Cheap Eats 2011: Escape From New York Pizza

How paradoxical, that munching fresh, hot slices should be a form of nostalgia, but Escape From New York serves as a kind of collective Proustian madeleine for the shoppers of No-Longer-Trendy-Third. Since 1983, Phil Geffner has been pulling Big Apple pies out of the oven, with the piquantly seasoned tomato sauce as thick as the Statues of Liberty peppering the storefront. Two pepperoni slices ($3.25 each) are a perfect 12-minute lunch, and a used copy of the Times always seems to be lying near the counter. A neighborhood cornerstone that has lost little of its attitude, Escape proudly carries out Geffner’s principled fight against delivery, credit cards, wasted napkins and ranch dressing.