If we’re going to eat our way through New York’s finest pizza establishments, we should think about a general structure for our venture. When Boone and I first came up with the idea of a CUNY Commons pizza group, Boone pointed to the Burger of the Month Club as a possible model. I think it’s a great one: we can meet once a month to sample various pizza places around the city.
If others are willing, I’d propose that we meet on the first Monday of every month. All are welcome: this is a completely open group whose only requirement is an insatiable urge for charred crusts and seared squares of mozzarella (unless one prefers shredded mozzarella, which is fine, too).
So, who’s up for a July 1st trip, and where should we go? And, even more importantly, how shall we keep score?
Here are some of the places I’d think we should try:
Tried (Tired?) and True
Lombardi’s
Joe’s
Grimaldi’s
Totonno’s (Coney Island)
Di Fara’s
John’s (Bleecker)
Highly Praised Newcomers
Lucali Pizza (#2 in GQ’s recent “American Pie” Rankings)
Artichoke
Co.
Anselmo’s
Off the Beaten Track
Mariella (16th/3rd)
Others?
Thanks for getting the (dough)ball rolling, Matt. (Ack, no more of those.)
The first Monday of the month works well for me – Monday evenings are usually quite workable for me. I think it makes sense to start off with an old favorite, just so we have a working definition of what constitutes high quality. Totonno’s is closed, and Di Fara is kind of a pain in the ass for having a relaxed first meeting. Maybe Lombardi’s or Grimaldi’s? Possibly John’s on Bleecker? I’m rarin’ to go for July 1.
As for keeping score, those burger dudes in the NYT article take their task extremely seriously. It seems to me that a complex rubric would run counter to the shades-of-gray, theoretical nature of humanists like ourselves (not to mention the complex, gooey nature of pizza itself). I like the idea of having more text-based reviews. Might make it harder to compare joints, but isn’t that half the fun? Maybe we can rotate the task of scribe from month to month, so that the appointed person will be responsible for collecting impressions (and photos!) from the group, and then doing a full write-up on the site.
I’m already envisioning the pizza side-trips – and corresponding extra-credit posts – that I’ll be doing between our monthly meetups. Mmmmm.
Yeah, it’s going to be hard to avoid the pizza-related puns here. We do have some very crusty members of the site, after all, who might get annoyed by cheesy, half-baked puns.
Okay — I’m done, too.
I’m glad you’re on for July 1, but I’m hoping that we’ll get others from the Commons on board, as well. I mean, pizza! Who doesn’t love it? Perhaps we’ll just have to build a following and a group through our bodacious review posts.
I’m okay with review posts rather than advanced scorecards, though I do feel that some kind of score-keeping is essential. I may look like a humanities guy, but when it comes to pizza, I want hard data!!
This IS relevant to my interests.
Count me in!
Sweet! So glad to have you aboard, Andre. Can you make it on the 1st? Boone and I spoke recently and thought that Lombardi’s would be the ideal place for our first outing.
Wait – the 1st? When is the first outing? For some reason I thought it was scheduled for the 6th. On which subject: the 6th is not going to work all that well for me. Do you think we might try for Tuesday the 7th or Wednesday the 8th?
While I’d love to join you katz on the 1st, I’m in straight no-go-out mode till The BoyTM decides to be born. I still want to be part of the group, dough, and will join in later in the Summer or early in the fall.
Correction: I will be able to make it either on the 1st or on the 6th, but we do need to settle on which is the date.
Well, the 1st is much easier for me than the 6th, so I’d prefer that if you and Andre can make it.
OK, I can do that. What time are we shooting for? 7pm at Lombardi’s?
Luke, only after reading your comment about five times did I notice the “dough” pun. D’oh.
Boone, maybe you were distracted by my ambivalence about capitalizing the name of the seasons and my failed html superscript. There was a lot going on in that comment.
Sorry to miss you guys… eat a pie for me.