Glass-Free Pizza, Please: Scott Roberts of the blog Bloomingdale Neighborhood told City Desk that he has heard of community members boycotting establishments because of the glass. One commenter on the blog wrote that "this is a business issue, not charity.… Any business that can't provide a reasonable level of security for their customers and staff isn't going to get my patronage. Hiding behind 2 inches of plate glass, and leaving me on the other side to cope with all the crap, isn't dealing with the problem.” The boycotters also have some new dining alternatives—a couple of glass-free daytime cafes have opened recently, and there is a restaurant with a liquor license application currently in the works just off of North Capitol.

Glass Isn't the Problem: According to Metropolitan Police Department crime statistics, there were 13 armed robberies and 20 unarmed robberies within 1,000 feet of New York Pizza in the last year. Roberts says that pedestrian traffic along North Capitol is comprised of “homeless people” and “some patrons of methadone clinics.” In short, many residents believe that the presence of bulletproof glass is a symptom of crime—not the disease. Another commenter on the Bloomingdale blog says, “When we choose not to frequent the eatery [for petty reasons like bulletproof glass] it'll close and go out of business and become an vacant eye sore again, attracting vagrants. This area will never get off the ground.”

Next Step: Wait to see if New York Pizza sinks or swims. David says, “Bullet proof glass or not, I'm not going to eat there because the Pizza is horrible. I reviewed it on Yelp.com for your convenience.”

Photo by Brian, Creative Commons Attribution License

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.

Go to Bed! Residents argue that the pizza place is in a mixed zone, and needs to abide by residential rules: Ward 2 Commissioner Bill Starrels told City Desk, “The pizza place established itself as a sit-down restaurant, and the occupancy is only seven people. On the weekends, you get crowds going in—it’s messy, noisy and people [in the nearby condominiums] literally cannot sleep.”

Party and Pepperoni! Due to the fact that the establishment does not serve liquor, Kocak maintains that the ANC is not able to dictate his hours (the restaurant currently closes at 3:30 AM on Friday and Saturday nights). Additionally, he places the blame on the students, saying the issue should be brought up with the school or the police. As far as the pizza-munchers themselves: Keon D, blogging on foodie site Yelp says, “Ranch dressing on a pizza... GENIUS! Eww dude, please don’t vomit on me…DUDE!”

Next Step: Starrels says the ANC has contacted “friends in the Mayor’s office” to make sure that the restaurant is abiding by the appropriate laws. There also might be another meeting with the stakeholders down the road. In the meantime, kids, keep it down.

Photo by Leedav, Creative Commons License

In the Dewey Beach Police complaints log, the fracas reads as “Mama Celeste’s, Offensive Touching P.O.” I have no clue what P.O. means. Perhaps Pissed Off, in which case I’d tack on Drunk and Hungry. At 1 a.m. last Sunday morning, Dewey’s most popular pizza den was a mobbed with the bar backwash, and the 40-year-old was waiting on the last pie of her $80 order. While her head was turned, a pie disappeared; the last she saw of it was a pair of sneakers bolting out the door. Apparently, a pair of teenagers jacked her chow.

This ended the only way theft of drunk food can end in Dewey Beach. The woman became enraged, accusing the teens around her of aiding and abetting the thieves, in particular an 18-year-old girl who held a carton of cheese fries. The 40-year-old sent the fries flying and the mayhem began.

When the Dewey police arrived, the gore of melted cheese and tomato sauce was everywhere, the $80 tower of pizza toppled and smashed into the floor. The woman was bruised and scraped-up from her tussle with the teens, and the 18-year-old sported incisor marks on her forehead.

Sgt. Cliff Dempsey sounded less impressed with the wound than the tomato sauce carnage.

“I mean, there was pizza everywhere,” he said.

"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.”

Yum?

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.