I wish there was a 4 1/2 button... Great Pizza back in the day, and then something happened??????????????????????????????????????????????????????.
I have been eating Bella Pizzeria offerings since the latter 60's... I was a bit young to remember it much before then when it was like a family thing and the Basil guys (neighborhood friends) Joseph, Tony, Ralph and I think even Carmen and other kids I knew worked there when it was next door to the Dairy Queen... and remember when the Sub shop opened in the part of the building that was attached... THAT was when Bella's kicked ASH!!!
Well, the Basil kids lived on Cleveland, and maybe the GLORY DAYS of Bella's...So, perhaps that is why the Pizzeria moved to the lot where the lumber yard that seemed incapable of not catching on fire was torn down and eventually became the current home of the Bella Pizzeria. (and a storage place) (I do know for sure, in 1981 I moved to the desert and learned of other foods that should be made as famous as Pizza... I miss that)
AND, ...since I moved back to NY in 2008, Bella's has become so freaking unpredictable, I have become very hesitant to recommend it to folks I knew, know and want to get to know,,,, For a while I tried to speak to the "owner?" Dave. The first few calls/emails seemed to make a difference in the quality (or just the service)...?? I believe he believes that I believe things are happening that are just unbelievable, believe it or believe what you want to believe.
No, I think he simply sent coupons or something, but the quality did not improve.... and to this day, it is still hit or miss if we get a NYC "type" piece of THIN crust (but no where as good as a real NYC Pizza (Manhattan - a place on 9th street near the Doubleday, and their Ravioli ROCKS the world to the place it should go when you have just experienced one of the greatest things you could) or a nice thick OVER-COOKED choke on the crust,... ???
...or once on a Heaven's day, the wonderful chewy pizza with the nice thick bread-like crust around the edge of the pizza with the toppings just barely floating on a sea of the most wonderful lightly seasoned tomato sauce covered with Mozzarella cheese made by Angels and pepperoni made by the devils who understood that the spice must be right and sliced to entice.
HOWEVER...
The "quality" is no longer consistent... it seems that each, "Dough Tosser", "Sauce Applier", "Topper Application Assistant", "Oven Inserter/Remover/Slicer", "Box Inserter", and so on, have stepped away from the tradition, and decided they (AFTER 16 years of life and three months of experience topping pizzas, seem to know better than what was established 50 years ago,and continued as such for at least 30 or so years until something changed...
But... at the end of the day, you still have cold left-over Pizza, and perhaps some wings, and depending on when you wake up, you have either a late Breakfast or Lunch.
I have a feeling I will never see the OLD Bella's return... TOO much complacency to get a decent, consistently good pizza like we did a hundred or forty some years ago, let alone the 50+ years I personally remember what a good Pizza tasted like, (Of course I also remember Snoopy's Dog House (the building is still there) and that wonderful "fry bread" (I think they called it "Fried Dough"... and all the other cool treats they had,,,,
Gotta go, I hear Mr. Softy coming around the corner... Da- diddley doddley deedle-um da dee da dee da dah Dah Dum dum.... read more