Rubirosa – A Different, But Good Kind of Pizza

Rubirosa is a spin-off of a famous Staten Island pizzeria called Joe & Pat’s Pizzeria.  From what I’ve read the pizza menu is exactly the same as Joe & Pat’s.

Generally, it seems like you can categorize most pizza places in Manhattan into two categories either they are “typical NYC-style” pizza places where they serve pizza slices that are bigger and are the typical that you see on every street corner (a la Ray’s Pizza or Bleeker Street) or they are part of the “authentic” Neapolitan pizza crowd (a la Motorino).  Rubirosa doesn’t fit into either of those molds and definitely has its’ own style of pizza (more about that later in the post).

The restaurant is dark with lots of wood finishing.  It is long and narrow, but is bigger than it looks when you first walk in.  It’s a younger crowd generally and they play a lot of rock music.   It’s definitely a fun atmosphere.  The service was good and our server was really nice.

On to the food:

Antipasto:

This was a platter consisting of assorted prosciutto (18th month Parma), speck (alto adiage), sopresseta, mortadella, mozzarella and maybe one other cheese.  All the meats and the cheeses were decent, but not amazing.  6.75/10

Stuffed Artichoke:

Some people had recommended this dish to my friend.  It was literally an artichoke that was stuffed with breadcrumbs and was baked and pecorino was melted on top.  It tastes exactly like the ingredients sound, but it was pretty decent.  7/10

Vodka Pizza:

We ordered a small half and half pizza so we could try two different toppings.  One half was topped with vodka sauce and fresh mozzarella.  The vodka sauce was creamy and had a good flavor and the mozzarella was good.  What is really different about this pizza is that while it is very thin like a Neapolitan pizza, the crust doesn’t bubble up and get airy like a Neapolitan pizza.  The crust is actually really crispy, not like burnt crispy, but crispy in a good way.  I don’t think I’ve ever had a pizza like it before, it was very unique.  I’m generally a fan of Neapolitan pizza and not much of a fan of NY-style pizza fan, this pizza was somewhere in the two in its’ own unique way.  Overall, I liked this quite a bit in a sort of comfort food type of way.  7.5/10

Fresca Pizza:

This was the same except with fresh mozzarella, tomato sauce and basil. It was also pretty good, I liked the vodka pizza slightly more, but it was a close call, this pizza was also a little lighter than the vodka pizza.  7.5/10

Overall, I enjoyed Rubirosa, the pizza was good and different.  I’d recommend trying this place out to try pizza that is definitely a bit different in the pizza world.

Address:
235 Mulberry St (between Spring St & Prince St)
Manhattan, NY 10012
(212) 965-0500