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About Howell, NJ

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The New York, NY metro area, often called "The Big Apple," is a bustling region with a deep history, stretching back to when it was first settled by the Dutch in the early 17th century. Since then, it has grown into one of the world's most famous cities, playing a significant role in America's development, including the American Revolution.

Geographically, New York is unique as it's made up of five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island, each with its own distinct character. These areas are surrounded by water, including the Hudson River to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, contributing to the city's iconic skyline and busy ports.

The economy here is incredibly dynamic, being a global hub for finance, media, entertainment, and technology. Wall Street, in Lower Manhattan, is synonymous with the financial sector, hosting major stock exchanges. This economic diversity offers residents a wide range of job opportunities across various sectors.

When it comes to voting patterns, the New York metro area is known for its active political engagement, typically leaning towards Democratic candidates in national elections. However, there's a mix of political views across the region, reflecting its vast population.

Living in New York is like being at the heart of the action. It's home to world-renowned cultural institutions like museums, theaters, and galleries, offering endless entertainment and learning opportunities. The culinary scene is equally impressive, with an array of food from all over the world. For those who love the outdoors, there are parks like Central Park and beaches within reach for relaxation and recreation.

For new residents, it's important to know that life here can be fast-paced and the cost of living high, especially in Manhattan. Housing varies greatly in price, so exploring different boroughs could be beneficial. Public transportation is extensive, making it easy to get around without a car. Despite the hustle and bustle, New York offers a sense of community, with diverse neighborhoods each offering their own slice of the city's culture and history.

In summary, the New York, NY metro area is a place of opportunity and excitement, with a rich history, diverse geography, and a strong economy. It offers a wide range of activities and a vibrant lifestyle, but newcomers should be prepared for the fast pace and high cost of living.

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It's a nice place to visit but living here is not that nice! Taxes are outrageous. Schools have a great reputation but they lack education. Superintendent and   More

Howell has grown into a snobs town. Taxes are extremely high since school super cares more about her salary and teachers' salary. Schools have a decent reputation, but   More

I was thrilled when I moved here almost 11 years ago. People seemed nice and the place was safe. People are not nice! There was an influx of New Yorkers and along came   More

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These 15 places are the best to visit in New Jersey, according to Travel and Leisure

Four-minute read.

Ready to hang out in New Jersey?

This travel media brand says yes.

TravelandLeisure.com released report on 15 of the best places to visit in New Jersey with the help of local tourism experts: Jeffrey Vasser, executive director, New Jersey Division of Travel & Tourism and Diane Wieland, director at Cape May County Department of Tourism.

Between the 130 miles of Atlantic Ocean aligned with beautiful beaches and boardwalks with amusements to more than 50 wineries, these gems of the Garden State are worth a visit.

Jersey Shore Restaurant Week: It's back, with lunch and dinner deals at more than 60 spots

Here are the 15 best places to visit in New Jersey:

Ocean city boardwalk.

Known for amusement rides and arcade games that accommodate all ages, Ocean City boardwalk is a fun-filled destination for the the whole family. “The Ocean City Boardwalk is a famous promenade that’s been a source of entertainment for more than 100 years," Wieland said.

This charming Jersey Shore town set on peninsula is a year-round destination with family-friendly and various oceanside dining.

Morey's Piers & Beachfront Water Parks

“Families can spend the entire day on more than 100 rides, splashing around the two water parks right on the beach, and lounging in private cabanas,” Vasser said.

Wildwoods Boardwalk

Composed of more than 70,000 wooden planks, the 38-block oceanfront stretch draws crowds with everything from amusement rides, games, water parks and more.

Wildwood’s Doo Wop Motel District

The largest concentration of mid-century motels in the country has over 50 vintage motels still stand today within this unique district. “It’s really neat to see all the neon signs and retro details. Walking around Wildwood’s Doo Wop Motel District is like being transported to the 1950s,” said Vasser.

American Dream

American Dream is the second-largest shopping mall in the United States, and includes restaurants and themed parks that provide endless fun for the whole family. “American Dream is, quite literally, an indoor vacation one-stop shop that’s open year-round,” said Vasser.

Lambertville

Full of rich history, Lambertville has well-preserved federal townhouses, Victorian homes and antique shops that brings history to life. “The charming town also supplies family-owned wineries and photogenic vantage points such as Goat Hill Overlook,” added Vasser.

