When Paulie Gee’s opened on Greenpoint Avenue in 2010, a new day in delicious wood oven-fired pizza dawned in Greenpoint. The alternately sweet, spicy, veggie- and meat-packed pies were composed of surprising flavor combinations, served fresh off the flames, and were, in a word, fantastic. The man behind it all, Paulie Giannone, was an enigmatic wonder: Walking casually around the dining room, perpetually ball-capped, he’d affably ask every single table, “how about them pizza pies.”
But eventually, those pizza pies became very difficult to eat; wait times became prohibitive and, a couple years ago, Eater reported, the restaurant stopped boxing it up to go. The quality didn’t hold up when it left the restaurant, Giannone claimed, plus the change would cut back on wait times. But all of this made it very hard to actually sink your teeth into any of it. And this is why it is very exciting to learn that, later this year, Giannone will be making his pizza much more accessible, once again, with a new Greenpoint slice shop.
In an industrial space at 110 Franklin Street, the new slice joint will be a traditional New York Style slice shop and sports bar, Giannone tells Eater. Oddly enough, in a city obsessed with its to-go slices, this is a service that is sorely missing (at least high-end style) in Greenpoint. “There’s a big demand in the neighborhood,” Giannone says.
The look of the space will be old school, in line with the straight-forward service provided there. Giannone acquired vintage orange booths from an old pizzeria in Jersey his family used to go to. “The spirit is an old 60s New York slice joint,” Giannone told Eater. This means there will be old-school juice machines and L&B spumoni and lemon ices and other amazing things.
Menu-wise, the slices will be a more classic version of what is offered in the original restaurant: plain, pepperoni, white, an upside-down Sicilian pie, and possibly a vegan offering (this is Greenpoint, after all). At the bar, beer an wine will be served, and a long-time Paulie Gee’s employee, Andrew Brown, will manage it.
So, Greenpoint: get very excited because later this year, at long last, Paulie Gee’s will be available again—this time in slice form—just like it’s 2010.
