Ever since Liz Johnson reported that Frank Pepe’s in Yonkers is opening in the fall, I’ve been thinking about pizza again.

That’s thinking about, not eating. Twice now I’ve trekked down to Johnny’s in Mt. Vernon, forgetting that it’s closed on Sundays and Mondays and ending up in front of a dark, locked pizzeria. Moronic on my part (you’d think I’d learn), and almost as frustrating as making the trip to Wally World and being turned away by a talking moose.

If I can pull my act together, a visit to Johnny’s will happen soon. In the meantime, a quick Google search for “coal-oven pizza in Westchester” turned up a pizzeria which may be familiar to you, but was new to me: Sabatino’s in Hawthorne.

From what I can tell, this restaurant across the street from the Hawthorne Multiplex Cinema may be the only pizzeria in Westchester cooking its pizzas in an honest to goodness coal oven.

(Note: I also noticed that Sabatino’s wall decor consisted of posters of mob movies and tv shows like Goodfellas, The Untouchables and The Sopranos.  For whatever reason, I found this interesting, and mildly odd.)

Coal ovens crank out such beautiful crusts: crispy, blistered and infused with a distinctive coal-oven flavor.  For my money, the purest way to taste the crust is with a simple pie — in this case the Margherita, topped with San Marzano tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, olive oil and a smattering of sliced basil.

Check out those charred edges.  Love it.

I’ll admit, I went in to Sabatino’s kind of skeptical, but now I have to give props… this was a really good pie.  The ingredients were fresh and nicely balanced, and the crust was thin, crispy and flavorful.  A bit more chewiness would have pushed it over the top, but it was high quality.

My year-old post complaining about the state of Westchester pizza is really starting to feel dated.  The pizza scene is not half as bad as I’d made it out to be.  There’s hope yet.

Sabatino’s
Rt-9A (across from Hawthorne Multiplex Cinema)
Hawthorne, NY
914-773-0108