Where to Eat Pizza: Baby Luc's, Brooklyn, NYC
Pizza. It’s what you eat when you’re drunk and you don’t feel like discerning between the meaning of “good” and “bad.” But when you do find the good stuff, you start making promises to yourself that you’ll never eat pizza anywhere else again. I’ve got a good one for you and it’s no surprise. Baby Luc’s is a brand new, jazzed-up slice shop situated conveniently off the F train in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. It’s the casual sister spot of the sit down, brick-oven pizza restaurant, Lucali, down the street. That’s all fine and good but I’d like to tell you what to get, why you should and how to do it best.
The Margarita:
This is for the diehard plain slice folks out there. The “don’t mess up my pizza with toppings” eaters of the world. At $4 a slice, it’s 50 cents cheaper than all of the other slice options. The Margarita features a thin layer of sauce, charred mozz and a sprinkle of shredded parmesan alongside stray basil leaves. This slice has more crust region than sauced territory and once cooled became rather tough to eat. My least favorite slice of the four flavor offerings.
The Pepperoni:
Roni-cups for days! Order this slice if you even remotely like things akin to: crispy ends of bacon, the burnt ends of barbecue, the corner pieces of baked mac and cheese. Each pepperoni slice acquires a perfectly crispy, chewy, carbon-charred edge. I’ll be shamelessly dreaming of this slice for weeks.
The Sausage and Peppers:
Pepperoni, you have been challenged. This was the very first slice I picked up out of the four flavors because it was simply the most tempting. Big chunks of fennel-y sausage, soft, sweet, red and yellow bell peppers nestled into oozing cheese. The flavors are complementary with the fresh basil garnish and the fat content the sausage offers is perfectly absorbed by the numerous air pockets in the focaccia-like pizza crust. If you eat meat, don’t sleep on this slice.
The Ricotta and Broccoli Rabe:
On paper, I thought this would be my favorite slice. Flaw or not, I’m drawn to the bold, questionable types. This slice is a white pizza featuring ricotta, mozzarella and big strands of broccoli rabe. With no red sauce in sight, this means we have no source of acidity to balance out the richness of the ricotta and the truly bitter greens. If you love raw kale salads, chewing on huge hunks of mustard greens or the bitterness of defeat, this slice is for you.
Baby Luc’s has only been open for a few weeks and is technically still in preview hours so until they open for longer periods of time with more slices to pass around, you may want to get there before they open at 5pm. I would also recommend heading over there on a weekday to increase your chances of scoring a few of the precious 150 slices they’re making each day. They’re closed Monday and Tuesday, so keep that in mind. Best case scenario: grab a Hal’s from a nearby bodega at 4:45pm and while away those 15 minutes sitting at a picnic table in their shady porch area watching adorable dogs walk by until it’s your turn to order.