- Photo by Roboppy
I recently met with fellow CUNY Pie co-founder Boone Gorges to discuss some Commons-related issues, and, as usual, the subject of pizza came up. We agreed that the group has had a good first year, but we thought about instituting some changes that would up the ante a bit next year.
In order to add a bit of regularity to our meetings so that members could plan ahead, we’d like to set up a regular meeting schedule. And we thought that it might be good to embrace a semester-long theme. We left my first suggestion — that Fall 2010 be devoted to the borough of Queens, in part because we didn’t make it there in year one — for a later date and decided instead to go old school for the fall, visiting long-established institutions as a grounding point. This continues the work we began last year, when we visited a few of the legendary New York pizzerias (Lombardi’s, Patsy’s, Totonno’s). It seemed only right to finish the job.
Finally, we’re asking that one attendee of each event, to be determined at the table, write up a quick (emphasis on quick) recap for the CUNY Pie blog. Posts should include photos and should be published within two or three days of the visit. We need to make sure that we document our work and that we do so in a timely fashion.
So, here is our proposed schedule for the Fall. We will meet on the first Thursday of every month at 6pm, unless otherwise noted.
CUNY PIE FALL 2010 AGENDA
August 19th: Grimaldi’s (time is of the essence)
September 2 16: DiFara’s
October 714: L&B Spumoni Gardens
November 4: Totonno’s (Coney Island)
December 2: John’s Pizza (Bleeker)
Notice that the November 4th location is TBA; we’d like your help in figuring that one out. Please nominate an old-school NYC pizza joint in the comments. And if you have suggestions for future themes, please let us know.
Here’s to more good eating in the next academic year!
November is a great time to visit New Haven, y’all! Apparently you can leave that Waltzer cat at home, though. We’re pretty old school up here — Pepe’s was established 1925, Modern was 1934, and Sally’s was 1938.
I’m applying the #jealous tag and looking to see what evil plans I could launch to get be near NYC on a first thursday (though Boone gave us an excellent guided trip to Grimaldis in early May).
Gah, we won’t be here for next week’s outing! But we’ll try to make as many of the others as we can, perhaps w/the sprog in tow. So he can be all social and talk everyone’s ear off like at Co.
$('#boone').eat( 'pizza', function() {alert( "Yum" );
});
@Trip: Having sampled some New Haven pie recently, I won’t denigrate the city’s offerings, and I would love to set up a trip! Not sure how many people would come along for the ride, but I bet we could convince Luke to join us.
@Alan: Organizing trips to NYC around Cuny Pie gatherings? Now *that’s* what I’m talking about. Keep this up and you just might find yourself receiving a coveted lifetime honorary CUNY Pie membership!
@Maura: Sorry about that! We will miss you. I will happily head over to Grimaldi’s with you another time to make up for it. And we love kids, no matter how vocal (or quiet) they are.
@Boone: Best thing about that line of code? It has been thoroughly bug-tested!
Two thoughts:
1. I suggest a trip to Star Tavern in Orange, NJ on Sat Sept 11 following the Red Bulls game that Matt and I are attending that day. Trip… If you make that, I’ll come try your beloved Yale pie!
And, 2, doesn’t calling a schedule of outings an “Agenda” make it sound too much like a committee meeting? I thought #cunypie was supposed to capture the *best* of academia, not the worst!!! 😉
“Agenda” captures the seriousness of the work we do here, Luke. CUNY Pie should not be taken lightly.
By the way, who’s taking minutes at Grimaldi’s?
A valid point. I second the recommendation.
I nominate @mikhailg to handle the minutes at Grimaldi’s. The only evidence of his attendance at #cunypies are dozens of tragic, abandoned corniciones.
I believe that @mikhailg still owes us a wrap-up from one of our trips last year…and I think there should be a rule about not taking on more posts when one is already overdue.
At any rate, even though I was one of the worst offenders, sometimes taking a month or more to get a post up after a meetup, I’m intent on enforcing these 2-3 day deadlines for CUNY Pie posts. Shoot it, eat it, blog it. Bang.
It is true. I owe a post and I will write one an I’ve got one baking in the ol’ wood burning oven. In fact, I don’t mind bringing our forthcoming trip to Grimaldi’s into it though I am perfectly happy to conceding the honor to someone else.
As far as the gravitas of CUNY Pie and Matt’s penchant for the manner of academic bureaucracy, I’m sure he and Luke will have plenty of time to debate that at their manly sports game.
Oh and we might consider quick lunchtime gatherings at reputable pizza joints that serve various CUNY schools. I nominate Frank’s on 23rd St. near Baruch for one such jaunt.
That’s a fantastic idea, MIkhail. The only question, I guess, is whether we should do these lunchtime meetups during the Fall semester or make them a theme for a later semester. Maybe we could just intersperse two or three of them each semester. I know that for City Tech, I’d want to take people to Fascati Pizza in Brooklyn Heights. I’m liking this.
@lwaltzer I’d be hard pressed to get the SO to agree to my leaving her with MyHeir for an extra day all in the name of pizza. But if you could come up with a way I could convince my office to fund this boondoggle I might see what I could do. It might take more than Jersey pizza, though.
Just joined CUNY Pie and am really looking forward to these outings. I have to say though, I had a horrible experience at John’s. The pizza sucked, the seating was uncomfortable, and the staff rushed us out…
For me, a place takes in a different kind of image when I see it for the first time. Everything seems too interesting that I’ve always wanted to preserve the memory. Often times, I refuse to doze off to sleep as I look out the window of my moving vehicle, afraid that the moment would just pass me by. That’s why I take delight in remembering my first visits to a particular place, absorbing all I see, feel, smell, hear and taste like an innocent babe. The novelty of the place drives me to go out and travel to more destinations because once I come back to the same place, it will be a totally different experience once again.