By Nora Wesson
Workers behind the counter at Lucia Pizza’s incoming Upper West Side expansion will soon know neighbors by name, founder Salvatore ‘Sal’ Carlino and part-owner Dylan Schwartz tell West Side Rag, as they tease the new shop and its upcoming opening.
“We start to build relationships around not only the people that work for us but the people that we serve, and that’s kind of the best part for me,” Carlino said, detailing Lucia Pizza’s goal of becoming a fixture in every neighborhood it joins.
Should everything go to plan, the slice shop will open not far from Lincoln Center in late September.
“Getting to build those relationships, and hear that people appreciate us in the community, I think that that’s something I never really anticipated when I started the business.”
Work to get the shop ready continues inside a former Starbucks storefront at 159 Columbus Avenue between West 67th and 68th streets. It will be Lucia Pizza’s fifth location, while the others serve satisfied customers in Sheepshead Bay, SoHo, Gramercy and on the Upper East Side.
Lucia — which means ‘light’ in Italian — began as a pandemic project in the founder’s backyard in 2020, soon becoming known for its lighter-than-average slices, topped with basil leaves plus olive oil and pecorino cheese imported from Sicily.
“We are a traditional New York pizzeria, but with a lot of new-school practices towards the direction of being a healthier, lighter product,” Carlino explained, adding that he uses “better ingredients” than those he grew up with. His parents owned Papa Leone Pizzeria in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, for 43 years, a legacy that inspired him to move back home from his music career in Berlin six years ago to make his own mark plying the family trade.
Organic ingredients and non-bromate, unbleached flour — the alternative has been linked to cancers and was recently banned in New York State — make up the dough, which is slow-fermented, allowing bacterial growth that Carlino believes aids digestion and improves taste.
A plain cheese costs $3.50, while specialty slices, including the Caramelle Piccanti with hot cherry peppers, pepperoni and Mike’s hot honey; the Salsiccia with Italian sausage, red onions, Calabrian chilies and white ricotta; and the popular three-cheese cream of spinach pizza, go for $5.99.
“I think that pizza’s had such a big push in New York in the last five years, that people have really been doing equal, if not more, to get their doughs to a better place,” Carlino said, stating that the slow-fermentation process builds a better crumb structure and increases the lightness and crisp of the crust. “That’s become certainly more common from my mom and dad’s era of pizza-making.”
Dylan Schwartz, who co-owns the Gramercy and Upper East Side locations along with the upcoming UWS shop, noted the more traditional leaning of the pizza shops in the area.
“One that’s paying a little more attention to the dough process and the ingredients that we use, there’s kind of a void of that up there, so this will fill that void,” he said. “We have lots of regulars, lots of people we know by name, and that feels really good. And to be able to do the same thing on the Upper West Side is a goal for us.”
Customers looking to enjoy Lucia’s fresh slices will do so standing up, as the 900-square-foot space cannot accommodate seating. Two bars are set to run along the large front window and an interior wall, with light grey terrazzo tiles on the floor and dark green wooden trim, in keeping with the branding of the business’s other outposts.
Carlino hopes to preserve the original wooden frame of the entrance, adding vintage posters to the walls inside and a custom neon sign out front.
“Proximity to the Tully [Hall] and the proximity to Lincoln Center, for me that’s like a childhood dream,” he said of the new location. Upon touring the space, “I felt like we belong there.”
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It will help that long-time pizzeria Francesco’s recently closed. It was a short block away from where Lucia Pizza will be and would have been a competitor.
Traviata is just around the corner from where Francesco’s used to be and was much better, IMHO. I just hope this ne w place doesn’t put them out of business.
Given that a slice ANYWHERE on the UWS is now b/w $3.00 and $4.50, “upscale” can only be a euphemism for “hopelessly overpriced.”
Agree!!!
A slice is often enough for me and 2 is more than enough. That amounts to one of the cheapest meals on the UWS. Sounds like maybe you should consider dumpster diving. Might suit your budget a bit better.
If you consider a slice or two a “meal,” maybe YOU need to see a nutritionist, because you are not eating very healthily. 😉
If one never considers pizza as a meal, then they’re not a real New Yorker regardless of how long they’ve lived here.
Omigod, that is so UWS Rag a comment. I’ll give it a 5-star rating for laughter.
The prices are listed and are reasonable. Good luck finding that elusive $3 slice anywhere.
A small take-out pizza place on Broadway in Washington Heights (or maybe that’s still Harlem technically?) offers 2 slices plus 2 garlic knots for $5. Saw it yesterday. Anitca Pizza – in the 150’s. Was going to try it but didn’t want to carry it for 50 blocks on the train.
Don’t you have to calculate the $3 commute into the cost?
Tell us how to calculate the correct price for a slice. Tell us what a non-“overpriced” slice should cost in that location, and show your work.
Nearest rapid-turnover pizzeria is the $1,50 place on Broadway ~55th.* ($1.50)
Roundtrip cost from anywhere on the UWS: $3 (take the train one way and the bus the other) ($3)
Value of your travel time? Negligible if you’re such a piker that it matters. ($0+)
Tip: $1 (less if you’re a savage). $1
So. $5.50 + your ego provides a baseline for a non -overpriced plain slice.
*As far as I know that’s the nearest one.
All I know is my pocketbook! Pizza has gone crazy!
