The Issue: Bloomingdale Eckington residents can now find pizza instead of hot wings at the intersection of North Capitol Street and Florida Avenue NE—but they still have to order through bulletproof glass. New York Pizza recently decided to retain the glass after taking over the building from Kentucky Fried Chicken. But some residents are tired of seeing the bulletproof barriers in their neighborhood, and are avoiding restaurants that have it—including the pizza joint. Others argue that the real problem is the crime that leads restaurants to put up the glass in the first place, and that refusing to give business to such places only hurts the community. So who wants free delivery? Read More "Neighborhood Watch: In Eckington, Do You Want Fries—and Bulletproof Glass—With That?" »

The Issue: What should be done about raucous revelers and their search for drunken munchies?  Last Tuesday, the 2E Advisory Neighborhood Commission met with the owner of Philadelphia Pizza Company to discuss the antics of the late-night bar crowd—which consists largely of Georgetown Students—that gathers on Potomac Street NW for pizza. Georgetown residents complain that they are unable to sleep—but owner, Matt Kocak tells the Georgetown Voice that it’s the students, not the restaurant, that’s causing the problem. Read More "Georgetown Residents Peeved by Pizza Place After-Party" »

Perhaps this is Dewey crime at its most essential: several teenagers mobbing a 40-year-old woman inside a very crowded Mama Celeste’s, slipping on slices of pizza, mashing cheese fries into the floor. The most serious injury? An 18-year-old girl with bite marks in her forehead.

Read More "Woman Bites Teen; Pizza to Blame" »

LL just got off the phone with a nearly manic Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham. Manic, because he says that he's being unfairly deemed a pizza-banning legislator by a local TV station.

"I have been in media for 30 years, and there's never been a more preposterous story than this one," he says.

When WJLA-TV trained his cameras on him last week outside the John A. Wilson Building, he says, he mentioned nothing of legislation---only that jumbo slice pizzerias happen to be associated with certain problems, he says. "When they turn their speakers to the sidewalk, ramp up the volume, and have terrible fights occur not only outside the place but inside the place, when they provide kind of an unruly boardwalk atmosphere, they become a nuisance." But that doesn't mean legislation! He has no such bill in the works, Graham says.

"It's wrong, it's inaccurate, and it's unfair," he says. "To suggest that this is my point of view is absurd."

LL is currently seeking a response from Channel 7.

UPDATE, 6:10 P.M.: WJLA-TV reporter John Gonzalez says Graham indeed told him, in response to a question, that he was considering legislation. “He said, ‘Oh yeah, I’ve already talked to the mayor.’ And I asked, ‘You mean to revoke licenses?’ He said, ‘I mean, yeah.’”

“I have it on camera,” Gonzalez adds. “I have the raw video!”

If Graham has a quarrel, he says, it might be with the lede-in read Friday night by anchor Leon Harris, which said that Graham “wants to ban the sales of single-slice pizza.”

Says Gonzalez, “I can understand why that made him a little upset…it’s sexy to say that the councilmember wants to get rid of pizza, but that’s not really true.”

Gonzalez adds that many of Graham’s anti-pizzeria comments were left on the cutting-room floor. “I don’t think he realized the kind of reaction he was going to get,” he says. “Apparently people take those jumbo slices very seriously.”

Each Sunday at my home is homemade pizza night. This past week, a family member asked for an unorthodox topping.

Yum?

Times are tough in newsrooms across the nation. How tough? According to a memo sent to Jim Romenesko at poynter.org, it almost came to this for election-night reporters at the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.:

From: "Susan Spring"
Date: November 3, 2008 11:46:07 AM EST
To: [Raleigh News & Observer staff]
Subject: Pizza etiquette

I want to remind you that pizza will be provided tomorrow night ONLY for
those working on elections. Please be polite. If you are working elections, you may have up to TWO slices. Thank you in advance for being considerate.

Susan Spring
Director of Newsroom Operations
The News & Observer
(919) 829-4860

John Drescher, the paper's executive editor, later clarified the two-slice rule:

There will be no two-slice limit Tuesday night (although if Susan Spring chases you with a knife in her hand, you are on your own). And anyone who is here can partake.