Seriously, what’s up with that? Pizza’s popular (I’m not going out on a limb, am I?). Fast food is popular. Why is it so difficult to get slices in pizzerias outside of big cities?
I live in Montgomery County, MD. There’s tons of places that sell take-out/delivery of respectable quality. There are plenty of sit-down places with waitress service that serve decent whole pies. But a place with counter service that sells slices, why so few? My initial reaction is that low demand is responsible for this, but that can’t be right. After all, there’s tons of other fast food places that serve less palatable food and presumably make a profit. WTF?
BTW, I know about Three Brothers (Best one, by far: Columbia). There aren’t that many, though.
I think it’s because slice selling really requires a place with a lot of foot traffic/lunch business. And delivery of a slice would be impractical. and most pizza places depend on the delivery end of the business.
Plus leftover pizza is much more palatable than a leftover cheeseburger or taco.
To make a burger, a taco, a hoagie, a gyro, or whatever, you make a taco, a hoagie, a gyro, or whatever.
To make a slice of pizza, you make eight slices of pizza as one unit and then cut out the individual pieces. Aside from Just Cheese or Cheese-and-Pepperoni, every outlet in the country would go broke keeping a whole range of pizzas with a myriad of toppings ready for delivery when they would probably have to throw out most of them, whole, at the end of the night.
Now, what you might want to ask is why more pizza places do not offer calzones or strombolis. For that I do not have a really good answer, because I suspect that they might, indeed, find a market for those in the way that there is already a market for individual sandwiches and wraps. (Of course, it is also possible that such places are already offering strombolis and you are so fixated on a “slice of pizza” that you are failing to recognize the opportunity.)
Little Caesar’s (if you like their product) actually does offer pizza by the slice–limited to cheese or pepperoni-and-cheese.
I will admit to being mildly surprised that not one of the major/national brands appears to offer strombolis or calzones. Perhaps the failure of such products to catch on in the general restaurant business has shaped the decision to omit them from the fast food/take out/delivery shop menus.
Downtown where I live there are two big pizza places within 300 yards of each other. One serves single slices that are big as hell and the other you have to order a whole pizza. I only go to the one that offers single slices.
There are a billion of these in Montreal, usually tiny little independent places although there are some chainlets such as Madona. The pizza is always dreadful – exactly what is required after a very intense night of dancing.
If they don’t sell slices, they’re not a real pizzeria. My buddy Dan has always said - “You never see a hungry kid in an Italian neighborhood”. I think the whole philosophy behind that statement and your question are about the same.
Anyways, where I live, there are dozens and dozens of independent pizza joints that sell top-notch pizza and you can buy slices. Margharita-type pizzas, Sicilian pizza, Greek pizza, you name it. Man. My mouth is starting to water. Think I’ll go grab a slice for lunch today.
Yep that’s right down the street from Germantown. Though I’m hardpressed to think of any other places off the top of my head in Germantown itself. Though the Giant near the Boarders and Best Buy off of 27 used to serve slices of pizza. I know there are other places, but I haven’t bought just a slice in a long time.
I’m a “little squares” kinda gal, myself. I don’t see many “slice” style joints in the Chicago area, though I’m in the 'burbs and may be out of touch with this travesty. SQUARES FOREVAH, BABY!
Are you telling me there are places in this great country of ours where I might have to walk more than 5 minutes to get a slice of pizza? What is this, the third world?
I think it is the foot traffic issue. We do have one place that offers slices, because it is right in town and a lot of students go there. But most places rely on take-out and sometimes delivery, which requires a pie.
No kidding. Within a ten minute walk of my front door lie Deja Vu Pizza, Arinell, Cable Car, Cybelle’s, Bus Stop, Nizario’s, Marcello’s, Escape from New York, Mythic, and Volate’s. There was a thread on this topic a year or so ago, and I was flabbergasted that some places don’t have pizza by the slice.
I don’t buy the foot-traffic issue. We have a slew of pizza places in my town (no “business offices” within walking distance) and they sell slices (and pies) day and night. This is on Long Island about 45 miles east of Manhattan.
I guess the folks in MD don’t have the proper pizza business model.
How come Sally Field never begs for money for this? “For just $0.25 a day, you can help a suburbanite have a pizza place within walking distance from his home.”
Let’s not discuss actually getting suburbanites to walk anyplace. One issue at a time, and all that…
When I was living out a two duffel bags in downtown Madison I used to practically live on Rozino’s by the slice. Huge slices and they didn’t care if you took a while to eat them, which was always nice on a bitter Wisconsin winter day. They’re still listed downtown on some websites but I thought they closed that location when the Overture abomination took its giant dump on downtown.
