Brothers Ciro and Tony Baldino grew up on a small island near Capri. They immigrated to New Jersey and bought Conte’s in 1982. The Princeton institution has occupied its current location since 1957. They eventually recruited sister-in-law Angela to help run the place. The original owner was Angela’s husband’s uncle’s father-in-law. The details are a little fuzzy, but there’s only one thing you need to know: Conte’s offers a very good version of neighborhood New Jersey pizza.
Conte’s is located just south of Nassau Street, in what was once the Conte family home, a light stone building with a killer sign. The pizzeria was featured in “A Beautiful Mind,” the bio-pic about mathematician John Nash, who still tutors Princeton grad students. The space is simple, a dining hall with terrazzo flooring, silver and black chairs, and a black bar lined with cubes of red and green glass.
Conte’s has a simple menu, just nine pizzas: plain, garlic, sausage, pepperoni, mushroom, peppers, onions, anchovies and the “special.”
My cousin made sure to order ahead, knowing how jammed Conte’s gets at lunch. He went with his family favorite: a large pepperoni pizza ($16) with quarter-sized cuts of stellar pepperoni. The crisp, cracker like crust was unlike any I’d eaten. There wasn’t much sauce, but the cheese was nice and bubbly, and a little greasy from the pepperoni.
This was the first stop in a 48-hour, five-pizzeria tour of New Jersey and New York City. We found better pizza later in the weekend, but Conte’s was a good start. This was the kind of pizza I remember eating growing up in northern New Jersey, but a notch better.
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