There are well over a hundred eating establishments that serve pizza in Sioux Falls and the surrounding area. That is molto pizza. So when I heard A Taste of the Big Apple claimed to have the best pizza in town, I had to investigate. The best pizza? Really?
Andy Meier thinks so. Andy is engaged to the owner’s daughter, Meggan, and is a main man at the restaurant. Owner Karen McParland moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Albert Lea, Minn., over 25 years ago, where she started the original Taste of the Big Apple. Why a New York style restaurant in the middle of Minnesota?
“Probably because there wasn’t any good pizza around,” said Meier.
Fair enough. McParland stuck around Albert Lea for several more years, but moved to Sioux Falls recently to be closer to her kids as she nears retirement. She found the economy of the area favorable to her specialty and loved downtown so much she decided to relocate her pizzeria. On Oct. 15, Taste of the Big Apple will celebrate its one-year anniversary.
I stopped into the fairly new restaurant (located at Larson Square, on the corner of Fourth Street and Main Avenue) on a chilly Tuesday afternoon. I found myself surrounded by bold colors reds, greens, yellows — and large black and white photos of the city and the people in it. The place was about half full over the noon hour, mostly office workers on their lunch break from the looks of it.
I was on a mission. I needed to taste this superior pizza. It didn’t take my friend Tony and I long to pick our poison, him the New Yorker and me The Big Cheese. The restaurant serves several types of pizza by the slice daily, which is super helpful over the lunch hour.
Less than five minutes later, the waitress returned with our picks. The presentation was pretty plain, a single slice of pizza served on a round white plate. Not much hype for the supposed best pizza in town, I thought. Apparently it needed no introduction.
Unlike the traditional Chicago deep dish, New York style pizza is thin and foldable, designed to be a “street snack.” Originally, the toppings were limited to mozzarella and pizza sauce, but that’s obviously changed a bit. Tony’s New Yorker came loaded with four types of meat, while mine was a delectably naked piece of cheese pizza.
Yum. Normally I don’t like my pizza so plain, but since The Big Cheese was the family’s favorite, I wanted to know why. The cheese tasted fresh, it had the perfect texture and didn’t leave me desiring any other toppings. The sauce was one of the best I’ve ever tasted — not overly spiced, and it popped with the bright flavor of fresh tomatoes.
The crust was the main event, though. Despite the thick cheese, it managed to stay light and crispy. The final bites reminded me of a thin and buttery cracker. Even more impressive, Tony’s crust managed to withstand the half-pound of meat it seemed to hold, and even allowed him to describe the pizza as “light.” The only complaint he had was that the Italian sausage lacked flavor.
This pizza is definitely a contender. The crust and sauce come together well to create something unlike anything I’ve eaten here in Sioux Falls. But did I weep tears of joy as I ate it? Not so much. I need more. I need more kinds of this pizza, I need more experiences with the delicious crust, I need more convincing that this is the BEST pizza in town.
According to Meier, the New Yorker and the Jersey Junker are their most popular kinds of pizza. Most of the rest of the menu (yes, they DO serve other things!) consists of McParland’s Irish-New Yorker old family recipes.
But to order anything other than pizza here? Fuhgeddaboudit!
Photos: Taste of the Big Apple opened in downtown Sioux Falls about a year ago. (Heather Mangan)
