Cortese Pizza

So after reading Bangchef’s comment, I had to see what Cortese’s was all about. First let me tell you about the atmosphere… If Tony Soprano lived in Binghamton you would probably find him at one of the dark corner tables in Cortese’s talking about someone who he is about to whack. The ambiance is very Italian with tons of wood low ceilings and waiters with red ties floating around the dining room. I sat at the bar and ordered a personal sized florentine pizza as chef sharron recommended. One thing to note is that Cortese’s is a pretty nice restaurant, it’s not a typical pizza shop where you walk in grab a slice and be on your way. Their pizza is all made to order and it takes time… It is also not cheap; my personal ‘square’ pizza was 7.25 which is equivalent in volume to 2 standard slices. .. In any event, the pizza came out 10 min after I ordered it nice and hot with small black splotches of burnt goodness. The nice thing about their pizza is that they bake the toppings underneath the cheese… so my spinach, onions and sour cream was all underneath a gooey layer of mozzarella. The pizza was pretty damn good, I will admit it. The dough was nice and sweet, the crust was thin and the cheese was perfectly melted. It was the first square pizza that I really enjoyed. My only complaint about it was that it was just a tad salty and difficult to eat, but this may have been due to its odd shape. Also it’s a little pricy for pizza. I still give my vote to Grande’s (New Yorkesk) but Cortese’s did impress me.

Here is a link to Cortese’s web site; their photos don’t give the place justice…
Cortese's