I hopped on into to Pizza Cave on the upper west side the other day for a pre-date slice of pizza, the Jewish comfort food. I had my money all set up for two slices, and when it came time to pay I was informed that pizza had jumped to an unthinkable $3 a slice. I panicked, I had flashbacks to the days that gas went nuts on the day of Hurricane Katrina, I remember it went from $2 to like $2.75 in the manner of a few hours- I didn’t go nuts then, I just went biking.
Pizza is different, it is like the modern day Jewish soul food, it replaced Herring and Chopped liver about 30 years ago and has stuck as the ultimate Jewish food, I am sure that some sects of Jews even think Pizza is a Jewish food dating back to the time of the ancient Hebrews, the thin slices in fact may even be termed the bread of affliction- with toppings- although the non gebrokts crowd probably doesn’t think so.
I am standing there in shock, arguing with the rather skinny, tight pants Israeli about the price. I said that if flower went up in price, why aren’t you raising the prices of the rotting calzones that sit out all day, or the nasty looking bourekas or even the pita breads. Not a very good businessman obviously, he stated that “because we can biatch” well actually he said because they make the most pizza.
Freakin conglomerations, I am telling you that the Kosher Pizza industry is one big racket. In the Catskills they all raise the pizza the same amount every year. It used to be you could go to heimishe pizza places and get a deal, but now pizza is becoming a luxury food- so much that today I broke tradition and deemed it more worthy to buy a calzone (I did a cost basis analysis including pleasure from added cheese and veggies and a rough estimate of dough to cheese ratio.) In fact I am enjoying it right now- much better then any other calzones I have had in the area- (I will be doing a Monsey pizza store/Restaurant review sooner or later.
So I settled for one slice and tried to bankrupt pizza cave and their malicious pricing tactics by abusing my oregano and garlic shaking privileges. I then drank tap water to show them they have no control over me- though I doubt I made a dent on their budget.
40 responses so far ↓
1 jennthejewess // Apr 10, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Pizza TIme on Ave J in BK is also $3…flour quadrupled in price …
2 heshman // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:05 pm
So does that mean matzo went through the roof as well?
As long as Ben and Jerry’s stays the same price life can go on.
3 Beth // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:18 pm
The price of wheat went up. And Pizza Cave has been on-again off-again when it comes to quality for a while.
http://batya-d.livejournal.com/42370.html?mode=reply
4 Beth // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:18 pm
The price of wheat went up. And Pizza Cave has been on-again off-again when it comes to quality for a while.
http://batya-d.livejournal.com/42370.html
5 Beth // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:20 pm
Re: wheat and matz: yes, I’m hearing rumors of handmade shmura matza for $30/box.
6 WolfishMusings // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:53 pm
It’s not just pizza. See this Daily News article from last month about the price of bagels:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/03/05/2008-03-05_down_the_bagel_hole_prices_surge_as_whea.html
The Wolf
7 Headbanger // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Mendelsohns and Amnons have also hit the 3 dollar mark. Less arrongant Pizza stores such as J2 are still running at 2.50. Proof this is all BS greed: There’s a pizza store on Kings Highway called Kosher Hut with very decent pizza that’s still charging $2 a slice. Is he using Treif cheese? Is there something he should know about flour prices? Pizza is my favorite food and I’ve been laughing for years at all my meat hungry friends getting charged up the ass for a meal. Now the laugh is getting thrown back at me. I’m hungry and it’s almost Pesach. My measly wage doesn’t cover a full stomache anymore.
8 Xvi // Apr 10, 2008 at 3:48 pm
Uh oh… One of the staples of my visits to Brooklyn is the Netanya super deal. $4 got you a drink, a small fries and 2 slices, plus all the pickles you can eat. Things are looking grim, folks.
On a side note has anyone tried the super netanya combo? A slice, lined down the middle with fries, pickles and ketchup and folded over!
geshmack
9 Child Ish Behavior // Apr 10, 2008 at 4:48 pm
See, if you remeber from yor economics 101 that they only raise the price when they know that the good is inelastic. I fthey knew that people would stop buying pizza if they raised the price, they wouldn’t raise the price. (no matter how high the cost of flour is) The problem is that they know that you shmucks will still continue to purchase pizza and they will still earn a profit.
The solution: stop buying pizza for a month or two, prices will drop to the floor.
10 Child Ish Behavior // Apr 10, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Btw, even natanya’s prices have gone up, though not to the high price of three dollars yet.
11 Anonymous // Apr 10, 2008 at 4:56 pm
Milk and Honey in Midtown is $3.50.
