I Love NY Pizza
Knoxville Restaurant Review

Though it's been open for two years, I just found I Love NY Pizza - 6518 Chapman Highway, Knoxville, TN 37920, (865) 577-9191 - a few weeks ago through my good friend Brad. Here's a Knoxville Restaurant Review of my experience there.

As mentioned above, the first time I went to I Love NY Pizza, which is located in the old Wal-Mart shopping center on Chapman Highway in South Knoxville, it was with my good friend Brad. He told me it was some of the best pizza and Italian food he had had in Knoxville.

Being a huge (and - as pizza fans tend to do - getting huger) pizza fan myself, I was excited about trying it out.

The first thing that I noticed when we walked in was the New York graffiti decor.

Proprietor Ted Cioffi, who hails from New York, San Francisco and Atlanta, lets people make their own graffiti on the walls with magic markers while they enjoy their meal. And the walls are sprayed painted with graffiti - as well as some of the the ceiling tiles.

The decor, combined with a display advertising iced-down beer by the bucket, immediately assured me that at least my vision and appreciation for beer would be entertained. And the smell of fresh pizza made with good ingredients gave me hope for the food.

My wife and I ordered our regular favorite pizza: onions and mushrooms. Brad ordered an Italian meatball dish.

The food took a while to get to us, but when it did, it was fantastic. The pizza crust at I love NY Pizza is hand tossed, and very good. The ingredients are fresh and amply piled on the pizza.



Brad's meatball dish looked amazing, and he said everything he's had there is excellent.

We just returned again this weekend, and this time we had the Manhattan Special pizza, which again was very good.

All in all, this is a great place to get New York style pizza.

That said, there's more to this review than just great food.

In between our two trips to I Love NY Pizza, I had a conversation with Ted Cioffi about his business, and what brought him to Knoxville. I asked him what brought him to Knoxville, to which he replied: the low cost and quality of living, and the up and coming future of Knoxville.

That made my ears perk up big-time.

Would you elaborate on that last part? I asked.

"Sure," said Coiffi, "I grew up in New York, moved out to San Francisco to race motorbikes and was a chef out there. Then I moved to Atlanta before the Olympics, because I thought that area would boom when the Olympics got there.

"That proved to be absolutely true. It was an international opportunity for the city, and it made Atlanta really change and grow.

"After a while, I started looking around for the next big boom town. I did my research, and I found that Knoxville is a very up and coming area. Companies are moving here. It has a low cost of living, no state income tax, and 3 of the largest interstates in the country converge on it. I said to myself, 'Knoxville is going to be the next big town in the South.'

"The food I make for I Love NY Pizza is really simple. But that doesn't mean it's easy to do. No one else was doing it right here, and there's always a market for good New York food, so I chose the I Love NY Pizza theme."

I asked Coiffi if he had any plans for expansion.

"The trouble there is finding somebody who can do what I'm doing, who will be reliable. I'm definitely looking for more good people."

So there you have it. If you're interested in learning how to make New York pizza very well, and getting involved with what I would guess could be a very profitable restaurant business in Knoxville, here's an opportunity.

And if you're just looking for great pizza and Italian food, look no further than I Love NY Pizza.