Restaurant 16: Sullivan Street Bakery

RESTAURANT: Sullivan Street Bakery
LOCATION: 73 Sullivan Street
DATE: May 8, 2005
FOOD: Slice of Pizza Patate (Potato Pizza), Slice of Pizza Funghi (Mushroom Pizza)
BEVERAGE: None
PRICE: $5.00

Bread or Pizza?

Thin, crackery crust, layered toppings, comes in slices – all signs point to pizza.

But there’s no sauce. And no cheese. So really, it’s just an open-faced sandwich and open-faced sandwiches are always served on a piece of…BREAD. Must be bread.

Sullivan Street Bakery calls this pizza though. The roasted potatoes on this slice are lightly dosed in extra virgin olive oil and fresh sprigs of rosemary, a few stray white onions adding balance to this delicious au-gratin express. And on this slice, the cremini mushrooms are chopped into miniature cubes, hinted with thyme and seasoned perfectly with salt and pepper. The mushrooms would be great even without the pizza crust…

But isn’t this a bakery? And everything else they serve is bread. That raisin loaf looks stellar. Will have to wait for another visit, unfortunately. This is bread. Has to be. It was served at room temperature, wasn’t heated at all. Just like bread. But it would have been better hot. And maybe you’re supposed to take it home and heat it there. Definitely better hot. Pizza…

But, it came in a bread bag for god’s sake, it’s gotta be bread.

Isn’t pizza dough a form of bread? Could this be a game of semantics?

In my English classes, semantics never tasted like this. Wow. The olive oil on these slices is…wow.

Maybe another bite will make this easier.

No answers on that front. Decide which one is better. That’ll be something at least. The mushroom is superior. Clearly. Well wait, nope it’s the potato. That rosemary is amazing. But what about the thyme? Maybe it’s the mushroom? Another bite of the potato should settle the uncertainty.

Nope. Still unclear. But damn it tastes good. If only all mysteries were this mouthwatering. And all for five dollars. Maybe enough cash for another. That’ll help. One more, everything will come into focus…

RATING: 7.9/10