Sullivan Street Bakery

This Hell’s Kitchen bakery is the workshop of legendary breadsmith Jim Lahey (not to be confused with his namesake, the overindulgent trailer park supervisor in “Trailer Park Boys”). Lahey is credited with setting off a baking revolution when he published his “No Knead Dough” recipe in 2006 - a way to make great artisan bread by essentially just mixing the ingredients, not working the dough, and letting it rise slowly. The long fermentation period allows the dough to develop a gluten structure on its own, which makes it elastic and easy to stretch. And with the long rise period, the yeast has more time to break down the sugars in the flour, creating an incredibly flavorful dough (Lahey is sometimes credited as the inventor, but it appears No Knead techniques go back to Ancient Rome). Despite its elegant simplicity, this can be a challenging recipe to master. Yet, once mastered, it produces outstanding pizza crust.

I had previously been to Lahey’s “Co” in Chelsea where he made Neapolitan pizza. This being a Sunday morning visit to @sullivanstreetbakery, I tried a bakery square slice. I opted for the minimalist no-cheese ‘Pomodoro’ slice consisting of “milled tomatoes, olive oil and salt lightly coat a thin crust with slightly charred edges”. The slice is served cold and, without cheese, it is very sauce dominant. The crust was very light and airy. Despite having some artful char throughout, the crust was not at all crisp but rather quite flexible. I’d call it a Neapolitan take on a Roman street slice (“pizza al taglio”). Delicious and a great way to start your day if, like me, you like to start your day with pizza and espresso.