Not all bar pizzas are created equal. New Jersey pizzaiolo Nick Conforti, owner of Angeloni’s Restaurant and Pizzeria in Caldwell, says he has reinvented the classic style with, appropriately enough, a splash of vodka in the sauce—and it has proved a rollicking success.
Dubbed Easy on the Pizzi, the pie is now available at Angeloni’s and at Café Crevier in Denville, owned by Brittany Crevier. Both shops have received glowing praise from Dave Portnoy of One Bite Pizza Reviews.
Conforti created the vodka bar pizza as an homage to local pizza influencer Anthony Pizzi. It’s a gorgeous, crispy ultra-thin crust pie with a vodka sauce base, topped with cupped pepperoni, baked in a pan and finished with stracciatella, basil and Hive House honey. “I’ve never seen a pizza like this before after hundreds of shop visits, but I’ve always thought of what it would be like to try it,” Pizzi said.
Pizzi is a former national account executive with Slice, the online ordering platform for independent pizzeria operators. He also created the upcoming Summer 2024 series, “The Local Pizza Games,” on Instagram, in which top local pizzerias will compete against each other in pizza-related challenges.
Both Angeloni’s and Café Crevier have reported long lines outside their doors on recent weekends, with wait times of an hour or longer. The Thinny Thin pie remains their top seller, but Easy on the Pizzi has become a close No. 2. It’s also getting rave reviews on social media.
With Conforti as a co-owner, Brittany Crevier started Cafe Crevier in 2023 as a local café and quickly received high praise for the concept. In an interview with BestofNJ.com, she described her food as “modern bistro with some eclectic tones.” After she had a pizza oven installed last year, she began selling the famous Thinny Thin pies.
She also received a recent visit from Dave Portnoy, who gave her pizza a stellar score of 8.5 in a “One Bite” review video that dropped on May 9.
After his first bite, Portnoy declared, “I love it. It’s outrageously good….I mean, it’s spectacular. “
Portnoy reviewed Angeloni’s in 2020 and gave it one of his highest-ever ratings at 8.8. In the Café Crevier review, he noted that he rarely gives out 8.8 scores anymore “unless it’s like a New Haven-style [pizza] or something like that.”
In another glowing review of Café Crevier, food and lifestyle blogger Joey Eats said, “Each dish is a masterpiece, a testament to the chef’s skill and dedication to using high-quality ingredients.”
