GENTLE READERS:
Miss Dish has been in a New York state of mind recently.
After much kibitzing with Richie B., the pumped-up
pimp of Brooklyn-bred sandwiches, at his new eponymous restaurant
in Northwest Portland, Miss Dish (with help from the decidedly
Manhattanly Matt Schwartz, ex-WW intern extraordinaire)
decided to check in with the other New York in Northwest--the
Escape from New York Pizza crew. If Richie B. is
Saturday Night Fever, EFNY is Saturday night at CBGB.
Here's what Phil and Lauren Geffner--owners of EFNY since
1983, when Northwest 23rd Avenue was a shantytown of thrift
stores and dive bars--had to say for themselves.
Willamette Week: Do you miss the old 23rd?
Phil: Yeah. We had different problems back then. Back then
it was breaking up fights, and now it's more like people
want a lemon or an orange on the side of their pizza, you
know? Different crowd, I guess.
How is it that the pizza is still $1.75 a slice? I'm
mystified.
Phil: We're kinda like the last of the Mohicans. We try
to keep it cheaper so people with families can come and
eat. We still want to cater to the people. In New York,
or Philly, people go to restaurants that every kind of people
go to. Restaurants here, they have certain restaurants for
people who are upwardly mobile and certain kinds for funky
kids. One for each group. We want everybody to come together
in one spot. The money? We would've stayed in New York if
it was just money that mattered to us.
That's not exactly a common
attitude nowadays.
Phil: The other thing is that [people say] everything's
always gotta change. You either grow or you die. Well, we
stayed the same. We haven't changed a thing in 16 years.
Lauren: We got smaller.
Phil: Everybody else, they go and make a store and then
they make 20 others and get 15-year-old kids to run it.
We've had the same people here for years because we like
to keep a close atmosphere. It's a matter of philosophy.
Ever been to Italy?
Phil: Italy. I don't like Italy. This is New York, not
Italy. Big difference. This ain't Italian pizza. This is
New York pizza.
What's the difference?
Phil: New York pizza is made for people on the run. By
the slice. European pizza's about sitting down and eating.
In New York they're taking a slice of pizza, folding it
in half and walking down the street with it. It's a lifestyle
thing, a quick snack.
Is tossing the dough a kind
of performance art?
Lauren: You don't have to toss the dough to make pizza,
you know. You can just stretch it out on your hands.
Phil: But if you throw it up the centrifugal force makes
it all go out, out, out. Instead of working the ends out
yourself it's working itself out.
Lauren: And it looks better. This one guy was so tall.
He'd throw it real high.
Phil: Used to drive the chicks wild.
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 26,
2000
|