What's the best? Central Jersey town named best place to live in NJ and one of the best nationally

Beneduce Vineyards

This 77-acre farm with 25 acres of vines are hand pruned, hand harvested and dry farmed in the rolling hills of Hunterdon County. “One of my favorites, Beneduce Vineyards, has great wine and fun year-round events such as live music and food trucks on Saturdays,” said Vasser.

Grounds for Sculpture

Grounds for Sculpture is a 42-acre landscaped park with 300 contemporary sculptures, an arboretum, and a museum with an indoor exhibitions that features six galleries.

Atlantic City

Known as the East Coast's version of Las Vegas offers travelers casinos, live entertainment, big-name restaurants with more fun attractions at the Steel Pier and the only helicopter ride at the Jersey Shore.

Frenchtown is a vibrant community full of Victorian architecture, art, and culture nestled along the banks of the Delaware River. Vasser recommends visiting during Frenchtown Riverfest. “There are all kinds of street fair activities along the river,” he said.

Cape May County Park & Zoo

The Cape May County Park & Zoo houses over 500 different animals that includes African lions, American black bears, snow leopards and ring-tailed lemurs. The zoo features playgrounds for kids of all ages and both places are free to the public. "It's truly one of the best-kept secrets in the area," said Wieland.

Asbury Park

Asbury Park has become a creative hub and music mecca within the last decade with iconic landmarks like The Stone Pony, Asbury Lanes and Silverball Retro Arcade. Asbury Park combines gaming, bowling, dining, live entertainment and of course swimming and surfing on the shore.

Adventure Aquarium

Adventure Aquarium features the largest collection of sharks on the East Coast and protects over 8,000 aquatic species, including penguins and stingrays. Visitors can interact with hundreds of sea creatures at the touch tanks. “It’s a favorite for kids of all ages, especially if you’re looking for an indoor activity,” said Wieland.

Long Beach Island

The shores of Long Beach Island are particularly lovely. Besides its scenic Atlantic Ocean coastline, vacationers go for the water sports, charming towns like Barnegat Light, and the laid-back lifestyle.

Man drowns after illegal dip in South Jersey mining lake

A 33-year-old Howell Township man drowned Saturday morning after he took an illegal dip in Crystal Lake, the mining hole on the 7,000-acre Heritage Mineral mining site in Manchester that is off-limits but a popular place to ride off-road vehicles.

Police say Edwin Toro-Mejia arrived at the lake with family members around 9:30 Saturday morning and jumped in with a juvenile to cool off. The two were attempting to cross Crystal Lake when Toro-Mejia appeared to suffer a muscle cramp and floundered about 30 yards from the shoreline, police said.

Family members tried to save him, but Toro-Mejia disappeared into the current, police said. The victim’s lifeless body was recovered about an hour and a half later following a search by the New Jersey State Police Aviation, the Lanoka Harbor and Ocean Beach Search and Rescue Squads and volunteer firefighters from Manchester, Ridgeway, Whiting, Lakehurst, Toms River and South Toms River, police said.

Located off Route 37, the 7,000-acre Heritage Mineral property ceased mining operations in the early 1980s. Left behind are a series of “lakes” – which are actually quarry holes that have filled with water.

The banks are inherently unstable and the drop-offs can be steep, police say. Even more dangerous, the lakes are fed by springs in the underground aquifer, water that tends to be much colder and can cause a swimmer to cramp, police said.

Although “No Trespassing” signs are posted on the property, the land is a popular riding spot for people with all-terrain vehicles. In 2020, one man was killed when his all-terrain vehicle overturned into one of the lakes at Heritage Mineral.

An autopsy will be performed by the Ocean County Medical Examiner’s Office to ascertain the cause of death. The Manchester Township Police are asking anyone who witnessed the incident to contact Detective Richard Jupinka at 732-657-2009 ext. 4206.

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com .Richard Cowen may be reached at [email protected] .

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit nj.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

See homes sold in the Irvington area, June 17 to June 23

• Updated: Jun. 26, 2024, 6:05 a.m. |
• Published: Jun. 26, 2024, 6:01 a.m.
• Real Estate Newswire

The following is a listing of all home transfers in the Irvington area reported from June 17 to June 23. There were 8 transactions posted during this time. During this period, the median sale for the area was a 1,250-square-foot home on Mount Vernon Avenue in Irvington that sold for $420,000.

