Tommy's Pizza and Pasta — Restaurant in Rincon

Will start by saying I am a Brooklyn girl who moved to Dixie in 2006, and have struggled to find decent pizza ever since. We have had, up until now, ONE good pizzeria, and it is an hour drive each way for me. So, getting a good, authentic NYC style pizza place so close to home is absolutely AMAZING! I was skeptical, of course, because in 18 years, we have only had that ONE good place, despite plenty of people telling us about this or that pizzeria that tastes “just like NY!” 🤣 They never do.

I called our order in over the phone, and the person who helped me was great. He repeated everything back to me to make sure the order was correct. Additionally, he let me know it was busy, and it would take about an hour for our order to be ready (which I greatly appreciated! My husband does not enjoy waiting in long lines or crowds, so it was very helpful to know what time he should leave to drive over.)

We ordered two large pies: one plain, one with pepperoni (that one was for hubby. I’m a purist when it comes to pizza. A good pizza needs no additional toppings!) We also ordered two cannoli and two stuffed zeppole.

Hubby LOVED the pepperoni pizza! He said it was delicious, the texture of the crust was exactly right, and the pepperoni was way better than any other pizza place we’ve tried.

The plain pizza tasted great. The only “negative” was that it was a little overdone - likely stayed in the oven just a bit too long (which happens, I understand.) The sauce is excellent - a bit sweeter than what we’ve gotten used to from NYCP, but definitely more like our favorite pizzeria back home. The crust was a little too crunchy, and I couldn’t fold my slice without it breaking. The cheese, while tasty, was probably over-melted, because it seemed like there wasn’t enough. I honestly think if it had come out of the oven just a few minutes earlier, it would have been perfect! Hibby said his pepperoni pie was not like that, at all, and agreed that his probably came out of the oven first.

The cannoli - OH. EM. GEEEEE! THE CANNOLI!!!! Absolutely delicious! The BEST we have had down here, EVER!

The stuffed zeppole: I must have misunderstood the person who took my order. I thought he said there was one zeppole per order, so I ordered two. We got a total of SIX - three in each container! These are good. A little bit too doughy, but still better than anything similar we’ve had down here, so I’m not complaining. We’ve got dessert for a few days! The cannoli cream filling is REALLY good! I’m impressed!

Hubby said the place looks just like any neighborhood pizza joint back home in Brooklyn (except he said there’s not a lot of counter space.) He said Tommy was very busy, just making pizza after pizza after pizza. We hope he gets a chance at some point to train some of his employees in the art of pizza-making so he can eventually get a break!

All in all, we are VERY HAPPY customers, and will DEFINITELY be ordering again soon. It’s a dream come true for us to have real, authentic NYC style pizza so close to home now, after almost 18 years of living here! Thank you, Tommy Crinigan, for bringing a little bit of Brooklyn to Rincon!

PS: in regards to some of the chatter we’ve read about language and attitude, we have this to say, FWIW: Everyone was SO EXCITED to be getting an authentic NYC style pizzeria here in Effingham. I have been reading allllllllllll the posts over the past several months, and everyone was thrilled about it and quite eager for Tommy’s to open. Now I’m seeing some whiney complaints about “hE cUrSeS tOo MuCh,” “hE yElLs ToO mUcH,” and “hE dOeSn’T sMiLe At HiS cUsToMeRs!” Well, you know what? You wanted an AUTHENTIC NYC pizza joint - those are filled with colorful language, lots of loud yelling, and plenty of attitude - we got what we asked for and I am HERE FOR IT!

Congratulations, Tommy’s Pizza and Pasta in Rincon Ga on what I am confident will continue to be a BIG HIT! We can’t wait to try some more...

Honest opinion from someone who grew up in Jersey and moved to NY for most of my adult life. This may ruffle feathers but it will be honest.

