The NY Times covers the turf war between Domino's new Brooklyn Style Pizza and actual Brooklyn style pizza. Reporter Kim Severson actually brought a Domino's pie into Totonno's, where owner Louise Ciminieri said, "Get that thing out of here." Heh! The article is great reading if you want to catch up on the hallmarks of chain-style pizza and what Totonno's uses ("unadulterated tomato sauce and thin slices of fresh mozzarella hand-pulled with just a little salt in it, and a dusting of pecorino-Romano cheese"), what goes into good pizzas, and like a mandatory Marty Markowitz quote. And, yes, you'll get very hungry. Just not for a Domino's pizza.
Here's what Domino's tells the Times:
“We found that Brooklyners like to eat their pizza differently,” said Dana Harville, a spokeswoman for Domino’s. “They like floppy, large slices, and they fold them into almost a sandwich.”
But that’s no different from the way thousands of people in any of the other boroughs eat a slice. So why call it Brooklyn Style as opposed to, say, Staten Island Style?
“Brooklyn has such a big personality,” she said. “It’s a little different than the Manhattan-style personality. We’re really having a lot of fun with the culture.”
Crap, we know what's happening next - a pizza sandwich from Domino's! There's also a quote from Slice's Adam Kuban who tried the Domino's pizza last month and said it was good, with the "for a Domino's pizza" qualifier. And yes, there's mention of the hilarious Domino's Brooklyn Style Pizza website, which shows what Domino's (marketer's) idea of Brooklyn is. The corresponding commercial is the YouTube clip above.
Does this mean that middle America will soon think Brooklynites like crappy pizza? Or does it mean that Domino's has wised up and realizes its pizzas are inedible (the Double Melt almost killed us!) and is trying to improve upon things? And the YouTube clip is via Gowanus Lounge, who points out "Us, we'd rather eat discarded pizza from the curb outside Grimaldi's than call Domino's--this is Brooklyn, after all, and we have more pizza choices than you can shake a stick at--but what do we know?"
