Razza

On my first trip to Jersey City, I visited a restaurant the beckons many a Manhattanite. It’s a trek from Harlem to Jersey City, but I’m happy to say this restaurant was worth it. Razza is special because it’s that incredible brick oven pizza, but also because it’s all local. The tomatoes come from New Jersey (I suppose they are the Garden State for a reason) and the bread and butter is made in-house.

Speaking of butter, I can’t write one more sentence before telling you about the BUTTER TASTING. Yes, like a cheese board, but for butter. “Is butter a carb?” We tried three different butters – something I didn’t know was a thing – swiping their crispy-on-the-outside-fluffy-on-the-inside bread through each. The butter seemed extra creamy and almost took on a cheese-like quality. More restaurants should do this. It reminded me of that scene in Bride Wars where one of the fiances questions: “International Butter Club? You mean you’ve just been sitting around eating sticks of butter from different lands?” I can now say I find nothing wrong with that. After our butter tasting, we ordered burrata with some of those Jersey ‘maters and meatballs with ricotta. Both great. I know that there is a focus on seasonality here so the burrata and tomatoes may not currently be available. Shame.

Then for the pizzas, we got three to share between the four of us. We ordered the Santo (sausage, onions, and chili oil), a margarita (because the waitress stressed that, though simple, the ingredients were top notch – not wrong), and the corn. The corn is the pizza we’d been hearing all about. It has fresh mozz, shaved onion, chili paste, and, of course, corn. It was sweet and summery and delicious. It would never be the pizza I’d gravitate toward, but it was wonderful.

We ordered a panna cotta for desert with [I think] caramel and other yumminess. It was very sweet but also delicious. We had some leftover pizza but since we were sticking around for another drink and dessert, they gave us a claim check for our pizza. I can’t help but imagine a coat check room for pizza.

This was a great restaurant and if you happen to live downtown/West Side, I would say the trip to Jersey is worth it. I’m pretty sure this restaurant is single-handedly making Jersey City the “cool” spot.