12 Anita // Apr 10, 2008 at 5:51 pm
I hardly ever go to pizza stores in the city, but I used to go to Pizza Time all the time. When they raised the price (the first time, to like 2.50) and all the other pizza stores were cheaper, I stopped going.
No point in wasting money on Pizza. I love pizza, and I buy it all the time, but from the cheaper shops. And sometimes I just buy frozen pizza. Frozen pizza is waaaay cheaper, and its exactly the same tasting - as long as you don’t burn it .
13 Frum Punk // Apr 10, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Hot damn! I remember when I was 14 and pizza went from $1.50 to $2. I asked the waiter why it went up and she said that the price of cheese had gone up.
14 Kurt Godel // Apr 10, 2008 at 6:59 pm
When I was in High School, the pizza stores on Central Avenue (there were only 2 at the time) got into what became known as “Pizza War.” They kept lowering and lowering prices until $0.99 got you a slice and a warm chocolate chip cookie at Shula’s.
Now, I won’t even pick up a pie for Thurs night dinner on my way home from work anymore ($18)
15 Meg // Apr 10, 2008 at 7:53 pm
In the local bakery of a family friend they’ve posted a sign near the register apologizing for and explaining the sudden jump in prices.
Apparently, the price of flour is up 70% in the last 3 months and they’ve been warned it may rise up to 200% by the end of the year. There haven’t been any increases in the price of coffee or chocolate yet, but he’s anticipating them.
16 Headbanger // Apr 10, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Child ish Behavior, I actually learned that recently in a Microeconomics class. It’s extremely true and stubborn kikes will always buy it and no boycott will ever work. And the greedy pigs will continue to prosper off our sweat and lack of coordination. If Dominos or Pizza hut pulled any of this they’d be out of business so fast. JEWS ARE RIPOFFS.
17 The Babysitter // Apr 10, 2008 at 10:13 pm
Childish: I remember learning that too.
Looks like I’m the only one that doesn’t eat pizza.
18 dimebag // Apr 10, 2008 at 10:41 pm
Your solution sounds like those solutions to cheaper gas, all of which don’t work.
BTW non-kosher pizza has gone up a ton as well.
19 MarkyMark // Apr 10, 2008 at 11:19 pm
“So I settled for one slice and tried to bankrupt pizza cave and their malicious pricing tactics by abusing my oregano and garlic shaking privileges.”
This line was brilliant had me rolling with laughter.
BTW your new video is hilarious- keep it up man.
20 Katie // Apr 11, 2008 at 1:14 am
and kosher food wasnt expensive enough….this post serves as a good warning
21 EZH // Apr 11, 2008 at 2:10 am
the last paragraph was absolutely hysterical
22 utubefan // Apr 13, 2008 at 3:43 pm
Attention, Hesh:
Headbanger used a word that should not appear in print here or anywhere else. Headbanger, you’re a little cooler than you are educated about your own people and what they’ve been through. Words do have power. If Hesh takes it down which he should, I’m still gonna be hoping that you would rethink referring to your people that way. So much violence has been perpetrated against us while words like that were shouted in our faces. No amount of youthful swagger and smart-a__ coolness will justify disrespecting those who suffered. Trouble is, you guys haven’t suffered and you just don’t know a damn thing about anti-Semitism. Take a f—– Jewish history class while you’re in college.
23 Headbanger // Apr 13, 2008 at 6:07 pm
I don’t think it’s trouble that I haven’t suffered and I would prefer to not start suffering, but thanks for the Bracha.
That’s the outcome of living in a closed pen community regardless of it being Jews or not, you begin to hate people. Even without reason. Just try looking for parking at 11 pm. And when I say “kikes” among jews it’s in the way that black people call themselves a certain word between themselves as well. I don’t see them offended.
24 Bas~Melech // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:57 am
This is so uncool.
I kind of prefer homemade pizza but there’s something to be said for fast food.
25 utubefan // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:19 pm
You fell for it. You brought up the N word. I knew you would. It’s not okay. Many blacks are offended by the use of it. The whole “taking back the word” is a copout. The word you chose to use does not belong here and Jews who use it are young and don’t understand the difference between other offensive word choices and anti-Semitic word choices. I tried to bait you by dumping in curse word references, but you didn’t fall for that. Bottom line, that word should not be used and you definately should take some history courses, both world history and Jewish history in particular. Way more important than the price of pizza.
I wish that word wasn’t still up there. Again, misguided liberalism.
26 utubefan // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:24 pm
And I don’t wish you any suffering. I want to get back to laughing at the posts here and letting my teenager out. But that lousy word is still up.
27 stacy // Apr 14, 2008 at 6:16 pm
utubefan- do you want hesh to start censoring every comment he finds mildly offensive?
