Growing up, pies from Vincent's Pizza Park were forbidden food for me: My mom didn't care for its huge, greasy pizzas. When I had some, it was contraband from a friend or sibling. When the original shop on the North Braddock-Forest Hills border shut down last year amid ownership and management disputes, it was disheartening. (A second location in Plum remained open.)
But lo! The original location, renovated but still quintessentially Vincent's, reopened on June 17. The current pizza-maker, Dave Miller, worked under original proprietor Vincent Chianese. The shop is brighter and cleaner, but maintains the old vibe. Vincent's chef shirt hangs on the wall above one booth; the pans illustrating the sizes of the different pies hang above Miller's pizza kitchen, which is behind glass so you can watch. There are two salads on the menu: salad, and salad with cheese.
The pizzas are still huge; they still come with a puddle of amazing grease underneath; and the pepperoni is still piled on in shreds. The ovens are new, so the pizza doesn't have quite the "character" of Vinnie pies of old (oft attributed, perhaps apocryphally, to Vincent's cigarette ash falling off into the pizza).
For now, Vincent's is open from 4-10 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. On the first Saturday after opening, the dining room was nearly full at 4 p.m., and a line stretched almost out the door by 5 p.m. There were multiple customers wearing Vincent's T-shirts; that's the kind of fandom this place engenders. And it's safe to say very few of those fans will be disappointed in the new Vincent's.
