Pete the Punisher Gives the Goose Egg to Nicoletta

New York Times critic Pete Wells is not a fan of Michael White's newest project, Nicoletta. Today he files the most negative review of his career, and that's including his four-week reign of terror in 2009. On the pies:

Nicoletta’s pizzas are not quite deep dish, but they are heading in that direction. The crust is as strong as epoxy, and Mr. White piles it up with an abundance of toppings that would buckle an ordinary pie. In thickness and heft, a Nicoletta pizza resembles the September issue of Vogue.

There was another reason my table never finished an entire pizza: we lost interest. The style of pizza Mr. White is pursuing emphasizes gut-stretching abundance over flavor. The pies are overburdened conglomerations of cheese, flour and fistfuls of other stuff; in the end, the elements cancel one another out.

Wells is bored by many of the salads and snacks, but he likes the gelato okay. The critic writes: "...what is striking about Nicoletta is how little evidence it gives of Mr. White’s prodigious talent for cooking Italian food that can make you dizzy with pleasure."
· An Empire Stretches Its Dough [NYT]
· All Coverage of Nicoletta [~ENY~]

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Nicoletta

160 2nd Avenue, Manhattan, NY 10003 (212) 432-1600 Visit Website

Nicoletta

160 2nd Avenue, New York, NY