Dining Review

Kathy Mader

“Don’t even think about calling it Brooklyn Pizza if you’re not gonna

make the real thing,” says Lou Scotto, co-owner of the very real

pizzeria, Brooklyn Pizza, on Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa. It is this

attitude, combined with the drive of world champion jet-ski racer and

co-owner Frank Romero -- Scotto’s brother in law -- that helps the

restaurant live up to a hefty reputation of where “real” pizzas come

from.

The owners of Brooklyn Pizza already have one of the world’s toughest

critics to answer to: Lou’s uncle from Brooklyn, who owns 60 of his own

pizzerias all over New York and who periodically flies west to check his

nephew’s progress.

In this not-so-tough reviewer’s opinion, Brooklyn Pizza is a real

neighborhood pizza joint, a place you can come after work or after the

beach and eat a lot of good food for only a little dough.

Testosterone decorated the place, with its chrome-like table tops, black

chairs, televisions in every corner, music on top of that, and picture

after picture of the neighborhood in Brooklyn and of fearless jet skiers

-- look closely and it may be Romero in the picture.

But this restaurant is both casual and comfortable and everyone who works

there is warm enough to make you feel like a friend stopping over for a

bite. And they all appreciate the quality of food and are happy to

recommend some of their favorites.

Our waiter, Andrew, helped us choose a few too many favorites and we were

grateful to him all week as we reheated a pepperoni and fresh mushroom

calzone and some seriously East Coast stromboli. In fact, as I was eating

this, I looked at my husband and said, “This is the real deal.” Minutes

later I looked at the to-go menu and it promises just that, “the real

deal.” Brooklyn Pizza delivers just that, word for word.

Get them on a good night and they hand out platters of garlic bread for

free. We couldn’t just stop there though, we had to make it hurt -- the

battle cry of this reviewer. We ordered a Caesar salad ($4.75) that could

have fed a party of six. You can take this salad up a notch by ordering

anchovies and capers on the side, a touch that should be available more

often.

The aforementioned stromboli ($5.75) was next, layers of mozzarella and

Parmesan cheeses, Genoa salami, cappicola ham, pepperoni, and sauteed

onions and peppers, served with your choice of marinara or meat sauce.

You can smell those onions and peppers when you walk in, and you can’t

help but order some.

We ordered the calzone knowing full well that we could not eat it, but

this is one item that can set the standard of great Italian food and we

had to check it out. Brooklyn Pizza’s calzone is all that it should be:

chewy, warm crust wrapped around pepperoni and mushrooms brushed with

olive oil and baked. You can order it stuffed with anything you want, but

I am a purist. The calzone was my favorite.

Almost everything in New York is measured in inches -- the movement of

traffic, the distance between your’s and your neighbor’s windows, the

standing room on a subway, George Steinbrenner’s patience. In that

spirit, Brooklyn Pizza offers 9-inch ($6.25) or 18-inch ($12.50) submarine sandwiches -- meatball, sausage, or classic Italian cold cuts.

The pizza lives up to its reputation with a crust somewhere between thick

and thin, all fresh toppings including mushrooms, which is not the norm

in Brooklyn. They strive to please even you pineapple and ham loons, and

I mean that only in the best possible way.

All pizzas are large size here and you can get just about anything you

ever dreamed of named after all that is New York. The Flatbush --

mushrooms, peppers and onions; The Verezzano -- spinach provolone, and

garlic; the Longshoremen -- garlic pesto and Parmesan.

Every day Brooklyn Pizza offers lunch and dinner specials. The lunch

special, with its two slices and a soda for $4, is a great deal, and

plenty of food.

The owners also have a catering company, Brooklyn catering, where the

menu makes a turn toward the sophisticated and offers the Italian seafood

dishes that the restaurant menu does not -- shrimp scampi, linguine and

manilla clams, and all the chickens: Parmesan, marsala, piccata,

cacciatore and ferenzano.

You can, by the way, order all of these things at their restaurant in

Huntington Beach, but the store in Costa Mesa was designed to be that

good, old-fashioned neighborhood pizzeria. Nothing fancy, but all good.

Youse betta get down he-ah, quick.

* WHERE: 2278 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa

* WHEN: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday,

11 a.m. to 10 a.m.

* HOW MUCH: Moderate

* PHONE: (949) 646-9399

* NOTE: Limited delivery area