Just following up on my Worldwide Exclusive™ from last week... the incoming Papa John's on First Avenue between 12th Street and 13th Street has unveiled its awning.... Meanwhile, readers had some pointed comments about the incoming PJ. Among them!
Anonymous said...
Not sure what's worse that it's opening or that people will actually order from them.
Anonymous said...
It's the natural progression, kids, beer, pizza.....
So let me see... do I want Motorino ?, Artichoke ?, Papa Johns ????
Anonymous said...
ugh. Aren't there laws against this sort of thing?
Bowery Boogie said...
don't forget the sole domino's down on allen street. still boggles me who orders from there. haven't seen the noid on delivery in some time.
Jen said...
I happen to like the taste of Papa John's- the price is better than getting Motorino or Artichoke. Just because something is a chain doesn't automatically mean it's bad.
EV Heave said...
This will keep me busy.
Anonymous said...
You mean it will keep you EV Heave-y.
And please, don't blame people under 30 for this. I can't think of one person I know who would order this crap.
But alas, under 30, living in the east village and not a hipster . . . by all accounts of commenters on this blog, I must be a . . . yuppie?
Amanda said...
Papa John's and Domino's have their uses, but I don't think of them as pizza. Sometimes you're in the mood for pizza, sometimes you're in the mood for some crappy fake cheese. Just because people live in NYC, where there is better food available, doesn't mean they don't still like to eat lesser food on occasion.
Anonymous said...
@Jen: "I happen to like the taste of Papa John's"
Papa John's ships in dough and sauce from factories that mass produce thousands of pounds of generic, low quality, garbage.
The reason it's cheaper is because of these economies of scale. I don't mind those economies being applied to my computers or technologies, but not my f'ing pizza.
Jen, grow up, get some taste, and put up that extra $1 or $2 for some real food made by a person in a kitchen, not a machine in a factory.
Rmom said...
Um, when I feel urge for pizza on 1st ave I go to Vinny Vincentz. I've never had Dominos or Papa John's, so I don't know if they are any cheaper than Vinny's, but I guess I can eat them when I move somewhere else. So for now, I'm totally happy with my neighborhood pizza (and I don't have to wait in line like Artichoke's!)
Anonymous said...
@Anonymous: "Jen, grow up, get some taste, and put up that extra $1 or $2 for some real food made by a person in a kitchen, not a machine in a factory". Wow, some rude f*cking people here, and Anon is so courageous by speaking his mind (of course not with his own voice).
Yeah, yeah, yeah - you're all too cool for us. Thanks for reaffirming the douchyness of the downtown hipsters. Like we all want to spend $20 on a lunch.
Jen,you know about Motorino and can make your own choices. Just eat what you want and dump this place, and let blogs like this one die.
15 comments:
I'm on the side that Papa John's is absolutely terrible, but if people want to pass over Vinny Vincenz or Luzzo's for this crap I'm too tired to care. Bland, suburban taste has been creeping into the city for more than a decade now, and if people would rather eat chemicals than food, well, it's their health not mine.
That said ... the Papa John's awning offends me completely. It is a goddamn f*cking eyesore.
Honestly - WHO GIVES A SH*T! If you don't like Papa John's DON'T EAT THERE. This neighborhood is about ever changing diversity. This is just one of those things. While I'll most likely never order from Papa John's it is better to have a store front FILLED, employing people than empty!
I beleive the new DOB guidelines
prohibit this type of awning.
Probably a violation.
JS
PAPA'S IN THE HOUSE!
"Honestly - WHO GIVES A SH*T! If you don't like Papa John's DON'T EAT THERE."
A lot of us live here to get away from that garbage. If you want to eat at Papa John's, move to the suburbs, and let us have this one little corner of this one little island.
"This neighborhood is about ever changing diversity."
Change toward the mediocre does not equality diversity.
"...it is better to have a store front FILLED, employing people than empty!"
How naive and short-sighted.
That thing can't be legal.
Anon 9:05 - nothing "diverse" about Papa John's, as you can see from the definition of the word:
di·verse (adjective)
1. Of a different kind, form, character, etc.; unlike.
2. Of various kinds or forms; multiform.
That describes no chain store or business that *I* know. And if you really think that bringing in an eyesore like this somehow contributes to the betterment of the neighborhood, then you're simply beyond hope.
Anon 9:33 - you, on the other hand, could not be more correct.
