At Coniglio's Old Fashioned in Morristown, pizza with a pedigree
Even if the food at Coniglio's Old Fashioned in Morristown were just OK, a trip there would be worth it for the chance to watch Nino Coniglio — a nine-time Las Vegas world pizza champ as well as a "Chopped" champion — practice his craft.
"I am the real deal," he says.
Fortunately, the food is fabulous.
Coniglio makes his own dough — he has a wild yeast starter and uses 0 flour. He uses Campania-styled tomatoes. Locally produced fresh mozzarella. And fresh basil.
And he produces exceptional pies, which aren't cheap, ranging between $24 for "a Brooklyn round" ― basil, mozzarella, tomato sauce and parmesan Reggiano pie ― to $29 for a square "Smoky Roni" pie ― plum tomatoes and pepperoni.
"He making quite the splash," said Guy Madsen, the founder of the Jersey Pizza Joints Facebook group, which has more than 65,000 members. "His meatballs are outstanding."
From Brooklyn to New Jersey
Coniglio grew up in Bridgewater, but built a small empire of pizza joints in Brooklyn, receiving rave reviews, as well as Manhattan.
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He was once the king of pizza throwing, too – a sort of sport of sorts for pizzialols, that is, pizza makers. You’ve seen it before — experts twirl, toss and throw dough in the air with both hands and the precision of a juggler. He used to even get on the floor and toss dough under his knees before springing up and throwing it above his head.
He's retired now from his acclaimed pizza throwing game, for which he has won much acclaim. "
"That is a younger man's game."
He owns four Williamsburg Pizza locations in Manhattan and Brooklyn, a fifth Brooklyn Pizza Crew in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn and has what he describes "as a small outpost" at 310 Bowery Manhattan, a bar where they make pizza for patrons.
His Morristown restaurant, in the former site of Bareburger, which closed last spring, has brick walls and festooned with photos and pictures of rabbits. In Italian, conigilio means rabbit. It opened on Halloween.
Get him talking, which doesn't seem to be too much of challenge, and his passion for pizza science bubbles up like his wild yeast starter.
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He can pontificate on the importance of zero flour — finely ground flour without preservatives — and how he uses a mix of hard-to-find Italian flours and King Arthur flour. They are key to his crust.
So is time, he stresses. It takes days to produce the dough for his crust, giving his wild culture yeast time to more fully consume the dough's starch.
The rest of Coniglio's menu
Other than pizza, Coniglio's also offers like meatballs, fried rice balls, and several salads: chopped, Caesar, and pear, walnut and gorgonzola. All the ingredients are wonderfully fresh.
When Coniglio opened, he also brought on board Dave Ligas, whose much beloved Tavolino's in Wallington closed in September. Ligas can be seen happily making pizza in the open pizza kitchen.
They also plan to offer patrons in near future an old-style egg cream, which was a main stay of Brooklyn years ago.
Go: Coniglio's Old Fashioned, 11 South Street, Morristown. coniglios.com. Coniglio's is BYOB, does not take orders over phone nor reservations.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Coniglio's Old Fashioned Morristown NJ restaurant comes with pedigree
