I'm pretty sure that Staten Island isn't really a part of New York City

So, like four years ago, my then-roommate and gay husband Josh said "Oh my god, I just went to Staten Island and had this amazing pizza, it's at this place called Joe and Pat's. You have to go there!" And I said "Dude, it's in Staten Island. I'm so never going to go there." But little did I know.....

This morning, I woke up at 5:15am to do three shows in Staten Island (oh the glamorous life of a professional actress) and by 11am, we had done two shows and were freaking starving. I dug through the back of my brain and said "we have to go to this pizza place!" Luckily, my fellow cast member had an iPhone and after some intensive googling of "famous pizza Staten Island" and me sifting through names, going "not it, not it, not it," we finally stumbled across the name "Joe and Pat's." Eureka! My brain rejoiced. That's it! The iPhone told us that it was a mere nine minute drive from the school we were at, so off we went.


We started with an arugula salad. It was about six times the amount you see below.


It was really great - fresh arugula and cherry tomatoes with shaved Parmesan and vinegar. I could have skipped the raw red onions though. It was a surprising salad for a pizza place - we were expecting some iceberg lettuce with thousand island dressing - this was awesome. We also got practically a full loaf of warm fresh baked bread. Yum!

Then we had pizza.


One slice pepperoni, one slice cheese. It was thin crust, which I wasn't expecting. I am not a fan of thin crust in general but this rocked. I feel like some thin crust pizza is stiff and snooty (you know, all pretentious with a dollop of cheese and fresh basil), but this was like if you took an authentic New York slice and then slimmed it down. It was crispy but still malleable. It was manly thin crust. I loved it.

Is this worth a trip to Staten Island? Maybe not, but if you're already there, well go for sure.