Lombardi's Pizza, New York, N.Y. (Manhattan)

One night we decided to venture out to another historic restaurant.  This time, we went to SoHo to Lombardi's Pizza, the very first pizzeria in the United States.  They even have a big bronze plaque outside their door commemorating their achievement and 1905 founding.

Now, when pizzas first started coming over from Italy, they weren't at all like the modern pizzas we know today.  They tended to be small appetizer flatbreads with only tomatoes on them, and it wasn't until the late 1880s that melted mozzarella cheese and fresh basil leaves were added (one legend says that that was to create the colors of the Italian flag).  As the pizza came to America, the tomato mixture began to be replaced with tomato sauce, and American bakers used high-gluten wheat flour that allowed them to toss the dough to make it stretch and become very thin crusts.  Eventually, Americans began to add other toppings and the pizza evolved to the Italian-themed quintessential American food that it is today.

We wanted to be traditional, though, so we ordered a large pizza margherita to share (the "original" kind with just tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil).  It took a while to bake, but it finally arrived, piping hot and balanced on a cake pedestal.

I'll have to say that the pizza was just okay.  I've certainly had better, even in the "traditional" New York or neapolitan style, but it wasn't bad.  I enjoyed the chewiness of the crust, which had been baked in a stone oven.  The biggest thing to give me pause about the pizza, though, was the price, since it was quite an expensive pizza at $20 for a large that wasn't really very large.  And, on top of that, the restaurant does not take plastic!  They are cash only!  They have an ATM in the dining room, and we were wondering if they got a cut of the ATM fees.  It was all an adventure, though, and we now can say we've eaten at the original American pizzeria.

The menu at Lombardi's is pretty much limited to pizzas, salads, and beverages.