We were very excited to try Tommy Crinigan’s pizzeria. This will be from the time we pulled up to the time we finished eating so a full review

We knew there would be a wait given the hype and the fact Rincon has no decent food establishments. We arrived at 5:30 pm and we placed our order at 5:48pm. Let the wait begin. While waiting we noticed they were sporadically taking calls which is fine, except you made it clear you weren’t going to do that due to the walk in volume. Then, insult to injury, those lucky enough to get through to place a phone order were then prioritized and bumped to the front of the line. Not a good practice. We anticipated 35 minutes give or take because again, we are from NY (downstate not upstate). We’ve experienced our share of busy, new, good, bad, etc. pizzerias. 35 minutes came and went. 45 minutes. An hour. Still nothing. Finally 7:07pm, 1 hour and 19 minutes after we ordered, we got our dinner.

We ordered a Brooklyn pie, a medium cheese pie, 1 order of garlic knots that they ran out of day one as they are not freshly made apparently so we didnt get those, stuffed zeppoles, 1 slice of cheesecake, 1 order of tiramisu. The total came to $65.25 which, given the current cost of everything and inflation and such, isn’t terrible so no complaints on price. The 79 minute wait for a relatively simple order, is not even in the realm of acceptable for a pizzeria. Big problem there. There is lots of confusion and disorganization in the process. If you pay cash, they write your name on the ticket. If you pay card, there is a number on the ticket. The problem is when your order is ready, they are only calling numbers. We paid cash and had no number on the ticket. Our order could have been ready for a while and had we not asked we would have never known. Simplify the process, give every ticket the same identifier whether it be name or number but pick one. There is also lack of communication in the different areas of the kitchen. The ticket goes to the pizza maker. Thats it. It stays there. If you ordered anything other than pizza, the kitchen has no idea. This leads to further delays in completing orders.

Now to the food. The regular, ratio of sauce to cheese to crust is on par with any good shop. The sauce is great, slightly sweet, not over acidic. The cheese is good. The dough is where it all goes downhill. I’m not a dough aficionado but something is wrong in the process here it is very tough and hard to chew. It lacks the crispness and crunchiness of a good slice. It takes what could be a good slice and ruins it. Both the Brooklyn and the regular pie had the same issue.

The stuffed zeppoles. I wanted to love these so much as I love zeppoles and cannolis. Again, the dough kills it. They are very tough, possibly overcooked here. The filling is good, not great, maybe if the dough was better it would be better all around.

The cheesecake was more for my wife as I’m not a huge cheesecake fan but she is. It is a good cheesecake but has an odd aftertaste we couldn’t place. Not the best not the worst.

The tiramisu, now this was delicious start to finish. The coffee wasn’t an overpowering flavor. The mascarpone wasn’t overly sweet. The cocoa powder wasn’t overpowering. Just right on the ratios. Great job here.

Overall, as it sits, we would not return for a while as there are too many issues to be worked out. Maybe after some time and he can iron out some of these fairly large issues, we can try again. It is sad because we were excited to have a NY pizzeria here. Tommy, I truly wish you success and hope you get all the kinks ironed out. There is serious potential for you to...

Another Honest review from someone who grew up in the Pizza Belt of the North.

This is by far the closest thing to "real" NY style Pizza in the area.

Tommy is onto a good thing here.

Expect a lot of chaos. Mostly due to growing pains and what I am sure is the unexpected deluge of customers. All of which I am ok with knowing how people are with new restaurants around here.

I have heard about Tommy being rude, it was chaos when we were there and his credit card machine wasn't working. I thought he handled himself pretty well. But, I also am used to the Northern corner personalities.

I got a Pepperoni Pie and one of the Buffalo Chicken pies. Both tasted like a proper NY pie. The Pepperoni could have used more sauce though. I did find the crusts to be a bit dry. Maybe it was the batch, time will tell. Nothing that would keep me from returning (and I will). Sadly, he didn't have any Sicilian ready I was and still am, looking forward to trying it.

As a Whole, I look forward to returning, but don't expect him to be there long. He is going to need a larger place soon!

Southerners...

This is what REAL Pizza is...