Co. (aka Company)
230 Ninth Avenue (at 24th street)
NY, NY 10001
(Photo via Serious Eats)
I love pizza.
That might be an understatement. Pizza is definitely in my top 5 favourite foods. I sometimes even buy the frozen mini pizzas and eat them for breakfast. There really isn’t an inappropriate time to have pizza.
I was in New York over New Years and decided to end the year right by going to Co. for pizza for lunch on New Years Eve… solo! I enjoy solo dining. Don’t get me wrong, I love going out with friends and eating, but solo dining is great. It makes me feel so grown up and confident. It also gives me a lot of freedom. No need to wait on someone to make a plan to go to whatever restaurant, I can just pick up on a whim and go. Plus it’s a great time to read a magazine, catchup on tweets or just people watch.
When I arrived at Co. the first thing that struck me was the space. I loved it. I’m a sucker for a nice open and airy restaurant. The place has two walls of nearly floor-to-ceiling windows and since I was there in the daytime the entire place was so bright. The decor is really minimal which I can always appreciate. They have nice heavy wooden tables that feel modern but channel rustic, a really great fit. One thing I didn’t love were the communal tables. The place has a mix of 2 and 4-tops and then two (i think) long communal tables. Communal tables are the trend I’m waiting on to die.
The menu is simple and bread heavy. Given that Co. is the brainchild of Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery (although those outside of NYC might know him as the source behind Mark Bittman’s No-Knead bread the abundance of breadiness is not surprising. There’s a bread section, a toast section, meat and cheese sections (they come with toast)… even the soup has bread in it (Ribollita – google it); this isn’t a place if you have gluten issues.
After a lot of soul-searching I settled on the Brussels Sprout pizza. I love Brussels sprouts and have never had them as an option on my pizza so I figured it was a go. PLUS the pizza had lardons, onions and chestnuts among all sorts of cheesy goodness. SOLD! The pizza arrived a blistery, topping backed pie. The Brussels sprouts were shaved and covered the entire pizza. The chestnuts added a subtle nutty, sweetness that I appreciated and the lardons just the right amount of bacon-y saltiness. The cheese component was a bit too subtle for my taste, although this pizza could easily verge on flavour overload.
The crust was great. A bit tough at some parts but the flavour was great. I wanted to run over to Sullivan Street Bakery and pick up some bread but it was cold and I had errands to run.
The advantage of going with a group? Trying a large part of the menu. I can’t wait to go back and try a few more pies and some of the appetizers.
All in all a good dining experience. I will definitely be back.
Here’s what others have said about Co.:
New York Magazine
New York Times
NY Daily News
Gourmet
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