Dependable Erection

Monday, February 23, 2009

No wonder sales tax receipts are down 26% in Durham

Salon (reg. required):
Long after Home Depot has dumpstered its last roll of Tyvek, frayed and unfurling like a forgotten flag; long after Target has baled its remaining Isaac Mizrahi couture collection sweaters for shipment to AAA Closeout Liquidators; long after Walgreens, the Pharmacy America Trusts, has filled its final myeasyconsult.com Vicodin prescription for your neighbor’s 14-year-old son, one business will still be switching on its O-P-E-N sign every day at 9 and off again at 11: Tony’s Pizza.

As will Armando’s Pizza, Enosburg House of Pizza, Flying Pie Pizzeria, Hoss’s Pizza, Koronet (all hail the slab!), Munchies Pizza & Subs, Pizza by Napoli, Scroungymoose Pizza, Zorbas Pizza and whatever the name of the nearest place that suctions you in the door with furnace blasts of yeast and char, the ineffable herb/caramel duality of tomato sauce and the wanton surrender of melting cheese.

The titans -- national hawkers of furniture, shoes, clothing, computers, auto parts, electronics, jewelry and embarrassingly themed steakhouses -- are toppling, fatally bloated by mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and roll-ups. But amid the colossal corpses strewn on the corporate battlefield, a ragtag army of small businesses soldiers on: the pizza industry, 76,355 restaurants strong across America.

None, alas, in downtown Durham.

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posted by Barry at 9:50 PM Digg this

8 Comments:

  • Why don't you ever include pops backdoor in your list of pizza places? They make great pizza. is brightleaf not downtown enough?

    By Blogger skvidal, at 9:57 AM  

  • 1- no, Brightleaf is not "downtown" enough.

    2 - neither Pop's nor Sats sells pizza by the slice. that's what a pizza joint is, not a wood fired brick oven gourmet white pizza with goat cheese, olive oil, and sauteed chicken. It's walk in, order two slices and a coke, and walk out to sit on a bench in the sun in the downtown plaza. Every other city in the whole US has at least one of those places downtown.

    By Blogger Barry, at 10:19 AM  

  • Every other city has one, Barry? You're funny.

    Durham has them, naturally, but not downtown. TONS of other cities lack them downtown. I've lived in several that didn't have one.

    Quit acting like such a quintessential damnyankee. "Back where I used to live...."

    By Blogger Unknown, at 1:57 PM  

  • Even fucking Fayetteville has pizza by the slice downtown.

    By Blogger Barry, at 2:07 PM  

  • As does Wilmington.

    By Blogger Barry, at 2:20 PM  

  • Maybe you can open Dependables Pizza Slice-a-ria. Crispy crust, naturally!

    By Blogger Steve Graff, at 2:23 PM  

  • Really? I don't even think Asheville, land of the everbooming downtown (it had to happen after I left, didn't it?) has pizza by the slice downtown right now. I could be wrong -- haven't been there in a year or two, but I can't think of where one was.

    Come to think of it, I'm not even sure St. Paul has it downtown.

    There's pizza by the slice on 9th St., and there's at least six pizza restaurants in the greater downtown area (counting the chains), and I could be missing a couple. What you're bitching about is that you're exact preferred type of restaurant isn't in the part of town that you want it to be in. Hey, man, it's your blog, but quit bitchin' like it's some kind of cosmic travesty.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 10:24 PM  

  • It's a metaphor, Michael.

    Salon got it. That's why i linked to the article.

    Durham doesn't get it.

    That's why i bitch about it.

    By Blogger Barry, at 10:44 PM  

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