If this was a domino's, I'd be pissed. But it's a Papa John's, home of the notorious "garlic" sauce (it's basically liquid butter flavored like garlic). I think places like Papa john's and Domino's cater to the parents with small children crowd, because for some reason little kids tend to like crap like domino's more than quality pizza. I will admit though that about once a year, I pick up a Papa John's pizza from the one in Gramercy, get about 4 extra containers of butter sauce, and hope that I have a bottle of aspirin nearby for when the right side of my body starts to tingle.
You know what's offensive? Charging $30 for an effing pizza. It's basically $3 in cheese and maybe $1 in pepperoni. Factor in rent and labor and it's maybe $8. Why the eff do I have to pay $30? Oh, yeah because it's special pizza.
Well maybe on a special occasion but otherwise I'll get $12 pizzas from chains.
I haven't eaten at PJ since the mid-1980s, so it sounds like they've changed (used to be quite good and fresh). There could be worse things going in this space, but with so many pizza joints around, I say to just continue to patronize your favorite.
I find it funny how fake everyone from the East Village has become and how snobby they are. I have lived in the East Village since the 80s and am appalled at the comments. Snobs belong in the west village, let things go. Papa John's or no Papa John's - I cannot believe it is affecting your lives. AND that this is a 'news' story.
Growing up in Queens I had friends whose parents would drive to Long Island to get Pizza Hut because it was a novelty.
The thing that has made this city different and special from other places was its lack of mall and chain stores. Over the years they have crept in and now there are fewer and fewer streets that have that unique and special feel that made New York seem different than anywhere else. It leant a quality to being here, the districts for cameras, jewelry, electronics, furs, leather, bongs, whatever, each street had its own flavor. As a shopping experience it was pretty special.
I think that losing that unique personality is a real issue that deserves a conversation and reflection.
But from some of the comments here it must seem inane to those who never knew anything different, and have learned to expect homogeny everywhere they look.
And as for jobs that someone mentioned - chain stores hire people, but there are no business owners -- all the profits go to the corporation. Isn't supporting business that are locally owned ultimately a better idea - whereby a franchise is often owned by a person, though sometimes they are owned by big companies/investors that own a bunch of franchises. (I have no idea of Papa Johns is a chain or a franchise.)
And as for stores being empty, they are only empty because the rents are too high for regular people that aren't banks, chains or bars. The landlords don't need to lower the rents because they get tax breaks when there is a business loss caused by an empty store. There is no incentive to lower the rent to get a real tenant, better to keep it empty and take the tax break.
There was a Papa John's on D that I guess closed (it isn't on their store locator anymore - and I went about 7 years ago) - did it just move from D to 1st?
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Thank you, Jill... very well said... This has more to do than with Papa John's being great or awful pizza... It's A-OK if people like it... You make the point very well, that NYC (and the East Village) is feeling less and less unique due to the intrusion of more and more generic chain stores....
@Jill
Yup. This describes the destruction of the New York that I knew and loved. So sad that it's almost all gone now, and as you point out, newcomers to the city don't have a feel for the history, they only understand the here and now.
I was fortunate to grow up here in the 50's when there were still enough vestiges of the turn of the century, as well as the post-war explosion of modernization. I remember the fur, flower, trimmings, garment, electronics, model railroad and warehouse districts. The east and west side waterfronts, the Brooklyn waterfront !
When people talk about 9/11 and the Trade Center, I remember that I relished going down to Radio Row on Cortlandt St and was heartbroken as I watched it be torn down, then to be replaced by the Towers, and then to see them come down... an amazing progression of history compressed into not so many years.
Now, people move here with no sense of a lot of what made this city so special. Now, it's just a whole shitload of bars and clubs.
Sad.
Well, at least Bloomberg hasn't let his buddies build condos in Central Park (yet).
Tomorrow is John Lennon's birthday, a day that I usually try to go to Strawberry Fields for an hour or so to meditate and take in some of our great skyline. I'll be thinking this year, not only of losing John, but of all the rest of the loss that seems so significant to me right now.
Why isn't anyone pissed about CVS or Duane Reade or Rite Aid or Walgreen's? You know you all pick up shit from those places over bodegas more often than not. And so some will go to Papa John's and have $10 pizzas and others will go to Vinny Vincenz and have $20 pizzas (by the way, sorry to break your hearts but the quality of ingredients at these independent pizza spots is mostly inexpensive, bulk goods with relatively low prep standards, not a whole lot "better" than a chain) and the overwhelming voice of the market will shutter Papa's or Vinny's or both will remain open and we'll all still be eating pizza which we all know isn't good for us even if it is made locally or at a mass scale.
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