Photo by Matt OttoBrooklyn Pizza Works celebrates a disappearing way of life, a shrieking 1970s family-style pizzeria aesthetic that's going the way of the Elks. Lamps etched with beer logos light each booth. A bricolage of paintings adorn the porno-wood walls (wood that made its last, ironic comeback in the much-maligned Calvin Klein ads)—some Monet reprints, the requisite Brooklyn Bridge illustration, even a row of World War II-era bomber portraits accompanied by each plane's military feats. Middle-aged and elderly couples constitute the majority of the regulars; building on a basso profundo foundation of emphysematic adult conversation, kids shriek. I love this. Forget the oldies quietly broadcasting from hidden speakers. The other customers consist of beer-chugging parents who allow their ungodly urchins to use handkerchiefs as hats or rally towels. If the next-door Chuck E. Cheese offered the atmosphere of Brooklyn Pizza Works, the franchise would've never been successful—think investors are interested in a place where kids govern by smacking nosy patrons like me with the tyranny of straws?
The time warp here continues with the food. An anthropomorphic pizza on the menu boasts that The Orange County Registerdeemed Brooklyn Pizza Works the county's best pizza parlor. The pizza doesn't mention that the daily bestowed this honor in 1981 and 1992. But the designation still applies. Although Brooklyn Pizza Works offers torpedo-bulky subs and a thorough Italian dinner menu—best is the gnocchi, about 35 chewy potato dumplings sluiced with a garlicky marinara sauce—virtually every table features a raised steel plate in the center balancing a manhole of pizza. Each slice possesses the studied intensity of a Caravaggio: firm, steaming dough, toasted just so and fused with whole-milk mozzarella that miscegenates with the fabulous marinara sauce. Normal toppings are available, but even better are specialty pies such as the Mild Maggie, marinara sauce mixed with Alfredo and a dab of Chianti, crushed hot peppers embedded throughout the Romano cheese. The Mild Maggie alone should motivate a voluntary abdication by the Reg's current choice for OC's finest pizzeria, the BJ's Brewery chain.
Food contests aside, the best entrées Brooklyn Pizza Works bakes are actually the calzones, distended half-moons of dough impossible to finish even in two sittings and with another person. The calzone's crust is flakier, more buttery and golden than that of the pizza; your choices of fillings are freshly cut and snappy. One bite of the bianchi calzone—mozzarella cheese buttressing both tapered-off ends, ricotta in the middle that's as dense and fluffy as sheep's wool, herbs and light olive oil sprinkled throughout—and the bedlam of geezers and brats here that can turn lesser minds insane suddenly becomes heaven in North County. Just make sure to dodge the thrown straws.
Brooklyn Pizza Works, 1235 Imperial Hwy., Placentia, (714) 524-1260; www.brooklyn-pizza-works.com.
Wanna dine? E-Mail Gustavo at *******@******ly.com“>ga*******@******ly.com. For the best damn dining recommendations in Orange County (more than 500 restaurants!), visit our online dining guide at www.ocweekly.com/food.
