Ops, a Fish Fry, and an After Dark Cocktail Party
Your Weekend Buzz and more.
Friends,
I have a life milestone to share– I went to my first K-POP concert Sunday night with Eiji (thanks to my Dad for the tickets!). Given that I am 56, it’s safe to say I brought the age up by at least three decades at Citifield for Black Pink’s Deadline tour. That’s okay though, I had the best time with Eiji singing and dancing to Kill This Love, Shut Down, Pink Venom and Jennie’s Mantra! It slayed! Ok, I’ll stop now.
The weekend is almost here, and I wanted to give you all a head’s up on planning it. First please put Ops on your radar. You may have heard of it? It’s the James Beard Award-nominated Bushwick-born pizzeria named for the Roman goddess of the harvest. The Bushwick location garnered quite a reputation for its St. Louis-styled pies, and now that team has just opened a second location with an expanded menu (and so much great natural wine) in the East Village (176 2nd Ave).
Ops opened a while ago – in 2016 in Bushwick– and I’m sorry it's taken me so long to get there. Chef Michael Fadem does pies in two styles – roughly square “Tavernettas” — crispy crusted Midwestern-inspired by his St. Louis roots — alongside a menu of classic old-school Neapolitans.
While I didn’t get to the Tavernettas this time, I was very impressed with his Neapolitans pies. Like most premiere pizza, his crust is made from naturally fermented sourdough and it’s got a nice tangy flavor, full of salt and yeast and life, puffed up on the crust and almost pillowy, a resting place for your weary soul, and blackened in spots from the fire-breathing hearth.
His crusts are that perfect weight: sturdy enough to support his glorious raft of toppings, but also soft and pliable, easy to fold in half and devour. Speaking of toppings, these are all carefully and lovingly curated from a group of small farms and makers – cheeses from Caputo Brothers Creamery and Narragansett Creamery, Pepperoni from Salumeria Biellese, Sausage, Salami from La Salumina, Hurleyville, Mortadella and Salami from Tempesta Artisan Salumi out in Chicago, and veggies from HOG Farm on Long Island and Lancaster Farm Fresh in Pennsylvania. The flour is from Farmer Ground, Trumansburg, upstate.
Mike makes simple classic red sauce pies which you can customize with sausage, anchovy, mushrooms, greens and the like, and then a menu of more fabulous Fadem creations. The Napoletana is a briny beast with tomatoes, anchovies and garlic, the Rojo tucks pickled peppers under a blanket of mortadella, the Juno is crowned with chopped broccoli rabe, circles of roasted potatoes and a generous frosting of grated ricotta salata, while the Pos tastes like a pizza married a bowl of all’Amatriciana – with tomatoes, guanciale, onions, tomato and pecorino. His Trapanese pie is quite good but also quite rich; you will have leftovers of this one topped with artichokes, a pesto Trapanese (made with almonds), a flurry of fontina and a mess of nice bright greens.
The menu also includes some fairly impressive small plates – a supremely delicate frito misto mare – a collection of whisper-weight battered shrimp and pollock with an anchovy aioli I want to buy by the gallon. Please sell it to me. There’s also a gorgeous medley of frilly chicories and crunchy wedges of cucumber in an unapologetically creamy dressing called the Ops Salad I’d take on repeat all summer long.
I must say that while the pies are terrific, the other noteworthy thing about Ops is that this is a pizza place for people who love wine. Interestingly, the list is not curated by a sommelier, but by chef Mike who looks after the wine program himself. Mike worked at Achilles Heel, Romans, and Estela, so has always been interested in beverage/wine. His natural wine list is huge — several pages long — and he was nominated for a James Beard Award for his outstanding wine program so if you’re a wine geek, there’s another reason to get over there. Oh, one more thing: have the soft serve sundae for dessert. Or as an appetizer. Or both.
And now, The Weekend Buzz – including a fish fry and an after dark cocktail party.