THIS IS QUEENSBOROUGH | RESTAURANT SPOTLIGHTS
Dee’s Wood Fired Pizza & Kitchen By: Robert Intelisano
One of the reasons I decided to take on the challenge of my “A Slice of Queens” monthly column is because Queens pizza rarely, if ever, makes the list of “The Best Pizza in New York City.” It irks me that Staten Island pizza is mentioned more often than Queens pizza. I have sampled pizza all around the world from Naples—where it originated—to Sydney, Australia, London, and Bogota, Colombia. This column gets the word out. Queens Pizza can compete with pizza from anywhere. Dee’s Wood Fired Pizza & Kitchen is a prime example of this. Dee’s pizza has been serving Forest Hills proudly since 1993. I would describe Dee’s as an Italian Restaurant with an American twist. The irony for me is that I have eaten there many times and had never tried their pizza. The idea of my Dee’s review was launched back in early March of this year at the Queens Center for Progress “food night” event held at Terrace on the Park. As soon as I entered, I made a beeline to the Aigner Chocolates (my favorite) booth and decided to have dessert first. The owners of Aigner are friends and clients, Mark Libertini and Rachel Kellner. Mark’s background is as a pastry chef, and he knows and appreciates good food. I mentioned this column to him, and he said, “Wait until my wife Rachel gets here, she can introduce you, she is best friends with Dee’s wife Eileen.”
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Just a few blocks down from Dee’s on Metropolitan Avenue, Mark and Rachel (who has a social worker background) took over Aigner Chocolates from the Aigner family in 2015. This is when Rachel and Eileen struck up a friendship. Together, they have given back to the community as the co-founders of Metro Village of Forest Hills. This organization, founded in 2020, organized a successful “Community Day,” closing off six blocks of Metropolitan Avenue, with 30 local businesses participating. They are also responsible for the beautiful holiday lights on Metropolitan Avenue. Growing up in Forest Hills, Dee Arabian has been in the restaurant industry since he was a 14-year-old boy. He learned every aspect of the restaurant industry from working at his family’s Greek-Armenian restaurant. He worked his way up from busboy to waiter to bartender to manager. Restaurants are in his blood, as both of his grandfathers owned restaurants; one opened a pizzeria across from Bloomingdales, and the other was the chef at a prominent restaurant in Athens, Greece.
AUGUST 2022
Dee reminisced about a restaurant he used to visit in Montreal called “Pizza Mella.” That experience inspired him to open a restaurant in Forest Hills. He wanted Dee’s to be casual and to focus on pizza. French cuisine continued to influence him through his culinary training at The French Culinary Institute in SoHo. There, he trained under three of the most renowned chefs of the time: Jacques Pepin, Andre Soltner of Lutece, and Alain Sailhac of Le Cirque. I could feel Dee’s passion for pizza when we spoke. He said, “pizza is like a canvas with endless options. It’s exciting!” Most pizzerias “dust the bench”—which is an industry term for dusting the bottom surface with flour. The reason for this is so the crust doesn’t stick to the peel, also known as the paddle. It also adds a little char to the bottom of the crust as it burns. When I asked Dee how his pizza is different, he said, “we dust the bench with semolina which helps the dough’s crispiness and creates air pockets and airflow which causes heat bubbles.” Semolina is like grainy sand and is a healthier alternative to flour. If you CONTINUED ON PG. 30
