I Ate the Last $1 Pizza Slice in NYC!
Plus! Reader coffee poll results!! The NYT's obsession with you-know-who!!!
Hello everyone,
Happy Presidents’ Day and welcome to Issue #106 of CAFÉ ANNE!
You may recall that a few weeks ago, I noted that the Bronx Zoo was once again offering its Name a Roach opportunity for Valentine’s Day, “Because Roaches Are Forever.” For $15, you could get a Madagascar hissing cockroach named after your person of choice. I asked for someone to please name a roach after me.
Imagine how thrilled I was, on V-Day, to find an email from the zoo alerting me to the fact that four readers had named roaches in my honor, and that the insects are all living in a hallowed-out tree trunk in the Bronx. I even got a certificate for each namesake, which I printed and hung on the fridge.
Thanks to Mike Cullen, who named a roach “Anne Hissaway,” haha. Also, Dave Graham, who came up with “Anne Kadetroach,” and Molly Beck who chose the moniker “Cafe Anne Kadet,” adding, “I LOVE your newsletter, it brings me such joy. I simply had to name a roach for you!”
I was especially pleased, of course, to learn that the fourth roach had been named “CAFÉ ANNE” by the Substack Team. They even sprang for the deluxe package, which included a plush stuffed roach toy who was delivered to my door later that day. To return the favor, I named my furry new friend “Substack.”
And now, without further shilly-shallying, the results of our latest reader poll! In last week’s issue, following an account of my (very successful) effort to learn to love Dunkin’ Donuts, I surveyed readers about their preferred coffee spot.
The majority, 60%, said they prefer their local independent café. Which did not surprise me. I’ve learned from past surveys that CAFÉ ANNE readers are also big book readers, prefer Apple to Android and would definitely help a fellow passenger in the event of an NYC subway disaster. I get it, I get it!
Dunkin’ and Starbucks got equal support, with 12% each. A surprisingly high number, 14%, opted for “I only drink blood.” But as I learned from the comments, many readers took “blood” to mean “tea” or “coffee brewed at home.”
In response to the section in which I listed my many additional pet peeves beyond Dunkin’ coffee, meanwhile, several readers wrote to ask why the litany included Krista Tippet, host of the long-running spirituality podcast/radio show, “On Being.” As I responded to reader Justin D., the primary reason is that I am jealous. I want to be the bonkers Krista Tippet! To which Justin replied, “Honestly, mission accomplished.” Now that made me happy!
Finally, a number of readers requested more info about the coffee mugs pictured in the photo illustrating my Starbucks/Dunkin’ taste test. They were a gift from a friend, who bought them on FinnStyle, which sells—you guessed it—products made in Finland.
Okay! Moving on! Huge Foodtown-Taking-Over-NYC shoutouts to new paid subscribers Drew F., Bob L., Kim G. and Whereisericnow. That’s enough $$$ for 100 pounds of Green Way chicken thighs!
I am very excited for this week’s issue, of course. We’ve got a look at the New York Times’ curious obsession with Taylor Swift, plus a dive into the city’s soon-to-be extinct dollar pizza scene. Please enjoy.
Regards!
Anne
DEPT. OF JOURNALISM IS AWESOME
Every NY Times Headline Mentioning Taylor Swift So Far This Month
The nation’s “newspaper of record” has mentioned pop singer Taylor Swift in 166 articles so far in February, in stories covering everything from wrist watches and poisonous frogs to the situation in Gaza. But in many cases, there was just a short reference. How about the number of stories with her name in the actual headline? That would be 31, including five opinion pieces and no less than seven articles on February 5 alone. Below, the entire collection. Have fun scrolling!
2/1: Late Night Tackles Trump’s Attacks on Taylor Swift
2/1: Taylor Swift Is a ‘Treasure,’ Says Liz Cheney, a Prime Trump Critic
2/2: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce and a MAGA Meltdown
2/3: Inside Trump’s Not-So-Swift Brain
2/4: Taylor Swift and the Profound Weirdness of MAGA
2/5: Taylor Swift Announces New Album During Grammy Win
2/5: Taylor Swift loses song of the year for a seventh time.
