It's Official; Paulie Gee to Open a Pizzeria

As I mentioned back when I was invited to a pizza tasting at Paulie Gee’s house in July, Paulie’s dream of opening a pizzeria was on the cusp of becoming reality.

Since that magical pizza night, Paulie and I have noshed on some excellent pizzas at Motorino, broke pizzas at the Pieman’s Craft and have taken a couple of spins around New York both eating and talking about pizza. In one of those spins around the city, Paulie showed me the space he was negotiating to open his dream pizzeria in.

As the months have passed by, more and more people have been clamoring to be invited to one of Paulie’s now legendary backyard pizza tastings. Well, clamor no more fellow pizza lovers. It’s official. Paulie has signed the lease on the dotted line and has been given the keys to begin preparing the space for opening his pizzeria, to be appropriately named Paulie Gee’s.

As a slight hint at some of the pizzas Paulie may offer at his pizza joint, here’s a quick look back at the Paulie Gee pizza tasting I attended back in July:

What I can tell you is that the oven Paulie has ordered and which is being built in Naples, Italy at this very moment is going to be a wood fired thing of beauty which will pump out the high heat needed to transform Paulie’s high quality dough and toppings into the Neapolitan inspired disks of deliciousness he has dished out during his backyard pizza tastings. The architectural layout of the space reveals a clean, unpretentious space able to seat about forty or so people. A simple, to the point sign will signal the arrival of a new contender on the ultra-competative New York pizza scene.

And rest assured, as with many of the very best pizzerias, Paulie will be the one making the dough and manning the oven when his leapord spotted creations arrive at your table steaming and bubbling from the wood fired oven.

The location: 60 Greenpoint Avenue in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn

The expected opening date? December 2009. The usual permitting problems and such could delay the opening, but Paulie’s pizzas may be ready to be had by all around mid to late December. I can tell you from time spent with and talking to Paulie that this could not have happened to a nicer guy. All the best Paulie!

Stay tuned.

I’ve had next to zero time to blog lately and have been away from having computer access for a couple of days, but the results of the Margherita Wars are coming soon.