Original Ray's Pizza Serving its Last Slice in New York's Little Italy

I wrote about it at my old blog, and it's the funniest thing, but when my mom came to visit a few weeks back, she brought back a couple of the business cards we picked up in New York in 2007. She was using them for bookmarks. My son and I loved Airways Pizza in Queens. My mom also had a card for Dean's Pizzeria, in Manhattan, not far from the U.N. My son really liked that one. It was a little upscale and we were dressed casually. I asked my son if he wanted to go somewhere else and he said no, he liked Dean's and wanted to eat there. Anyway, I'm thinking of New York pizza again after reading the front-page story at NYT, "Ray’s Pizza, the First of Many, Counts Down to Its Last Slice":

It did not call itself the flagship Ray’s Pizza because it never really had a fleet. It was not Original Ray’s or Famous Ray’s or Original Famous Ray’s or Real Ray’s or Ray’s on Ice or any of the other cloned shops sprinkled like shredded mozzarella all over town. It was simply Ray’s Pizza, and in the great pizza wars of New York City, it was respected as having been the first, standing more or less above the fray at 27 Prince Street in Little Italy, with tree limbs holding up the basement ceiling and an owner whose name wasn’t even Ray.

And now, it seems, barring any surprises, Ray’s Pizza — the original that was so original it did not have the word “original” in its name — appears doomed to close at the end of the month.

This is not a popular topic at Ray’s right now.

“I don’t want you to put that this is the end,” said Helen Mistretta, the manager who, seven months before her 80th birthday, is in no mood for weepy nostalgia. “It’s the end of 27 Prince, not the end of Ray’s of Prince Street.”

The closing, long story short, follows a legal dispute among heirs with various interests in the building at 27 Prince, which includes apartments and the two sides of Ray’s: the pizzeria and an Italian restaurant, each with its separate entrance, but sharing a kitchen and the corporation name, Ray’s of Prince Street. When the Ray in Ray’s, one of the owners of the building, died in 2008, a row arose over whether the restaurant’s lease was valid and whether it should pay rent. A lawsuit was filed in 2009 and settled this year.

Now Ray’s Pizza is moving out amid a lot of head-shakes and shrugs and what-are-you-gonna-do Little Italy resignation.

You could say Ray’s on Prince Street kept to itself, perfectly content with its place in the constellation where others burned brighter. Just a block away, tourists line up on the sidewalk for a seat in Lombardi’s, waiting for a hostess wearing a microphone headset to call their names from loudspeakers. Wait for a pizza? This was not the Ray’s way, where pies come whole or by the slice, hot from the oven, enjoyed without hurry in a humble booth beneath a hand-painted “Ray’s Gourmet Pizza” board.

The closing of Ray’s would seem to remove from the neighborhood any vestige of the late Ralph Cuomo, its first owner, who once loomed large.

Keep reading.

My wife just walked in with pizza for dinner, from the local Lamppost, which is good, but nothing like New York pizza.

RELATED: At NYT, "New York’s Little Italy, Littler by the Year."

P.S. Checking the link to the old blog, turns out Repsac3 was commenting way back then. He wasn't banned. He might still be a commenter here had he not freaked out and turned stalker. I'll welcome progressives if they're cool. Repsac3 once was, but no longer. Too bad too. I had to go to moderation and all that.

Rawley's

Good stuff at Maggie's Farm, "Best Hot Dog in the Northeast, right off I-95 in Fairfield, CT."

'Breastaurants'

At Entrepreneur, "'Breastaurants' Ring Up Big Profits" (via Instapundit):

Franchises inspired by the Hooters model--such as Celtic-themed sports bar chain Tilted Kilt Pub & Eatery and faux mountain sports lodge chain Twin Peaks--have expanded rapidly over the last half decade, while corporate-owned chains like Brick House Tavern + Tap and Bone Daddy's House of Smoke are picking up steam regionally. In fact, for the next couple of years, this segment (often referred to as "breastaurants") is poised to be one of the fastest-growing restaurant categories.