2/5: Taylor Swift Wins Album of the Year, Breaking a Record
2/5: Biden vs. Trump (Taylor’s Version)
2/5: Fake and Explicit Images of Taylor Swift Started on 4chan, Study Says
2/5: Will Taylor Swift Cry if Kansas City Loses? You Can Bet on It.
2/5: Taylor Swift’s Bittersweet Victory
2/6: Jimmy Fallon Reports ‘Today’s Taylor Swift News’
2/7: 2024 Grammys, Dissected: Taylor, Miley, SZA, Tracy, Joni and More
2/7: Tortured Poets’ or Poets? Taylor Swift Meets the Apostrophe Police.
2/7: Taylor Swift Heading to Disney+ and ‘Moana’ Sequel to Theaters
2/8: All the Times That People Have Hyperventilated About Taylor and Travis
2/8: Strong Earnings, and Taylor Swift, Add to Disney’s Defenses
2/8: San Francisco Families Are Split: 49ers or Taylor Swift?
2/8: Kansas City Stars, With Help From Taylor Swift, Are Advertising Champs
2/8: The Super Bowl and the Taylor Swift ‘Girlfriend Effect’
2/8: Stanley Cups, Distracted Walking and Taylor Swift: Teens React to the News
2/9: Taylor Swift Gives Kansas City Its Own Love Story
2/9: Welcome to Japan, Taylor Swift Fans. Please Remain Seated as You Cheer.
2/10: Is Taylor Swift Actually Increasing N.F.L. Ratings?
2/10: Why Is Everything Suddenly Taylor Swift’s Fault?
2/10: Taylor Swift’s Journey to Las Vegas Ends With Super Bowl Win
2/12: Trump Says It Would Be ‘Disloyal’ for Taylor Swift to Endorse Biden
2/12: At the Super Bowl, Taylor Swift Gives a Fashion Week Brand a Boost
2/14: Taylor Swift Conspiracy Theory Is Embraced by Nearly 1 in 5 Americans, Poll Finds
2/14: Before the Super Bowl, Kansas City was reveling in the frenzy around Taylor Swift.
FEATURE
I Ate the Last Dollar Pizza Slice in NYC!
In the summer of 2022, the local papers all reported on a trend you'd have to have been blind not to notice—after holding the line for nearly two decades, NYC's famous dollar pizza shops were finally raising their price for a slice. Sometimes to $1.25, and more often to $1.50. Inflation, you understand.
It was time. Even back in 2004, when these shops started to proliferate, the $1 slice felt like miraculous (if somewhat suspicious) culinary bargain. By 2022, it looked like an impossibility. The all-items consumer price index was up 64%, and the standard NYC slice now cost $3. So when dollar slice shops all over town raised the price, no one was surprised, or even seemed to mind. We're not crazy.
You know what IS crazy? Now, in 2024, there are STILL a handful of shops around the city offering a dollar slice.
These past few months, I've had my eye on 99 Cent Supreme Pizza, a tiny shop at the corner of Jay Street and Willoughby in Downtown Brooklyn. Every time I checked, it was still offering a dollar slice. Last week, I finally gave them a call. Manager Kawsar Hamid invited me to come by the next morning.
It's an amazing little place. At 300 square feet, it's jammed with two ovens, sacks of flour, towering stacks of pizza boxes, a big glass pie case, a dough mixer, a double sink, a work counter, a bathroom for the staff, a soda fridge, an ATM machine and four employees, so there's not really any room for customers.
They've solved that problem by opening the entire corner storefront to the street—even on a 20-degree morning with howling winds, like we enjoyed last Tuesday. Customers fold their pizza in half and wolf it down right at the counter before marching back out into the cold.
At 10 am that morning, business was already steady. Pizza for breakfast! The shop is open daily from 9 am to 5 am, Mr. Hamid told me. "Almost 24 hours. People like pizza!"
We got right into it. "Why are you still offering pizza for 99 cents?" I asked. "Everyone else raised their price."
