Lombardi's vs Totonno's

On Sunday, we set out to settle a years-old argument: Lombardi’s or Totonno’s? In our admittedly tiny view, these are the two giants of New York pizzerias, Godzilla and King Kong, respectively. Some would say that we’ve set up a false dilemma, because the true rivalry exists between John’s and Patsy’s, or Nick’s and Grimaldi’s. Whatever. There are plenty of monster metaphors to go around, particularly if you start tapping into Ridley Scott’s oeuvre.

Anyway, Lombardi’s introduced the Neapolitan street food to the United States way back in 1905, when an employee named Anotonio “Totonno” Pero began selling pies and slices. Almost 20 years later, he left to open Totonno’s in Coney Island, now the oldest continuously operating pizza parlor in the United States. (The original Lombardi’s in Little Italy closed in 1984; it reopened nearby in 1994.)

The indelible connection between the two restaurants—and, obviously, to pizza history—makes them the two behemoths in our opinion. That, and the fact that they both make terrific pizzas.

Both use super-fresh ingredients flown in from Italy, make their dough daily, and cook their pies at extremely high temperatures in coal ovens, producing a thinnish, chewy crust, with the occasional burnt bit, that folds in half easily. Naturally, both eschew weird toppings like BBQ chicken in favor of the basic Margherita (a little sauce, a little cheese, a little olive oil, a little basil) with, maybe, some extra garlic and sausage.

Four slices each and a handful of Tums later, we decided on Totonno’s. We like that the buffalo mozzarella is more blanket than coverlet. We like the bigger slices; crunchier bottoms; thicker, not-so-uniform crusts; and more viscid, less soupy sauce. And we especially like that our local Totonno’s Manhattan outpost reminds us of the strip malls of our youth, with mounted tvs tuned to sports and wooden captains’ chairs that match the wood paneling, right on Second Avenue.

In the 1963 movie King Kong vs. Godzilla, King Kong wins. But, really, who’s to say whether a mutant gorilla could beat a mutant lizard? The same goes for pizza. We say, try them both. But maybe not on the same day.