Get Your Bronx Pizza at Louie & Ernie's Pizzeria

The pizza at Louie & Ernie pizzeria is arguably the best slice of pizza the Bronx has to offer. Though it doesn't possess the citywide fame of a DiFara or Totonno, there's a solid case to be made for this pizzeria to share the top billing.

New Yorkers have become spoiled. We are used to great tasting pizza, and though it's always the best way to start, in this competitive pizza capital, it's no longer enough to merely use fresh ingredients. It's knowing how to use those ingredients in concert with each other; achieving that delicate balance between sauce, cheese and crispy-chewy crust that separates the standout from the merely serviceable.

This is where Louie & Ernie's shines. The fat from the shreds of full-cream mozzarella bubbles and melts into the delicious sauce and gives the pie its distinctly fiery orange appearance. The crust is paper-thin, sturdy, and when you fold that slice to take a bite, a truly flavorful, tongue-smacking result is achieved.

Aside from the heavenly pizza, I also like the set up and location. Located in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx, Louie & Ernie is not situated in the middle of a busy street lined with other businesses, but in a residential area surrounded by other houses. The entrance is a few steps below street level in an unassuming, middle-class style house on the corner of Crosby and Waterbury Avenue. It lends the place a quaint, cozy feel.

But I digress. If you come here, go for the thing that really makes my mouth water: a pie with sausage and garlic. Removed from its casing, the sausage consists of freshly torn chunks of sausage flesh ― not the pre-made rabbit pellets you find in most pizzerias. The garlic is finely diced and generously sprinkled all over. The pie comes out of the gas oven looking like a bubbling pool of orange molten lava and the crust brings it full circle by holding all the flavors together while never overpowering the main ingredients of cheese and sauce (and toppings).

(Excuse me while I wipe my mouth.)

Several years ago, Louie & Ernie's renovated the property to expand the dining area. You place your order at the front counter, sit down and wait for your food to arrive. Nothing about the surroundings or its modest decor would suggest anything but a down-home, neighborhood pizza joint. Unless you call for a delivery. Louie & Ernie doesn't deliver and with their firmly established reputation, no one minds making the trip to them.

Louie & Ernie's
1300 Crosby Avenue
Bronx, NY 10461
718-829-6230

Louie and Ernie's is a fifteen-minute walk from the 6 train (Buhre Avenue stop). Or you can take the BX 8 bus from the station to Waterbury/Crosby Avenue bus stop.