BABY DOLL PIZZA openly claims to offer “authentic New York-style pizza,” which is a sure way to get anyone who has spent any time in New York City to prime a withering sigh and dust off their parochial cynicism. This pizza can’t just be objectively evaluated, it must also be measured against a difficult standard—a standard that has a lot of baggage. Rose-colored glasses and regional pride can make it hard to give a distant pie a fair shake, but it’s human nature to defend traditions we know to be right. It’s how we have things like an intact version of The Odyssey and children who can recite George Carlin’s telling of “The Aristocrats” verbatim.
Here is what I do know: If Baby Doll had a window downtown, it would sell “walkin’ around” slices by the thousands each day. A large wedge of their commendably thin, supernaturally even pie stays crisp and stiff to the tip, folds beautifully, and weeps but a tear of grease when compressed upon itself. The leopard-spotted undercrust is nearly as brittle as a cracker, with mere millimeters of dough for chew on top. A scant layer of barely herbed and extremely simple sauce is brushed on—stained, really—and then topped with a thin veil of cheese that adheres so well it can’t easily be pulled off.
The crust itself would seem under-salted if not for the toppings, and could ostensibly benefit from the flavors of a longer fermentation, but as a part of the whole—which is how you eat pizza—its nutty character is well developed, its texture is good, and it does its job well. It doesn’t have the moistness and chew of a Neapolitan-style crust, and the crumb structure is denser, but that’s what makes it what it is: a well-engineered, highly portable, clean-eating slice.
Whole 18″ pies start at $17 for cheese, and an interesting assortment of toppings add $1-3 each. The gluten-free pie is 12″ and starts at $9. The roster of 10 specialty pies shows imagination, with a combination of bacon, sautéed mushrooms, fresh garlic, chopped walnuts, and chopped dates ($22) topping the “didn’t sound like it would work but it did” category. More traditional assortments, like bacon, sausage, roasted peppers, onions, and mushrooms ($23), might sound like a bit much for the paper-thin crust, but the toppings are cut and portioned in synch with the pie’s structural integrity.
The gluten-free pizza was, like so many gluten-dependent items re-engineered to omit that fundamental protein, a different beast entirely. They do oil the bottom to help it fry and crisp a bit, but on the whole it’s no more interesting than freezer pizza.
Four sandwiches ($6-7) and four salads ($5-6) complete the menu, along with some unremarkable garlic knots ($2.75) that you can fiddle with if you don’t think you’re getting enough bread. These sides miss their intended marks in a predictable variety of ways. The rolls for the earnestly filled sandwiches are weak and seem like the bagged variety, which is too bad, because the Italian meat sandwich (salami Toscana, finocchiona, mortadella, Mama Lil’s peppers, lettuce, tomato, onion, mozzarella, Italian dressing) has the makings and heft of a solid hoagie. The meatball sandwich gets a nod for house-made meatballs of brisket and short rib, but the cook times and mixing of the meat is off, resulting in both firm grains and soft textures that aren’t nice separately or together.
The salads are fairly perfunctory. The Caesar ($5) gets points for being tossed with its dressing—something an alarmingly high number of places don’t think is important—but those points are rescinded for basing the emulsion on too-dominant olive oil, and lacking richness and acid. The Greek salad ($6) is similarly forgettable.
The space is best described as minimalist, done in the “decorated by some dudes who didn’t know their mom was coming” sensibility of interior design. Baseball cards with Jeffrey Tambor’s face lovingly glued to them, customer-decorated pizza boxes, limited mix-and-match seating… you get the picture. This is a perfectly good utilitarian room for a casual pie and a pitcher, or a quick solo slice.
Baby Doll Pizza does offer delivery on the Eastside, in an area roughly described as “between 2nd and 60th, south of Broadway and north of Powell.” The owner suggested they might tighten that up as time goes on, so get it while the getting’s good, because this is the kind of pie that can handle time in a box, and also reheats beautifully in a toaster oven or a hot, dry pan.
Is it New York style? Yes, it is, and it’s the best version I’ve found here. More importantly, it is, objectively, a well-executed pizza—uncomplicated, delicious, and fairly priced.
