Posted by By Gabe Festa, Ashton McGregor, August Thompson, Jonah Yastion, Staff Writer
While New Paltz is famous for its various tourist locations, the locals often pride themselves on the numerous pizza places this town has to offer. With this in mind, students of New Paltz High School took it upon themselves to try the pizza from each of these places and determine their favorite restaurant.
Rino’s Pizza:
Two words, one phrase. Always reliable. Rinos, a staple of the New Paltz pizza scene, has been a local favorite for many years. With many new pizza places recently entering the municipality, Rinos still dishes out a pretty decent slice, holding their own against the competition. Rinos carries a distinctive tomato sauce, which all four of us liked. The slices were cut unevenly but were pretty substantial in size, and the pizzeria is set in a fairly nice location with two separate rooms where you can eat your meal. You can always find Rinos in Cherry Hill Plaza, across Main Street from Tops Plaza.
Village Pizza:
Located on North Chestnut Street, Village Pizza is one of the less popular pizza places, which is reflected in the quality of the pizza. On a good day, Village Pizza is a solid 2/10. At first, what concerned us most was the extremely uneven 1-9 ratio of sauce to cheese and the strangely sweet tomato sauce. Plus, the taste of the cheese overpowered all the other flavors of the pizza, making it questionable. This odd amalgamation gave the pizza a floppy texture and a weird taste. To try and attract new business, the restaurant created a pizza drive-through, however it is almost completely abandoned and unused. The pizza is $3.25 per slice, which is the average price for a slice in New Paltz, and there is a Goodfellas painting on the inside, which is quite the spectacle.
Gourmet Pizza:
Although the restaurant is dark and gloomy and its reputation is questionable, the pizza itself is surprisingly good. The cheese-to-sauce ratio was good, and the price for a slice was $3.25. Unfortunately, it is placed right next to Best Pizza, so for the same price, it’s hard to justify spending money there. However, where we think Gourmet could shine is advertised on their door: a large pizza for $11.99. This price is the best of all the pizza places in New Paltz, and for decent pizza, it would be good if you have a lot of people over and want to deliver. Overall, the pizza is decent, but it is placed next to a much higher-quality pizza restaurant, which sucks up all their business opportunities.
Rocco’s Pizzeria:
Average, mediocre, and rated a 5.3 on our pizza scale. Rocco’s has few positives and few negatives. When you enter the restaurant, you are greeted by a nostalgic tapestry of the twin towers on the opposite wall and questionable music playing in the background. Unfortunately, the pizza doesn’t really make up for this. The slices are floppy, greasy, and have weird cheese that was probably sourced from the back of the dairy aisle at Tops Friendly Markets. On the positive side of things, the ratio of the cheese to sauce is a good 6:4, the slices are large, the sauce is pretty tasty, and it is only $3.13 per slice.
La Bella’s Pizza Bistro:
Recognizable by the giant mural of the American Flag on the left wall of the building, this pizza restaurant is situated right next to the middle school, which is where much of its foot traffic comes from. When it comes to the pizza, it is extremely dry and the sauce is sweet, similar to Village Pizza, and have an unfortunate $5 minimum on credit cards. There are bathrooms down a long hallway in the back, and aside from that, there is really not much to say. Honestly, if you want quality pizza, then we suggest you walk down the road to Rino’s or Best Pizza to make it worth your money.
Stewarts:
Although Stewarts may seem like an unconventional spot to get your pizza, it’s definitely an option. For $2.79, Stewarts is demolishing their competitors in terms of price. That being said, the pizza does in fact reflect the price. Honestly, it tastes just like frozen pizza. Kept warm in a heater near the front, you’re not going to be blown away by a slice from Stewarts. Unfortunately, it’s definitely beating some of the other places in town. We would recommend taking the out-of-the box route and walking across the street from Village to get a cheaper, safer slice. Or if you don’t want to break the bank, Stewarts is a cheap option. That being said, it again just tastes like frozen pizza and is not better than the vast majority of places on this list.
Best Pizza:
On the corner of Chestnut Avenue and Main Street, one red brick building has had pizza restaurants come and go for well over 10 years, none being able to stick. We believe this will not be the case for Best Pizza. Originating from Brooklyn, Best Pizza built up a great reputation for their thin, mouthwatering slices. Some were worried they wouldn’t keep the quality that they have had in Brooklyn; luckily, that isn’t the case. Best Pizza’s slices received an overall 8.8 average rating, for good reason. Their slices are thin, but they have minimum flop and maximum flavor. As you sink your teeth into the cheese and crunch down on the perfectly baked crust, your eyes are opened, figuratively and literally. Suddenly no other pizza will satisfy, and the craving for Best Pizza will live in your head rent-free for the rest of the week. Best Pizza did not receive a higher score than 8.8, due to a bit of a lack of consistency. On a bad day, Best Pizza gets a 7.0; although still a solid score, it does not reach its full potential. On the journey to find the finest pizza slice in New Paltz, no one compares or puts up a fight to Best Pizza; the name truly matches the quality.
The Maroon 