Paulie Gee’s in Greenpoint

Sometimes you want a slice of pizza that is isn’t covered in vegan cheese. Don’t get me wrong. Vegan cheese has it’s place. But I am irked by eateries that rely on it too heavily. That think it’s the end-all be-all of vegan entree enhancement. So you have Daiya on the menu? (Say like gosh-awful song by Shania Twain.) That don’t impress me much.

Sometimes I want the pizza: simple, soft hearth-baked crust, blackened on it’s high hills. Good tomato sauce made from scratch and with care. Big basil leaves, glistening. And, sure, if you want to add your house-made fennel sausage, go ahead. That’s exactly what I got off Paulie Gee’s vegan menu in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

Paulie Gee’s is a proper-restaurant. It’s big, long and covered in wood. There’s seating by the door for waiting customers, a hostess with a podium and plenty of seating as you walk back towards the restaurant’s centerpiece, its oven. All of this not easy to find in a restaurant space in New York City. Paulie Gee’s is really dark and really loud. But it’s appropriate. It’s the kind of place you can slam down your beer against the sturdy table and no one would bat an eyelash. I could imagine sailors in the space. Burly, loud sailors. Unfortunately the clientele is Franklin Avenue Brooklyn hipster.

Paulie made a vegan menu in addition to his other beloved pizzas, so I had to go. I ordered the Simply Red with that delicious fennel sausage, and I ate it all. I ordered a fancy sparkling water too. CandyPenny and Roth ordered the In Ricotta Da Vegan: The Simply Red with the sausage covered in house-made cashew ricotta dollops, Baby Arugula and Olive Oil. They also have Daiya.

The pizza was delicious. Paulie himself made the rounds asking us how everything was. I’d come back with a large group of loud sailors.