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Draft beer and soda available (including Rochester root beer, for aficionados), with a small selection of wine. Open Mon-Thurs 11 am-midnight, Fri-Sat 11 am-3 am, Sun 3-11 pm.
Sorry, but a pizza with barely any sauce or cheese and scant, thinly-sliced toppings sounds very weak. It doesn’t weep any oil because it lacks cheese, and hence, substance. Sure, they may eat neatly, but this is an inferior way to analyze New York style pizza, or any pizza for that matter. Seems like their just trying to keep their food costs down by skimping on ingredients. Little Caesars sounds better than this one.
Yay, another New York style pizza place. How exciting. Sorry if the sarcasm isn’t coming through in print.
This town will never understand what truly great pizza is. Apizza Scholls is the only place that comes close. Thank god, I’ll be back in Milwaukee next month where I can enjoy a decent pie. The new Pizza Man should be open by then. Might trek down to Chicago for a proper deep dish too.
Chris, please don’t give full reviews for places like this in the future. Any of us can go and try a slice for ourselves with little risk. Save your reviews for eateries with more varied menus or that are likely to cause a person to pause before deciding wether or not to spend their hard earned dollars there. Pizza places like this are kind of a no-brainer.
This place is motherfucking delicious. Plus, the soda fountain has a Lori Laughlin trading card taped to it
Apizza Scholls sucks! Just because it’s hard to get doesn’t mean it’s better. A hipster walks into a bar full of hipsters and says: ‘This bar sucks, it’s full of hipsters!”
Go to Hogan’s Goat or Sizzle Pie. Boycott Scholls! F that place.
^^Disagree on the pizza but I witnessed what you described a few days ago and it was very funny. Said “hipsters” debated amongst themselves what he meant. Bonus laugh : the guy who said this (more or less) …big frame glasses, “ironic” (or stupid ) facial hair and a sweater that bore an uncanny resemblance to waldo. For real. DO I have video? Of course not, which is why I will always be a poor nobody. Sigh
I would go for the Lori alone!
^ you are such a bogus fuck face. It’s frightening…….
^^thanks honey
Ok, keep eating your reheated waxy cheese and cardboard. Like I said, this town will never know what truly great pizza is.
My apologies to Baby Doll. My comments are not directed at them, but to the Portland pizza scene in general. I find it hard to believe that people love eating reheated slices of pizza. It seems like something you settle for instead of craving. Just wish there were more options like pizza made by real Italians as opposed to New York style by 20 something hipsters.
If that’s your thing than by all means give Baby Doll a try. If Chris says it’s good then it’s definitely worth a shot.
Bring Back Stark Naked…..duh. This place will go out of business faster than…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz woop! … I’m sorry I just bored myself to sleep talking about this place.
This place is right near my apartment and I had never been. Because of this review, I went on Friday and had some amazing pizza. Amazing. I am not a pizza snob because there are other things to worry about – like diabetes and sport hunting. This pizza was great and I will be back numerous times. Thanks for the tip!
roccos used to be pretty good, now there is only dinicolas over on powell. wich is quite yummy! or nona amelias out in hillsboro wich is king!!! this nastyy shit your reviewing isnt even worth the time and wont be around long.
What makes New York pizza New York pizza is that it’s cheap and everywhere. $17 ( with cost of living factored in that’s probably equivalent to like $25 in NY ) for what a New Yorker calls a “plain” pizza is already NOT New York style.
That it doesn’t drip a lot of grease also means it is most definitely NOT New York style.
The sauce is extremely simple and barely herbed: NOT New YOrk. Thinly painted, vailed on: NOT New York
Maybe this place is good, I haven’t tried it. Whatever it is though it is NOT New York style in any way except maybe that the crust isn’t really thick? Um… ever heard of a New York Sicilian?
This is what a NY pizza looks like:
http://s3-media3.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/uKGNj5KYhIiMdkBkaFbEng/l.jpg
And it costs about $3 a slice for the above. Much less for a slice of “plain” pizza, especially if you go outside of Manhattan.
I find it extremely confusing that people in Portland don’t get this. I know y’all have been to NY. WTF did you eat there? Definitely not bagels, and definitely not pizza.