28 s(b.) // Apr 14, 2008 at 6:22 pm
while I’m not a fan of use of that word, I’d rather it be left up. Speech reflects on people (and I like you, Headbanger, just not your choice of word, in this case; such is life). Forewarned is forearmed, or something like that. I disagree with not taking responsibility for one’s feelings, regardless of where one was raised, but I’ve probably got 10 years at university of life on headbanger, and I’m sure me today might disagree with some things I wrote in 1999, if I went back to my notebooks and looked. Life is a learning experience, and my paradigm an evolving one. I only wish the same willingness to keep growing for all.
29 Michael // Apr 14, 2008 at 6:36 pm
pizza is so expensive you got rob a bank before you go
30 Hesh // Apr 14, 2008 at 8:11 pm
Utube- WHAT WORD!!! did he use?
I usually moderate all the bad words out.
31 utubefan // Apr 14, 2008 at 8:58 pm
To answer your question, Stacy, I want antisemitic words that have a terrible history to be censored. Stacy, I have about ten years on your ten years on headbang’s twenty-odd years and I teach kids who use lousy words sometimes and don’t differentiate between antisemitic, painful words and curse words. My students have used the “n” word defense on me and we’ve talked about it. I am an “angry, young Jew” to paraphrase my man, Billy Joel, and I totally relate to headbanger’s way of “speaking” and I can get that way too, but we do have to draw a line because we are who we are in the end–even the angriest among us– and we do owe our people, our nation, and the survivors of violence and vandalism–which continues to go on worldwide today the respect of not using anti-Semitic words against ourselves, about ourselves. And, in all seriousness, if you guys studied what was done to us–really studied the history over the years instead of just having a passing knowledge of it, you wouldn’t ask if I thought it was fair for Hesh to censor it. Hesh is a good guy and a good Jew. There actually is a line. And, Hesh, I can’t write the word. It’s still up there. And I really am done with the sermonizing. I just know how little Jewish History is taught in schools, especially to boys in Yeshiva. Everyone knows about the gas chambers, but–and not to minimize it– that overshadows thousands of years of hateful words in writing and in speech, words that sparked death and destruction, murders, pogroms, blood libels, terror. And on that note…
32 utubefan // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:02 pm
And that icehorse guy does get a host comment when he gets too raunchy which btw doesn’t offend me or my husband. In heady’s case, I don’t think–if he has to keep it up–that it should go unremarked upon, is all. And, in the end, because this is an open forum, some words Davka shouldn’t be allowed to stay.
33 Conservative SciFi // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:32 pm
I suppose we can’t get back to Pizza, but we were ordering 30 pizzas from one of the few Kosher Pizza places and due to the increase in flour prices, we were given a 5 dollar discount (on 30! pizzas).
34 heshman // Apr 14, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Utube I am a student of Jewish history, and history in general and understand what you are saying- you can check out some of the stuff I have written about these issues.
However I think you are blowing it out of proportion, I asked my dad who is 70 and grew up around holcaust survivors and his answer was “who gives a crap” big deal!
I have had rocks thrown at me, paintballs fired at me and have been called a motherflippin jew, kike, sheeny, shylock, hymie and countless other names while walking the mean streets of Rochester- however the word kike does not offend me. For some reason JEW offends me- different strokes for different folks.
I will write something on this just to satisfy the Jewish hunger for multiple opinions and good arguments.
I agree with your side, however I also agree with headbanger and the multitudes of emails that said you are getting way too serious.
But are you too serious or are we youthful folks just not serious enough and too far removed from anti semitism to give it any credence.
35 stacy // Apr 14, 2008 at 10:54 pm
utube- how do you know the extent of my knowledge on jewish history?
sorry, i dont believe in censorship and if this is the worst antisemitic word youve ever heard, well then good for you.
headbanger- i loved your last comment
hesh- your to funny. i like the way you responded to a complaint about an offensive word by listing like 5 more offensive words
36 stacy // Apr 14, 2008 at 11:32 pm
btw, could you be more patronizing? seriously i think thats what im most offended by
37 Anonymous // Apr 20, 2008 at 6:26 pm
However I think you are blowing it out of proportion, I asked my dad who is 70 and grew up around holcaust survivors and his answer was “who gives a crap” big deal!
-Agree with that?
38 CH // Apr 21, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Well you can go look at the post Frum Satire made about it- because apparently it is a big deal
39 Anonymous // Apr 22, 2008 at 11:31 am
it was a quote from this discussion, not my own words
40 Matisforever // Apr 22, 2008 at 9:01 pm
Oh if this continues us jews are screwed
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