[HN Gopher] Washington Pizza Index (1998)
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Washington Pizza Index (1998)
Author : tosh
Score : 63 points
Date : 2022-10-20 11:35 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
| pixl97 wrote:
| I'm guessing with the rise of Uber like delivery services this
| may be harder to measure as the number of places that can ship
| food has increased greatly muting the steep rise in pizza places.
| delecti wrote:
| I'm not so sure. If the idea is that politicians order a bunch
| of food to get through late nights during a crisis, there
| aren't many other foods that work as well as pizza in so many
| ways. It's way easier to get vague suggestions for toppings
| than to pick individual entrees for everyone present, it stays
| tasty when cooled off, it's at the very least generally
| inoffensive and usually quite popular, and you can just hold a
| slice while eating it, no utensils required.
| xg15 wrote:
| Also, even if not, you could just track delivery orders
| instead of individual food sales to get the same result.
| therealcamino wrote:
| Maybe it'd even be easier -- could you register as an Uber
| Eats and Door dash driver and monitor the apps directly?
| coffeefirst wrote:
| Wait, wait, wait...
|
| DC is awash in local pizza chains that are quite good. Manny and
| Olga's will deliver until dawn. Bestolli's greek pizza was
| inspired by Athena herself to be the Platonic ideal of crisis
| comfort food. The pentagon has more nearby pizzerias than tanks,
| and that's not including the recent surge of fancy artisan pizza.
|
| Why on earth would you order Domino's?
| notatoad wrote:
| the office catering equivalent of "nobody ever got fired for
| buying IBM"?
| cityzen wrote:
| tbalsam wrote:
| Let's please be respectful on HN. See #Comments at
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
|
| Thanks.
| jfengel wrote:
| Now there are, but not at the time the article was written. DC
| has had an amazing culinary renaissance, with Jose Andres
| leading the way, but at the time it was mostly noted for steak
| houses for lobbyists.
|
| Even today, the immediate vicinity of the Capitol and office
| buildings is kinda weak on food. There's a nice set of
| restaurants on Pennsylvania Avenue, but the food trucks are all
| over at L'Enfant, and the real mass of restaurants require a
| trip to Penn Quarter/the-area-formerly-Chinatown-but-now-all-
| chains.
|
| I do, however, highly recommend We The Pizza a few blocks away.
| Silly name, but really fantastic fancy-artisan-pizza by noted
| local chef Spike Mendelsohn.
| barry-cotter wrote:
| > DC has had an amazing culinary renaissance, with Jose
| Andres leading the way, but at the time it was mostly noted
| for steak houses for lobbyists
|
| It's not a renaissance if there was nothing there of any
| quality before. For a rebirth there men' needs to have been a
| birth.
| zasdffaa wrote:
| Never had a domino's - heard people say they're expensive but
| good but you disagree? Ur views welcome (am in the UK if that
| makes any difference).
| traverseda wrote:
| They're the McDonald's of pizza restaurants.
| zasdffaa wrote:
| Pretty sure I've never had a maccy D's either, but I get
| what you're saying, thanks.
| Gunnerhead wrote:
| For me, it's cheap, consistent, guilty pleasure!
| MichaelCollins wrote:
| Dominos is very cheap if you order one of the items they have
| on perpetual sale, but very expensive for the quality
| otherwise.
| therealcamino wrote:
| In the US, they're known for having lots of coupons and
| specials, and being cheap. The cheese has a weird
| consistency, to me at least.
| kuroguro wrote:
| They had an emergency pizza analyst on site and Domino's had
| the best price/performance and quantity/delivery time ratios at
| the time.
| coffeefirst wrote:
| And once again, everything broken in government starts with
| procurement.
| xg15 wrote:
| Sounded like they order everywhere, local artisan pizza places
| as well as national chains. I imagine Domino's was just an
| easier target to interview. Or maybe the effect is easier to
| notice if you can aggregate the sales from a large number of
| restaurants - so large chains have an advantage here compared
| to individual restaurants or small chains.
|
| ... or maybe the article was sponsored by Domino's, who knows
| :)
| andrewmg wrote:
| Manny and Olga's is gross.
|
| Those in the know hit up Wiseguy.
| rl3 wrote:
| > _Why on earth would you order Domino 's?_
|
| Bravo, someone's finally asking the right questions around
| here.
|
| To play devil's advocate, perhaps GP's rationale had to do with
| the fact that when you freeze cardboard, it still tastes like
| cardboard when thawed. There's very little loss there.
