Where to Find the Best Pizza Near the Upper East Side

The best pizza near the Upper East Side depends entirely on what you’re actually after — a fold-and-walk slice on the way home, a pie big enough for a table of six, something that works for the vegan in your group, or delivery that arrives hot at 8pm on a Tuesday. Those are four different questions, and the neighborhood answers them differently.

This is a guide to figuring out which one you’re asking, and what to order at Two Boots on 2nd Avenue once you have.

Key takeaways

• “Best” depends on the format you need. Slice, whole pie, delivery, and group catering are different problems with different answers.
• The crust here is cornmeal-dusted. Grainy crunch on the bottom, not a standard New York street slice. It’s a deliberate difference, not an accident.
• The menu is Cajun-Italian, not Italian. Two Boots is named for the boot shapes of Italy and Louisiana, and the Louisiana half is real — crawfish, andouille, jalapeños, blackened seasoning.
• The vegan program is a parallel menu, not a token pie. Roughly eight distinct vegan builds with their own sauces, using non-dairy cheese and vegan ricotta.
• Three pie sizes: 10, 14, and 18 inch. For mixed groups, two small pies beat one large one.
• Where: 1243 2nd Avenue, near East 65th Street, open daily with later hours on Friday and Saturday.

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Start with the format, not the flavor

Most “best pizza near me” searches skip a step. Before the toppings question, there’s a structural one: how are you eating this?

What you need	The right format	Why
Something now, eaten walking	By the slice	No wait, no commitment, no negotiation with anyone else
Dinner for two at the counter	One 10-inch or two slices each	Small pie is a personal pie; it travels if you change your mind
Feeding four to six at home	One 18-inch, or two 14-inch if tastes differ	Two mediums beat one large whenever the table disagrees
A mixed group with a vegan or gluten-free eater	Slices, or two 10-inch pies	Nobody has to win the vote
Office lunch or a party	Catering	Ordered ahead, sized properly, delivered together
Delivery on a weeknight	Whole pie, ordered online	Slices travel worse than pies do

The Upper East Side has no shortage of places doing one of these well. What’s harder to find is a single menu that handles all of them without the group having to compromise.

What makes this pizza different

The crust

Cornmeal-dusted, which gives the base a grainy crunch you won’t get from a standard New York slice. People who love it really love it. People arriving expecting a classic fold sometimes need a moment.

This is worth knowing in advance rather than discovering mid-bite, particularly if someone in your group is fussy about texture. It’s not a subtle difference and it isn’t meant to be.

The Cajun half

Two Boots is named for Italy and Louisiana, and the Louisiana influence isn’t decorative. The original pie from 1987, the Bayou Beast, runs spiced shrimp, crawfish, andouille, and jalapeños. Blackened seasoning shows up across the menu. Cornmeal in the crust is itself a Southern move.

If you’ve only ever had New York pizza and Neapolitan pizza, this is a third thing.

The names

Every pie is named after someone — musicians, actors, characters, local figures. It makes the menu slower to read and considerably more fun, and the counter staff will happily explain any of them.

The pies worth knowing

The pie	What’s on it	Who it’s for
The Bayou Beast	Spiced shrimp, crawfish, andouille, jalapeños, mozzarella	The original, from 1987. Cajun and genuinely spicy
Cleopatra Jones	Sweet Italian sausage, roasted peppers, red onions, mozzarella	A sausage-and-pepper hero in pizza form. Safe and excellent
Larry Tate	Spinach, plum tomatoes, roasted garlic, ricotta, mozzarella	White pie, no heat. The one for people who don’t want surprises
The Bird	Buffalo chicken, blue cheese dressing, scallions, jalapeños	Heat, without going full Cajun
Grandma Bess	Thin square Sicilian — San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, parmigiano, mozzarella	The clean, simple one. Corner pieces disappear first
Mr. Pink	Roasted peppers, wild mushrooms, garlic, mozzarella	Vegetarian, no heat, broadly agreeable
V for Vegan	Artichokes, red onions, shiitake mushrooms, two pestos, non-dairy cheese	The vegan flagship, and a real recipe rather than a subtraction
Earth Mother	Spinach, roasted garlic, roasted peppers, wild mushrooms, red onion, marinara	Vegan, but reads as a straightforward veggie pie — the bridge order

If it’s a first visit and you want one recommendation: order the Bayou Beast to understand what the place is, and something calmer alongside it so the table has a landing spot.

The vegan menu

This deserves its own section because it changes where groups end up eating.

Most pizzerias treat vegan as subtraction — here’s the menu, minus cheese. Two Boots builds them as separate recipes. Vegan Cleo runs vegan sausage with roasted peppers and red onion. Super Vegan layers broccoli, artichokes, red onion, shiitake mushrooms, two pestos, and vegan ricotta. The VCBGB is vegan chicken, broccoli, garlic, and basil pesto.

Different sauces, different textures, different reasons to exist. If the vegan in your group has spent years choosing between one option and no option, that’s the practical difference.

Gluten-free crust is also available. If the restriction is celiac rather than preference, ask about shared prep and oven handling before ordering.

Eating on the Upper East Side specifically

The 2nd Avenue location sits near East 65th Street, which puts it in the middle of a residential stretch rather than a destination block. That shapes how it gets used: a lot of takeout, a lot of delivery, a lot of people picking up two slices on the way back from somewhere.

For a sit-down, it’s counter-service and casual — bright, loud enough, easy with kids, and not a place that requires planning. There’s no reservation to make and no dress code to think about.

Practical notes. Weekday hours run to 9pm, with later closes on Friday and Saturday. Ordering online is the better move for a complicated group order, since six slices with four modifications are easier to get right when nobody’s deciding under pressure at the counter. And catering exists for the office lunch and birthday-party version of this, which is a different conversation from walking in.

How to order for a group without the negotiation

Order by the slice when tastes diverge. Four people, four different things, everyone eats at the same time. This is the single most useful move at a mixed table and people consistently skip it.

Two 10-inch pies beat one 18-inch whenever the group has a vegan, a heat-averse eater, or a kid. The instinct is to order one big pie and let people pick around it. In practice that means someone eats crust.

Garlic knots first. They hit the table before anything else and end the ordering conversation.

Say the word “spicy” out loud. Heat is marked on the menu, but it’s easier to ask than to scan — several pies carry real heat, and the Bayou Beast is not a bluff.

Order from 2nd Avenue

Two Boots Upper East Side is at 1243 2nd Avenue, near East 65th Street. Slices and pies in three sizes, a full vegan menu, gluten-free crust, dine-in, takeout, delivery, and catering.

Order online for a group with a complicated list, walk in if it’s two or three of you, or call (646) 837-6015 if you’re feeding a crowd and want it ready when you arrive.

Frequently asked questions