PIZZA REVIEW: Ops

My search for the best pizza in New York continues….

I feel very out of touch with the food world whenever I go to Bushwick. The hip ever-changing neighborhood is a little further from where I usually hang out and It seems the neighborhood’s food scene is developing without the rest of the city fully being informed.

I felt a bit like a visitor when I came out to Ops to check out their pizza game. I had heard about this place over the last year or so since they’ve open but it had nestled further down in my never ending list of places to try.

When I finally sat at the bar late on a Saturday afternoon (they are only open for lunch on the weekends), I found a healthy crowd with families and the owner himself leading a class on pizza making.

In addition to pizza, the menu features a pulled from the garden salad comprised of bitter lettuces and a serious selection of natural wines.

There are three rather straight-forward pizza choices and then four more creative ones featuring some typical hipster ingredients like guanciale and pickled peppers.

But the Margherita pie I tasted can not just be written off as a hipster trend. There is mastery at work here. And a good deal of it comes in the form of the dough.

Maybe it’s because I overheard some of the owner’s class, but I was very impressed with the focus on baking. It reminded me of Bein Cuit, a Brooklyn bakery featured on the Brownstone tour I lead. Slow fermentation and a concentration on the yeast to provide the most flavor possible.

All the pizzas are naturally leavened using a sourdough yeast. The chew on the pie I tasted was incredible with a deep rich yeasty flavor. The bubbly char bits played nicely with the soft pillow-like cornicone.

The tomato sauce was fresh and tangy and I don’t think the basil could get more green. Thankfully it was snipped on afterwards instead of being baked and burned into the pie. This was an exciting, fresh, bright pizza.

Clearly there is something exciting happening here and I didn’t fully know about it. Until now. And most of the city still has no idea.

Is Ops the best pizza in NY? Although most New Yorkers are unaware of it, it’s a pretty great wood fired pie with lots of sourdough notes and some of the freshest toppings around. 9 out of 10.