A Family Affair

All K-Staters know about the family atmosphere in Manhattan, Kansas. The football stadium is called the Bill Snyder Family Stadium and was done so because Bill Snyder views K-State as a family. Frank Martin has brought another family atmosphere to the basketball team and is seemingly beloved by the community as much as Snyder is.

So when a friend told me about a pizza place owned by Coach Martin's sister in Brooklyn, I was excited to give it a try.

Below is a picture of the outside taken with my phone.



LaylaJones is a small restaurant specializing in pizza, press, and pasta that seats between 20 and 25 people. When we entered the establishment on 214 Court Street, it was busy inside. We took the last seats and took a look at the menu. On the back of the menu there is a description of the family and we found out the place is named after the owner's kids, which I concluded are Martin's Niece and Nephew.



We have been to many pizza places around New York but immediately saw this place was different. They sold pizza by the slice and offered carry-out and delivery like the rest, but the food we saw being brought to the tables looked like a step above. We ordered 2 slices of pizza and a CalJones.

One slice was a Margherita which is fresh mozzarella, plum tomato and fresh basil. The other one was the Fresh Farmer which has fresh mushrooms, sweet onions, plum tomato and green peppers. The CalJones is their name for a calzone made out of homemade pesto, foccacia bread stuffed with ingredients and baked in the pizza oven. We chose the Chicken, Spinach and Mozzarella combination.

As we waited for our meal, the owner (Coach's brother-in-law) noticed the K-State polo I was wearing. He asked if I went to K-state and of course I said I did. We began talking K-State basketball and I was blown away by how much this fan from Brooklyn knew about the Cats! He then told me that there are several converted Cats fans in the neighborhood and they sometimes gather to watch at a local bar called Cody's Ale House.

The food arrived and the pizza truly had fresh veggies on it. Most places use canned vegetables, so we were pleasantly surprised. The CalJones was about twice the size we expected and we dug into our feast. After tasting the food, I asked for a small cup of pizza sauce for crust dipping. The employee brought me a soup-sized bowl of sauce with parmesan and basil sprinkled over the top of it. It's hard to find places that go the extra mile like this.

We thoroughly enjoyed our food and looking back, should not have been surprised that a family member of Coach Martin owns a place that brings its A game.