After struggling through a tough stretch in downtown Lake Worth and then a long wait for his new space to be built out, New Haven-style pizza maven-slash-restaurateur Nick Laudano has finally opened his showpiece eatery, Nick's New Haven-Style Pizzeria & Bar (2240 NW 19th St., 561-368-2900).
The spacious (4,600 square feet) Boca Raton restaurant is a far cry from the tiny Lake Worth Nick's, sporting a look done by noted Fort Lauderdale designer Karen Hanlon that harks back to an earlier era, from the 1920s to the 1960s. A 1940s-style kitchen pantry, ceiling plastered with period advertising, and tile-faced brick ovens designed by Laudano are among the features, as are a lounge, bar, outdoor patio and take-out window.
The menu features, naturally, New Haven-style "apizza" (pronounced
a-BEETS)--a thin-crusted pie, blistered around the edges from the fierce
heat of the brick ovens (here heated to 750 degrees plus)--that became
the pie of choice in New Haven, Conn.
In addition to the
signature tomato sauceless white clam pizza, the menu boasts a variety
of specialty pies, along with calzones, pastas, salads, grinders,
panini, wraps 'n' apps. Pizza prices range from $11.50 for a basic small
to $25 for an everything but the kitchen sink large.
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