| MichaelCollins wrote:
| Dominos is dirt cheap. Around me a large pizza from an
| independent pizzeria can be $30 or more, while dominos will
| sell a large pizza for under $10.
|
| Of course, the quality is as low as the price, but some people
| aren't sensitive to pizza quality.
| therealcamino wrote:
| Manny and Olga's is so bad as to not qualify as food. I've
| heard that We The Pizza is where they get it on the Hill, now.
| Andy's is great.
| jnwatson wrote:
| Don't shade on Domino's. They have worked hard on getting from
| least-common-denominator pizza to halfway-Ok pizza.
| xg15 wrote:
| As an extension, I propose the Normalised Pizza Index as:
| npz := (pizza sales to government staffers) / (pizza sales to
| media workers)
|
| I think if the pizza index for congress/white house/pentagon/etc
| staffers goes through the roof while the media is still in
| business as usual mode, then is the time you _really_ need to
| worry.
| blamazon wrote:
| Kinda sorta related, the New York Pizza Principle:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_Principle
| SilasX wrote:
| Tldr: a slice of pizza in NYC matches subway fares.
|
| Related: I heard, from people who are not me, that in any area,
| the hourly rate of sex-worker escorts matches that of lawyers.
| victor9000 wrote:
| Makes sense, they both do the same thing, no?
| SilasX wrote:
| Haha! Cynically speaking, yes.
|
| But to be serious, I would say they're both labor-intensive
| jobs with high barriers to entry that have to be recouped
| in the hourly rate.
| kortilla wrote:
| High barrier to entry to be a sex worker?
| [deleted]
| abraxas wrote:
| jshprentz wrote:
| To counter the Washington Pizza Index, I propose that the United
| States establish a Strategic Pizza Reserve. Daily pizza orders
| from Domino's will be stablized at slightly above average demand.
| Excess pizzas will be frozen and stored in the Reserve, possibly
| stacked in former missile silos. During peak demand periods,
| pizzas will be released from the Reserve to supplement the
| stablilized daily supply. The government may also release pizzas
| from the Reserve to aid survivors of natural disasters.
| zasdffaa wrote:
| Check out the global strategic maple syrup reserve
| (https://www.ediblegeography.com/syrup-stockpiles-wine-
| lakes-...)
| squokko wrote:
| The Strategic Pizza Reserve idea is centralized and obsolete.
| Instead there should be a decentralized Web3 pizza reserve
| policy where people store a few pizzas in their freezers for
| situations where they are needed. Policy compliance can be
| arrested and verified on the blockchain.
| Invictus0 wrote:
| Pizzas are not all made equal my friend. Instead of serving
| monotonous frozen pizzas, let us bake pizzas with non-
| fungible toppings. A large supply of unique, all-American
| pizzas is all that stands between us and anarchy itself.
| Wistar wrote:
| SPDN. Strategic Pizza Distribution Networks.
| xg15 wrote:
| While sounding reasonable on first glance, I caution that this
| strategy might impose risks for national security: There is
| substantial difference how much satisfaction a fresh pizza can
| cause vs a frozen, stored and reheated pizza. So by restricting
| consumption to reheated pizzas, you might end up with unhappy,
| overstressed staffers. Unhappy staffers will make worse
| decisions, and worse decisions might potentially cause a
| government crisis to spiral out of control.
|
| So for the sake of world piece, do not reheat the pizza.
| MichaelCollins wrote:
| For the life of me, I cannot fathom why somebody would ruin
| leftover pizza by heating it.
| xboxnolifes wrote:
| While I prefer my leftover pizza cold, I don't see how
| reheating pizza in the oven ruins it.
| darth_avocado wrote:
| The best way is to reheat it on low temperatures in an
| oven. Heats it just enough without ruining it.
| williamscales wrote:
| Pizza French toast
| CharlesW wrote:
| State secret: Reheat leftover pizza with a skillet.
| https://www.dropbox.com/s/4kj2348rt1n4l82/reheat-
| instruction...
| [deleted]
| mysterydip wrote:
| I've used an air fryer with good success.
| mjevans wrote:
| I avoid leftovers at all costs...
|
| But a proper convection toaster oven does wonders too.
| Problem there is if it's a cheesy or greasy slice.
| gullywhumper wrote:
| How can we be sure a President with poor approval ratings won't
| release a bunch of pizzas right before an election? Politically
| motivated pizza parties seem like a cynical abuse of power.
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