A month before they opened, Tara Googled around until she found a cooking school on Staten Island called Goodfellas. It had to be New York-style pizza, Tara explained. “Sasha is a bit of a pizza snob, being from Manhattan.” They took an intensive week-long course where they learned to replicate the all- important thin, crispy crust.
Tara used her fine-dining savvy to create pies that are equal parts inventive and cheeky, but entirely delicious. A large banner menu hangs jauntily over the side of the boat. Among the offerings:
• Sweet Home Indiana (sausage, corn, white sauce and arugula)
• The Blumin Onion (made with lemon aoli instead of tomato sauce, leeks, radicchio, blue cheese and honey)
• Rasta Mon (red curry coconut sauce, flaked coconut, snap peas, red bells peppers, and fresh mango)
• The Dali Lama, a fan favorite that offers all the available ingredients (“Make me one with everything.”)
Fresh ingredients like local Caribbean lobster can also be added—and bartered. One day a customer arrived holding a 7-pound lobster she’d caught earlier in the day. “Can I just trade this for a pizza?” she’d asked.
“It’s not your typical form of payment, but it works!” Tara laughed.
The boat is anchored off the east end of St. Thomas in Christmas Cove, next to Great St. James Island. (Also nearby is Little St. James, the private island owned by billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein.) It’s an ideal location to snag boats from St. John and St. Thomas that are passing through to do daytime snorkeling trips, as well as long-term charters. You can also order your pizza on your boat’s hand radio, call it in via cell, or even email it. Then you can either pick up the pizza in your dinghy, or Pi will deliver to you if you’re anchored in Christmas Cove.
Their biggest concern when opening the floating pizzeria was not distracting from the nature of the bay.