While I was out of town, Adam Kuban of Slice sent me an email inviting me to his pizza party. I figured it would be 12-15 of his friends going out to some secret joint in the outer boroughs so I said, sure, I'll go. But the follow-up e-mail had some fancy link to PayPal. I thought, what did I get myself into?
Turns out the party was being thrown by Adam and Gothamist for a 100+ of their closest friends. I asked Adam if I was going to know anyone there besides him. He said he only knew about 25 people, but no, I wasn't going to know anyone else there. He also said that Bill from Soundbites had reserved tickets but had not yet purchased them. After a tiny bit of cajoling, I got Bill to hand over his money. We made plans to meet up at Greenpoint Tavern across the street before braving the masses.
So I have to admit that I was afraid to go alone because I thought the party would be populated by pot-bellied, square, shut-in bloggers. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Slice has quite a young and attractive readership. Even better, I ran into enough people I internet-know, reassuring my flash mob lemming brain that it was okay for me to be there. Chatted with Martha, the adorable Janice (our second tipsy run-in at a party), and met a slew of people I'd seen on the internet but never properly met. It was all a lot more fun and a lot less junior high-awkward than I expected a blogger party to be.
We got there about 7:10 p.m. and the pizzas were already flying out of the wood-fired oven. Gorgeous margheritas with pliable mozz; pie with hunks of fennel-studded sausage and tomato sauce; prosciutto and asparagus; gorgonzola; mixed mushroom; and of course, the star attraction, white pie with truffle shavings, truffle oil, ricotta, mozz, and a little fresh rosemary. Crusts were blistery and thin, crisp but properly chewy without too many carbon potholes.
picture borrowed from Slice
The characteristic that sets Fornino's pies apart from the rest is the divine cheese -- tender, milky, stringy mozz that practically dripped off the pies. I wish I could do a report on the mozz making demonstration, but my new friend whom I am now dubbing Hot Kate and I had made a pact early in the evening to make sure we got our $26.06's worth of all you can inhale pie, wine, and beer. By the time Chef Michael Ayoub got around to melting curd, she and I had moved to the liquid portion of dinner. We were probably 4 juice glasses of pinot grigio in, chucking crusts on tables, dancing with the bartender to the Smiths and New Order, clinking glasses and chugging like a couple of frat boys. I kept asking Bill if we were embarrassing him which he denied, though not very emphatically.
picture of me and Hot Kate borrowed from Martha
Apologies to the Fornino staff for being the last group to trickle out of the place. I did manage to talk Hot Kate out of continuing the evening with karaoke at Capone's (more pizza!). When I'm pretty drunk, I take a cab home -- I figure my rent is cheap enough that I can afford to take cabs home once a week and still have a lower cost of living than most folks in NY. But when I'm really drunk, I wind up on the subway because my alcohol addled brain thinks, "Oh, I'll be fiiiiiine on the thubway where's that metrocard wutt wutt?" Last night I closed my eyes when the N was going over the bridge. When I opened them, the train doors opened out onto 59th St. -- three stops past my stop. I stumbled out of the car, went up and over, and had to wait another 15 minutes for a Manhattan bound train to take me home. I should get a placard to wear on the subway that says "Wake Me at 36th St."
I stopped at the gas station on the walk home for a can of Chef Boyardee (sorry Chef Ayoub!), a pint of coffee Haagen-Dazs and a gallon of Poland Spring, which is pretty much the only reason I was able to get out of bed this morning.
Adam, Gothamist and Fornino, cheers to you for throwing such a fabulous party! This hangover is dedicated to you.
Gothamist-Slice Pizza Party flickr tag photos
My Flickr pizza party set
Ganda, thank you for filling in the missing bits of memory from last night. I think we got our $78.18's worth, each of us. Can you believe people left early?
Def the funnest party I've been to in a while.
i had a blast from start to end, i can't believe people left. i live in sunset park, for crying out loud. to be fair, it did look a little less happening in the back room. i'm super proud of us for being called the "wildest bunch" by the host.
the back wasn't as fun because it was all tables, and people just sat with others they knew being lame. the front was all mingling, mozzarella-pulling, and drinking.
It was a successful party already, I think. But Ganda passing out on the train and missing her stop is the imprimatur of partay-ness.
Bill: It was good to finally meet you. We'll have to do Snacky soon, whenever you know they'll have Popsy burgers. Ganda wants to go. And PonyHeist seemed up for the ride, too.
PonyHeist: I still don't like semicolons. I have tired of their charm; we use them too much at the magazine I work for.
>>>So I have to admit that I was afraid to go alone because I thought the party would be populated by pot-bellied, square, shut-in bloggers.
Sorry we disappoint you sometimes...
www.forgotten-ny.com
damn who is that so called "hot kate"?