Story and photos by Robin Elisabeth Kilmer Think you’ve got to go back in time to the 1980’s for a pizza slice that’ll cost just a dollar? Quit tinkering with your time machine, McFly, and head instead to Pie Pie Pizza at 166th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. In a town full of two-and-a-half-buck pizzas, this relatively new pizzeria has been serving up one-dollar slices in the Heights for just seven months. But the response has been just short of rapturous. On a late September afternoon, the pizza shop was inundated with school kids and teenaged basketball players coming to and from nearby Highbridge Park. “The price is perfect,” said Tairence Flowers, who plays basketball with cousin, Theo Wharton, who is from a different Heights—Crown Heights in Brooklyn. “They don’t have dollar pizza like this in Crown Heights,” said Wharton. “The dollar pizza they sell [there] should cost 75 cents—for the dough and the cheese. They don’t have sauce.” The two sat down at the one table at Pie Pie Pizza and quickly refueled with plain slices before heading off to play basketball with friends. Meanwhile, behind the counter, dough was being tossed, fragrant, herb-flecked tomato sauce ladled, and cheese sprinkled. Beyond feeding the appetite, the Pie Pie Pizza experience also seemed to include offering the opportunity for young New Yorkers to master the art of ordering pizza for the price of change under the sofa cushions. “I’ll have a slice,” said ten-year-old boy with the nascent confidence of one who will spend decades mastering the art of eating pizza while crossing the street, chasing busses, taking the subway and running up five-story walk-ups. The pizzeria also sells pies, and a few delicious options beyond the plain slice. Pie Pie’s buffalo pizza boasts bacon, sausage and buffalo chicken, and costs a mere two dollars. Pie Pie staffer Carlos says that eventually Pie Pie Pizza will also be selling empanadas—for a dollar, of course. And forget garlic knots: there is also a new kind of on-the-go snack at Pie Pie. Between taking orders in person and on the phone, Carlos tossed pepperoni bites into the oven. The bites are slices of salty pepperoni baked in a cocoon of pizza dough, and topped with garlic and oregano, and cost four for a dollar. And to be clear, while Pie Pie is clearly looking to build its clientele with inexpensive, delicious fare, it’s not cutting corners with the quality of its ingredients. “There’s nothing different about this pizza [is made],” said Carlos, noting that the products used to create those quickly flying slices at Pie Pie are the same as the competition’s. Pie Pie Pizza 2127 Amsterdam Avenue New York, New York 10032 The pizzeria is also soon opening a second location at 1593 St. Nicholas Avenue (between 189th and 190th Streets), New York, New York 10040. The phone number there is 212 927 0828. A slice of nostalgia, hot and cheap
popular menu item at Pie Pie
Pizza; it costs just a dollar each.
pizza dough, and topped with garlic and oregano.
Pie Pizza.
Blame (happily) the recession, chalk it up to nostalgia, but make your way to Pie Pie, where a dollar earns you a delicious, worry-free trip back in time.
