The Great Pizza Pie War

This past weekend was the best weather weekend this year! It was Sunny and 85. Although Scott spent part of Saturday at home writing editing his paper, we still made time for fun. Saturday started off hot and sunny. We walked down to the local grocery. In the 8 blocks it took us to arrive home, the sky turned dark with an epic summer storm approaching. Not 5 minutes after we got home it started pouring. I was so excited, I LOVE summer storms. We had no where to be, the air was mild, and we were able to keep our windows open during the entire storm. Just a perfect afternoon. The day ended with our good friends, The Allens coming over for some deep fried wings. yuuum.



After church on Sunday, we decided to explore Brooklyn. We had heard there are a lot of good eats and great views just across the Brooklyn Bridge. We planned to eat some famous Brooklyn Style, Coal Oven pizza. What we didn't anticipate was choosing a side in the greatest pizza rivalry in all of New York! We had planned on eating at Grimaldi's, but heard there is always a huge line. Luckily, our friends said we should definitely eat at the lesser known, Juliana's Pizza just 2 shops down. As we waited in line for a seat, we opened up Wikipedia and did some research on the shop. Apparently, picking between the pizzerias is a big deal...

Patsy Grimaldi (The Owner of Juliana's) learned to make pizza's from his Grandfather in 1940's Italian Harlem. When he grew up, he and his wife opened their own Pizzeria in Brooklyn, Grimaldi's. In 1998, they sold the restaurant to a customer. They soon regretted their decision and after many disputes over naming rights and pizza quality, the landlord did not renew the lease on the restaurant. The new owner then moved his Grimaldi's Pizza two doors down, leaving the famous brick oven behind and building a new one. Patsy and his wife were elated and moved back in to their original space and opened another pizza shop named Juliana's after his grandmother who lived in Italy. So, Juliana's is actually the REAL Grimaldi's even though the line is longer outside of Grimaldi's and the secret? Juliana's is better. It's all about the oven.

After a delectable prosciutto and arugala Pizza, we walked the board walk, ate frozen yogurt and just enjoyed our day. One of the cool things about our sight seeing that day, was the fact we had just watched The Amazing Spider-man 2 in theaters on Friday. It not only does it take place in New York, a lot of the exterior scenes are filmed near the Brooklyn Bridge. So it made the trip that much more interesting.

The Famous Coal Oven

Love Locks

A View of the Empire State Building beneath the Manhattan Bridge

In The Amazing Spider-man 2, when Peter and Harry are skipping rocks on the water, that's here, beside the Brooklyn Bridge....also...When Gwen Stacey is headed to the airport and Spider-Man webs 'I Love You' on the Brooklyn Bridge, he takes her to the top of this bridge (The Manhattan Bridge) to kiss her.

Xo

Lauren Marie