Cultura Pizza E Vita
“It's called Lievito Madre and it's an old traditional bread product and involves a longer fermentation of dough using naturally occurring yeasts.”
“Excellent food- experience – wine-
Owner, Lorenzo, a great & gracious host- worth the walk- wherever you are coming from-”
“The manager was very welcoming and hospitable and even offered me a free margherita pizza as I drank their delicious lemonade.”
Cultura Pizza E Vita
Takes Reservations: Yes
Delivery: Yes
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
6 reviews
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It takes a lot to get myself motivated to write a review but I have to say that this awesome upscale pizzeria was well worth it. The owner greeted us with the warmest welcome and invited us in with open arms. He told us all about the place and how they had just opened. He also informed us that everything is freshly made and they use organic products. It was evident with the basil bar they have growing behind the counter. Now for the food, the pizza was to die for! I ordered the porcini specialty pie (they are small individual pies but you can share). The porcini was made with heavenly fresh mozzarella they make in house, organic truffle oil and mushrooms. Now I am a truffle fiend and this pie was up there with the best of them. I will not only come back here but I will be sure to tell everyone to come here. Must try! Wishing them all the best!
What an interesting place.
I stumbled into Cultura Pizza e Vita this past Saturday afternoon. One of those lazy Saturdays without much direction, I was lulled into 151 Mott St. after being offered a sample slice of Margherita pizza. They're brand new and trying to drum up some buzz among passersby and residents of the neighborhood so hey – free pizza! From there I proceeded to spend a good 30 minutes eating several different slices in the street facing window, chowing on fresh mozzarella with olive oil and basil, playing around with their Pepsi remix machine (more on that later), and yukking it up with their affable owner Lorenzo. It was very random, but very enjoyable.
It seems what they've done at Cultura Pizza e Vita is combine a corporate branding strategy to a brick and mortar neighborhood pizza parlor. Much like a NASCAR racer, they have a host of sponsors that are represented on the walls of the restaurant and on their website. Pepsi being one of their bigger ones with the greatest footprint. Combining product placement in a high traffic area can is a pretty genius new way of creating margins friendly to operating a business in downtown New York. Maybe the new norm?
The pizza itself is pretty tasty. I only had the straightforward Margherita pizza, but they also feature an array of different varietals as well. Including sweet pies with blueberries and Mascarpone cheese. But the signature pizza is made with a flour and leavening process stemming from ancient Egypt. It's called Lievito Madre and it's an old traditional bread product and involves a longer fermentation of dough using naturally occurring yeasts. The result is a crust that has a sourdough-like taste. It's refreshing and quite vibrant. Something you should definitely try.
Part of the Pepsi collaboration is this machine that lets you "remix" your Pepsi products. Essentially you choose your soft drink of choice (Pepsi, Sierra Mist, etc…), then you pick up to three different flavors ranging from cherry to vanilla to add to the original beverage. Once you're finished, you end up with a Sierra Mist (for instance) with extra swagger. I can't say I did a great job with my remixed pop, but hey – I guess I have nobody to blame but myself.
If you're in the area, you really should check it out. It's quite unique. And make sure you have some time to kill as you'll want to chat it up with Lorenzo. He's quite the entertaining guy.
What a bizarre place! I mean that in the best way possible. In a sea of pizza joints, this one stands out because of the bright, loud, and very Euro decor as well as the super friendly Italian owner Lorenzo. Chatting with him alone is reason enough to pay a visit!
The weird thing about this place is that it's sponsored by Pepsi and other large brands, so there's branding all over the place. Logos on the walls, a giant Pepsi cooler, and a contraption much like the Coke Freestyle machine except with Pepsi products.
Once you get over feeling a bit like you're in a commercial, you can focus on the food, which is really good. Lorenzo treated us to the fresh mozzarella, which he promised we would fall in love with. It was excellent!
Apart from that, we had the margherita pizza and a salad. Portions aren't enormous, but we were definitely stuffed by the end of the meal. We also had two glasses of wine from one of those wine dispensers in the center of the restaurant. Seriously, this place is like Disneyland for an Italian food lover! Lots of bells and whistles to admire.
The meal I think ended up to be around $65, which wasn't terrible but not cheap either. I definitely want to go back and try some of their burrata menu and more pizza varieties.
This place. This pizza. This owner. Are they trying way too hard to be authentic or are they super duper proud to be authenticly italian? I think its the latter but we will see as I have many an opportunity to come here based on my living vicinity.
The enthusiasm of the owner Lorenzo! He is obvi very proud of his business venture. Even though there are some well established pizza places already in the hood, Im ok with more joining. Heya I-a lov-a my pizza pie-a my piasanos!!
The pizza and salad are fresh and tasty. Beautiful well thought out combinations make it difficult to decide. Not a bad thing. House made mootzarelle is a nice sight as are the colorful basil plants growing in a row behind the pizza maker.
Wow what a gorgeous pizza oven!! Such fun and modern details really make this a very social environment. Its a spacious joint with lotsa seats for large groups.
The bad thing about this spot is that they charge you for every little item you add even if they made a mistake and you actually wanted sausage insteada ham. You'll probly get charged for both along with another $3 for a sprinkling of cheese on your salad or pizza. You probably want to ask for an itemized receipt. Just saying.
To avoid any frustrating experiences alltogether, I would so much rather just go eat at Margherita's wood fired pizzeria right next to Ferrara's, a quarter of a block away. It's actually a better pizza and less pricey as well. I'm just not into drama with my food and the service at Cultura just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Walking by it in Chinatown we saw this brand new pizza parlor. We decided to try it for lunch. The Italian host seated us at the bar/bench along the window.
Interior wise looked like they went to Eataly and went wild. It is an eclectic mishmash of chairs, light and table that isn't so bad. It was bright and open.
The menu on the other hand is kind of funny remarked by my Italian friend. They proceed to write the entire description of the a the product/ingredient which makes the menu looks verbose and extremely long when they could have just wrote, EVOO. The self-serving drink machine gadget it is a novelty.
That aside, the pizza was really good. The crust smoky from the oven. The fresh ingredients are can be seen as they grow it right there. The dough made fresh. The starter of burratta was creamy with accompanied with prosciutto and figs.
We were impressed. Pizza is a competitive business in the city. Cultura Pizza is a good stop for pizza and they also do the no tipping like in Europe. We decided to give tip anyway.
It's not often that I go to a pizza shop in Chinatown/Little Italy because it appears more like a tourist trap than it does the owners really care about the quality of pizza. For pizza, it taste fine, just like you would expect from small pies, thin crust and fresh vegetables and priced above average, $13 for an 8" Merhgerita or $18 for a 8" Meat Pie.
It is spacious and the server was very attentive as we were the only party in the 6 party group. Unfortunately, they refuse to serve tap water which is understandable for some restaurants not to do so, but they have to make money off their alcohol and bottled beverages somehow like $5 for ice tea and $3 for Dasani.
Once you're ready to pay, they don't provide a receipt, so you go to the register where they add everything up, show you on an iPad then have you pay which is when they have the option of printing out a receipt for you. Also for the tip, they only accept cash which the server wants you to leave on the table and he looks intently at it.
Also they close earlier than any other pizza shop I know in the area and if nearby business can provide a much more filling meal with better ingredients, then they should really step up and be more generous for portion on top of everything else I've mentioned.