20 Newton Place, Irvington, $275,000, 1,340 square feet, $205 per square-foot.

More realestate news

• See all homes sold in West Windsor, June 17 to June 23
• See homes sold in the Passaic area, June 17 to June 23
• See all homes sold in Monroe in Middlesex County, June 17 to June 23
• See homes sold in the Hamilton area, June 17 to June 23
• See all homes sold in Bloomfield, June 17 to June 23

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22 of the Best Pizza Places in the United States

From Southern California to the Mississippi Delta to the Pacific Northwest, the bounty of great pies has never been bigger.

By The New York Times

Pizza in America has never been better. The wood-fire Neapolitan pizzerias that took off in the early 2000s, and have been spreading ever since, taught Americans to ask more of a dish they already loved.

The ensuing craft pizza renaissance is a rare culinary convergence: born of metropolitan chef culture but not confined to big cities. There are great pizzerias virtually everywhere in the United States , from small New England towns to the Mississippi Delta to rural Iowa to Los Angeles to Alaska. And they’re being opened by chefs from an unusually wide array of backgrounds.

The result is a dish that has become a cooking style of its own, channeling a seemingly limitless number of cultures and ideas.

The following list is a road map to a uniquely American phenomenon — and evidence, perhaps, that the country is home to the world’s best pizza. BRETT ANDERSON

Hamtramck, Mich. ( Pop. 27,834 )

The idea of using Bangladeshi ingredients at Amar Pizza was born of necessity. “We’re in a neighborhood where there are pizzerias that had been around 20 to 30 years,” said Khurshed Ahmed, Amar’s owner. “We had to come up with something unique, to separate us.” The most delicious of the resulting inventions: a pizza made with a dried fish paste based on a condiment that was a dinner-table staple in Mr. Ahmed’s household when he was growing up. This mostly takeout restaurant has been in Hamtramck since 2010, long enough for its Bangladeshi pizzas — you’ll also want one sparked with Naga chiles — to become locally famous , and for good reason. There is a second location in Troy, owned by Mr. Ahmed’s brother Albor Alam. BRETT ANDERSON

Bird Pizzeria

Charlotte, N.C. (Pop. 874,579)

The American craft-pizza boom was fueled by small Neapolitan pies fired in wood-burning ovens. Kerrel Thompson is among the pizzaiolos who responded to the resulting demand for better quality by trying to perfect a different kind of pizza. In Mr. Thompson’s case, it’s a New York style reminiscent of what he grew up eating in Cleveland. At Bird, operated by Mr. Thompson and his wife, Nkem, the pizzas are of a shareable size, featuring browned, caramelized crusts, and available with seasonal toppings like dandelion pesto and local mushrooms. The Thompsons found an enthusiastic local audience for Bird’s pizza: Since opening in December 2021, the restaurant has grown from a pop-up to a takeout business to (as of next month) a sit-down restaurant. BRETT ANDERSON

Bungalow by Middle Brow

Chicago (Pop. 2,746,388)

The overlapping skills required to make beer and dough have spurred a growing number of brewers to try their hands at pizza. This restaurant-within-a-brewery is an inspiring example. The crusts are fragrant and flavorful, with sturdy undercarriages, and the Neapolitan pizzas are always memorable, whether they’re topped with the barest amount of ingredients (order at least one with tomato sauce and yuzu oil) or the makings of a German potato salad, to name just one in the never-ending parade of specialty pies. On Tuesdays, the kitchen features its take on Chicago’s square-cut tavern-style pies (shown above). The food is a good match for the beer and, yes, wine, which Middle Brow started making, from Michigan grapes, in 2019. BRETT ANDERSON

Nashville (Pop. 689,447)

Can pizza be Southern? Can Italian food? The answer is yes, at least when you’re eating at City House. The restaurant, opened by the chef Tandy Wilson in 2007, helped trailblaze the pizzeria-as-Italian-American-trattoria. At the same time, it showed how well Southern ingredients and recipes take to Italian cuisine. If it’s tomato season in Tennessee — as it is right now — keep an eye out for pizza inspired by Mr. Tandy’s mother’s favorite tomato sandwich (above), or one dotted with morsels of the juicy peaches that ripen around the same time. The kitchen is equally adept at handmade pastas and other Italian-inspired dishes. BRETT ANDERSON

Beaverton, Ore. (Pop. 97,494)

