Eat Like a Lady

Co. (pronounced Company) is a restaurant in Chelsea that is under the direction of Jim Lahey, the owner of the Sullivan Street Bakery. While at pizza places like Kesté, the ingredients are the focus, elevating the pie to the next level. Here, the focus is the bread. It’s perfectly crisp and really flavorful, and while the ingredients themselves aren’t unique, the combinations on some of these specialty pizzas are certainly different and special to Co. I think this is a really great go-to place for consistent pizza without the wait that you’ll find at some other places.

Bread with Olive Oil:
As I mentioned above, the bread here is the star. If you want to “carb-out,” or you’re just looking to order bread with a cheese or charcuterie plate, it’s definitely really great.

Mushroom and Jalapeño Pie: This pie consisted of béchamel, pecorino, gruyère, garlic confit, seasonal mushrooms, shaved jalapeño and fresh dill. And it was really fantastic. I find that mushrooms can sometimes overwhelm a dish with its flavor and texture, but this pizza, though covered in mushrooms, tasted so good. The mushrooms were cooked nicely, had a perfect texture, and the flavor went incredibly well with the cheeses and the spicy bites that included the jalapeño. The dill didn’t seem to really add anything additional to the flavoring though, acting more like a garnish than a flavor. All in all, I’ve never had a pizza with this flavor combination, and I will definitely be returning for it.

Flambe: This pie has béchamel, parmesan, mozzarella, caramelized onions and lardons (cubes of pork fat) and is also really great. The caramelized onions nicely complement the saltiness of the pork, and the cheeses are packed on. Though perhaps heavier than some of the other pizzas, this is one not to be missed!

Meatball: This pizza had tomato, mozzarella, veal meatballs, caramelized onions, olives, aged pecorino and oregano. This was the weakest pizza that I tried at Co. The pizza was fairly bland and lacked a sauciness that I sort of expect from a pizza that has meatballs on it. Though the meatballs were nice and flavorful, again there was a dryness to them. They also didn’t feel like they were really part of the pizza, but instead were a sparse afterthought. Though I did like the olive flavoring here, probably because it was very subtle (and as I’ve mentioned before I don’t love olives), my friend felt that they were barely part of the pizza.

Banoffee Pie: I thought it was only appropriate to end the evening with a sweet “pie.” This was made with coffee whipped cream, toasted hazelnuts, dulce de leche, sliced banana and a graham cracker crust. Though a solid dessert, as I love anything with bananas, it didn’t blow my mind or anything. I really liked the toasted hazelnuts. They added a nice crunch and toasted flavor. But I think it was lacking in the “coffee” flavoring, which was just a little too subtle. Nevertheless, it was a nice end to the meal.

Co.: 230 Ninth Avenue, New York, NY ($$)