Pizza should be the same as a subway fare, been like that since always. $3 tops. A quick google will show my work:
The theory dates back to a 1980 New York Times article, in which New Yorker and patent attorney Eric Bram claimed that since the early 1960s, “the price of a slice of pizza has matched, with uncanny precision, the cost of a New York subway ride.”
The mayor promised that subways and buses would be free. Therefore, a slice of pizza should also be free! Now that’s socialism. And if the pizza shop owners protest giving away their food for free, then the government can simply seize the means of production.
>Therefore, a slice of pizza should also be free!
no argument there!
Thanks for the chuckles…. There is no free lunch!
You reminded me of my youth. A slice and a token were 15 cents each. And it was like that for years. When it went to 20 cents I had to have somebody explain what became “inflation.”
I remember those huge slices of Brooklyn pizza available when I was in 3rd grade. The smell of the shop and the jute box, Rolling Stones – Satisfaction! In those days, our parents gave us money to buy pizza for lunch once a week = so my sister who was in 6th grade would fold her pizza over and it looked so disgusting and intimidating to take a bite, I probably had a bite and burnt my mouth and decided then – that I didn’t like pizza. So she had to order me a hot dog. LOL — I can’t remember the first time I took a bite on a flat white paper place and it was love at first bite.
It’s not 1980 anymore.
now there’s an astute observation
This hasn’t been true for a while.
Papa Leone’s was in Manhattan Beach, not Sheepshead Bay. Ate there a lot of times back in the 80s and 90s.
Why can’t Louie and Ernie’s open a UWS location?
Is it a nice sit down place similar to Patsy’s or it’s mostly a takeout?
Re-read the article. It will tell you.
Good job WSR, by diligently publishing each and every snarky comment pointing out that I (gasp!) glossed over the seating arrangement. But chose not to publish my response to the snarks.
Combined with Rachel’s earlier comment that I brought to your attention and asked to remove your censorship policies are hard to explain.
Maybe some readers feel it is you being disrespectful and snarky by not bothering to read Nora’s well-written article. The writers here put in a lot of effort to deliver local news for FREE. The least we can do is read the articles before commenting,
Reading is fundamental
Lucia’s, SalCarlino, Dylan Schwartz, Papa Leone’s with names like that it’s got to be good.
Some New Yorkers will go there just to be seen in a store whose signage says “upscale.” Advertisers know that people tend to identify up. Their signage will draw customers.
If you look at the photo, you’ll see that the sign is up already and it does not say “upscale” anywhere.
You’re right. My mistake. I was reading the description that WSR gave it which I still think is effective advertising
Slice shop, pizza place, pie purveyor, cheese chalet, dough domicile, crust station, pepperoni playboy, ham hawker, basil boutique, soda saloon, mozzarella mansion, paisano aficionado
Why brand it “upscale”? That just makes it sound expensive.
To attract the lemmings who will line up around the block (as in PopUp Bagels and all those frozen yogurt places) to experience and Instagram what is essentially a stand-up slice shop with some interesting variations on the theme.
Because “Mediocre cheap pizza” doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
It could have focused on anything other than “upscale” based on the information in the article. Is it mediocre? It’s certainly not cheap, not expensive, but not cheap. Either the place is doing something interesting or not and it seems this Rag had a lot to focus on.
Whoopeedoo!!!
Lucia is the real deal, as they started out in Sheepshead. Incredible pizzas, and the Soho location has an accompanying coffee and wine bar next door. Excited for them to come to the ‘hood.
Also, remember when Roberta’s was supposed to come to the UWS??
I hope there will be a vegan pizza option.
Me too, but try Pizza Collective’s slew of vegan options, Two Boots’ two options (more if you order a whole pie), or Freddie & Pepper’s broccoli & tomato with soy cheese if you haven’t already!
Yes, but the vegan options at Two Boots have cheese, even if vegan; it’s only once in a while that they sell their all vegetable, cheeseless slice.
We don’t need upscale pizza! Regular pizza is perfect!
any gluten free vegan options?!
Vegan, gluten-free pizza -Margherita is tomato sauce on a plate, and four-cheese is tofu four ways.
Gotta love the UWS Raggers.
Breaking news about bagels, bakeries & pizza…
hot news items (so to speak), guaranteed to bring in, on average, 45 comments!
I hope they sell pizza slices without cheese — including vegan cheese — but just topped with veggies and tomato sauce. It would be nice to be able to buy a cheeseless-veggie slice without having to custom order a whole pie. Every pizza place on the Upper West Side, except Saba and occasionally Two Boots, leaves cheeseless slices off their regular menus.
I’m neither vegetarian nor vegan but one of the best pizza slices I’ve ever eaten was the vegetable version at — get this — the cafeteria at Mount Sinai Hospital (Guggenheim Pavilion). Hot out of the oven, crisp and puffy around the edges but soft enough to bite into easily, and topped with a small mountain of al dente peppers, onions, broccoli, fresh tomatoes and I don’t remember what else. No cheese, as I recall. The cafeteria was for staff only during the pandemic but now I understand it’s open to the public again.
(And yes, I realize my memory may be colored by the fact that I was starving after a long morning of being scanned and scoped).
Thank you! I thought that Mount Sinai closed their regular cafeteria, the one with rows of tables on a carpeted floor; however, next time I’m up there, I’ll stop by