Little Caeser's comes to Bushwick
While some of us (me!) struggle to find work, others in the neighborhood are newly employed. I just found out that a Little Caesar's has opened up the street from me, on Broadway between Jefferson and Cornelia. This is a few blocks off my usual beaten path (it's about halfway between the Halsey and Gates stops on the J) so I didn't hear about it until somebody dumped a bunch of these promotional postcards on my stoop.
There was a time when I would get all huffy about big chains moving in over the Mom & Pop paradigm, but a) I used to live in Clinton Hill, which has been overrun with ostensibly M&P shops full of expensive, unnecessary goods and services (who needs that many type of french pastry?), and b) the storefront it took over was unoccupied, as were its neighbors up and down the block, and they had been that way for years.
You know how after a forest fire, the first things to sprout are the little ferns and underbrush type stuff? They thrive because there's no competition. Their success sets the literal groundwork for the recovery of the rest of the forest. Maybe the Little Caesar's and the Checkers and the Dunkin Donuts are these lil' recovery plants for Bushwick. Down in my end of the neighborhood, half the storefronts are unoccupied, so anybody willing to give it a shot is fine by me.
The Little Caesar's of my youth was strictly a financial proposition. They used to give you a 'free' pizza with every pizza ordered, hence their mnemonic chant-slogan, "PIZZA PIZZA." Of course I later realized that the cost of the 2nd pizza was already folded into the cost of the first, so it really wasn't such a good deal after all. Also in terms of quality, well, that too was a bit lacking. But I fell for the pitch and patronized them often as a teenager (I think I knew somebody who worked at one maybe). It seems they have abandoned the 2-for-1 pizza concept in favor of a more old-timey approach (round instead of square pie). So who knows if it's any good, I'll probably break down and try it out shortly. But Jimmy, you cry, aren't you a vegan? Well, one nice touch is that LC is touting the fact they can make a vegan pizza now. Things are looking up!
2 Comments
Little Ceasars is just fine Crappy 'Za, but trust them with vegan? Whoa, there. still $5? amazing if true. But what is on there, just no cheese? then it should be $3. I am very interested in the results you may experience. We have a(n) 'LC' across from Kroger's now.
Pizza is still my main source of dairy. 'bout one pizza every two weeks, sometimes two weeks in a row. I made some from scratch 2x this year already; first time in months. Baking in winter=Good! I likes me a bell pepper(red & green), onion, pineapple, and some kinda pork. OOoooooohh.
i am investigating their claims but from a faceless corporation context, vegan items aren't a bad idea, since animal products don't have the shelf life of vegetable alternatives. like how dry pasta is almost always vegan, but pasta made fresh is often made with eggs. so LC should be ok sans cheese. i too used to consumer regular pizza well into my vegan stage, but even that has fallen by the wayside these days. of course i barely leave the house.