I’m always skeptical of any restaurant that uses the word fusion — often implying a menu is spread too thin by trying to incorporate too many cultures. However, the East Village’s newest Tokyo-style pizza bar and brewery Moody Tongue Pizza incorporates three cuisines seamlessly in a smorgasbord of flavors.
The original Moody Tongue in Chicago’s South Loop earned itself a Michelin star with its complex beer tasting and pairing menu with 15-plus courses. The beers are also served in glasses traditionally reserved for wine or cocktails to highlight their complexity of flavor. The restaurant eventually expanded, opening a sushi restaurant in Manhattan’s West Village two years ago and now a Tokyo-Neapolitan style pizza spot on St. Marks Place. This location — opened on Dec. 6 — blends the beer tasting experience from Chicago and the Japanese crudo from the West Village with a new pizza oven.
Unexpectedly chic for a brewery-pizza joint crossover, the marble rectangular bar creates a communal atmosphere for patrons and puts the bartenders and their craft at the center of attention. The perimeter of the restaurant is adorned with intimate booths decorated with brick and mahogany wood. Despite these undertones, Moody Tongue Pizza still has a light vibrancy to it that keeps you from feeling like you’re sulking in the shadows of the restaurant.
For appetizers, we started off with one small plate and one crudo dish: the $15 mozzarella sticks and $20 fluke.
Fluke is a light, versatile fish that pairs well with many different flavors. Moody Tongue Pizza’s choice of pickled fresno chilis and ginger garnish worked perfectly without overpowering the subtleness of the fish. If you want a beer pairing, our server recommended the $14 Yuzu Lager, described as tasting like a “lemon-lime popsicle.”
To me, mozzarella sticks on dine-in restaurant menus often serve as a cop out — who doesn’t love cheese and fried foods? It’s easy to make mediocre mozzarella sticks and hard to make them stand out, but dare I say Moody Tongue Pizza might have the best mozzarella sticks I’ve ever had. The panko coating was thinner than most, which didn’t suppress the cheese nor make me feel like I was just eating grease and oil. The cheese was also plentiful and thick, unlike some restaurants’ take on the appetizer, which barely have a cheesestick’s worth of cheese inside.
What makes Moody Tongue Pizza’s Tokyo-Neapolitan style pizzas different is that the crust is airier and fluffier than that of traditional Neapolitan pizzas, which are more brittle. While the crust is a standout, the pizzas are not.
The $24 Provola E Pepe — provolone and cracked pepper — was good, but couldn’t compete with the thousands of other New York City pies. I thoroughly enjoyed the juice from the cherry tomatoes in contrast to the heavy grease from the cheese — especially because all of the produce is locally sourced. However, fresh produce isn’t enough to stand out in the city’s sea of $1 slices and artisanal Italian pies.
The next pizza we tried was the $28 Genovese with short rib ragu, stracciatella and lemon zest served on a crispy fried dough — the crust for this pizza was fried and baked crispier than the other pies. Putting short rib or thick cut meats on pizza makes it hard not to overtake the other flavors or weigh down the crust, and unfortunately Moody Tongue Pizza fell victim to this trend. The pizza tasted more like a barbacoa taco, in which the crust and other toppings were dominated by the fattiness of the meat.
To complement this heavier pizza, our server paired it with the $17 Cherry Oud Bruin beer, which acted more like a Bordeaux served with red meat. Even for a darker beer, it still had a dry finish that didn’t diminish the dish’s flavors.
Though its pizzas are unable to stack up against the competition of New York City’s many slices, the bar at Moody Tongue Pizza is perfect for an early drink and appetizer combo. From craft mocktails to health-conscious kombuchas, amid all the drink fads that circulate throughout the city, Moody Tongue Pizza’s complex beer pairings are worth the hype.
Contact Bella Simonte at [email protected].
