Little Vincent's Pizza Restaurant
In Lake Ronkonkoma

A word about Newsday's list: There have been a lot of "Best Pizza" lists lately. Most of them are the opinions of individual food critics; fun to read and not worth much to us (or you) since we don't have the same tastes as most food critics.

Newsday's list, though outdated, is compiled of reader's suggestions and favorites, giving us a reference point of pizza that real local people actually eat. That's why we use it.

The #3 choice on this list is Little Vincent's Pizza Restaurant in Lake Ronkonkoma (a second Little Vincent's in Huntington comes in at #4, but there's very little parking up there!). This would be another long drive into Suffolk County - but our hopes were high.

Little Vincent's looks old fashioned and welcoming before you even walk in the door. And you can watch the piemen work from outside the window.

You may want to watch them for awhile after your meal -- we did, and we'll tell you why a bit later...

The decor is welcoming too. Cozy - lots of green, lots of brick. A comfortable family place on a Saturday evening. Lillian especially liked the old-fashioned wood-and-glass front door and homey atmosphere. Getting a big friendly hello when we walked in was nice too.

The fact that Little Vincent's Pizza is open until the bars close didn't escape our notice though - 2 a.m. on weeknights, 4 a.m. on weekends. Since there's not much to do in Lake Ronkonkoma at those hours but drink and eat pizza, we're pretty sure the place has a very different vibe during late nights, doubtless enhanced by the pictures of 70's entertainers on the wall (nope, no Sinatra - but they do have Telly Savalas and Tom Jones).

Well, we have to write about something while waiting for our pizza, don't we?

The Selection

Most pizzerias on Long Island have at least two types of pizza - the New York style (called Neapolitan), and Sicilian. Many also make a Grandma's pizza, but not many make it well. We were a little surprised by Little Vincent's pizza menu.

Little Vincent's makes New York style pizza only - round pies, a variety of toppings available. And they do it well. Maybe not 3rd best on Long Island (we have a lot of pizzerias), but one very good pizza.

Grated cheese was offered - we took it on half the pizza. Tasted like a good Romano (the waitress wasn't sure what kind of cheese it was), and it did add to the flavor which was pretty good to start with.

The Verdict

Really good - not great, but really good. That's our assessment-in-a-nutshell of Little Vincent's pizza.

The crust was pretty thin, and as Cary picked up his first slice, it flopped at the point. A wet pie, and the sauce was worth it. Sweet, but not cloying, bright but not tart. We saw later (watching the pizzaiolos) that, surprisingly, there were little bits of cheese in the sauce.

Lil pointed out that, of the three elements of pizza, the sauce was the best thing on our pie. The cheese was a good commercial mozzarella, the dough was interesting (more on that in a minute), but the sauce was very, very tasty. A little basil, maybe a little hint of oregano? Who knows, but it was really good.

What about the dough? At first bite, it tasted -- ordinary. We favor a crust that tastes like good Italian bread, and this wasn't quite there. Then, as we worked through the pizza, we discovered two things - the taste of the crust was getting better, and there was a strange texture...

It was definitely chewy, and getting chewier, which was okay with us. Unlike most pizza, it was getting more flavorful! And something extra was in the crust, adding a little crunch to it.

If you know the secret of Little Vincent's 'textured crust', please let us know!

Even though it wasn't one of our all-time favorite pies, we thoroughly enjoyed Little Vincent's Pizza Restaurant. If we lived closer to Lake Ronkonkoma, this could be one of our regular stops!

Little Vincent's Pizza Restaurant, 324 Smithtown Blvd., Lake Ronkonkoma, NY 11779, 631-981-9631