PIZZA WARS

I think it's safe to say that virtually nobody reading this blog profited from the subprime mortgage fiasco of a few years ago.  But like with every storm cloud...there was a silver lining. And that came in the form of the dollar slice! Yup! A slice of pizza used to cost $2.50 when the economy was artificially pumped. And then suddenly...voila! The birth (or rebirth) of the dollar slice. 

First, it began with Two Brothers on St. Marks. And then they opened a second location next to Port Authority. From there it was a foregone conclusion. I'll bet there must be 20 Two Brothers locations in Manhattan. And not only that...seemingly everybody who can sling some dough's got a dollar pizza joint as well!

So I'm walking up First Avenue to the Associated Supermarket at 14th Street when I see that Two Brothers is opening yet another storefront right next to Vincenzo's (an established neighborhood Italian pizza joint) on First Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets. Plus...there's already a new indy across the street selling dollar slices as well and...yet another franchise between 12th and 13 with the discount price! I kid you not! There are 4 dollar pizza joints on First Avenue between 12th and 14th Streets! Plus...there's another on 14th Street between First and Avenue A...not to mention the expensive joint (more than a dollar) at 14th and First. And what I want to know is how the fuck can all of these guys make a living selling dollar slices?

Kind of makes you wish that all the incalls in Manhattan would bunch together on one block and offer hundred dollar hours in response to the country's economic woes. But then again...if the stock market is back at 14,000, maybe we don't have any economic woes. Or conversely, maybe it's just the old hustle all puffed up and ready to burst, poised to plummet all the stocksteins back to 6500 as it did a few years ago! Only time will tell on that front. But if there's one thing you can bet on, it's that all those cheap pizza joints will not survive! Like how much pizza can New York eat before the proctology crew gets overwhelmed with hemorrhoid patients?

Me? I've stopped eating pizza. Those dollar Chinatown dumplings are tastier...not to mention the buck and a quarter felafels at Cheep's on Second Avenue and 8th Street! New York might be an expensive town if you do it hoity toity! But let me tell ya! You can eat pretty good for a buck in the Big Apple. Take it from one who knows.