The explanation requires a little background.
Mr. Hamid and his four business partners are, like many dollar-slice shop owners, from Bangladesh. They moved to New York in 2013 and got jobs working at dollar slice shops owned by others. By 2018, they had saved enough to open their own. Now they run four locations including the Downtown Brooklyn shop managed by Mr. Hamid, who puts in 60 hours a week behind the counter. "Hopefully we are success," he said. "A lot of hard working. Our best effort."
All four shops (the other locations are in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and the Bronx) are named 99 Cent Supreme Pizza, but the other three locations recently raised their price for a cheese slice to $1.25.
So why is the Downtown Brooklyn slice still just 99 cents?
"The other store is here," said Mr. Hamid. "Across the street."
I took a look. Yes, right down the block stands Jay St. Fresh 99¢ Pizza, one of the city's other few remaining dollar slice shops.
Neither business wants to be the first on the block to raise the price.
"If people have to choose $1.25 or 99 cents, they like 99 cents," said Mr. Hamid.
"So if they went up, you'd go up," I said.
"Yes," said Mr. Hamid.
A panhandler came by looking for a handout. Mr. Hamid gave her a free slice, then offered one to me.
While we waited for my slice to crisp in the oven, I pressed Mr. Hamid on dollar slice economics. He said he wasn't sure how much profit, if any, he was making these days on a 99-cent slice.
He did offer that about 30% of the business was $2 slices with toppings, and that on a good day, he sold about 200 pies, or 1600 slices. That's a lot of pizza!
On the other hand, the rent on the tiny shop is $14,500 a month.
My slice arrived, on a brown paper plate, in roughly 90 seconds. "You know what?" I said, after taking a big bite. "It's really good."
It really is! The pizza at 99 Cent Supreme is a classic NYC slice— a thin, slightly charred crust, light on the tomato and cheese, crispy and a little greasy. It was as good as any $3 slice in town. And this place doesn't skimp on the size either. No wonder the lines are often out the door.
As I was finishing my slice, Arie Jackson, one of the regulars, came in and placed her order. I asked how she'd describe the pizza.
"Oh my God, mouthwatering! Mwah!" Ms. Jackson kissed her fingertips.
Ms. Jackson, who lives in Harlem, stops by 99 Cent Supreme three times a week for breakfast on her way to visit her sister in Brooklyn. Her usual order: a Jamaican beef patty with cheese, a cheese slice and a can of root beer.
"Man, that's the best breakfast I've ever heard of," I said. "I just have yogurt. I'm jealous!"
She shook her head. "Really. That ain't going to fill you up!"
"No," I agreed mournfully. "It doesn't."
Her order landed on the counter. "Hand me the garlic!" she called to no one in particular.
"Would you say the pizza here is as good as the $3 pizza you get everywhere else?" I asked.
"This is the best!" she said, taking a bite. "I just love 'em. Mmm hmmm!"
I'd always figured that the folks buying dollar slices couldn't afford better. But almost everyone I interviewed that morning—students, office workers, vagrants—said the dollar slice at 99 Cent Supreme was also the best slice around.
Jessica Zawas, a home health aide, said she comes by nearly every day, even though it means an extra stop on the train, to buy a large $8 plain cheese pie. She carries it all the way home to Canarsie for her nine-year-old twin boys.
"The workers here are very polite," she said. "They make you feel welcome. If you don't have it sometimes, they say 'Okay, you can come back and give me the money the next time.' That's the hospitality they have!"
I asked where she’d go if she could afford to dine anywhere in the city.
"To tell you the truth? I wouldn't go anywhere else," she said. "I'd come here and get a pizza! That's how much I love this pizza!"
When I got home, I did a little back-of the-envelope calculation. If a busy day means 1,600 slices sold, perhaps we can assume 1,000 slices on average. And according to Mr. Hamid, 30% are $2 slices with toppings.
Ready for some Anne math?
(700 x $1) + (300 x $2) = $1,300 per day.
That's $39,000 a month.
