Pizza Garage: New York Pizza, Done the Old-School Way

When it comes to New York-style pizza in Israel, there’s a notion that without the iconic NY tap water, the Italian pizzaiolos, the special flour blends and decor ripped straight out of “Goodfellas,” it’s just not possible to replicate.

Add to that the regional taste for sweeter marinara and thicker crust that’s brought about less traditional pies here.  You’d think it would be easier to book a flight to the Big Apple than take a chance on a local pizzeria. But that’s exactly what Pizza Garage has set out to prove – and by my account, they’re succeeding.

Between developing properties on the Tel Aviv boardwalk, Tzafrir Itzhaki, the owner, found his real calling: recreating the pies he grew up chasing every summer in New York.

He spent his childhood summers with family in New York, and pizza was never far from the center of it. His uncle owned the iconic Blue Note jazz club, and just down the block sat the other great institution of his summers: the local slice shop he waited all year to return to. Over the years, the relationship became more than customer and counter; he became family. It’s easy to see why their work ethic and dedication to the perfect slice left such a mark on him.

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Pizza Garage opened in 2017, and everything about it was built with intention. The space itself has history, having operated as a pizzeria for 15 years before Pizza Garage took it over making it one of the oldest pizza addresses in the country.

The dough is where the philosophy really lives: a specialty Petra Italian flour blend, beer worked into the mix, and a minimum 72-hour rise. Nothing rushed, no shortcuts taken. No additives — just grassroots, simple ingredients, the way pizza used to be made. “Like it used to be,” as he puts it. Serving up what’s said to be the biggest pizza pie in the country, quantity and quality are both accounted for here.

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“The world of pizza is living, breathing, and always changing,” he says. “If you pay attention, you’ll see that no two pies are ever quite the same.”

The pies are baked in a brick oven lined with volcanic rock, which gives the crust its signature crispiness without ever tipping into burnt. The oven itself is by far the best around, cooking each pie evenly on its own — no need to even turn it.

Toppings stay just as simple as the dough. Some get topped with mushrooms or olives, others with stracciatella and balsamic (which was my personal favorite), but nothing overshadows the flop-less undercarriage and zesty marinara. When the ingredients are good, they don’t need dressing up. When I walked in I asked about all the adamant signs posted along the walls with the words “No sauces!” etched on various signs across the shop, as if to stress that this isn’t like any other Israeli slice shop; this is a temple dedicated to the art of the New York slice, where – like during the Musaf service on Yom Kippur – no distractions will be tolerated.

With two branches across Tel Aviv, Itzhaki tells me he’s constantly fielding offers to franchise. But that’s not his plan. “I don’t want to franchise,” he says plainly. “This is my hobby – some people like to play the guitar, some people play soccer, I like to make pizza.” It’s a rare thing to hear from someone running one of the more talked-about pizza operations around, but it tracks with everything else here: a place built on care rather than scale.

Pizza Garage is a place for people who want to watch the sunset on Frishman beach to grab a slice (or a full pie), it’s a place for tourists and locals to enjoy a Kosher Mehadrin bite that’s one of the few that transports you back to the five boroughs. Add in a first-of-its-kind Aperol spritz slushie and ’50s blues playing in the background, and Pizza Garage starts to feel less like a pizzeria and more like a love letter to the humble New York slice.