N.J.’s best new pizzeria serves incredible ‘New York square pies.’ We’ll allow it. | Review

Mike Bergemann never thought he was coming back home to New Jersey.

The Mahwah native had a rent-controlled apartment in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. He’d enjoyed a successful run as the chef at acclaimed Lower East Side noodle shop Ivan Ramen. And Corner Slice, his slice shop in Manhattan’s Gotham West Market, was quickly becoming the toast of the town. In 2017, Eater named it the best new pizza in New York.

But Bergemann wanted to open a standalone operation. And if he was going to do that, he wanted it to be in his home state.

“It was a dream to open in New York. I loved my life in Brooklyn and the city was really great,” Bergemann told NJ Advance Media. “But for me, success is (about the) community around the space, and I just felt like there was more opportunity for that. In Jersey, I feel like people really just ride for the places that they love and give back in a really unique way.”

READ MORE: New Jersey’s 101 greatest pizzas, ranked

The 36-year-old Bergemann closed his New York location in the November 2023. On Feb. 1, Corner Slice opened its New Jersey outpost in Maplewood.

The Big Apple’s loss is clearly the Garden State’s gain, as this terrific Essex County pizzeria immediately ranks among the state’s best.

While Bergemann fondly remembers crushing whole pies from Kinchley’s in Ramsey after little league baseball games, the pizzas he serves at his Boyden Avenue shop don’t at all resemble those Bergen County bar pies.

Instead, his slices are square, a nod to how he first started making pies in New York, angling to separate himself from the thin, triangular staples of John’s of Bleecker Street and Patsy’s in Harlem.

“I just felt like, ‘Hey, let me do something totally different than this, so that way I can achieve being the best,’” Bergemann said. “I’m not in direct competition. I’m a different category, and I wanted to kind of make my own category.”

Inspired by his time working at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Portland, Oregon, Bergemann crafted a pizza that looks Sicilian — but thinner, lighter and airier. The dough is so hydrated that Bergemann couldn’t hand-toss it even if he wanted to, its needs to be baked in a pan. But all that water yields a shockingly delicate and crispy pie.

While doughy Detroit-style pies overloaded with toppings are more popular than ever, Bergemann is baking his own trail. Thoughtful toppings and a flavorful, airy crust set Corner Slice apart from just about every pie being made in his home state.

Corner Slice’s relatively sparse menu features nine different pies — currently only offered by the slice, but whole pies are coming soon. The upside down slice was the most impressive of the bunch, an excellent showcase for the sweetness of the tomato sauce and the crispness of the crust. The buffalo chicken pie, packing a punch with five different dried chilies in its homemade sauce, could convert the most stringent pizza purist. The margherita pie is topped with basil oil, an homage to La Gondola Pizzeria in Ramsey, is a standout as well.

The pizza isn’t Corner Slice’s only tribute to Garden State food culture. The massive yellow sign inside the restaurant might look familiar to some New Jersey residents — it came from The Fireplace in Paramus, which closed in 2021 after 65 years as a North Jersey landmark. The bright yellow sign was listed on Facebook marketplace. After going back and forth with his business partner, David Poran, they decided they wanted the giant thing in their store.

READ MORE: The NJ.com Pizza Trail is complete. Here’s what you need to know.

“We immediately drive to my parents house, borrow my dad’s truck, get a piece of plywood to help support it and some ratchet straps,” Bergemann said. “We go pick it up from the dude, try and do it before it gets dark. We have this thing hanging out the back of the truck illegally, we’re driving like 20 miles per hour on back roads to get it back.”

What also might stand out to customers? What Bergemann calls his pizza. Because despite being a New Jersey native serving west of the Hudson River, the top of the menu describes the pizza as ... “New York square pies.”

New Jerseyans might scoff at it. Heck, even as I was enjoying the food, I bristled a bit. But while Bergemann’s pizza journey has landed him in New Jersey, he doesn’t want to forget where it started.

“I’m really prideful of all the work we put in and having a place in Manhattan for so long, not to mention through COVID and everything,” Bergemann said. “The recipe was first developed in Brooklyn in my apartment. We had the shop in Manhattan, and I didn’t want to lose that story.”

Whatever you call it, Corner Slice’s pizza is remarkable in a state that knows a thing or two about elite pizza. And Bergemann is thrilled to be serving it here.

“In Jersey, since we’ve been out here, when we say we’re opening a pizza place, everyone’s like, ‘hell yeah!’” Bergemann said. “It’s just that passion that everybody has, I just love that. I feed on that. It’s special.”

Currently in its soft-open phase, the pizzeria is open Thursday through Monday, from 12 to 8 p.m.

Related coverage:

• New Jersey’s 101 greatest pizzas, ranked

• The NJ.com Pizza Trail is complete. Here’s what you need to know.

• New pizza festival coming to one of N.J.’s top food towns. Here’s how to get tickets.

• Inside the unlikely pizza capital of N.J., teeming with terrific pies

• The Jersey Shore’s best new pizzeria makes the state’s top white pie

Stories by Jeremy Schneider

• All 10 fast-food fish sandwiches, ranked — for Lent, of course.
• All 12 American Dream Mall restaurants, ranked worst to best, 2025 update
• I tried Taco Bell’s Crunchwrap sliders so you don’t have to. Here’s my review.

Looking for more New Jersey food coverage? Subscribe to the free Jersey Eats newsletter here!

Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com.

Jeremy Schneider may be reached at jschneider@njadvancemedia.com and followed on Twitter at @J_Schneider and on Instagram at @JeremyIsHungryAgain.