The Best Pizza Can’t Be Purchased In NYC – Here’s How To Get It

With a crust, which lasts for 96 hours, flour imported from Italy and a distinctive rectangular shape, this pizza is a cut above what is available at your local slice joint.

But you can’t get a reservation to try it out – or even order a pie for takeout.

NYC’s most exclusive, sought-after pies are only available through barter. Ashes trying to score a small-batch pie have to sign up online, and if they are selected, trade their offering of food or drink.

30-year-old Gabriel LaMonca receives five to 10 requests for his Roman-style every day Through his site, UnRegular Pizza.com, But only the kitchen of his Harlem apartment has enough capacity to take out three or four per week.

“It is heartbreaking that people will not be able to provide as many pizzas as they want,” he told the Post. “I put a lot of effort into every pizza, and I never repeated [the flavor combinations]. “

Gabriel LaMonca trades pizza and baked ziti in association with Away King.
Pizza maker Gabrielle LaMonca offers bespoke via social media. They do not have any flour, but customers have to bring their own dishes to trade. Ava King (above) swapped a baked ziti for one.
Brian Zuck / NY Post

He meets customers who find him Via his Instagram account In the streets to trade their creations for their own signature dishes or bottles of wine.

The Rome native came to New York in 2008 to study chemistry and learn English at St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights, but said he was always ready for the restaurant and aimed to open his own space. In 2017, he managed the line at a Brooklyn Chipotle. “I really wanted to understand how Americans use their lunch,” he said. Since then, he has worked for Casio e Vino in the East Village, various Italian food distributors and a pizza shop in Chelsea, Chelsea Market.

Lamonka – which is hoping to open its own restaurant in the coming spring – began experimenting with cuisine in earnest when COVID-19 hit and work in the restaurant industry dried up.

He brings his science chops to his kitchen in Harlem, which he shares with his filmmaker girlfriend, sipping pizza with pizza for three days. “Now it’s rotted, the dough and the crunchy crust are lighter,” said Lamonka, who topped his peas with favorites like Super Bowl Pie, Fried Chicken, Barota Cheese, Tori, Anchovi, Cold Cuts and the like.

His flour is imported from Italy, and he buys local, organic produce, often from Union Square Market. He estimates that it costs $ 25 to produce each pie.

Friends started requesting the pie for themselves, the mouthwatering pix began to get jealous of the Lamonka post. Not wanting to take cash from them, they did a different type of transaction. “I really wanted to try it, and I felt that everyone is cooking in their homes, so I asked them to give me whatever they were making in return.”

Gabriel LaMonca's flour is imported from Italy, and he purchases local, organic products, often from the Union Square Market.
Gabriel LaMonca’s flour is imported from Italy, and he purchases local, organic products, often from the Union Square Market.
Courtesy of Gabriel LaMonca

He said that there is some historical precedent for barter. While leaning in Italy after World War II, “my grandmother baked bread and pressed olives into oil, and traded eggs for neighbors,” he said.

In modern-day NYC, trades include everything from chocolate cake to chicken milanese to fermented tea called kimbucha.

“I drank my own brew, so I swapped half a gallon for pizza,” said Christina Nee, 23, of Prospect Heights. She passed a bottle of her DIY drink to Lamonca in Union Square Park, then scrambled her pesto pizza on a nearby bench with her boyfriend.

Pizza maker Gabrielle LaMonca receives a heart-shaped crostat from Kirari de Paola.
Trades with Gabrielle LaMonca include everything from chocolate cakes to chicken milanese to kombucha. Here, he receives a heart-shaped crostat from the Kirri di Paola (center).
Courtesy of Gabriel LaMonca

“It was the best pizza I’ve ever had,” he said. “I went to Italy last year, and Pesto was very good. Absolutely liked it. ”

Thirty five years old Kirari de paola, Who is Italian himself, was also pursuing that true taste when he hooked up with LaMonca via social media. For her barter, she created an Italian dessert in the shape of a heart known as crostat for Valentine’s Day. The pair met for business in the Meatpacking District, where they produced a barretta pie with sliced ​​zucchini and a red-cabbage sauce that she said reminded her of home.

“I would definitely like to try their pizza more and more,” said the Astoria resident and food blogger. “Not only because it was delicious, but because it is authentic Italian.”

LaMonca said the trades are “exciting”, adding, “You never know what you’re going to do in barter.” But fans are looking forward to the day, where they won’t have to drink their own dish to taste their pizza.

“When Gabriel opens his shop, we’ll be there when it opens at night,” Nee said.

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