N Y C in Las Cruces

Ahhhhhhh, Nuevo Mexico, land of green chiles, pintos, pistachios, pecans, and enchantment. And now, N Y style pizza slices!!!!!!!!!! Near the downtown mall is a pizzeria cum artisan bread shop, Zeffiro's/Popular Artisan Bread. It serves excellent brick oven pizza. Across town, by the university, the same people have been teasing us with a banner announcing the opening soon of a New York style pizza place. For those of us from "the east" there is nothing like a N Y slice---thin crust, delicious sauce, good toppings---fold it in half , place it in your mouth, and allow your taste buds to experience ecstasy. And now we can experience this wonder in Las Cruces.

I had gone to the bicycle shop to check the status of the tune-up on my mountain bike but it wasn't ready. So Leny and I went to lunch at Zeffiro's N Y style pizza on University. She stayed in the truck, I ordered a plain slice to go, took it to the truck, and shared it with her in the parking lot.

It was as good a slice as I've had since leaving the east coast!!! So I decided that dinner would be a N Y pizza, to be eaten during the Big East showdown between Villanova (YAY) and Syracuse (BOO). I called in the order. The wife and I went to pick it up. Now there is one negative---the very friendly young woman who cheerily took my money said it would be a minute for them to box the order, then never gave us the pizza. Giving the place the benefit of the doubt, it being new with new staff and still needing to work out the kinks, let alone considering their proximity to the university and how many people might not pick up orders, I patiently waited about 25 minutes for her to call my name to pick up my order. The wife of course picked up on my growing impatience and went out onto the patio. I approached the counter and the young person acted as if I had just entered the establishment---total air head. There was no-one home behind that sweet smile!!!! After we established I'd called in an order and had already paid for it, the owner/manager came over. He apologized and refunded my money. The pizza and calzone were under the counter, getting cold. The cashier still did not give them to me---it took another employee to hand them over!!!! Hopefully they get over their birthing pains soon because I will say the product is absolutely outstanding!!!!! The acid test of a pizza is whether it tastes good cold and this pizza certainly did!!! I bet it would be even better hot!!!! Hopefully I'll experience it that way next week. Now if they'd only add anchovies to their list of toppings it would be perfection...............

Zeffiro's

There are some very good Italian style eateries back east. Pasquale's in Candia NH comes to mind---wonderful food. Best pasta Faggioli I ever had, and the minestrone is excellent also. And Flatbread Pizza in Portland ME---good wood fired oven crust pizzas.

But we just had lunch in a place that will give either a run for their money. Las Cruces is where one might fantasize over Mexican cuisine but Zeffiro's Pizza Napoletana will make one believe they found a little Italy. The minestrone was excellent and the pizza------we had the "Capricciosa" with fresh mushrooms, kalamata olives, prosciutto..............as good as any I've ever had. And the pirate dogs who had been confined in the Nargle absolutely scarfed the crust we brought them.

So even though there's snow on the ground (got a couple inches overnight) it's very warm in the tummy right now...........