We don't even know a black owner of a pizzeria. I mean, we do now.

April 7, 2022 5:41 AM

Daym Drops reviews the only black-owned pizzeria in Connecticut, and interviews the owner. (SLYT)

Regarding the "enigmatic" chopped cheese sandwich.

posted by gauche (16 comments total)

The best pizza in my hometown was owned and run by Greeks. You don't have to be Italian to make good pizza. Or white, for that matter.
posted by tommasz at 7:37 AM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul_sandwich
posted by neuracnu at 8:34 AM on April 7, 2022

As in

St. Paul Sandwich
posted by y2karl at 9:39 AM on April 7, 2022

Conversely I found an authentic Brooklyn pizza joint run by a bunch of people from Brooklyn in the middle of Kansas. It was actually good and tasted like NYC style pizza, disproving the water myth. Though if you eat pizza in the middle of nowhere Kansas, the only people who appreciate how you eat the pizza are the native Brooklyn owners. Everyone else was eating with knives and forks (?!) and not in the standard NYC style. You have to eat it folded standing up, with your laptop bag strap strewn across your chest, "You guys ever eat at Lombardos on 3rd ave in Bay Ridge?"
posted by geoff. at 9:50 AM on April 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Paul_sandwich

an egg foo young patty (made with mung bean sprouts and minced white onions) served with dill pickle slices, white onion, mayonnaise, and lettuce between two slices of white bread

Regarding the "enigmatic" chopped cheese sandwich.

ground beef is grilled on a flat-top with peppers, onions, and seasoning, chopped with a metal spatula, covered with cheese slices, and dressed with standard-issue condiments like lettuce, tomato, hot sauce, and mayo.

I guess they're both sandwiches, but I'm not seeing any deep similarity.
posted by zamboni at 9:52 AM on April 7, 2022 [4 favorites]

Thanks for this! I sent it to my Hartford-adjacent sister and she has just reported picking up a chopped cheese and a pizza with everything from Bro’s Dough. I await reviews.
posted by kinnakeet at 1:04 PM on April 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

kinnakeet, if your sister is willing, please share her review. I (also Hartford-adjacent) picked up a chopped cheese last week on the strength of this video and was pleased with it as my first chopped cheese experience. I have not been able to persuade my kids that we should try the pizza, as they are deeply loyal to our local pizza joint. One of these days.
posted by gauche at 1:31 PM on April 7, 2022

Thanks for this! I live just over the river from Hartford and will be trying that chopped cheese sandwich ASAP. The pizza looks good too.
posted by Plafield at 2:59 PM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

Interesting how a Turkish pizza is rolled up.

A Chinese pizza doesn't have filling and is more like a dumpling. A friend claimed that the Chinese taught Marco Polo how to cook pizza and he took the idea back to Italy. Not sure about that one.
posted by Narrative_Historian at 3:22 PM on April 7, 2022

Man, that chopped cheese looks damn good. 500 miles may be a bit far for a sandwich, however.
posted by SystematicAbuse at 3:28 PM on April 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

I am so hungry right now and this is not helping. I can hear it crunching.
posted by bendy at 6:52 PM on April 7, 2022

Chopped cheese is SO good. It's been popular with high school kids in the Bronx and Harlem for a while and seems to have crept it's way across the entire city like wildfire thanks to social media. I predict in 3-5 years it will go national the way a philly cheesesteak has, and will go on to become one of America's great classic sandwiches. Mark my words. I'll even come out fighting and say that a chopped cheese, at its best, is *better* than a cheesesteak. Something about the way the ground beef browns into these crisp little nuggets, with the melty American cheese binding it all together.

Any bodega in the city will make you one regardless of whether it's on their menu. Seriously terrific sandwich, if you're drunk at 2am and in need of some late night sustenance do yourself a huge favor.
posted by windbox at 7:17 PM on April 7, 2022 [2 favorites]

A good cheesesteak is sublime, but a bad one is crap on a hoagie roll. I welcome the blossoming of chopped cheese across the lands.
posted by mollweide at 7:26 PM on April 7, 2022

Everyone else was eating with knives and forks (?!)

...like Italians?
posted by pompomtom at 2:19 AM on April 8, 2022

Kenji makes a Harlem Chopped Cheese.
posted by gauche at 8:34 AM on April 8, 2022 [2 favorites]

A local cheesesteak chain has been doing a cheeseburger sub that’s indistinguishable from what Kenji describes for decades. It’s good?
posted by theclaw at 11:44 AM on April 9, 2022