New "Mike's Pizzeria" taking over Aroma Pizza (Midtown Manhattan)

[serenarobin]

got this in my email this morning:
"Great Kosher Restaurants" is exclusively reporting that Owner/Chef Mike Gershkovich, of Mike's Bistro and Mike's Italian Kitchen fame on the Upper West Side, just signed the lease yesterday and took over the space of the former Aroma Pizza location on 36th Street between 5th & 6th Avenue.

The place will be closed for another 2 months for renvoation but will open for breakfast, lunch & dinner. They will close at 7pm for private functions and will be under the OU Supervision.

[gotcholent]

I passed by the place with my family last week while in midtown and Mike's new place is now open. The staff inside said that it is a soft opening and that the menu will be expanding a lot over the the coming weeks. So while I can't speak for the whole menu, I can tell you that the place look gorgeous, swank and squeeky clean. The pizza we had was great, as was a panini'd grill cheese sandwich....as good as the uptown location, but here there is tons of seating. Excited to see what tricks Chef Mike has up his sleeves for us.

I wish someone would make a kosher Chicago style double decker pizza.

[cheesecake17]

What are the prices like?

[gotcholent]

Compared to Mike's Bistro it's a steal, compared to Pizza Hut, it's highway robbery. But hey, it NY, it's Kosher and how many kosher pizza shops are there anywhere that make all of their pastas from scratch, or pull their own homemade mozzarella? Prices seem in line with the UWS location. Menu with $$$ at www.mikesbistro.com. I don't see any new section for the new place, but they've only been open a week, I guess we can cut'em some slack.

[cheesecake17]

Thanks... prices are about the same as the other pizza places in the neighborhood. Mike's on the UWS was excellent.. hope this new location works out well.

[robocop]

We were there on, what I believe, was opening day. Other than I felt that the counter people were a bit too pushy, despite the minimum selection, the food was quite tasty and competitively priced. Their preparation of some menu items will require a bit of tweaking-a tuna melt, although tasty, was ice cold.

[marissaj]

Ate there today.. Was really good. Saw Chef Mike(- don't know him personally, but he seems like a really nice guy. I overheard him talking to his staff and he seems , just, a good guy) who made an effort to go and say hi to the customers.
I thought the food was really good, and the layout of the food kind of reminded me of the Avenue J Cicrca (albeit on a much smaller scale). They had pizza, salads, 3 soups, fries.. Didnt look or know if they had anythign else. The pizza was delicious and the salad was great too.

[azcohen]

I ate there on Tuesday, Dec 28th. Got a slice of portobella Mushroom pizza and a slice of white pizza that had artichoke hearts on it, and it was really tasty. I am looking forward to trying more and exciting pizzas and other entrées,

[cheesecake17]

I'd like to go there next week... was the service quick for takeout?

[GilaB]

If my experience with the UWS Mike's Pizzeria is any guide, it's fairly quick if you call the order in first, but if not, you can easily end up waiting around for a while.

[marissaj]

This store is much bigger than UWS location, and when I went (around 12) it was relatively empty. They have HUGE counters and a lot of staff working behind them (i assume to couter the problems UWS has due to the small space). I got served everyhting immediately.

[cheesecake17]

Wow- good news. The pizza on the UWS location is excellent.

Competition for Rosa's Pizza too.

[azcohen]

Did it say what the fare would be? I am guessing if it is serving Breakfast it will be dairy of some sort.

[GilaB]

How many fleishig pizzerias do you know of?

[avitrek]

The story itself doesn't say Mike's Pizzeria is taking over Aroma. Just that Mike Gershkovich is. Since he already has a meat and dairy restaurant we have no way of knowing what the 3rd place will be.

[KosherChef]

well, checking the Great Kosher Restaurants website, there already is a restaurant listed as "Mikes Pizzaria" located on 36th street with apicture, so I think this is what he is doing.

[jeffrosenbaum]

Years ago I went to Rome. In one of the guidebooks it said that one of the best pizzas was in the ghetto at a kosher place. It also stated that there was no cheese on any of their pizzas. When I got there I found out why. The place was fleishig

[GilaB]

Actually, I was thinking of that very pizza store (I've never been, but friends have) when I posted. My understanding was that it started out that way because kosher cheese was (at the time) very expensive in Italy.

[DeisCane]

I ate at the fleishig pizza place in Rome. It was yummy.

[bagelman01]

There was also a fleischig pizza place in Montreal about 1974, lasted about 6 months

[jeffrosenbaum]

I'm not sure that you are correct that the reason that the Rome Pizza was fleishig was the cost of cheese. If you look at menus in Rome it seems about 1/3 of the treif pizzas are fleishig. Alas if we read this board we will never know good bad or indifferent. Still, the pizza at the Kosher place was good and different from anything we would eat here.

[shaytmg]

I went there. I had pizza across the country, including in Naples, and the kosher fleish pizza was surprisingly the best.