Ever since I came to New York City for college, I’ve been collecting the names of every “Best This and That in New York.” “Best Donuts in New York,” “Best Bagels in New York,” “Best Coffee in New York,” and most importantly, “Best Pizza in New York.” Now, the last one on that list happens to be—so I’ve been told—Grimaldi’s. Famed for it’s pizza for years and years, by the everyday man and the super celebrity alike, I was sure this public consensus had to be true.

So, when my family was in town, I had to insist that we give it a try. But upon further inspection—and by that I mean, through the power of my dad’s reliance on ‘Yelp!’ reviews—we found that Grimaldi’s didn’t seem to live up to it’s reported word-of-mouth reputation. Disappointed, I checked the map on my phone to find any other restaurant I may have favorited for later. So it happened, I had marked the place just next door to Grimaldi’s with a star—having noticed it in passing. Never having been there, we were inclined to check this place for reviews as well, and quickly found not only that everyone who went absolutely loved it, but that it in fact shared an intertwining history with Grimaldi’s. After reading up on the subject, I had to insist; we needed to eat at Juliana’sthat very night.

When we arrived, we noticed a man at the door, and I, being the only member of the family to have researched the restaurant’s history beforehand, had some immediate suspicions. Was this man in fact the man I had just been reading about—the founder of both Grimaldi’s and Juliana’s—Patsy Grimaldi himself? We made it to the front of the line and were gestured in, only to be seated by the man at the door. We couldn’t help but notice that his black polo shirt bore the name Patsy Grimaldi. So it was true. We had just been seated by the man himself.

We ordered a classic Margarita Pizza as well as a Number 6 and found ourselves completely blown away. While both were phenomenal, the standout had to be Number 6 for it’s pure originality as well as the fact that it made me—an anti-guacamole person—enjoy a pizza with generous amounts of guacamole topping it. Every topping, as well as the dough itself, was in flawless proportion and consistency. It was genuinely the best pizza I’ve ever had. And when we couldn’t eat any more, who but Patsy Grimaldi offered to box our leftovers and even served us our dessert cannoli to top it all off. He asked us where we were from and we quickly found ourselves in conversation with him. On our way out the door, he was sure to tell us how much he appreciated the chat given how difficult it is to have a conversation in a noisy restaurant, especially between strangers.

Just in the time it took to carry our leftovers home, we received numerous comments from complete strangers, one man even offering to pay us $30 for the pizza. That’s when you know the place is good. We turned in for the night and none of us could stop enthusing about it. And not just the restaurant, but the experience, because that’s what a trip to

Juliana’s is. It’s a place founded by a man who wanted to reclaim not only the reputation, but the product, that was lost when he soldGrimaldi’s to another owner. It’s a place where the owner—a pizza legend in his own right—mans the door and handles the leftovers, because every job is important. It’s a place founded on a belief in good food and good service. And, as a customer, that’s exactly what you’ll get.