More at the link.

Obviously not the kinda place for guys like ASFL Scott Eric Kaufman.

Five Guys Takes On In-N-Out

LAT had a write-up a couple of weeks ago: "Will Five Guys Overtake In-N-Out?"

It's a great restaurant. A couple of weeks ago I ate at Five Guys with my wife and the boys. And yesterday on the way to Las Vegas we stopped in Corona, where a brand-new Five Guys just opened off the I-15:

The place was packed. You can help yourself to some peanuts (on the counter) while you're waiting:

I had the single-patty cheeseburger "all the way" (with everything), which includes lettuce, mushrooms, onions, pickles, and tomatoes.

The food's more like home-made compared to In-and-Out, and so far the quality has been excellent. The french-fries are cooked in peanut oil, which gives them a different look and flavor. I could eat Five Guys regularly. The only problem is the price. A small, single-patty cheeseburger, small fries and a coke runs almost $9.50. That's about $4 more than In-and-Out. Both are good, but the restaurants are pretty different actually. Five Guys has no drive-through service, which is a disadvantage IMHO. And while Five Guys is delicious, In-and-Out remains the industry standard for service, speed, and quality. And unlike Five Guys, In-and-Out doesn't come on like it's got a lot to prove (restaurant reviews aren't splattered across the walls at In-and-Out). The rivalry could become a Coke-Pepsi, Hertz-Avis kind of thing. And it all might boil down to location. And personal preference, too, which for a lot of people will mean affordability.

Check it out, by all means!

I'll have some blogging from Vegas later.

What's the Point? Weight Watchers Rolls Out New Food Management System

This might come as a surprise to JBW --- who loves to dis me with fat jokes and weightist slurs --- but I joined my wife in a Weight Watchers diet regimen back in 1998. I had recently bulked up to about 210 pounds. I'd been doing heavy weight training (body building) and I wanted to get lean. I was cross-training with cycling and running as well as working out at the gym. My wife mostly walked, and she'd had success with weight watchers in the past. The system previously focused on portion control, but around the time my wife rejoined they'd switched over to a point system. And it was pretty rigorous --- and easy to follow if one stayed focused. We both lost weight. I remember being hungry sometimes. Vegetables were freebies (no points). But it was long stretch between lunch and dinner sometimes, and then we'd have these tiny little meals and I'd say, "That's it"? And my wife would say, "I get an ice cream bar because I saved up the points"? To which I'd say, "drats!"

Anyway, I gotta tell my wife about this: Weight Watchers has revamped the system. See NYT, "Weight Watchers Upends Its Points System":

Their world had been rocked, and the questions came fast and furious: A 31-year-old teacher from Midtown Manhattan who had barely touched a banana in six years wanted to know if she could really consume them with impunity. A small-business owner from TriBeCa wondered whether she was being nudged to part with that second (or third) glass of wine. And a woman with silky brown hair, on her way out the door after a Weight Watchers meeting in the basement of a Park Avenue South office building, had a particularly urgent need.

“I just have one question,” the woman said. “How much is a potato latke? I need to know for tonight.”

They and others had been searching for answers and grappling with their implications since Sunday, when Weight Watchers began unveiling its first major overhaul to its cultlike points system, prompting the 750,000 members who attend weekly meetings across the United States — and some one million online adherents — to rethink how they shop, cook and eat.

The new plan, company officials say, is based on scientific findings about how the body processes different foods. The biggest change: All fruits and most vegetables are point-free (or free of PointsPlus, as the new program is called). Processed foods, meanwhile, generally have higher point values, which roughly translates to: should be eaten less.

“If I lived in the Caribbean, maybe I’d be able to make goal,” said Susan J. Slotkis, 64, an interior designer at the Park Avenue South meeting on Wednesday. “The pineapple is great; all the fruits are fresh; you’re never tempted to drink juice.” In the new system, oranges are free, but eight ounces of orange juice cost three points.

