The original joint that inspired the timeless pun, “You can make a chicken roll, but you can’t make a chicken roll,” Mimma’s serves up late night pizza and chicken rolls to drunken UES revelers in droves. Surrounded by neighborhood bars, the management of this place is smart enough to keep the doors open well into the morning, as person after person pulls crumpled bills out of his pockets, slurring orders for pepperoni and Sicilian slices while trying to avoid one another in the cramped space. How the employees here don’t blow their brains out out of sheer annoyance is beyond me (after all, who’s more annoying than a drunk dude on the UES?), but we’re glad they keep the grey matter off of the grub, because the stuff is good. Granted, it’s not a gourmet eatery, but the neighborhood pizza shop is nothing to sneeze at. I would avoid the loud-talking late-night freaks and stop by on a calm afternoon if you want to grab a very good slab of chicken parm wrapped in cheese and pizza dough. [MF]
1617 2nd Ave.
212/734-0317