Everyone knows the best pizza in the country, and maybe the world is from NYC. By European standards NYC is, well, NEW! By US standards NYC predates the United States and is deep with history. While NYC respects history, it is also very American as we destroy the old and raise the new.
New York City fits my definition of a city. Cities are defined by:
1. Density Of Population.
2. Unique Architecture.
3. Diversity of population
NYC has additional qualities that are derived from those three pillars. People are drawn to NYC to live out their dreams. NYC is a place that can chew you up and spit you out. It's a place crowded with people where you can be completely anonymous and completely alone in a crowd of millions.
In New York City, excellence is ordinary. The extraordinary is recognized and embraced, the merely excellent is expected. less than that is chewed up, spit out and worst of all, forgotten.
Joe's pizza has history. It's generally acknowledged as having the best 'NYC slice'. They opened 45 years ago in the west village on the corner of Bleecker and Carmine and have been turning out simple lovely pizzas since then.
one of the most difficult things to do is remain consistant. Achieving nirvana in the restaurant business has meant to sell out to wall street investors and have your name and logo spread around the world, food be damned.
Joe's has expanded new York city style - and by that I mean wildly successfully...........
I've actually had people ask me "do you really order a slice in NY by just saying "one". To which my answer is: "when I walk in to joes, I just hold up the number of fingers equal to the number of slices I want. i don't even have to ask verbally".
where they failed is in the culture. I ordered my slice - the counter man said "a slice of cheese?". Joes in times square has been polluted by it's tourist clientele.