What makes pizza New York-style? It’s that thin hand-tossed crust that is firm and crispy. It’s having the option to grab a huge triangle to-go and eating it folded as you walk down the sidewalk. It’s not a slice of pizza that flops into your hand like a wet piece a cardboard when you pick it up and try to eat it.
How does a New York-style pizza get that signature crispy crust? It starts by using a coal-fired hearthstone oven with a temperature between 800 and 1000 degrees. The high temperature cooks the pizza in less than five minutes and produces that unbeatable bottom, charred edges, and caramelized toppings. Any other way and you’ll end up with a cooked top and soggy bottom pizza.
Tony C’s is the place if you don’t like pizza with a soggy bottom. They’re located in the corner spot right next to the Cinemark Movie Theater in the Hill Country Galleria. This is the only true coal-fired New York-style pizza you’ll find in the Lake Travis area.
Pizza restaurants and kids go together. Always a favorite with the kids is the indoor seating on the first level between the bar and the open kitchen. You’ll have a view of the guy who tosses and spins the pizza dough high in the air. When it’s not super crowded, the additional seating upstairs can be your escape when you’re looking for a more intimate setting.
The outdoor seating is the perfect location for relaxing in the sun and a great place to people-watch as the crowds shuffle in and out of the movie theater. There are plenty of tables with umbrellas to grab some shade on a sunny day. The outdoor bar area has a couple of TV’s if your want to hang outside on gameday.
For starters…everything is better with bacon. If you live by these words, be sure and try the bacon-wrapped figs appetizer. Outside of pizza, the menu has a wide variety of salads, sandwiches, pasta and featured items like a homemade lasagna. All good and I’ll recommend you try any of them—but don’t leave here without trying the pizza.
Keep it simple with cheese, go with a classic New York pepperoni and mushroom, or the popular staff-recommended prosciutto and goat cheese—generous toppings of roasted garlic, prosciutto, arugula, fresh mozzarella, and goat cheese. Get creative and put together your own by choosing from the list of numerous toppings.
When you’re finished, you be the judge. An aficionado might say that one of the other key ingredients to creating a real New York City pizza is making the dough with real New York City tap water. Well, Tony C’s dough isn’t made with New York City tap water, but this is the closest we’ll get to a New York-style pizza in the Lake Travis area. The only other place I know that serves up pizza like this comes from the folks over at Home Slice on South Congress.
Tony C’s has an impressive wine list and a good selection of draft and bottled beers (no mixed drinks). Weekly specials start off with 2 for 1 pizzas every Tuesday, half price bottles of wine every Wednesday, and happy hour from 3 – 7pm Monday through Friday.
Hours & Location
Sun – Thurs: 11am – 10pm
Fri – Sat: 11am – 11pm
12800 Hill Country Blvd. Suite G160 Austin, TX, 78738 (map)
