My daughter is on spring break. Seeing that I run a home daycare and need to work this week, we can't really have the kind of "break" I'd like us to. A few of her friends from school are going to Disney this week- one of them for the second time this year! Needless to say, I'd like to try to make this week special for her however I can. I've got my feelers out for opportunities to enjoy a little out-of-the-ordinary specialness.
Today we had only one child with us, enabling us to take a trip to the park for a prolonged period of time. (There were no nappers in our group.) I love being able to hang out at the park for a good long while. The kids love it so much. The conflicts reduce to almost nil and it seems they could be happy here forever. We stayed nearly 3 (!) hours and were even able to go exploring in the little bit of woods that I "discovered" (I am most decidedly NOT the most observant person, okay) today. Then, as though this weren't enough, my work day ended early, and I decided to take my kids out for pizza.
The small thrills in life are worth everything if you ask me. And going out for pizza is one of them. Add to that the fact that we went to BROOKLYN Pizza. For a transplanted NJ/NYer in NC, this is significant. I'm not going to say the pizza is phenomenal. It is very good, and that's how it should be. If we could get awesome pizza in Wilmington, NC, well, I'm sorry, but it just wouldn't be right, now would it? But being able to visit this little piece of Brooklyn here in my current hometown, so very many miles from the real deal- it's nice. The owners claim "Yes, we're really from Brooklyn" and state they are turning out pizzas "the same way we've been doing it in Brooklyn, New York since 1957." There are pictures on the walls of a little pizza shop that I suppose to be the original "Brooklyn Pizza" from the 50s and 60s. There are also photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge, and various shots of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Ebbets Field. It gives me so much satisfaction to sit in this little shop with my kids (It's quite popular and filled up completely by 6:00pm) amidst all this NY nostalgia. But this is where my story goes even further south than Wilmington.
There was a Yankees sign on one of the walls. Albeit this sign (it was a Yankee Avenue sign) was on the back wall away from all the old school Brooklyn stuff. Still, there it was. I am now going to have to admit that I am not a true baseball fan. I'm more of a theater/ballet/figure skating geeky type. Despite this, I have been raised as a proper METS fan and I KNOW that that Yankee sign does not belong in this restaurant. Dodgers fans become METS fans. This is how it works. The Yankees are not part of the equation. So that sign threw the whole thing off for me.
I should have had the balls to approach someone about all of this: the original Brooklyn restaurant (is it still in open?), the owners of this place, that SIGN. I should have at least given them a chance to explain themselves. I suppose I was afraid to burst my little pleasure bubble. I wanted to believe that the young and happy people serving me were direct descendants of that Italian American dude in the black and white photos standing on Flatbush Ave. in front of the real Brooklyn Pizza. Well for today anyway, my fantasy was left unscathed. My kids and I had yummy pizza washed down with soda, and gumballs from a huge machine for dessert. It wasn't Disney. In a way, it was better.
CIAO! Tracy
2 comments:
Been there, done that, and the jury is back...FAKE! I'm sure at one time Brooklyn Pizza was authentic, and for a North Carolinian, it undoubtedly appears so even now, but even a heritage as strong as that of this great New York borough cannot withstand decades of enervating southern charm and hospitality. Plus, there's too much room -- a Brooklyn pizza joint is a third that size -- and it's too clean and doesn't have a tin ceiling. The pizza does have a hint of Brooklyn in it, but the Yankees? Maybe a dart board in Brooklyn, but that's about it.
LOL...I'm going to ask and embarrass them, anyway.
:) tracy
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