Kim Severson of the New York Times does the best job yet of getting to the bottom of the puzzling Domino's Brooklyn Style Pizza kerfuffle. We're surprised she lived to write the story, after having brought the chain pie into Coney Island's Totonno's for comparison:
“Get that thing out of here,” was the first thing Totonno’s owner, Louise Ciminieri, said when she saw the Domino’s box.
Once we explained that we were on a mission to determine exactly what constituted a Brooklyn Style pie, she softened. Sort of. “When they say Brooklyn Style Pizza they’re referring to us,” she said. “We were the first ones.” [That's a snippet of a Totonno pie at right here. —Ed. ]
And here's a gem from Ms. Severson: "We purchased our Domino’s pie just a few blocks away from Totonno’s on Neptune Avenue. That it was handed to us over bulletproof glass turned out to be the most authentically Brooklyn part about it."
The story quotes Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz, who, it should be noted, hasn't yet tried the pie: “To our sophisticated palates, Domino’s is about as Brooklyn as Sara Lee Cheesecake is Junior’s.”
And we don't know what to feel about this:
Arthur Schwartz, the Italian food authority and author of “Arthur Schwartz’s New York City Food: An Opinionated History and More Than 100 Legendary Recipes” (Stewart, Tabori and Chang) said he might be to blame for this turn of events. He was a consultant to Domino’s last year, suggesting — among other things — that they use cornmeal in the crust.
Et tu, Arthur?
In his defense, Mr. Schwartz says the chain never mentioned what they were doing with his suggestions.
Oh, one more thing. Ms. Severson quoted yours truly in her story:
Adam Kuban, the founding editor of www.sliceny.com, a Web site devoted to New York pizza, felt it was his duty to taste the new pizza. Mr. Kuban declared it good — for a Domino’s pie, that is. And he’s just as puzzled as the next Brooklynite over what constitutes a Brooklyn-style pizza.
"It seems to be the same style you get in Manhattan and Queens,” he said. Pizza in the Bronx sometimes has a cornmeal crust, and in Staten Island the best places bake pizzas with a little more crunch in the crust. But Brooklyn probably has the best pizza of the five boroughs, he said.
“Manhattan has sort of dropped the ball,” he said.
As a Brooklyn native, I found Domino's latest marketing ploy to be a pale imitation of the crunchy yet chewy slices I remember enjoying in Brighton Beach. Here's a thought -- let's put a stop to this fraud by making mass e-mail orders of the BSP from Domino's locations ... and then not picking them up! While I hate the idea of wasting food (although one could argue whether the BSP is food), we Brooklynites need to hit them where it hurts. Then maybe someone will think twice before they try to co-opt our wonderful borough for their evil purposes.
As with many things, New Yorkers need to stop looking at the world as though it ended at the Hudson River. Having been born, raised and spent the first thirty years of my life there, I feel qualified to criticize. I lived ten years in Florida and have just re-located to Denver. Do you have any idea what the local "pizza" is like in those places, and in other places outside the metro area? It's an abomination. American cheese with Chef Boy Ardee sauce, heaped upon stale, spongey white bread, soaked in an unrecognizable oil. Those of us who have left the nest and don't have access to even a halfway decent slice should applaud even the most minor step in the right direction, in this case the mere acknowledgement that pie outside the city has a major crust issue, and generally sucks. I hope Dominos and the hut keep at it until something edible materializes. 'Til then, there's no place like home, there's no place like home ...
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Kim Severson of the New York Times does the best job yet of getting to the bottom of the puzzling Domino's Brooklyn Style Pizza kerfuffle. We're surprised she lived to write the story, after having brought the chain pie into Coney Island's Totonno's for comparison: 
And we don't know what to feel about this:
2 Comments:
As a Brooklyn native, I found Domino's latest marketing ploy to be a pale imitation of the crunchy yet chewy slices I remember enjoying in Brighton Beach. Here's a thought -- let's put a stop to this fraud by making mass e-mail orders of the BSP from Domino's locations ... and then not picking them up! While I hate the idea of wasting food (although one could argue whether the BSP is food), we Brooklynites need to hit them where it hurts. Then maybe someone will think twice before they try to co-opt our wonderful borough for their evil purposes.
Slice Charles at 6:29PM on 11/09/06
As with many things, New Yorkers need to stop looking at the world as though it ended at the Hudson River. Having been born, raised and spent the first thirty years of my life there, I feel qualified to criticize. I lived ten years in Florida and have just re-located to Denver. Do you have any idea what the local "pizza" is like in those places, and in other places outside the metro area? It's an abomination. American cheese with Chef Boy Ardee sauce, heaped upon stale, spongey white bread, soaked in an unrecognizable oil. Those of us who have left the nest and don't have access to even a halfway decent slice should applaud even the most minor step in the right direction, in this case the mere acknowledgement that pie outside the city has a major crust issue, and generally sucks. I hope Dominos and the hut keep at it until something edible materializes. 'Til then, there's no place like home, there's no place like home ...
Slice Jim at 8:03PM on 11/09/06