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  • Herrine Ro: America's favorite pizza topping

  • has time and time again been pepperoni.

  • We visited three top-rated restaurants,

  • Prince's, Rubirosa, and Emily,

  • to find which pepperoni slice is best in town.

  • Erin Kommor: OK, so, what are we looking for?

  • Herrine: So, at each spot, we're going to be

  • looking at three qualities.

  • One, thick-cut pepperoni.

  • Each cup should be thick enough to cup up

  • and have that nice crispy exterior.

  • Two, distribution.

  • Since the ronis are the star of the show,

  • there should be a generous amount of cups on each slice.

  • And three, overall flavor.

  • The three pizzas are all different,

  • so whether the pepperoni is the only topping or not,

  • we're thinking big picture.

  • No singular topping or sauce

  • should overwhelm the palate.

  • Erin: Let's go. Herrine: Let's do it.

  • So, our first stop is Prince Street Pizza,

  • and this place inspired me

  • to make this whole entire video.

  • Erin: It is?

  • Herrine: The reason why is because

  • the Spicy Spring here

  • is unlike anything that I've tried.

  • Erin: What is "Spicy Spring"?

  • Herrine: It is a pepperoni pizza

  • that is just covered in pepperoni.

  • You haven't seen anything like it.

  • Erin: I believe you.

  • I am pumped.

  • Wait, is that the line?

  • It is fully wrapped around the entire block!

  • Employee: There you go. Customer: Thank you!

  • Dominic Morano: Prince Street Pizza started

  • January 2013, and our most famous slice

  • is our Spicy Spring pepperoni pizza.

  • Customer: You can't find this pizza anywhere else.

  • Dominic: With a lot of the slices that we have in the store,

  • they're named after streets in the neighborhood

  • to pay homage to the neighborhood

  • because I have a lot of roots in here.

  • Herrine: Why Spring Street specifically?

  • Dominic: It just rhymed. [laughs]

  • Honestly, it just rhymed.

  • The Spicy Spring is a Sicilian.

  • It's a special cut of Italian pepperoni,

  • and it has a low-moisture fresh mozzarella

  • and has fra diavolo sauce,

  • which is my grandfather's recipe.

  • For the people at home that don't know what fra diavolo is,

  • it's a spicy marinara sauce.

  • With our pepperoni,

  • it's different from the original types

  • of pepperonis that are really flat

  • and they're kinda, like, bologna-ish.

  • These ones are the sticks,

  • and we cut them to where

  • it's not too thin and not too thick.

  • We cut them right in the middle.

  • Herrine: Why do you decide to put so much

  • pepperoni on here?

  • Dominic: This goes back to what we originally talked about

  • in the video from a couple years ago.

  • It'll upset people if you don't give

  • an even amount of pepperoni on every slice,

  • like Robert De Niro said.

  • Herrine: We waited, like, 40-ish minutes?

  • Erin: 43, to be exact.

  • It is around the block.

  • Herrine: Thank you.

  • OK, there is truly no place to sit.

  • Dominic: You guys got it?

  • Herrine: Yeah, we got it.

  • There's no place to sit.

  • Erin: Wait, where is he taking us?

  • Oh...

  • Herrine: She's stunning.

  • my

  • goodness!

  • Herrine: Is it anything like you've ever seen before?

  • Erin: No. I've literally never seen

  • that many peps before.

  • Herrine: Honestly, this whole experience

  • is a very new thing for me.

  • Sitting in a basement of a pizza shop.

  • Erin: I've never sat in a basement of a pizza shop.

  • Herrine: Do you have a preference of what slice you want?

  • Erin: Yeah.

  • Herrine: Which one do you want?

  • Erin: They're all honestly perfectly beautiful,

  • but, let's see, this one's, like, calling to me.

  • Herrine: OK.

  • Even distribution, thick cups.

  • Erin: Even, thick.

  • It looks spicy. Let's see if it's spicy.

  • I'm a little worried. Like,

  • what if it's too salty? There's so many peps.

  • Herrine: That's a good point. Erin: But let's see.

  • Let's see, let's see, let's see.

  • OK.

  • So I don't know if it's 'cause I don't get out much,

  • [laughs]

  • but I've never had a pepperoni that's cooked like this.

  • Like, do you see the coloring?

  • It's like a beautiful work of art.

  • It's perfectly crispy on the outside,

  • and it's thick,

  • and the grease, like, pools in the middle,

  • like a little, like, hot tub

  • that you wanna go swim in and never leave.

  • Herrine: No. Erin: OK, cool.

  • How's the crust?

  • Herrine: So many things going on.

  • You get the caramelization from the pepperoni,

  • but also from the crust.

  • The sauce is spicy and, like, not wet.

  • Erin: Yeah.

  • Herrine: It's just overwhelming,

  • but in the best way possible.

  • Like, overwhelming in the sense that, like,

  • you're struggling to eat it,

  • but you can't wait to get that next bite

  • because it's just that good.

  • The one thing is that, just because it's so greasy,

  • like, if another place is less greasy

  • but it has the same exact everything.

  • Erin: But I don't think the flavors can be

  • this good without the grease.

  • But I do, I know what you're saying.

  • Maybe, like, drawing the grease back a tiny bit.

  • Herrine: A smidge. Erin: A smidge.

  • Herrine: So this is already setting the bar

  • so, so high. Erin: Oh, so high.

  • I'm, like, a little worried.

  • Herrine: The other two places that we're going to

  • are, like, unique spins.

  • The pepperoni is still star of the show.

  • It's gonna be really hard to beat this.

  • Erin: All right, our second stop,

  • not far from Prince Street,

  • is Rubirosa.

  • Herrine: And this place is an absolute neighborhood gem.

  • Today we will be trying their Tie-Dye Roni Pie.

  • Bari Musacchio: So, I think the tie-dye roni pie

  • is, like, just for people who cannot

  • decide what they wanna eat.

  • Because the tie-dye pie alone, you have

  • tomato sauce, vodka sauce, pesto, all on one pie.

  • Then, our other most popular pizza

  • is a classic pepperoni pie.

  • So one day, people just started saying,

  • "Well I kinda want a pepperoni pie,

  • and I kinda want a tie-dye pie."

  • Decided to put it together, and it ended up

  • being the best combination on Earth.

  • Customer: It's the perfect texture of pepperoni.

  • Just because of how it's cooked.

  • It's got a little bit of everything.

  • If you want that little bit of crisp with a bite,

  • if you want that chewiness, it's got it all.

  • Bari: I think it's the thinness that's really,

  • like, the signature family technique,

  • is that we get the pizzas paper, paper thin.

  • For the tie-dye pizza, we use fresh mozzarella cheese.

  • If you go to a classic slice joint,

  • you're gonna use a low-moisture cheese.

  • This is actually, it's a little bit more similar

  • to the pies that you would find Neapolitan-style.

  • It's a signature spiral move.

  • So, we do tomato on the outside,

  • then a circle of vodka,