Hempstead was first settled in the mid-17th century by British and Dutch colonists from Connecticut. The township grew slowly during the following few decades and it wasn't until the implementation of road and rail connections that it became a sizable place to be reckoned with. As the years passed, New York became a city with a serious housing shortage. People bagan looking for new places to live and they chose many of the villages around Hempstead. As Hempstead's boundaries expanded during the late 19th and early 20th century, the town incorporated more of the outerlying locations around it until it included a grand total of thirty-eight hamlets and twenty-two villages. Hempstead being a widespread community didn't stop a few Italian families uprooting from New York to move there, open restaurants and start serving the neighborhoods pizza.

Hempstead in New York is known for Traditional Italian pizza

With Hempstead being so close to New York you might expect this town to be known for New York-style pizza, but it isn't. Hempstead is known for traditional Italian pizzas and the main three types they serve in the Hempstead pizzerias are old world thick and thin crust and Sicilian-style. Thick, thin and Sicilian-style pizzas all originate from Italy although they do come from different parts of the country. Thick crust pizzas are prepared across most of the regions of Italy while thin crust is the preferred pie around Naples and Rome and the spongy-based Sicilian-style pizza the favorite on the island of Sicily.

Best Delivery Pizza in Hempstead, New York

To get the best delivery pizza in Hempstead and one that suits your snacking mood, you need to order from a pizzeria with a decent selection of pies on their menu. On pizzeria in Hempstead that has plenty of different pizzas to offer is the Hempstead Pizzeria The Hempstead Pizzeria has a premises on Fulton Avenue which is sandwiched between a few other stores. It's not a huge pizza joint by any means, but fit for purpose and with a kitchen built to take the strain of plenty of incoming pizza orders. Great pies from here are the KC Special, theHempstead Special and the Chicken Parm.

Best Takeout Pizza in Hempstead, New York

After spending the morning browsing the diverse exhibits at the Hofstra University Museum of Art, you may well be thinking of getting a take-out pizza for lunch. Luckily for you, you're less than ten minutes walk from where you can get the best take-out pizza in Hempstead and that's from Campus Pizza and Gyro on Fulton Avenue. Campus Pizza and Gyro occupies a premises where orange is undoubtedly the color of the day as far as the exterior and interior goes. It's bright, cheerful and slightly eye-boggling, but you'll quickly forgive them their choice of tone when you see the pizza you get to take-out. If you're extra hungry, Campus's double dough stuffed pizzas go down a treat.

Best Pizza near Hempstead, New York

Bethpage

Getting to Bethpage from Hempstead doesn't take long as there's less than ten miles between the two. There's no shortage of things to do when you get there either. The best place to head for first is the Bethpage State Park especially if you're a fan of golf. The park has five world-class golf courses and often hosts major competitions. If you're not into chasing a small white wall around the greens, there's some great hiking and biking trails as well as plenty of tennis courts to get some exercise on. If you like cycling then you'll probably make the Bethpage Bikeway a priority and make the most of the fifteen miles of paved trail. For a couple of hours of fun before going for a pizza at the Villa Maria Pizzeria on North Wantagh Avenue, the Adventureland amusement park is excellent.

Bayville

Everyone deserves some beach time sometime and if you think it's about time you had your turn, head to Bayville. Bayville is around twenty miles north of Hempstead and right on the coast of Long Island Sound's Oyster Bay. Bayville has a great beach no matter what the weather and often isn't too crowded. If the weather doesn't happen to be as good as you'd hoped, the Bayville Adventure Park is a super alternative. At the park you can play wild water balloon wars, test your nerves with some indoor rock climbing, participate in a crab race or go on a treasure hunt. It doesn't matter how old you are, they're all good fun and will keep you entertained until you go to Ralph's Pizza on Bayville Avenue for a pie.

Brooklyn

If you want to get some amazing photos for your Instagram account but don't want to spend a great deal of money, head for Brooklyn. It's just twenty miles west of Hempstead, but expect the drive to take an hour or more depending on the traffic conditions. Once you're there, make the Brooklyn Bridge Park your first stopping point and you'll get snaps of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty. You can get some fantastic skyline shots if you go to the Empire Fulton Ferry park and some fun ones if you take a ride on Jane's Carousel. You'll get some even more impressive photos if you take a stroll down the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, which is right by the river, as well as a very decent pizza nearby at the Fascati Pizzeria on Henry Street.