Welcome to the New East Village Ops

A pizzeria straight from Bushwick offers some added attractions

Behold the Hawaiian tavernetta, Ops’ greatest contribution to East Village pizza.

Ops opened its pizzeria in Bushwick back in 2016, when the craze for small wood-oven pies in the Neapolitan style using sourdough and imported ingredients was ramping up. The place was almost comically small, the attention to detail on the part of the staff enormous, and the price far in excess of your usual neighborhood pie. The place developed a fanatic following and its own quirky repertoire of pies, sometimes with unusual toppings, of which the one I liked best was paved with sweet red peppers, then smothered in slices of mortadella.

Now, long after we had ceased to expect it, Ops has opened a branch at 176 Second Avenue in the East Village — which may be considered the pizza capital of NYC, boasting every kind of pizza imaginable, including outliers like Joe & Pat’s (Staten Island pizza), Potenza Centrale (Roman pinza), Stoned Pizza (cannabis-laced pies), and Onion Tree (Indian toppings). Even in this variegated context, the East Village Ops distinguishes itself.