Square or round, you can't go wrong with pizza from Peter Grippo's Brooklyn Square
EDITOR'S NOTE: Matt Fagan has eaten lots of pizza this year as part of his quest to find the best in New Jersey. This is his latest stop, Peter Grippo's Brooklyn Square in Jackson.
For more than a year, Peter Grippo's Brooklyn Square in Jackson has been on my radar, and for good reason.
The ever-growing, punctilious pizza press, including Northjersey.com and Barstool, along with social sites such as Jersey Pizza Joints' Facebook group, has Brooklyn Square ranked in the uppermost echelon of the state's pizzeria pecking order.
Grippo, after all, was one of 35 pizza makers invited to David Portnoy's (of Barstool Sports fame) inaugural One Bite Pizza Festival at Coney Island, which attracted more than 5,000 despite tropical storm Ophelia's driving wind and rain in September. Grippo was one of only two "square" pie makers present and despite the rain and almost three dozen pizza makers, was a success.
"The people were going bananas," Grippo said.
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Signature pie
Not surprisingly his signature pie is his Brooklyn Upside Down and it requires me to admit to two things. I am not a huge fan of thicker-crusted pizzas, but when visiting Brooklyn Square, Grippo straightened me out about a few things.
My modus operandi had been to go into a pizza place anonymously to see what the average person gets when they walk into the place.
Grippo told me that I could have asked what is their best pie, to make one and still manage to fly under the radar. Lesson learned.
The other lesson is not all square, thicker pizzas are the same. Too often squares have an undercooked portion of dough but I didn't encounter any in Grippo's square pies.
A couple of pies
Initially, I ordered the NJ Square, a square pie with pepperoni which was excellent, as well as his round pie, which I thought was outstanding. The tomato sauce was great, the cheese was not too gooey and the crust was crispy.
Grippo moved to Jackson after years of perfecting his craft in Brooklyn under Peter's Pizza. Grippo grew up in the Gravesend section of the borough where he developed his pizza chops. At Saturday's One Bite festival, he was ensconced with two other legendary New Jersey pizza chefs from Robbinsonville's DeLorenzo's Tomato Pies and Freehold's Federici's.
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"I told everyone I am team Jersey now," he said.
Unlike Coniglio's, a top-ranked pizza shop in Morristown, Brooklyn Square is in a more suburban area and surrounded by an Orthodox Jewish community. His kitchen is not kosher, and yet for years, people throughout Ocean County and beyond have sung his praises.
"I get people from all over," Grippo said. "The other day I got someone from Oregon."
Iconoclasm and heresy
I preferred his round pie, which also had a thick crust, but not as thick as a Sicilian slice, just a thicker traditional pizza crust.
It is hard to give a good description other than the bottom of the pie is very crispy and yet the pie is not bready. It's like if you peel away the crunch crust and you are left with a thin layer of crumb, the technical name of the softer part of a loaf of bread.
The double layer of crust was remarkable and unlike anything I have encountered on my pizza quest.
The rest of the pie was enjoyable, the sauce was lovely, and the cheese was just right. Grippo said he only uses fresh mozzarella on his pies.
Crusts
Grippo wasn't giving away too much info on what goes into his pies. He did say he does not like using zero flour and prefers American bread flour. He uses a blend of two different types. Once mixed he uses a double-punch down proofing method, where the dough rises, the air is knocked out of it and allowed to rise again.
Sauces and cheese
Brooklyn Square offers about six sauces, including tomato, traditional pizza sauce, vodka, two separate peeled San Marzano tomato sauces, (one a secret sauce he puts on his Brooklyn Upside Down) a grandma's sauce and a spinach and artichoke sauce.
He uses fresh mozzarella from a vendor he has used for years, and has, over the years, mixed and matched the sauces with the topping to come out with winning pies.
Before I left the pizzeria, I tried Grippo's signature upside-down pie and it was excellent. Despite my preference for thinner crusts, it was not bready and had a wonderful mix of San Marzano tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. Call it the square version of the tomato pie.
Good to know
There are three locations: Manalapan, Toms River and Jackson. The headquarters is in Jackson where the dough, sauces and cheese are prepared. If you can only go to one location, choose the Jackson one. It's a BYOB and there is a sizeable dining room, which is a step or two above the typical pizzeria dining areas.
The bottom line 🍕🍕
Excellent pies. If you are in the area, pop in. We don't think you will be disappointed.
Go: 265 S. New Prospect Road, Jackson. 732-961-7999, brooklynsquarenj.com
Ratings are: 🍕🍕🍕 Exceptional (worthy of a pizza pilgrimage); 🍕🍕 Excellent (if you are in town, make a stop); and 🍕 Worth It (good if it's your neighborhood joint).
About this series
In My Big Year of Pizza, Matt Fagan is on a quest to rate as many of New Jersey's close to 3,000 pizzas as possible and let readers know where they fit in the state's pizza pantheon.
The idea for this big year of pizza comes from the 2011 movie "The Big Year," starring Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson. The difference is they were funny and, as amateur bird watchers, they searched for birds instead of pizza.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Square or round pizza? Peter Grippo's Brooklyn Square does both well
