Big Apple Style Slices and Top Notch Grinders

By Spencer Dobson
Staff Writer

If you haven’t made it to Spicy Pie yet, I’m going to put this right on top, in case you want to cut right to the chase: A decent-sized, very good slice of pizza costs $2, plus .$30 per topping. I had two slices and a coke, plus a $1 tip for $7.98. Enjoy your lunch.

Now, if you’re still reading, I will pontificate. The year I graduated from high school I took a trip to New York to visit a friend. Once in NYC I rode my first subway, got offered my first fake ID from a street vender and experienced New York Style pizza-by-the-slice for the first time. For me, at the time, just the idea of a pizza place selling a single piece of pizza was revolutionary.

Pizza was sold in whole pies in my world, and if you did not have a friend with you, you had to have something other than pizza, sorry. This “By the Slice” idea changed all that. But once you got your single slice, you had another problem: the slices were bigger than any slice of pizza I’d ever seen in my life. The sheer size of them made them hard to eat. That is until you learned what I call the New York Fold. What you do is take this giant triangle of sauce, cheese, toppings and crust and fold it down the middle. This allows you to walk down the street while you eat it so that people can ask you if you would to buy contraband and/or appliances like toasters and blenders. (Gulliani put the kibosh on this kind of street contraband flea market like behavior.  Sorry if you where dreaming of taking a summer vacation to the gritty New York of yesteryear.)

Aside from the sheer awesome size of the New York Slice, that thing that struck me was the crust. It is thinner than any crust I’d ever had. It’s crispy at first, and then sort of chewy. It wasn’t like “thin Crust pizza” I’d had in the midwest, which tended to be all crisp and now give. And it certainly wasn’t my favorite deep dish. This was a new animal to me and It instantly became my favorite. 

Now if you just got off the plane from New York and walk into Spicy Pie are you going to feel like you are back in Time Square? I don’t know, I will say, as a nonNative, I felt it was a very close proximity. I give it the New York Fold and it tastes like that Summer in NYC to me.

Even if you have no memories of New York, it’s a great slice of pie at a very nice price. Spicy Pie does have a good selection of toppings to choose from, but I tend to keep it simple, Pepperoni or Canadian Bacon and maybe a little extra parm. That’s it, I’m happy.  Don’t get me wrong, I like fancy barbecue chicken pizza as much as the next guy, but there is definitely something to be said for having rock solid fundamentals and Spicy Pie has just that.

Here is the part of the review that is really difficult for me. I am from Grand Forks. We have the Red Pepper, which invented the Ham and Taco Meat Grinder. The Ham and Taco Meat Grinder is my favorite Sandwich, a sandwich that is often imitated, but never surpassed. My Family FedExed me a Grinder Kit while I lived in California, that’s how much I like this specific sandwich.  So if you’re going to tell me that you make a ham and taco meat grinder and you expect me to say anything other than “It’s no Red Pepper” that better be a really good sandwich. Spicy Pie makes taco meat grinders. The first time I was at Spicy Pie I saw it on the menu and it kind of stuck, like a sliver, in my eye. I’ve been there about a dozen times now, and finally, (forgive me RP) I caved. I ordered the ham and taco meat grinder. I hate to say it, it’s … it … uh …well … the thing is … it’s … it’s a really good grinder. There, are you happy? I said it! Did you like that? I bet you did.

The service at Spicy is friendly and fast. The menu also includes tacos and tostadas, both of which are pretty decent. I’m sucker for people spinning huge circles of pizza dough in the air, and they do that at Spicy Pie. The decor is cool and funky. I like the music on the PA and they are right next door to the Fargo Theatre which makes them a great place for an after show snack.  If you are downtown Fargo and have $2.30 plus tax, give em a shot.
http://tiny.cc/Spicy

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