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The Homeland
Lately, Saturdays have been Jersey days for me. For all that the city has to offer, sometimes I long for the hills and trees, and hell, even the endless stretches of tangled highway that mark my suburban homeland. Sometimes I just can’t resist the urge to hop on one of those rust-bucket NJ Transit lines or the PATH and return to those familiar places right across the river. So yesterday, that’s just exactly what I did.

Pizza Across the Water
Anyone reading this probably already knows that pizza is high on my list of things to do where ever I go, and no where is that more true than when I come home to NJ. In fact, I’d dare say I find NJ pizza to be of generally higher quality than it’s NYC cousins. So to start off my day in Jersey, of course, I had to get a pie or three.

Star’s Tavern
Star’s is something of a fixture in Orange, a town not far from Newark. I’ve been going there off and on for maybe about eight years now, and surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly!) nothing has changed. The same waitress has been serving up pies here for as long as I can remember, and the pizza itself is a paragon of continuity.

This pizza defies much of my traditional logic on the subject. It’s a thin crust pie, and when I say thin, I mean THIIIIIIN. It’s so thin that most people can put down at least a whole pie, no problem, and not feel sickeningly full after. I don’t usually go in for thin, because it tends to be flimsy, floppy and poorly proportioned, but these pies are nothing of the sort.

Well crisped, they hold together nicely, and the flavor is full and robust. The sauce actually seems to simmer out over the cheese, which is used just sparingly enough to balance everything out. It’s really the perfect fusion of pizza basics, as you’ll quickly learn if you order any kind of topping or deviation from the standard recipe. Go ahead, just try it. I’ve had 8 different kinds of pies at this place, and never one that even compared to the original. It seems that adding even the slightest variable ruins the delicate pizza math that makes these pies so magical. Simply put, if the basic recipe can be improved upon, I haven’t experienced it.