for a positive review. I don’t think that’s the best way of going about things.
PMQ: I noticed that, in your reviews, you’re not doing ratings like other pizza influencers. Is there a reason you don’t do that? Does it feel irrelevant to the experience for you?
Hanlen: I don’t think it’s fair to ever be super negative to a business in a public way. You don’t know if someone is having a bad day or what’s going on. Places that I do love, I tend to say, “This is great. This is excellent. You should go here.”
People that know me better will watch a video and be like, “I know you didn’t like that,” just because they know me well enough to know. I will give personal opinions of pizzerias if people send me direct messages.