It’s been said that Portland, Ore., is the best pizza city in the country. Some may argue, but there’s no question that there are some great pies available here (including those made by Sarah Minnick at Lovely’s Fifty Fifty ). But a few miles to the west, in Beaverton, Aaron Truong and his wife and co-owner, Natalie, are adding to the scene. Started as a farmers’ market pop-up with just a single Gozney Roccbox countertop oven, Hapa found a permanent home last year. True to its name — a term for multiracial people of Asian or Pacific Islander descent — the restaurant works in multiple culinary traditions. The pies stay faithful to the Neapolitan canon of pleasingly charred and chewy dough, but also to vivid Asian flavors, as in the pho or Thai green curry pies. Mr. Truong manages to get a lot on his pizzas without them seeming gimmicky or overloaded. BRIAN GALLAGHER

In Bocca al Lupo

Juneau, Alaska (Pop. 32,255)

“Lupo,” as locals call it, consists of a small deli, a kitchen and a casual 50-person dining room, located in a downtown building that has housed bakeries since 1914. More than half the time, in Alaska’s forested, seaside capital city, it’s either raining hard or raining not so hard. Tucking into the bar, where you can watch your pizza’s crust bubble and caramelize in the wood-fired oven, is a primo way to dry out. The chef Beau Schooler, who has half a dozen James Beard nods, makes pizzas with flours from the Pacific Northwest, Caputo Brothers Creamery cheese from Pennsylvania and classic toppings like fennel sausage, bacon, pepperoni and mushrooms. Keep an eye out for special pizzas, too, like halibut and asparagus, depending on what’s coming in from fishermen and farms. And if you’re lucky, you might catch a glimpse of Harold, the resident parking-lot raven, roosted up by the front door. JULIA O’MALLEY

Leña Pizza & Bagel

Cleveland, Miss. (Pop. 11,199)

The pizza at Leña collapses the distance between Naples, Italy, where Marisol Doyle, the restaurant’s chef and co-owner, studied pizza making; the Mississippi Delta, her adopted home; and Sonora, Mexico, where she was born and raised. The menu includes pies you’d expect to find at a modern Neapolitan pizzeria, like margherita and pepperoni (named pepperrory, after Ms. Doyle’s husband and business partner, Rory). But there are also pies highlighting seasonal produce and Ms. Doyle’s Mexican heritage, including an al pastor pizza (pineapple comes on the side) and the Sonoran, which replaces tomato sauce with refried beans and is topped with housemade roasted jalapeño salsa. Leña is reminiscent of many urban trattorias, except that it sits in a storefront on a small-town main street called Cotton Row. BRETT ANDERSON

The Lincoln Winebar

Mount Vernon, Iowa (Pop. 4,527 )

The scene is so familiar inside the Lincoln — the chalkboard menu, the natural wine, the 30-somethings comparing notes about their favorite podcasts — a visitor could easily forget they’re in a small town on the outskirts of Cedar Rapids. But you won’t forget for long. There is too much Iowa on the wood-fired pies: local morels and asparagus in the spring and summer, Iowa pepperoni and hot honey all year long. The “barn chives” come from the old pumpkin farm where the owner Jesse Sauerbrie’s father lives. Mr. Sauerbrie, who first learned the restaurant business working at Red Lobster, relishes Lincoln’s ability to expand customers’ horizons. “Pizza is a really great way to get people to try new things,” he said. BRETT ANDERSON

Little Donna’s

Baltimore (Pop. 585,708)

It isn’t surprising that Robbie Tutlewski decided to put soft-shell crab on pizza. Little Donna’s — which made The New York Times’s 2023 list of the nation’s most exciting restaurants — is in Baltimore, after all. Here, crab is an all-but-mandatory menu item. And the soft-shells really take to the treatment. They’re pan-fried, quartered and then scattered atop a cooked white pizza, where their buttery juices settle into the cheese. The seasonal special is just one example of how Mr. Tutlewski channels a lifetime’s worth of experiences through his pizzeria. He learned to make Neapolitan-style pizza working at the influential Pizzeria Bianco (see below), but the crusts on Little Donna’s pies are cracker-thin, in homage to the tavern-style pies of Mr. Tutlewski’s native Indiana. Located in the former space of a beloved local tavern, the restaurant comes by its homespun warmth honestly: Mr. Tutlewski lives with his family upstairs, and the non-pizza portion of the menu includes dishes inspired by the cooking of his Yugoslavian grandmother. BRETT ANDERSON

