Upside Pizza (Garment District)
598 8th AvenueI love it when I get to travel to work. I’ve gotten to take some pretty cool trips over the years. Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington, DC…but when I got asked to make the trip to New York, that took the top spot as coolest trip.
I decided to drive. I know…that’s a long drive. The company offered to fly me, but I have a lot of gear that needs to go with me. If that drive is within about 12 hours, I usually opt to roll down my windows, find a couple of podcasts, and take a nice, relaxing road trip.
I left Kalamazoo around 10 AM. I was able to get there with only three stops. One for lunch at a Sbarro on the Ohio Turnpike. One for gas at a Sheetz (I didn’t get food here, but no worries, I stopped at a different Sheetz on the way home and will get to that blog later) near Youngstown. Finally a stop to pee at a rest area near Snow Shoe, PA. I hit the Lincoln Tunnel around 8 PM and got settled in my hotel near the corner of 39th Street and 8th Avenue by 8:30.
I hadn’t eaten since that Sbarro stop around 1 PM. I wasn’t worried though. I was heading to New York…and I knew there would be a thousand places to choose from well in to the night.
It seriously isn’t hard to find a pizza place in Manhattan. I walked out of my hotel and there were at least six of them that I could see and I’m sure more just around the corner. I walked straight to 8th Avenue from 39th Street and there was a place on either corner across the very busy street. I ended up picking the one southeast corner this night but I’d get to the other one later in the week.
Upside Pizza has four locations in New York City. Three are in Manhattan, the fourth is in Brooklyn. The location in the Garment District is the one that’s open really late..until at least midnight five days a week with a closing time of 3 AM Friday and Saturday. The small corner pizza shop moved in sometime in 2019 where it took over for a fried chicken joint that had been there at least a decade.
The restaurant is very typical for a New York slice place. It’s not big at all. About 90% of the space is taken up by the kitchen. You can get in from either the 8th Avenue side or the 39th Street side. There’s a big horseshoe order counter just a few feet from the door. The only seating in the place is two tables that are actually outside of the building. There’s a opening from the walk out window to a soft sided enclosure where you can sit an eat.
The choices at most of the pizza places I went in to or saw are pretty similar. There’s the basic pizzas. Cheese, pepperoni, sausage. Some of them also have a couple of premium options. Upside Pizza had something I totally wasn’t expecting. Square pizza.
I ordered two slices. One was the traditional pepperoni New York slice. The other was the square, almost Detroit like pepproni slice. The cost for the two slices was $11. I passed on a drink because I was going to stop at the 7-Eleven across the street to get a couple to take back to my hotel room.
When I got back to my room on the 39th floor with a fantastic view of Manhattan……
…I grabbed the New York slice first. This is not the first time I’ve had pizza by the slice but it’s the first time I’ve had it in New York since J and I took a trip for our 1st wedding anniversary in 2010. We only stopped at one slice place on that trip (Figaro Pizza on 2nd Avenue) but when I go back and looked at what I wrote, it’s pretty similar to the feeling I had on this trip.
The snap of the crust when I put my finger through the Cornicione (you know..the outer ring where you hang on to the slice), it just snapped. Like, there was a lot snap. The crust was like that all the way out to the point. It was kind of floppy because it is such a big, then crust slice but every bite had a crispy crunch to it. The pizza was really good but it was also really simple. The sauce wasn’t really sweet or spicy. The pepperoni’s were crispy and slightly greasy. The cheese was…cheese. It was really good but really simple pizza.
The square slice really surprised me. It was a really good take on Detroit style pizza. They nailed the buttery-ness of the crust and everything. The toppings were the same as the thing crust. Delicious but simple. Was it a good Detroit style pizza? It’s like getting a New York slice in Michigan. All the makings of it are there and it’s recognizable as a Detroit slice…but it’s just not the same. It’s good..but it’s no Buddy’s.
I knew this was going to be a great couple of days in New York as soon as I got to town and I found all the amazing food options around me. It was a long drive but I was so excited to get in to the city and get a couple of slices of pizza. Upside Pizza was a great way to kick off what would be a great couple of days in New York City.
SW Michigan Dining 