You are correct on a few points, and way off the mark on many others. First, your correct points, lets get the short list out of the way. “this isn’t grimaldi’s or una…” Damn straight it isn’t! I don’t own a coal oven, which are illegal anymore for environmental reasons. Nor do I claim to make neapolitan style pizza. My sign says NY style, not napoletena. Any true new yorker would know the difference there, and would not condemn someone for making what they claim. If you were disappointed by not getting a napoletena when you walked in my door, I apologize, but that is not what we make or claim to make. I might suggest settebello. On the quality issue, you are way off. I personally hand pick all of the ingredients we use, constantly looking for the better product. I use very specific cheese, and tomato products. If you knew anything about pizza, you would certainly have tasted the difference. I don’t want to go over the napoletena issue again, but if you are thinking that we don’t use san marzanos, you are correct. We covered the ny style/napoletena difference already. On to the slice issue. It is pretty arrogant to assume you know the reason we don’t sell slices all night. The market does exist; the reason for the lack of all night slices is a combination of a few factors. First, our system. I started on such a skeleton budget, that there was no way to put in an oven out front to have a slice pie counter. Without the slice pie counter and warming oven out front, the labor of creating a slice increases exponentially. Because we can’t display options, we felt that we had to provide our toppings list for people to choose from. This makes it so that each slice is topped individually, also resulting in a much more laborious slice. The other main issue is the distance between our counter and the kitchen. Like before, I didn’t have the funds to make the changes to the building, and did what I could to get open. This distance adds multiple trips for our servers. This adds a grip of time it takes to provide slices to our customers. This continues the time and effort it takes to produce a slice. Couple all of this with a very small kitchen, and you have an incredibly difficult time with slices. Think of the difference between someone pointing at the slice they want, simply reheating it and handing it to them, and the other option of taking the order, running the order back to the kitchen, the cook places the toppings on the slice to order, with any combination of toppings, all the while the server is up taking another order, then when the slice is ready, the server must run back to the kitchen, retrieve the slices and bring them to the customers. This is a distance traveled of over 100 feet. I don’t want to sound like I am whining, we do what we can. We also never promise pizza precisely like you had it at your favorite pizzeria on X street. This is 2400 miles away, and I would go head to head with any ny style pizzeria (not napoletana)on the streets of New York On the advertisement thing, now you are getting petty and really boasting your ignorance. If you have ever used an artist to create an advertisement for you, it would be well known to you that this is not an exact science. I also like to let the artist give their interpretation of my idea. This was not the exact add that I was going for, in fact, the time thing was a complete oversight, I didn’t even notice the time in there. I was much more interested in the look and feel, representing my business. The Boston jab is about a childish as you can get, unless you are simply attempting to get a rise out of me you are just making yourself look foolish . If you have ever been in Este, you would have seen all of the Yankee memorabilia everywhere, you would know that red sox fans pay double, and that we are in fact not from Boston. In the future when you write a review of a restaurant, I would ask that if you don’t have the education, experience, or palate, you at least do some research.

WTF indeed

So, as far as I’m concerned, Este is good pizza and is the best pizza I’ve had outside of new york. Especially if you order it well-done.

Aside from places making brick-oven Neapolitans, no self respecting NY pizza place does not do slices all the time. I mean, who always wants or has time for a whole pie.

Some may say, “that type of market doesn’t exist in Salt Lake,” but it does. I’ve been in to Este a few times and have missed the “slicing period” as I like to call it. Probability is on my side that I’m not the only one. Even if you end up tossing a pie or two at nights end, selling one slice pretty much pays for that, so you can’t give me that excuse.

I don’t want to hear about quality either. As far as anyone who’s had NY style before will say; Este is just standard stuff; nothing that can’t be reheated in the pizza oven and taste just as good. This isn’t a Grimaldi’s or a Una Pizza Napoletana.

My reason for this gripe arose from an advertisement Este printed in Slug Magazine. It’s essentially a comic strip with two guys, walking in Manhattan, looking for a slice at 10pm. One of them hints at going to Este.

As far as I know that isn’t possible at Este. So, I’m not sure what they are trying to prove.

Maybe I’m wrong and they have changed their policy. Hopefully….

Aren’t these guys from Boston anyway? WTF?