Dollar Pizza

I'm a native NY'er and because of that, there are certain things I will not do. I've never been to the Statue of Liberty, I've never yelled "taxi" and expected to get a cab, I've never stood around like a happy jackass at Times Square on New Year's Eve waiting for a ball to drop, I avoid the St. Patrick's Day, West Indian and Puerto Rican Day parades like they're made out of AIDS and bedbugs and above all: I refuse to eat sub par pizza.

Good pizza is a NYC birthright. We might not have the best weather, the cleanest city, the nicest people, the most living space or even a reasonable cost of living, but we make up for it in sheer pizza awesomeness. In fact NY pizza has never been so good. DiFara, Paulie Gee, Totonno's, Motorino, Roberta's and Keste elevated pizza making to an art form, and that's just the really special stuff. Our run of the mill-fold it in half, Tony Manero old school NY style pizza is levels above what people in other states have in their best spot. As a vegetarian (99.2% of the time) I take pizza very seriously; it's one of the few uber delicious foods without dead animal as a main ingredient.

Because I'm starting a food business with my partner (Kebapolis) I've made it my business to check out what other kebab slingers and street food sellers were doing. What I noticed most is what they weren't doing, and that was selling food. Falafel joints were empty, but there was a Soviet bread line at every dollar pizza place. I never paid attention to dollar pizza before. I figured that it was for crackheads, bums, people who didn't know any better and tourists. Traditional NY pizza is the price of a ride on the subway; if it's more it better be special and if it's less: it's not for me.

Yesterday I was walking on St. Mark's to check out the Kebab/Falafel trifecta of Mamoun's, Tahini and Cheeps to see what kind of traffic they were getting and to grab an eggplant sandwich. A few yoga mat carrying penny pinchers from Yoga For The People were at Mamoun's, Tahini was empty and the usual freaks that populate Cheeps were out in force. Again, I noticed that both dollar pizzerias (only 2 storefronts separate them) had lines out the door like they were giving away something for free. Against everything I hold dear, I got on the line.

The first thing I noticed was no one was making pizza and I didn't even see a pizza oven anywhere in site. There were rotating warming ovens filled with slices spinning around and guys with industrial sized vats of tomato sauce coming in from the street and pushing through the crush of customers then scurrying out of sight. I expected the worst as I was handed my slice.

I now found myself eating pizza in the street because dollar pizza is a get it and go type of operation. I expect something along the lines of school lunch pizza and I was totally wrong. First bite and I'm not hating it. The sauce is a little sweet, the cheese a little waxy, but it's far from bad. The more bites I take, the more I'm digging it, I get a bite with a basil leaf and now it's official: I'm enjoying this slice of pizza.

Dollar pizza will never threaten the truly great pizzerias, but it's every bit as good as the hacky, average neighborhood corner slice joint that sells the same quality pizza for two and a half times the price.

A day later and I'm fiending for a slice of dollar pizza. I fully understand now why it's called "Crack Pizza"