As a rule of thumb, I know from my days as a business journalist, a shop shouldn't be spending more than 20% of its revenue on rent. So based on pizza sales alone, there's no way our hero can swing the $14,500 rent on his tiny location.
But the shop also does a brisk business on higher-margin items ranging from mozzarella sticks to chicken wings and soda. In that light, the rent is looking manageable.
But are they losing money on the dollar slices?
I think we can assume the dollar slice was profitable before inflation hit—hundreds of these shops opened between 2004 and 2020.
According to Bob Hanlon, founder of NYC’s Bob's Pizza Tour, they can offer a cheaper slice because they buy lower quality ingredients—close to the expiration date—in large volumes.
"Pairing that with small operations—low square footage and small staffing— and a goal to sell mass quantities of pizza—all of these factors combine to allow these shops to operate with a lower-cost pizza," he told me.
Since the start of the pandemic, however, overall inflation in NYC rose 27% while the cost of eating out rose 26%. And according to BLS stats, the cost of pizza ingredients rose anywhere from about 10% in the case of tomatoes and cheese to more than 35% for oil and flour. The cost of oven gas and paper supplies is also up by a third.
In that light, charging $1.25 for what used to be a $1 slice sounds like a necessity.
Coming at it from another angle, the ingredients in a plain slice now cost about 38 cents. Going by the restaurant industry rule-of-thumb that ingredient costs should not exceed a third of the menu price, the $1 slice is probably not profitable. At all.
Enough math! If anyone knows the city's dollar slice scene, it's Alex Mallis and Trevor Wood, Brooklynites who recently released their dollar pizza documentary aptly titled, "Dollar Pizza Documentary."
I gave them a ring.
When they began shooting in 2022, they told me, they were planning to capture the city’s angst over the end of the dollar pizza era. Then they started interviewing customers.
"We realized the people consuming dollar pizza, the people on the ground, could not care less about the global socio-economic implications," said Mr. Mallis. "They said 'It's still dirt cheap, and I love pizza!'"
"There wasn't anyone seriously bummed," agreed Mr. Wood.
Instead, they created a short tribute to what is still New York City's best meal deal, visiting more than 30 dollar slice joints all over town.
They sampled slices at dozens of shops. "Some were really delicious, and some were kind of gross," Mr. Wood said. A favorite: New York 99 Cents Pizza at the corner of Canal Street and Lafayette.
While they're independently owned, there's little variation from one shop to another, the two reported. Most are tiny spots with no place to sit.
"I don't think they are particularly keen on investing large amounts of money into ambiance—it's a pretty straightforward operation," said Mr. Mallis. "Minimal decor, harsh lighting, the self-serve Coca-Cola refrigerator."
And yes, they all feature those grimy plastic condiment dispensers clustered on the counter. "You can almost double your value with a spice blend—red pepper, hot sauce, oregano, garlic, and if you're lucky a little parmesan, though that's very rare," said Mr. Mallis.
Like me, they observed that the dollar pizza clientele is largely male.
"Why do you think that might be?" I asked.
"The patriarchy," said Mr. Wood.
That made me laugh and laugh.
I told them how 99 Cent Supreme Pizza in Downtown Brooklyn is still selling dollar slices, but only because the place down the block has also held down the price.
I’d considered speaking to the rival shop to see if they were planning a price hike, but decided against it, I told them. My nosing around could ruin things for everybody!
They agreed I'd made the right move.
"For one dollar, there isn't anything else you can get," Mr. Mallis said. "I feel like the city should subsidize this. We can't lose it!"
CAFÉ ANNE is a free weekly newsletter created by Brooklyn journalist Anne Kadet. Subscribe to get the latest issue every Monday!
Great. I'm currently in Valencia, Spain, where there is amazing cheese and wine and tapas and paella, but all I can do is think about pizza. THANKS SO MUCH, ANNE!!!!
I can’t believe there are still slices for a dollar. I would be very understanding if Hamid raised his prices.
You have great readers! Love the inventive cockroach names.
Anne Ka-roach. 😉