Would you like to know one of my favorite pastimes when I’m not sitting here slapping away at a keyboard in an attempt to bring you all the news there is to eat?
It’s watching the transplants disguised as locals engage in keyboard combat over the best pizzas and/or Italian eats in the area. From my seat, it is quality entertainment. Almost as good as a Chapelle stand-up concert. Almost.
What is most amusing – and I’ve mentioned this here before – is how personally some folks around here take their pizza, pasta, and bagels. Some of you can be fairly intense.
You know who you are. I know how you are, with your “best hands down” and your “nothing here is like we had in Upper Montclair or Millburn.”
I see you.
Jesse Blanco gets his first Firemost pizza pie from Matt Stock on a warm August day.
And because I aim to please, I’ve got some pies for you to toss. Good ones. If you obsessed and have chosen to brave the elements of a brutal summer, then you already know about these guys and the pies they are slingin’.
The operation is called Firemost Pizza. It’s a fairly new food truck on the island doing tavern-style pies. You know, thin and crispy crusts? They come sliced into tiny squares that make them easy to consume, say, at a bar with a pint in the other hand?
Easy peasy.
The concept is brought to you by a trio of islanders: Chase McCord, Doc Scurry, and Matt Stock. A ton of work and discussion went into this project. I’d been hearing about it all the way back to 2024, if memory serves. They all knew the bar had been set pretty high around here and they had to deliver. The plan out of the box had been to make pizza dough from scratch every day. Clearly that makes for the best pies, but something happened on the way to market.
The guys ran into a little bit of trouble with – of all things – the humidity down here. Can you believe it?
They had to pivot fairly quickly to pre-fab crusts just to get the doors open, but they have adjusted very well and are making some of my favorite pizza on the island.
They offer five or six specialty pies, but obviously can make you something specific, if that floats your boat. Both of my visits have featured the Honeymoon in Vegas, featuring red sauce, excellent cup pepperoni, ricotta, and local hot honey. It’s a wonderful honey that has a decent kick but I wouldn’t call it spicy at all. In fact, my daughter thought it was maple syrup. It’s delicious.
Gal pal Maggie hit them with ricotta, olive oil, mushrooms, mozzarella, and fresh basil on a gluten free crust and they nailed it. She has since nicknamed it the Magpie.
See what she did there?
The guys have spent the majority of their summer parked at Broad Creek Marina, offering pies roughly from noon until night. Business has been good, the word has gotten out, plenty of locals have come to find them tucked away in the dead center of the island.
That, however, is about to change. Yes, you will still find them at Broad Creek during the week, but they tell me they plan to make some appearances at local festivals. It’s their attempt to bring these pies to you.
I think it’s going to work well, once it cools off around here and we don’t feel like we are sitting on the surface of the sun.
The pies are great and perfectly cooked every time, with a beautiful char and cracker-like crunch. Fuhgeddaboudit.
Track ’em down … and eat it and like it.
The “Honeymoon in Vegas”, featuring red sauce, pepperoni, ricotta and local hot honey.