This pizza joint is on a corner of Main Street in Bradley Beach and was discovered by Leon and I completely by happenstance.
We went tonight to watch the surf churn onto the shore in Allenhurst and debated whether we should go to
Max's in Long Branch for a dog or
Vic's in Bradley Beach for Italian.
Being that that part of the county is Leon's area of expertise, I always defer to his suggestions for the area unless there is a particular place I really heard is great to go to. Now
Vic's is great. Great, old-school atmosphere and food; a menu that Leon says has stayed consistent, price and quality-wise, for as long as he can remember.
Well there was absolutely no parking at
Vic's or in the vicinity and to make it worse, the wait was like a half hour. So, being it's almost 8:00 pm we say the hell with it, let's go to
Max's for a dog. I've been "good" today so my sodium intake should allow for it.
Anyway, we were heading north I believe (going from Bradley Beach to Asbury Park) down Main Street when I see a sign and a parking spot for
Citrico's. Now I've heard it's good if a little pricey. (Which it
definitely is).
So we go into
Citricos and there isn't one empty table in the extremely over-stuffed dining room where you literally sit shoulder-to-shoulder with the other diners.
So we look at each other, laugh, turn and walk out. Well, Citrico's,it turns out, is connected
to this little pizza joint right on the corner and it's called
Pizza on Main. Might be owned by the same owner for all I know.
So, we're so hungry by now we say WTF, let's just get a slice. So we walk into a pizzeria that under any other circumstances I would never have walked into.
Well, I got shown what any snob should learn and I learned it in the best way possible.
First of all, the food is some of the best either of us has eaten. Leon, who had ordered a Meatball Sandwich was eating something that had to have come from some Italian Grandma's authentic recipe.
Me being the pain in the ass that I am had ordered the half an eggplant parmesan sandwich that took longer to prepare because they make it from scratch! From scratch! And it tasted like it as well.
Well, as if the food itself didn't make the experience akin to discovering a diamond in the rough, the ambience of the place put it over the top and it has now become one of our favorite places to which we really plan on attending regularly as they are open year long, we learned.
How did we learn it. Well, besides the food, that was the best, most fun part of the movie, I mean, experience.
Let me go back to the beginning. When we approached
Citrico's, there was a number of persons sitting on folding chairs on the sidewalk outside P
izza on Main. There were two doors at each end of pizza place which looked to be, at the the front of the counter, maybe 20' by 15 to 20' feet given the irregular pattern. It had two, four-seater tables along with some counter chairs and an ATM.
But what it really had was charm. The woman that seemed to run the place looked like she had been sent from central casting. She was as warm and "eat, eat" as she was businesslike. I felt as if we had somehow been transported into an outtake from
Goodfellas or somethin'. It was great. I saw a young boy (late teens, maybe early 20's but I doubt it, with one of those Back Street Boys hats on; grey checked with a white wife-beater shirt and low-hanging jeans. But he was cute in that way that makes young girls flirty and their parents cardiactic.
Leon and I agreed it was the type of place that could have both those doors open at 4:00 am and NO ONE would
dare to rob it.
I damn near needed the Heimlich Maneuver when Leon observed that even with both doors wide open, even the flies were afraid to come in.
So, if you're in the area and in the mood for some good, home-cooked food at reasonable prices,
Pizza on Main in Bradley Beach has it
all.KB
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