FLUFFY: Keste Pizza

Guys, Leah pointed out to me today that, despite only being updated once a month or so for the past year and a half, Small Reviews gets more hits everyday than the blog I painstakingly update everyday.  And also that our most popular entry, Behr Paint Color 710c-3: Gobi Desert, gets as many hits in a week as my most popular entry ever has gotten in three months.  Clearly, folks, you have been ignored too long, and we're sorry.  Today, the pause ends.  Maybe.

This afternoon, my boss took us to a very nice lunch at Keste Pizzeria (warning: that website plays music) in the West Village.  It was amazing.  I went in with no expectations (this was part of the key, I think, to why I didn't love Grimaldi's so much), and I was just delighted with the pizza.  I ordered a prosciutto e arugola, which is my signature favorite pizza of all time.  It's hard to mess up, so they had that going for them already, but Keste took it to a whole new level of delicious.  The crust was perfect: light and fluffy, with a crisp black exterior layer from the giant wood-burning oven in the back.  The mozzarella was fresh, the prosciutto perfectly salted, and the arugula just bitter enough to settle the whole into a perfect melding of wonderful pizza.  The other pizzas in our group (one with sausage and one very similar to mine, but with shaved pecorino and tomato sauce) looked equally good.

Our waiter was very nice and even seemed passionate about the specials, but wasn't overbearing the way waiters can sometimes be.  The restaurant is small, and I've heard it can get quite crowded and noisy, but we went early, so that wasn't a problem for us at all.  We were seated right away, and it was more than quiet enough for us to chat.  The prices were a little high (between $9-$18 for a pizza, but most are $15-18), so it certainly couldn't be my first go-to pizzeria, but for a business lunch or special evening, I would say the food is more than worth it.  Everything felt extremely high-quality, and I would absolutely recommend it to anyone searching for some filling, delicious pizza on Bleeker.