'NY Times' to Domino's 'Brooklyn' Pizza: Fuhgeddabouddit

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.

'Brooklyn Style Pizza' Meets the Real Deal [New York Times]