Slice
piPod in the Daily News
PHOTO OP Slice editor and publisher Adam K. (above) during a photo shoot Saturday for a small piece on piPod that the New York Daily News ran in today's edition.
Last Tuesday Slice released piPod, an iPod-based field guide to selected New York City pizzerias. It received a surprisingly enthusiastic response, making the rounds among pizza fans and iPod geeks alike. By the end of the day, the New York Daily News had e-mailed us, asking if we'd consent to an interview for a short blurb—with photo—for the food section today.
The News reporter told us the paper wanted a photo of Slice editor and publisher Adam K. wearing his iPod at a pizzeria—preferably one of Slice's favorites. K. naturally chose Brooklyn's Di Fara. [One thing: The copy in the News piece makes it sound as if K. just discovered Di Fara last October. This is not the case. Slice metro editor Seltzerboy introduced K. to Di Fara in April 2001, after our annual trip to Coney on the Cyclone's opening day. We think the paper might have meant that Slice, America's No. 1 Pizza Weblog, launched last October. To read the entire text of the blurb and see more photos, scroll to the bottom of this entry and click "Continue reading 'EXTRA! EXTRA!']
So on Saturday yours truly dragged friend "n," a favorite pizza-eating compadr?out to Midwood, where we ordered a sausage-and-onion pie and waited for the photographer to show. While there, we took photos of the new (and disappointingly character-free) signage at Di Fara (right). Not only did the signs change, but the prices did, too—no doubt in response to the recent spike in milk prices. Regular slices went up a quarter, to $2.50; squares are now $2.75, also up a quarter. What was once described as the "Special" artichoke pie now costs $24 (up from $20). For the top-notch ingredients and special touch proprietor Dominick DeMarco puts on all his pies, it's still a bargain.
Our pie was up just minutes after the photographer arrived, but we couldn't dig in until the pictures were taken—we didn't want to eat the props. After posing me and "n" together holding our iPods at a small two-topper table, I had to stand alone for photos outside the pizzeria (top).
With the photos finished, we ducked back inside, and n and I asked the photographer to join us for a slice. The minor delay gave the hot cheese and olive oil a chance to cool down, and the melty stringy mozzarella had congealed to the point that n prefers. (Less mess, she says).
As always, the pizza was delicious. And perhaps it was the prospect of Slice's editors and writers getting the recognition they deserve, but each bite seemed to taste markedly better than usual.
WHY IS THE LAST MILE THE HARDEST MILE? We pause to take a photo—and let our stomachs rest—before tucking in to the final slice.
I'D LIKE TO THANK THE ACADEMY
Thanks to Rachel Wharton at the News; the photographer, Rebecca; and n, for helping me finish the pie and taking the day's photos for Slice. And, of course, where would Slice be without all the hard work put in by our our writers, editors, and printer's devil?
Here is the full blurb from the Daily News. I usually don't like to lift articles whole from the source sites (don't want to anger them by stealing their material), but in this case I think it's justified:
The quest for the best pizza
Most New Yorkers have a special place in their hearts for pizza. For Adam Kuban, it's about time to rent an extra room.Kuban, a magazine editor and native Kansan, is one of the buffs behind the Web site www.sliceny.com, which chronicles the never-ending quest for the city's perfect pie.
It all began last October, after a co-worker took him to the famed Midwood parlor Di Fara. "I was blown away by it," he says, "I have been searching for the best slices and the best pies ever since."
Now, in addition to posting pizza news and reviews, Kuban is providing a free service called piPod to Apple iPod owners, who can download a list of the city's best pies right to their players.
For the record, I'm not a native Kansan. I grew up there, but spent the first nine years of my life in various states: Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Massachusetts. (And no, I wasn't an Army brat—just the son of a frequently relocated cemetery-property-sales program director.)
Here are some extra photos from that day. n and I liked the following one the most, but I thought the photo that ran as lede art in this entry told the photo-shoot story better, what with the onlookers gawking and the photographer shooting and Dom visible through the window. Still ...
And ...
