If you went looking for the Maine of New York City, you might find your way to Park Slope: both bougie escape hatches, quiet and a little uncool, with bountiful access to nature and incredible parks. So it makes perfect sense that when Ben Wexler-Waite — a New Yorker turned Mainer turned pizza chef from Peaks Island — returned to the city, he landed on Seventh Avenue.
Il Leone — "The Lion" — opened in the former Bar Vinazo space, bringing sourdough-crust pizzas that have earned rave reviews from New York Magazine's chief restaurant critic.
In Maine, Il Leone's pies are cooked over wood. Here, an electric Italforni oven does the work, but the crusts are still naturally fermented sourdough, and some ingredients are imported from the Pine Tree State. The house-special Margherita del Leone features Maine cherry tomatoes — when they're not back-ordered.
"But these might be even better," a server confides about the Brooklyn cherry tomato sauce, milled daily and uncooked until it hits the pizza oven, making for a rosier, tangier sauce than traditional versions.
Wexler-Waite's pizzas lean wet, with judicious cheese application — the upshot being you can eat two or three pies without feeling overloaded.
The standout is the Isola ("island") pizza with Maine lobster, inspired by lobster fra diavola. Listed at the dreaded "MP," it recently rang up at $48 — a splurge, but for more lobster than many restaurants serve at twice the price. "Oh, this is naughty," one diner exclaimed when it arrived.
Wexler-Waite will return to Maine in summers, keeping Il Leone running up there too. For Park Slope, he's brought something rare: pizza with genuine provenance, made by someone who actually came back.