Berlina Cafe
600 8th AvenueA lot of times when I travel for work, I really have to plan out my post work meal. In a lot of cities, there isn’t much open that I can grab quickly and head back to my hotel.
That’s not the case in New York City.
We got back to our hotel on 39th Street near 8th Avenue around 11:30 PM. We still had some work to do so we found a table in the breakfast area off the lobby. My coworker grabbed the laptop from me so she could do what she needed to do first. I asked if it’d be OK if I went and got something to eat while she was working.
I think I’ve mentioned this before. There. Are. So. Many. Options. for pizza in New York. I kept seeing people walking around with boxes from Joe’s Pizza on Broadway. I thought, that’s a pretty famous place. I should go there.
I started walking towards Broadway. It was only a ten minute walk but ultimately, I was exhausted and didn’t feel like walking that far at 11:30 at night. I turned around and headed back towards 8th Avenue where there were still plenty of options.
I ended up picking Berlina Cafe on the corner of 8th Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan’s Garment District. The restaurant is the corner spot on the northeast corner. A couple of years ago, this spot was a Starbucks…now it’s a pizza joint also serving up sandwiches, burgers, salads, and breakfast.
The restaurant is wrapped in windows but the entrance is on the 8th Avenue side of the building. Inside, it’s set up like a lot of pizza by the slice places in the area. There’s a large glass counter with heat lamps displaying the variety of pizzas. There’s also a pastry case because they also do breakfast and coffee. Right behind the order counter is a second story dining room.
I headed straight to the pizza display to see what I couldn’t live without. This was going to be my last night in New York so my last time for NYC pizza for a while…. I mean, it’s been 13 years between trips.
I picked two slices of sausage and pepperoni and one slice of Buffalo chicken. They also had bottles of Pepsi so I grabbed two of those while my slices were thrown back in the oven to warm up. The cost for three slices and two Pepsi’s just under $20.
There is a small dining area downstairs in addition to the upstairs one I already mentioned but I headed back to the hotel to eat.
I started with the Buffalo Chicken slice first. The slice was pretty typical for Buffalo chicken pizza. A base of Buffalo sauce with chicken, mozzarella, and ranch on top. The slice was perfectly crispy all the way through and slightly spicy but not overwhelmingly so.
The other two slices I got were sausage and pepperoni. I’m just gonna say, I already miss this type of super crispy, delicious, and somewhat cheap pizza. Theses slices were topped with pepperoni and small bits of sausage. I think we do sausage better in the Midwest but this was pretty decent. It was little balls of sausage. There was a little bit in each bite so nothing to complain about.
Man, this was a great trip. I ate pizza all three nights I was in New York for dinner and if I had stayed any longer, I probably would have made pizza my dinner those nights as well.
I almost walked right past Berlina Cafe…and I did several times before I finally stopped just because I was exhausted. I know there are some places more famous than others for pizza in New York but I really don’t think there’s anything that could be considered a “bad slice” by a tourist. It’s all so good and these three slices from Berlina were delicious.
SW Michigan Dining 