By Stephen Stirling
For City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), politics may be his profession, but pizza is his passion.
Liu is most readily known among the press corps in Queens for his overbooked schedule and uncanny ability to rattle off reporters’ phone numbers from memory. But in an interview with TimesLedger Newspapers about his ambitions for comptroller, Liu displayed a lesser known trait: pizza aficionado.
“I eat pizza almost every day,” Liu said, while taking a bite of his second slice of cheese pizza at Amore Pizza in Flushing. “That’s one of the best things about running for a citywide office: I get to sample pizza from all over the city. No matter where you are in New York, there’s always at least one pizza place.”
Liu’s discerning taste quickly became apparent as he rattled off the equivalent of his cheers and jeers list of pizzerias.
“VIPizza, yes. That’s a good place. You know what else is good up at the Whitestone Shopping Centeri Pizza Chef, you should try that one,” Liu said. “But one place you should never go, and I won’t mention names, but there’s a place right across from the Empire State Building that’s just awful. How they can even have the audacity to call that pizza is beyond me.”
Liu also dismissed the popular John’s of Bleecker Street.
“That’s not a real pizza joint,” he said. “There’s a clear difference between a pizza joint and a pizzeria that is more of a restaurant.”
Liu, a former pizza deliveryman himself, said Amore Pizza in the Pathmark Shopping Center on Farrington Street in Flushing has been his barometer to judge the taste of the Italian standby for more than 20 years.
“I’ve been coming here for more than 20 years,” Liu said. “This is the best. This is how I gauge what is good and what is not.”
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e-mail sstirling@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
