After our fabulous dining experience at Brooklyn’s Di Fara Pizza, Dodger Fan and I left the car in Brooklyn and hopped on the M Train to Manhattan. Since it was such a beautiful, sunny winter’s day to enjoy a walk in the City, our destination was The High Line.  There and back, we couldn’t help but notice the preponderance of dollar pizza joints. The Snob had previously mentioned this new phenomenon in his piece on The Price of a Slice, but he had yet to visit one. We figured we’d give it a try, so we stopped at a St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza that we previously passed.

St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza started in the East Village on St. Marks Place and now has eight Manhattan locations along with the one we visited in Chelsea on Sixth Avenue between 17^th and 18^th Streets. On this Saturday afternoon, the place was surely jumping! Whether they were repeat customers or first time visitors like us, I wasn’t sure. But, the big signs outside leering you in were hard to miss:  $1.00 a slice (50 cents per extra topping), or $2.75 for two slices and a drink—certainly a bargain in today’s economy.

After starting my day eating the best, I tried to be objective. My plain cheese slice had the NY-style look, but it tasted pretty horrible. It was not crisp at all but, in fact, rather mushy.  Although I can’t substantiate the New York Times article’s claim that dollar-joints use cheap ingredients and frozen crust, I can attest that it was bland and quite tasteless.  I ate half of it and threw the rest away. Dodger Fan was less offended and at least finished his slice. Perhaps, he was overly hungry.  Luckily, he caught a break since it was his turn to pay–springing for our dollar slices while I earlier paid $5 for the Di Fara’s ones.  He summed our eating experience up rather succinctly, “You get what you pay for.”

Experiment complete.  I don’t plan to seek out any more dollar slices. While 2 Bros. may be a cheap way to grab a quick slice, it is certainly not one for the pizza connoisseur.

PIZZA SNOB RATING     * Should Not Have Been Called Pizza

St. Marks 2 Bros. Pizza
601 6^th Avenue
New York, NY 10011
www.2brospizza.com