Ask ten people what “specialty pizza” means and you’ll hear ten versions of “the one with a lot of stuff on it.” Here’s how specialty pizza Jersey City style works at Two Boots: it’s a pie with a name, a set topping combination and a personality you can’t recreate by ticking boxes. Our shop at 133 Newark Ave in downtown JC serves the whole named lineup, from Creole chicken pies to crawfish and andouille to a deep vegan bench.
Two Boots is named for two “boots”: Italy and Louisiana. That’s why our pies swing between Italian classics and New Orleans Cajun flavors, all on a crisp cornmeal crust. Phil Hartman started Two Boots on Avenue A in the East Village in 1987, and the habit of naming pies after pop-culture icons came along for the ride.
This guide sorts the lineup by lane, gives first-timers two Creole chicken pies to start with, and matches pies to real downtown JC moments.
Key Takeaways
- At Two Boots Jersey City, a specialty pizza is one of our named pies: a fixed, signature topping combination on a crisp cornmeal crust.
- Two easy entry points are Mr. Pink and Big Maybelle, both built on Creole chicken, one red and one white.
- The lineup covers Cajun-Italian, Italian classics, white pies, veggie and a vegan bench made with Daiya non-dairy cheese.
- For groups, mix a few named pies with garlic knots, sliders and a salad, then use the Jersey City catering page.
Check Out Our Menu!
What Counts as a Specialty Pizza at Two Boots?
Our menu doesn’t actually use the word “specialty.” It sorts pies into Veggie, Meat and Vegan. When we say specialty pizza, we mean our named pies: everything that isn’t a plain cheese or a Create Your Pizza build.
- Plain cheese is the baseline. Sauce, cheese, cornmeal crust.
- Create Your Pizza starts from a cheese pizza base and lets you add toppings. You’re the chef.
- A named pie is a combination somebody already thought through. Mr. Pink isn’t “chicken plus garlic.” It’s Creole chicken, plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and mozzarella, in that balance, every time.
Three things set our named pies apart from a generic “deluxe”:
- The Cajun-Italian mash-up. Crawfish, andouille, tasso ham and Creole chicken share a menu with sopressata, San Marzano tomatoes and basil pesto.
- The cornmeal crust. It’s crisp, with a signature texture that holds up under heavier toppings.
- The names. You might recognize a few of the pop-culture icons. We’ll leave the guessing to you.
Specialty Pizza Jersey City: Start in the Creole Chicken Lane
If you’ve never ordered a named pie from us, start with Creole chicken. It’s the most Louisiana thing you can put on a slice without going all the way to crawfish, and two of our pies use it as the anchor. One is red, one is white. Order both and you’ve got a side-by-side tasting.
Mr. Pink is the red one: Creole chicken, plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and mozzarella. Think classic tomato pie with a seasoned edge. Film fans may recognize the name from a certain heist movie full of color-coded aliases, and that’s as far as we’ll take it.
Big Maybelle is the white one: Creole chicken, Zoe’s all-natural pepperoni and fresh garlic on a white pie. No tomato sauce, so the chicken and pepperoni do the talking.
Once those two click, the rest of the chicken-and-meat side opens up.
| Pie | What’s on it | Pick it if… |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Pink | Creole chicken, plum tomatoes, fresh garlic & mozzarella | You want a red pie with a Louisiana accent |
| Big Maybelle | Creole chicken, Zoe’s all-natural pepperoni & fresh garlic on a white pie | You like white pies and want chicken and pepperoni together |
| Meat the Mets (Spicy) | Sweet Italian sausage, Creole chicken, Zoe’s all-natural pepperoni, jalapeños, ricotta & mozzarella | You want Creole chicken plus everything else |
| The CBGB | Chicken, broccoli, garlic & basil pesto | You want chicken with a green, pesto-forward profile |
| The Bird (Spicy) | Buffalo chicken, blue cheese dressing, scallions & jalapeños on a white pie | Wings are your love language |
| The Bayou Beast (Spicy) | Spiced shrimp, crawfish, andouille, jalapeños & mozzarella | You’re ready for the full Cajun lane |
| The Dude | Ground beef & andouille, tasso ham, cheddar & mozzarella | You want “our Cajun bacon cheeseburger pie” |
The Bayou Beast is one of the two foundation pies from the original Two Boots restaurant and a favorite of founder Phil Hartman. If Mr. Pink is your on-ramp, that’s where the Cajun lane leads.
