There are only three of us left now and our time in New York City is drawing to a close. We are sitting at the final stop on our trip. The summer sun is beating down on the city, forcing those on the street to seek shelter from the sweltering heat.

It’s Sunday afternoon and we know that we’ve done something truly special over the last three days. We’ve had very little down time, with every waking minute being focused on a single goal: eat as much pizza as possible. Not only did we achieve our goal, we have surpassed our expectations with a spreadsheet full of pizzerias, pies, and ratings. This is the finish line. The victory lap. The grand finale.

The only problem is that I feel like I’m going to die.

Half of our group had early flights home on Sunday morning, so the three of us with later itineraries decided to make the best of our last day in New York and hit it hard. We had visited 17 pizzerias to this point and there was no way in hell I was leaving the city with a count less than 20. We had a glorious three hour window from when the pizza shops opened to when we needed to be on our way to the airport. This meant that from 11am to 2pm we would need to have at least three pizza lunches. For the average man this may have been intimidating, but not for us.

A few minutes after 11 we approached the freshly unlocked door of Scarr’s Pizza, a slice shop in the Lower East Side with an incredible reputation for making delicious pies with the best ingredients. After witnessing what I can only describe as a stereotypical New York argument between one of the employees and an impatient customer (they were yelling at each other about a meatball sandwich, it was awesome), we ordered up our cheese slices and went to work. Scarr’s served us one of the best slices of the whole trip, with tons of stretchy cheese, perfectly balanced sauce, and a cracker-like dough with the perfect amount of fluffy crust under the sauce.

With our first lunch behind us, we decided to head to Speedy Romeo, a wood-fired-oven pizza with pies on the more modern side. On our way we were distracted by the horn music from a nearby Greek Jewish Festival. To our surprise, right there on the nearest corner of the festival was Williamsburg Pizza. While not technically on the list for the day’s activities, we figured we shouldn’t pass up an opportunity to grab a slice of pizza for the walk. After all, it had been minutes since we last ate. I grabbed a slice of white pie complete with ricotta, mozzarella, and herbs. The slice was on the dry and crispy side of things, but I ate it all the same while watching large crowds of people dance in circles at the craziest Greek Jewish festival I’ve ever seen.

You probably think that was the only pizza pit stop on the way to Speedy Romeo. You are a fool. As we walked by Fahr’s Fresh and Hot pizza I realized there was something I had yet to do on this trip: order a famed New York dollar slice. Now, dollar slices are really something meant to be enjoyed later in the evening, preferably in a less-than-sober state, yet here I was at noon on a Sunday, dead sober and receiving the cheapest slice of the trip.

It was worth exactly what I paid for it.

Now full of the waxy, dense, and bland product that was the dollar slice we arrived at Speedy Romeo, sat at the bar, and ordered a pie to go. We stood outside as we opened the box containing our Brocky Balboa, a pie topped with white sauce, broccoli, provel, Speedy sauce, and fried garlic. For our local Oklahoma City readers the vibe of this pie was very similar to something our own Empire Slice House would serve up. It was delicious.

Our efficient pizza-eating had left us three lunches in with an hour remaining before we needed to head to the airport. Just enough time to grab some pizza! Motorino, a beautiful little Neapolitan spot with locations in NYC and Asia, was a box left unchecked on our trip-planners list, so the decision was made.

The waitress carefully navigated the small crowded dining room and delivered our brussels sprout pizza with garlic, pecorino, smoked pancetta, olive oil & sea salt. The dough was thin and floppy, requiring a fork and knife. It was light and refreshing with all the ingredients bringing perfect balance to the pie, and to our trip as a whole.

We were brutally full having visited five restaurants in less than three hours and the heat was starting to take its toll. We were completely exhausted. There was nothing left to do but grab our luggage from the hotel and head to the airport.

Our trip was finally complete and the stats were impressive. We visited 22 different pizzerias in our three-day trip, and I personally had 38 unique slices of pizza in that time. We started every day hungry, and finished each one feeling sickly stuffed. Many expected us to return tired of pizza, but the trip had the opposite effect, I was addicted. We returned late on a Sunday and by Tuesday I had ordered pizza for dinner. I craved it. I still crave it.

I can’t wait to get back to New York City and do it all again.

Sunday was the last day of the Great 2019 New York City Pizza Trip. We ate at 22 pizza shops in approximately 72 hours and I’ll be doing my best to recount the highlights of the trip in a series of articles here at Barrels and Mash.