When Weight Watchers introduced its points plan to Americans in 1997, it captivated a generation of women, propelling the company into a $1.4 billion empire. Weight Watchers points became a cultural touchstone: Restaurants like Applebee’s distributed special Weight Watchers menus; food companies like Healthy Choice listed points on their soup cans; and members bought Weight Watchers cookbooks, scales and points calculators. Members pay $12 to $15 a week to attend one of 20,000 weigh-ins and pep talks across the nation, or $65 to use the company’s Internet-monitoring program for three months.

Under the old points plan, all participants were given daily and weekly allowances of points, based on their particular bodies, and each food, from apples to pepperoni pizzas, was given a point value, based primarily on the number of calories it contained, with slight adjustments for fat (bad) and fiber (good).

“You could be holding an apple in one hand, which was two points, and you could be holding a 100-calorie snack pack of Oreos in the other hand, which was also two points,” David Kirchhoff, the president and chief executive of Weight Watchers International, said in a telephone interview.

Now, all of that has been upended. The new system allots points based on a complex formula that considers each item’s mix of protein, fiber, carbohydrates and fat. Making it more confusing, most people are now given more total allowed points — a kind of new math that requires recalculation of what had been ingrained.

Melodi Dushane Video: Woman Punches McDonalds Worker Over McNuggets

According to Mediaite, "This Woman Really Likes McNuggets. A Lot." And my wife and I agree the funniest part is when the next driver in line pulls up and gets his order like clockwork:

The incident occurred early on New Years Eve Day but the dramatic security camera footage has only reached the internet yesterday where it can now be enjoyed by McNugget fans everywhere. While all of the punching and window smashing in the clip are fun, I really think my favorite part is the truck that pulls up after Dushane speeds off. While I’m assuming the guy probably stopped to help, I like to imagine that he just said, “Hey, you guys look busy but can I get my Sausage Biscuit now? I’m in a hurry.”

Also, "Crazy Security Footage Is Best McDonald's Viral Ad Ever."

The lady was drunk, by the way. Picture here: "Melodi Dushane Punches McDonalds Worker Over McNuggets."

Tuesday Lunch at Ruby's

I took my boys out to lunch yesterday at Ruby's Diner in Costa Mesa.



We had to run a quick errand first, though, getting some paperwork signed at the doctor's office. Look carefully below. My boys are heading into the new medical building. I love the flags (and I appreciate them so much more knowing that so many leftists don't):

Ruby's is a SoCal 40's-style chain of diners. We visited the restaurant at South Coast Plaza's Crystal Court. It was mid-afternoon, about 2:30pm or so, and uncrowded:

The view from our table. That's Bristol Street out the window. A walk-bridge connects the main mall at SCP to the Crystal Court facility to the west:

Kids can play with the toy folding-box cars, this one a Chevy Bel-Air:

The restaurant wasn't empty. People are seated in a windowed section close to the entrance:

My copy of The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power. I never go anywhere without a book:

The waiter brings our vanilla shakes:

This is my oldest son's bacon cheeseburger (I had BLT&A):

That's me, Dr. D. ---- publisher of American Power! Behind me, notice how the Art-Deco styling comes out in this shot. Look at the clock and the stools at the lunch-counter:

We stopped into the Apple store on the way back to the car. You'd never know we're just coming out of recession from the looks of it --- it's always packed:

Bill Cosby Jell-O Reunion

Stuff you find out when you follow Bill Cosby on Twitter: "Hello JELL-O! Bill Cosby and JELL-O Reunite to Bring about Smiles."

Does this post have a blogging niche? Pundit & Pundette? Jim Treacher? Sir Smitty?

Who knows? I just love Bill Cosby!

Sunday Night Dinner!

My wife made a wonderful dinner (I gave my youngest kid a bath in the meantime).

Fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, broccoli, and rolls.