Pizzeria Bianco

Phoenix (Pop. 1,608,139)

Chris Bianco helped establish the persona of the pizzaiolo-as-pitmaster — the meticulous craftsman spinning magic from wood fire. He did it at Pizzeria Bianco, where starting in the late 1980s, he helped pave the way for the craft-pizza revolution one steamy-crisp, handmade pizza at a time. His profile has only grown, along with his empire, but the two Phoenix pizzerias are still worth a pilgrimage. Be sure to order the Rosa, a sublimely austere pizza holding Arizona pistachios, rosemary and singed slices of red onion. BRETT ANDERSON

Pizzeria Sei

Los Angeles (Pop. 3,820,914)

William Joo, who immigrated from South Korea as a teenager, draws inspiration from the Tokyo neo-Neapolitan school of pizza for his very Los Angeles pies, proofed over the course of two days and embellished with produce from the Santa Monica Farmers Market . The menu makes a beautiful Neapolitan pizza and a white pie covered only with a swirl of thick cream and fior di latte mozzarella, freckled with preserved lemon and obscenely large glugs of olive oil. But part of the fun of Sei is in its specials and one-off pizzas that come and go, and might include beef tongue, squash blossoms or yuzu. TEJAL RAO

Post Office Pies

Mountain Brook, Ala. (Pop. 22,461)

Post Office Pies came to greater Birmingham when John Hall determined that his best path out of Manhattan’s rat race, where he worked in some of the city’s most prestigious restaurants, was to bring craft pizza to his hometown. The Neapolitan pies are expertly made, often highlighting local produce; one draws on the partner Brandon Cain’s experience with Southern barbecue. Mr. Hall spends less time in Alabama since opening Restaurant Lola in Bremerton, Wash., an opportunity , he said, that would not have been possible had he not first gone into business for himself. “If we had investors, they never would have let me leave,” he said. “But we didn’t need help to make great pizza.” BRETT ANDERSON

Jersey City, N.J. (Pop. 291,657)

What if New Jersey is really a lost province of Italy? This is the question asked by Razza, Dan Richer’s locavore pizzeria in Jersey City. The flour is milled nearby. Milk for butter and cheese is contributed by local cows. What may be Razza’s most famous creation is a white pie topped with honey from New Jersey bees and toasted, blight-resistant hazelnuts grown in East Brunswick by plant biologists at Rutgers University. Pizza is many things in the United States, but few pizzerias have gotten as far as Razza does by treating pizza as an agricultural product. PETE WELLS

Brooklyn (Pop. 2,736,074)

Roberta’s took California cuisine’s open-minded attitude about pizza and gave it a New York edge. When it opened, in 2008, it had no obvious rules about what it would put on the wheels of dough baked in its candy-apple-red oven. There was a pizza with tuna, another with bacon and eggs and a pineapple-topped version of Hawaiian pizza called the Da Kine. It sounded at times like a dorm-room joke, but the smoky, blistered crust was excellent and the ingredients first-rate. (The “bacon” was house-cured guanciale.) The menu is more traditional these days, but the city is full of pizzerias that took the Roberta’s approach and ran wild with it. PETE WELLS

Rose Pizzeria

Berkeley, Calif. (Pop. 118,962)

In a place where you can’t swing a pie without hitting a fermentation-happy sourdough pizza joint, Rose stands apart. The pies put out by the married couple Gerad Gobel and Alexis Rorabaugh, who worked together in Chicago for seven years, draw from both the New York and Midwestern tavern traditions. The crust is sturdy enough — no point flop here — that you can single-hand your slice. The toppings aren’t flashy, but options like the She Wolf, with burrata, garlic confit, olives, capers and oregano, are deeply delicious. For a true California pizza-parlor experience, snag a table on the charming patio out back. BRIAN GALLAGHER

New Orleans (Pop. 383,997)