The Rest of the Lineup, Lane by Lane
Italian classics
Cleopatra Jones brings sweet Italian sausage, roasted peppers, red onions and mozzarella. The Newman is sopressata and sweet Italian sausage on a white pie, and Super Newman stacks capicola, sopressata, sweet Italian sausage, ricotta and mozzarella. The Divine (marked spicy) pairs capicola with red onions, jalapeños and mozzarella. On the veggie side, Grandma Bess is organic San Marzano tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, basil, Parmigiano and mozzarella on a thin, square Sicilian crust.
White pies, red pies and top-sauce
A white pie skips the tomato sauce base, which changes how every topping tastes. Our white-pie bench:
- The Meg, “our very white pie”: provolone, parmigiano, ricotta, mozzarella, roasted garlic and oregano.
- Larry Tate: organic fresh spinach, plum tomatoes and fresh garlic.
- Mel Cooley: sun-dried tomatoes, roasted peppers and basil pesto.
- Night Tripper (marked spicy): sun-dried tomatoes, roasted garlic and jalapeño pesto.
- Plus Big Maybelle, The Newman and The Bird from the meat side.
The Buckminster is a top-sauce pie: marinara over organic spinach, roasted garlic, parmigiano, provolone and mozzarella. Sauce on top gives you a different bite from a standard red pie.
Veggie
Tony Clifton layers wild mushrooms, vidalia onions, sweet red pepper pesto and mozzarella. Emily Litella is breaded eggplant, sweet red pepper pesto, ricotta and mozzarella. Animal Collective takes spinach and artichoke dip, a dash of cayenne, scallions and mozzarella, and turns a party dip into a pie.
Vegan Specialty Pizza in Jersey City
If someone in your crew eats plant-based, our vegan lineup isn’t an afterthought. These are named pies in their own right, mostly built with Daiya non-dairy cheese. Vegan Mr. Pink swaps in vegan chicken with plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and Daiya, so the Creole chicken lane has a plant-based door too.
- V for Vegan: artichokes, red onions and wild mushrooms with a criss-cross of sweet red pepper pesto and basil pesto, plus Daiya.
- Earth Mother: organic fresh spinach, roasted garlic, roasted peppers, wild mushrooms, red onion and marinara, with no cheese.
- The VCBGB: vegan chicken, broccoli, garlic and basil pesto, Daiya.
- Vegan Cleo: vegan sausage, roasted peppers, red onion, Daiya.
- Super Vegan: broccoli, artichokes, red onions, shiitake mushrooms, basil pesto, sweet red pepper pesto, Daiya and vegan ricotta.
- Vegan Tony Clifton and Vegan Larry Tate round it out.
Add the Vegan Calzone (Daiya, vegan ricotta, marinara) and a vegan House Salad for a full plant-based spread.
Downtown JC Pie Map: Newark Ave, Grove Street and Liberty State Park
Our shop at 133 Newark Ave sits in the middle of downtown Jersey City, which puts us in the path of a few very different crowds.
The Grove Street PATH crowd. Downtown JC runs on the PATH. People come up out of Grove Street heading home from Manhattan, hungry and done making decisions. That’s a Mr. Pink moment: familiar, but seasoned enough to feel like a treat. Order Online from the location page while you’re still on the train.
The Newark Ave pedestrian stretch. The car-free blocks of Newark Ave fill up with people strolling and meeting friends. Slices and garlic knots make sense here, and a white pie like Big Maybelle or The Meg is easy to split three ways.
Liberty State Park family days. Families heading to Liberty State Park or Liberty Science Center want food that works for kids and adults at once. Grandma Bess keeps it simple, Pizza Face (small only) is our kid-friendly face pie, and a Bayou Beast keeps the grown-ups interested.
Journal Square and beyond. Folks coming downtown from Journal Square tend to make a proper trip of it, which is the right time to try a pie you’ve never had.
| Jersey City occasion | Specialty pick | Add-on |
|---|---|---|
| Coming home through Grove Street PATH | Mr. Pink | Garlic Knots (3) |
| Splitting slices on the Newark Ave stretch | Big Maybelle | Cajun Ranch dipper |
| Liberty Science Center family day | Grandma Bess + Pizza Face | House-baked chocolate chip cookie |
| Plant-based roommates’ dinner | Vegan Mr. Pink + V for Vegan | Vegan House Salad |
| Game night in a downtown apartment | Meat the Mets | Hot Knots (3) |
| A Journal Square crew trying something new | The Bayou Beast + The Dude | Blue Cheese dipper |
These are starting points, not rules. Plenty of people order Earth Mother after a park day and The Dude on a Tuesday.
