We like pizza adventures. It’s a thing the Hipster family does when bored and/or burdened with yet another choice of what to eat for dinner. I particularly hate that conversation. But I love pizza. I mean, who doesn’t? Honestly, I’d do it more if given the opportunity. But there’s only so much dough and cheese in which one person can partake without causing a cholesterol spike the size of New Jersey. Whatever that looks like.
So SQ Pizza was a bit of a serendipitous discovery. Ms. Hipster had a work event catered by the pizzeria and brought home a couple slices. They were a big hit. Especially with Hipster Jr. Jr. Whom I always had pegged for a pizza purest — a bar pie girl if that’s such a thing — but she was enamored with this Roman style square pie. Which I have to imagine is where the SQ comes from. SQ. Square. Get it? Anyway, it’s definitely not your typical NY/NJ pizza. It’s a little hard to explain, actually. At first I was likening it to focaccia. But that was more by how it looked than how it ate. SQ describes it as being made with high-hydration, long-rising dough made from non-GMO flour imported from Italy, resulting in a light, airy pie. I think that’s mostly right. It looks like it might be heavy and greasy like a focaccia — and I’ve had a focaccia-like pizza that ate just how it looked — but it’s actually pretty crunchy on the outside and light and airy on the inside. It has air pockets that make what appears to be a pretty intimidating slice not eat heavy like a typical grandma or denser crust. It’s a pretty cool trick.
Ms. Hipster, Hipster Jr. Jr. and I split a half pan peppi (pepperoni, tomato, mozzarella). It’s about a foot long and cuts into six slices. To keep things rustic, the slices are not exactly even size-wise, though that may have just been the cook not eyeballing things properly coming out of the oven. But between the uneven slicing and the random, but generous, cup pepperoni alignment it felt like a bespoke pie that someone put a lot of time into its authentic imperfection. But damn if it wasn’t tasty. The texture is really different. The crunchy, but light crust with the chew of the pepperoni gave a nice varied experience that made your brain understand you’re eating pizza, but your mouth wondering what this new experience is all about. And the flavor — though somewhat salty and even a little spicy with the cured meat — is pretty darned flavorful. Is it “pizza?” Well, I’m not sure it is. It’s like an Italian sub versus that same meat in a pressed panini. It’s in the same family, but just not traditionally what you’d think of as that thing. But is good and tasty in whatever category you want to put it in. I believe that half pan was around $23 and was plenty of food for the three of us. Hipster Jr. Jr. ordered three fancy a la carte slices that ran around $6 a piece and he barely managed to finish them — and that boy can practically inhale pizza.
The restaurant itself is in what feels like a newly built condominium complex across the road from the giant, new Wegman’s. This chunk of Montvale is not exactly homey. But once you wend your way through dense apartment blocks and various ground floor retail outlets, you see SQ with its large windows and high ceilings and, weirdly, one of those water things out front that kids love to run through. We ate inside, which was preferable to high heat and squealing children and everything was modern, bright and air conditioned. The folks working there are also super-friendly and the whole vibe upbeat. I seem to recall pop music pumping. Hipster Jr. Jr. also got some gelato, which she said was good. I’ll take her word for it.
200 Market St., Suite 260 – Montvale
201/414-5800
sqpizza.com
