Pizza Slice Crisis in NYC: The Ray's Syndrome

Posted by Ed Levine, September 27, 2006 at 7:06 AM

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a pizza slice crisis in NYC that threatens to undermine sixty years of tradition, a crisis that calls out for mayoral or government intervention.

The NYC slice, once a justifiable source of culinary pride in this town, is going to hell in a hand basket filled with pizza cheese and canned pizza sauce. Think about it. The streets of Manhattan are filled with slice joints, each one worse than the next. You know the slices I'm talking about. The crust is thick and gummy. Every bite brings a mouthful of unbaked dough. The sauce is canned pizza sauce. It tastes like Franco American on a bad day. The cheese is that abomination called pizza cheese, and there's so much of it on every piece that slice weights are approaching one pound.

I call this the Ray's syndrome. Ever since some variation of a Ray's (Original Ray's, Ray Bari, Imitation Ray's, ) started appearing on every corner the state of the NYC slice has never been worse. Other mini-chains have also descended on our city like some kind of slice plague, and the situation has reached epic proportions. Our quality slice culture is fast disappearing.

Interstingly, this fast deteriorating situation seems to be limited to Manhattan. Brooklyn's quality slice culture remains intact, or certainly more intact than Manhattan's. Certain neighborhood in Queens have upheld slice standards well. And Staten Island, the home of Nunzio's and Joe and Pat's, is a veritable beacon of pizza slice quality.

I wrote about the state of the slice in the Times a few years ago.

The situation has only gotten worse. C'mon, people, this is an important quality of life issue. Or I should say a quality of slice issue.

What can we do about it? There's no sense in lobbying Blomberg or anyone else in his administration. They're all lame ducks, and they've had one whole term to tackle this issue. And they have done nothing.

I believe the answer lies in lobbying our city councilmen and women.

Tell them that was once a source of city pride has become some kind of cruel joke perpetrated by slice purveyors who are taking down our reputation.

Reply to this post, and I will present it as a petition. Join me in saving the NYC slice. It's not too late.

Bring Back the real NYC Slice.

Post a Comment Favorite this!  (0)

Tags: New York, New York City, NYC, pizza