Ordering Specialty Pies for a Group in Jersey City
Downtown JC is full of shared apartments, small offices and friend groups that never agree on toppings. Named pies fix that, because each one is a complete idea. A formula that works for most groups:
- One Creole chicken pie (Mr. Pink or Big Maybelle) as the crowd-pleaser.
- One white pie (The Meg, Larry Tate or Mel Cooley) for people who want less sauce.
- One vegan pie (V for Vegan, Super Vegan or Vegan Cleo), so nobody’s eating only salad.
- One wild card from the Cajun lane, like The Bayou Beast or The Dude.
Fill in around the pies. Garlic Knots come in threes with butter, parsley, garlic, Parmigiano and marinara; Hot Knots (marked spicy) are doused in jalapeño pesto. Sliders on house-made garlic knots come as Chicken Parm, Meatball Parm (andouille meatballs) and Eggplant Parm. Add a Caesar or House Salad, a few dippers and a Gluten-Free Brownie or cookies.
For anything bigger than dinner for four, start at the Two Boots Jersey City catering page. For more on how the menu fits together, see our earlier post on how the Two Boots menu is built to stand out.
How to Order Your First Specialty Pie
Go named. Pick a pie above and trust the combination. It’s the fastest way to find out what Two Boots is about.
Go Create Your Pizza. Already know what you want? Start from the cheese base and add toppings.
Go by the slice. Walking down Newark Ave and can’t commit? A slice is the low-risk test before a whole pie next time.
To order ahead, use the Order Online button on the Two Boots Jersey City location page. Pies come in 10″, 14″ and 18″ sizes, so you can size up for a crowd.
Conclusion
Specialty pizza doesn’t have to mean “the one with everything.” At Two Boots, it means a pie with a name and a point of view: Creole chicken on Mr. Pink, pepperoni and garlic on a white Big Maybelle, crawfish and andouille on The Bayou Beast, or a criss-cross of pestos on V for Vegan. Italy and Louisiana on one cornmeal crust, served on Newark Ave.
Start with the Creole chicken lane, branch out, and bring friends so you can try more than one. When you’re ready, head to the Two Boots Jersey City page and hit Order Online.
FAQs
What is a specialty pizza at Two Boots Jersey City?
It’s one of our named pies: a pie with a set, signature topping combination, like Mr. Pink or The Bayou Beast. “Specialty” isn’t a label on our menu, which sorts pies into Veggie, Meat and Vegan. We use it for anything that isn’t a plain cheese or a Create Your Pizza build.
Which specialty pies use Creole chicken?
Mr. Pink (Creole chicken, plum tomatoes, fresh garlic and mozzarella), Big Maybelle (Creole chicken, Zoe’s all-natural pepperoni and fresh garlic on a white pie) and Meat the Mets, which adds Creole chicken to sausage, pepperoni, jalapeños, ricotta and mozzarella. Vegan Mr. Pink uses vegan chicken instead.
Are there vegan specialty pizzas in Jersey City?
Yes. The vegan lineup includes V for Vegan, Earth Mother, The VCBGB, Vegan Cleo, Super Vegan, Vegan Tony Clifton, Vegan Larry Tate and Vegan Mr. Pink. Most use Daiya non-dairy cheese, and Earth Mother has no cheese at all.
Which specialty pies are marked spicy?
The Bayou Beast, The Bird, The Divine, Meat the Mets and Night Tripper are marked spicy on the menu, as are Hot Knots and the Jalapeño Pesto dipper. For flavor without jalapeños, Mr. Pink and Big Maybelle are a good place to start.
Can I order specialty pies for catering in Jersey City?
Yes. Mixing a few named pies with garlic knots, sliders and salads works well for offices and parties. Start at the Two Boots Jersey City catering page to plan a larger order.
How do I order a specialty pizza online from Two Boots Jersey City?
Go to the Two Boots Jersey City location page and use the Order Online button. You can browse the full menu first at twoboots.com/menu to pick your named pies.
