Pizza

Kevin has the details on the soon to be open status of yet another high end restaurant in the downtown, this one called Eno, which, following the Chez Panisse model, will serve only locally grown and organically produced fare.

Fine.

It's not as if we have an abundance of restaurants going after that market.

But Frank Zappa, who i think about a lot these days, said, "You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer."

Translating that to cities and downtowns, well, yeah, Durham has a beer, and we may soon have another one, if the rumors i keep hearing bear any fruit. But at the very least, downtown needs a pizza place. And Mellow Mushroom doesn't count. That's a restaurant that happens to serve pizza. I'm talking about the kind of place that you can walk up to (the best ones have take out windows that open on the street, so you don't even have to go in) and order a slice and a coke, and sit down at the nearest bench to eat and watch the people around you. The closest thing Durham has to that is on Ninth St., where there's also a somewhat equivalent falafel shop.

And the pizza place doesn't necessarily have to sell pizza. Falafel, noodles, soup, or tacos would also count. The bottom line criteria is that you've got to be able to carry it in one hand, with your drink in another, order, pay and receive your food in a single transaction, and eat it in a public space within 100 feet of where you bought it. You can't be a real downtown unless you have a pizza place and public square. It helps if you have a baseball team and some statues, but at the very least, you need a pizza place.

UPDATE: The Pizza map

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