Where are American pizza restaurants heading? St. Pizza suggests an appealing path. It’s a slice place, with a sidewalk takeout window, featuring the kind of crisp, sparely appointed pizza that the co-owner Tony Biancosino ate growing up in southern New Jersey, outside Philadelphia. But there’s more. Walk past the cash register and into a partly hidden, seductively lit tavern, where those same excellent pizzas — topped with housemade fennel sausage, with in-season greens and sweet ricotta, with crushed tomatoes, oregano and fennel pollen — are served as whole pies, offered in two sizes. They’re the backbone of what amounts to a red-sauce Italian place stripped to its essentials and polished to suit modern tastes. The restaurant — which Mr. Biancosino opened early this year with Leslie Pariseau, his business partner and wife, and another partner, Abhi Bhansali — is two doors down from Patron Saint , the couple’s shop and bar specializing in low-intervention wines. So yes, you can enjoy your pizza, and whatever else, with a bottle of Slovenian pet-nat rosé. BRETT ANDERSON

San Lucas Pizzeria

Philadelphia (Pop. 1,550,542)

When Valentin Palillero and his wife, Eva Mendez, opened their South Philadelphia pizzeria in 2005, the couple sold traditional pies, with toppings like pepperoni and green peppers that were familiar to their historically Italian neighborhood. But Mr. Palillero, who emigrated from Puebla, Mexico, also wanted to appeal to his own community that had been settling in the surrounding blocks for the last decade or so. Using the same simple crust as a base, new recipes used ingredients found in Mexican cuisine: slightly smoky guajillo sauce, spiced pork, black beans, flecks of onion and chopped cilantro. Nowadays, these varieties, served with a side of lime wedges, are as popular as the originals. But they're also a vivid link in a neighborhood that’s been an epicenter of Italian and Mexican immigration, roughly three-quarters of a century apart. REGAN STEPHENS

Scratch Brewing

Ava, Ill. (Pop. 553)

It would be an understatement to call Scratch a product of its environment. Perched on the sloping edge of a forest in deep Southern Illinois, the brewery was built partly from salvaged local materials. The outdoor brick oven was handmade, and it’s used to bake wood-fired pizza, served Thursday to Sunday. The crusts are made with the same sourdough culture used to ferment the excellent bread and most of the beers. The ingredients for the pizza are largely local (same goes for the beer), much of it grown or foraged by the co-owners Marika Josephson and Aaron Kleidon on land surrounding the property. To say this place is worth its own road trip is another understatement. BRETT ANDERSON

Short & Main

Gloucester, Mass. (Pop. 29,729)

Short & Main is a Neapolitan pizzeria crossed with a New England oyster bar. Visit it once, and you’ll struggle to imagine how it could be anything else. The restaurant is so close to the waterfront, you’re likely to find sea gulls resting on cars parked out front. That proximity is reflected in the seafood offerings, especially the raw oysters. After you slurp down some briny, impeccably fresh Island Creeks, before tearing into one of the restaurant’s flame-kissed pies, you’ll wish this particular version of surf and turf were more widely available. BRETT ANDERSON

The Tillerman

Bristol, Vt. (Pop. 3,782)

In another era, you could be almost guaranteed a place like the Tillerman — a rural inn and restaurant in an 18th-century farmhouse — would offer fresh popovers, stew and a night’s sleep under a homemade quilt. Rustic comforts — raging fires in the winter, live music night by the barn in summer — remain central to the appeal here, but they’ve been married to a fresher culinary aesthetic since Jason Kirmse and Kate Baron took over the property. The couple, who previously worked in food and hospitality in the Bay Area, installed a wood-fire oven. That’s where you’ll find Kelsey Martin, who doubles as the restaurant’s pastry chef, and the sous-chef Taylor Adams (above) tending to crisp-edged pizzas that change with the seasons. BRETT ANDERSON

Washington, D.C. (Pop. 689,545)

When Michael Rafidi decided to create a pizza pop-up at his Georgetown bakery during Covid lockdowns, it wasn’t an especially difficult pivot. The kitchen was already equipped with a wood-fire oven for pita bread. Mr. Rafidi found himself deploying harissa and other ingredients he encountered making pizza-adjacent dishes, like sfeehas and manoushe, with his Palestinian grandparents while growing up. The response was so positive that Mr. Rafidi turned Yellow, a Levantine bakery, into a Levantine pizzeria by night called (not) pizza. The name accounts for how far ingredients like soujek, jibneh and toum stray from Italy. Whatever you call them, the savory pies rival any craft pizza you’ll find. Don’t forget to save room for some labneh soft-serve. BRETT ANDERSON

Minneapolis (Pop. 429,954)

