Mycitycorona.com: Corona, Norco, Eastvale City Restaurant Directory

NYPD
2279 Eagle Glen Parkway, #105
Corona, CA 92883
(951) 493-6789

by Special Guest, Dave Levinter

On a recent family outing to Wild Rivers, I had the pleasure of stopping off at what I can only
call an absolute gem of a restaurant; NYPD (AKA, the New York Pizza Department).   This
wasn't the first time that I've had NYPD, but it was the first time I experienced it.

Let me explain. I was born and raised in Long Island, NY. In 2004, my wife and I decided to
leave the hot, humid summers and bitter cold winters behind in lieu of the blue sunny skies of
Southern California. We found a beautiful home in Temecula and were quite happy to raise
our children there. One thing quickly became apparent though. Although we loved California,
there were things that we certainly missed. At the top of the list; good New York Pizza, Bagels
and Italian Ices. We remedied the last one by opening an Italian Ice shop in Murrieta, but
there was no way around it. We were stuck with California pizza.

That is, until my wife stumbled upon NYPD on a trip home from Los Angeles a few months
back. Then call came in that she found this pizza shop that now only served pizza by the slice
(now that's a plus), but they also had Sicilian pizza. If you've never had Sicilian pizza you're
certainly missing out. Its pizza where the crust is almost 2 inches thick.   They also apparently
made their own "New York Style" Bagels. Now, as a lifelong NY'er, I was skeptical about any
place that called themselves "New York Pizza Department".   They certainly had some big
shoes to fill if they were going to live up to that name. Add to that the fact that they made
bagels too and I was ready to chalk this up to every other "Include Everything" type of shop
that I've seen out here in California. She picked up a full pie (yes, a full pizza is called a 'pie')
and brought it home. Even after sitting in the car for 30 minutes it was really good. I was
certainly impressed.   It became a routine. Whenever my mother-in-law came down to visit
from Los Angeles, she'd stop off in Corona and either pick up some slices of pizza for me or
some bagels.

Fast forward to the family trip I spoke of earlier. On the way down the 15 my wife suggested
we stop off at NYPD for dinner since it was getting late. My eyes lit up. Absolutely. I was
already a fan of their pizza, lets stop off and see how the rest of the menu stacks up.

My first impression walking through the door was sheer joy. Yes, they did do their best to
decorate the store with 'all things New York'. But it was, in my opinion, tastefully done. From
the Yankee and Mets jerseys to the Broadway play signs. From the New York license plates to
the Metrocards (used for the NYC Subways) on the wall. Lots of little touches that screamed
HOME to me... right down to a black and white tile pattern on the floor that reminded me of my
grandmother's home in the Bronx.

For the sake of full disclosure, my wife owns and operates Cool Cravings Italian Ices
(www.coolcravingsices.com) in Murrieta and we frequently get people from New York or New
Jersey in that also share our fondness for NY pizza. We've taken to recommending NYPD to
them and have had a number of return visits from some very happy people. So when we
stopped into NYPD, Mike (the owner) was more than happy to see us. We sat down and
shortly after he came out not only to greet us, but to introduce us (in typical New York fashion)
to some of his "regulars" who were seated with their friends & families; all mostly ex-New
Yorkers too. That spoke volumes to me. If other people who were accustomed to good pizza
and Italian food kept coming back, then this has to be a good joint.

As my wife and kids looked over the menu we were greeted by a very friendly waitress and a
warm tray of bread, a small bowl of butter and.... get this... a full head of garlic, drizzled with
olive oil and roasted. There's no better way to eat bread than to have it warm and spread a
roasted clove of garlic over it (which spreads as smooth as butter).

The dinner menu looked fantastic. I had a hard time choosing but had to go with the "Linguini
with White Clam Sauce". A dish I haven't had for years and couldn't make at home with my
wife's seafood allergy.   When it arrived I was pleasantly surprised at the site of it. There were
more clams on there than I could have fished out of the Great South Bay (a place I used to go
clamming with my father in Long Island) and it smelled divine. The linguini was cooked al
dente and there was no shortage of garlic in the dish. Absolutely delicious.

My wife went with the "Eggplant Rollatini" which is something she used to get often back in NY.;
thinly sliced eggplant, lightly breaded and rolled with a ricotta cheese filling and then covered
with mozzarella cheese, sauce and baked. Her eyes lit up when it arrived. Three good sized
rolls of eggplant were somewhere under the melted cheese. I pause from my linguini just long
enough to reach over for a taste. Another winner.

The kids ordered fairly ordinary dishes, as kids do. "Spaghetti & Meatball" for the boys and
"Pasta with Butter" for my daughter (oh where did I go wrong with her?). The key to any pasta
dish of course is the sauce and as I could tell from my wife's dish that the sauce was very
good.   It held true with the Spaghetti dish as well. So good in fact that it was worthy of
sopping up with some bread, which surprisingly, my eldest son took to doing.   The meatball
I'm pleased to say was as good as my grandmother used to make and she made one heck of
an Italian meatball.

While we all thoroughly enjoyed our dinners, we also wanted to keep some room left for
dessert (my wife has a habit of planning her dessert before ordering her dinner). It was an
easy choice for me; Cannolis. The Tiramisu was very tempting and everyone else was
suggesting it, but I haven't had a good cannoli in years and was looking forward to it. My
daughter ordered the NY Cheesecake and my wife, expecting to share the cheesecake with our
daughter settled on the Apple Pizza (which takes a little while to make due to the handmade
pizza crust).   My first reaction to the cannolis was "Holy Cow". I'm sorry, but having listened
to Phil Rizzuto broadcasting the Yankee games since I was a little kid always made me think
of the Scooter when having cannolis and these were worth writing home about. While I
personally preferred the chocolate dipped ones from Ferrara's in Little Italy, but these were
darn close.

My daughter's eyes widened with her first bite into a very large slice of NY Cheesecake. It was
thick and creamy and caused her to exclaim that this was THE BEST Cheesecake she's ever
had. To put that in perspective, she's only 9 years old. But she has had her share of
cheesecake. My wife concurred that it was yummy.   My son's settled on some chocolate ice
cream. By the time the Apple Pizza came out we were all really quite full especially considering
the size of it. Wow. It was literally the size of a small pizza. Hot off the oven and covered
with warm slices of caramel covered apples with a huge scoop of cinnamon ice cream on top.
It was a dessert made for sharing. It would have been devoured quickly had we not already
had our full of dinner and dessert before its arrival.

Dining in NYPD was an absolute joy. Between the delicious food and the owner's banter with
his regular customer's (who had no problems answering him back) I felt right at home here.
While this isn't an upscale Italian Restaurant, it certainly fits the bill as your neighborhood
Pizza place with some really good New York style food. You can walk in and order Pizza or
bagels as take out or sit down and relax with friendly waitress service.

With three kids, it’s not easy for my wife and me to go out to eat. Couple that with the fact
that there is way too many restaurants around that are just bland chains. THIS is a place that
we've already said that we'll take the drive up to Corona from Temecula at least once a month
or so to enjoy. It's worth the trip.

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