The famous Ice Cream Factory at Fulton pier, under the Brooklyn Bridge
Brooklyn piers have become a common sight in my life, caused mostly by the fact that Brooklyn Heights is my neighborhood of focus in class. That didn’t stop me and the other Michigan-Columbia crossovers from testing the Hudson River waters from the Brooklyn side. Our targets: Ice Cream Factory and Grimaldies Pizza.
Contrary to popular wisdom, we started with a sweet helping of ice cream. The ‘factory’ sits facing the pier, masquerading as a old ‘watchtower’ or lighthouse. Their selling point of natural flavors is, however, not very unique in these days of ‘0g trans fat’ and ‘no calories.’ I ordered vanilla with chocolate chunk, on the recommendation from Ed. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t a whole new finger-licking experience.
Whatever deflated expectations we had from then on, Grimaldies’ pizza lifted them up again. Just a block away from the ‘factory,’ Grimaldies looks like a family business that just hasn’t found the time to expand their seating area because of long, perennial lines waiting along the sidewalk for a place to sit inside. Our wait wasn’t too bad — 20 minutes — but once inside we were sardined to fit around two small tables.
Grimaldies' large pizza, with toppings of pepperoni, sausage, olives and mushrooms
Surprisingly, prices weren’t jacked up to exploit wandering tourists like us who rely on travel guides and top-ten lists. We split a large pizza among four, and though it wasn’t a stomach-filler, the residing flavors were extraordinary. A big reason could be Grimaldies boasts coal-oven cooking, and since I’m no expert, I can only say it generates wildly different and robust tastes than what we’re used to.
Give it a swing if you’re in New York City. Don’t just stick to Manhattan.