Nowhere is the freewheeling creative spirit permeating American pizza culture more pronounced than in the Twin Cities. Argentine pizza ? Japanese-Italian pizza ? Indian pizza ? Spiffed-up Midwestern tavern pizza? So it’s no great surprise that one of the region’s most excellent restaurants is also a pizzeria. Or perhaps it’s better to say that Young Joni, the place in question, is not just a pizzeria. The menu is filled with not only wood-fired pizzas but also many other non-pizza dishes, many of which draw on the Korean American childhood of Ann Kim , Young Joni’s chef and co-owner. A typical spread here includes galbi-style short rib pizza, chili-glazed prawns and a trio of housemade kimchis. The restaurant, in a former Polish community center, is notably atmospheric. Consider booking seats for pre- or post-dinner drinks in the attached Back Bar, a speakeasy whose design transports you to a rustic cabin in the upper Midwest. BRETT ANDERSON

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A Guide for Pizza Lovers

New Haven has long been known as a pizza town . Can the city’s legendary pizza joints play on the national stage?

With a new breed of portable ovens and an anything-goes spirit, New York’s pizzaiolos are turning out impressive pies at pop-ups in bars, breweries and other surprising venues .

Pan pizza is the recipe you never knew you needed; get your cast iron ready for the deep-dish pie of your dreams .

The reheated, foldable, portable slice is one of New York City’s quintessential eats. This is how it gained that status .

Kenji López-Alt spent five months studying Chicago thin-crust pizza. Here is what he learned .

Don’t own a pizza oven? Cooking pizza on the grill is one of the easiest ways to get a restaurant-quality pie at home .

A team of four hungry New York Times staff members put four four frozen pizzas to the test. This is how they fared .

Our readers offered their hacks  to gussy up a frozen pizza and tips to make it from scratch.

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New York City continues giveaway of 10K free tickets for Macy's 4th of July fireworks on Thursday

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- New York City will continue its giveaway of 10,000 free tickets to watch this year's edition of the Macy's 4th of July Fireworks show on Thursday morning.

The free tickets were supposed to be available starting at 10 a.m. Wednesday at www.nycjuly4.com , but shortly after it launched the website appeared to be overwhelmed by demand.

The city said it is working with the vendor to fix the issue and another batch of tickets will be available Thursday.

Officials said more than one million people attempted to get tickets in the first five minutes.

The site will reopen at 10 a.m. Thursday "to give everyone another opportunity to select the remaining tickets on a first come, first serve basis."

"We are thrilled that over 1 million people visited our website in just 5 minutes to get tickets to the Macy's 4th of the July Fireworks," a spokesperson for the mayor said. "We are reopening the website tomorrow at 10am to give everyone another opportunity to select the remaining tickets on a first come, first serve basis. Anyone who does not get a ticket can still view the fireworks display along miles of space along the Hudson that will be open to the general public."

The tickets provide entry to viewing areas on Pier 45 and Pier 84 in Manhattan.

The fireworks show will be visible all along the West Side Highway for those who do not receive a ticket, the city said.

This year the theme is "Summer's Greatest Hits." The retailor has a dazzling 25 minute musical score planned, which was arranged and produced by Grammy-Award winner Jason Howland.

Other talents expected to join the performance, include Brandy Clark, Mickey Guyton and Amber Clark.

And before the lightshow kicks off, audiences will also be treated to performances by Tanner Adell, Luis Fonsi, The War and Treaty and Lainey Wilson.

If you're headed the show, there are specific points of entry the public should be aware of.

Entry points for the general public are:

- Christopher Street and Washington Street

- West 11th Street and Washington Street

- West 12th Street and Washington Street

- West 29th Street and 11th Avenue

- West 40th Street and 11th Avenue

ADA accessible viewing locations will be located at Christopher Street and Washington Street and West 41st Street and 11th Avenue.

The fireworks are returning to the Hudson River this year for the first time since 2013.

Macys says the "display will feature thousands of shells and an array of effects from barges positioned along the Hudson River with multiple viewing opportunities in Manhattan between West 14th and West 34th Streets and in New Jersey."

After lighting up the East River for decades, the fireworks shifted to the Hudson River in 2009.

It was supposed to be a one-time change celebrating the 400th anniversary of the explorer Henry Hudson's arrival in these parts, but Macy's then staged the fireworks on the Hudson for four more years, through the 404th anniversary.

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Related Topics

• NEW YORK CITY
• MACY'S
• 4TH OF JULY
• HUDSON RIVER

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