Do you ever think about things that bring you pleasure and wonder why you can’t replicate them more often?

More often than not these pleasures came from places that you have visited and you can’t duplicate as often as you would like?

So, why did we get such pleasure. Are we romanced by some ideal state of mind that often could never live up to it’s expectation. It might be the aroma from the opening of a special red wine from France or California. Or the setting of the sun sitting on a beach in some sunny location.

Every time I was in the Napa Valley I would tell you that every sip of wine was fantastic and mind blowing - but was this really possible? Or was it the idea of wandering around beautiful wineries like the Coppola Family Winery that gave me these sensations?

Okay…okay…..lets be real - were talking about pizza here.

So realistically why and how can a simple $5 slice of cheese/flour create that same sense of rapture. Now of course if you have read any previous posts of mine you may get a sense that I do enjoy a good slice of pizza and even sometimes a bad slice.

There are more than a handful of cities that claim that they make the best pizza and NYC is certainly one of the best places to start.

Today, it’s very easy to get to NYC and if you want to have that great slice you can jump on a plane and in 90 minutes or less be in Manhattan. However, its going to cost you.

My memory of my first time at Prince Street Pizza goes back only a few years. I remember walking along Prince Street a few blocks east of Broadway and looking up and recalling that this is one of the most written about pizza joints. Obviously, I had to go in and get a slice of NY pizza.

It is a takeout only place and there was a long lineup. So….how was it? Okay, it was pretty good but again, was it really that good or had I bought into the hype surrounding it?

But alas the real reason behind this blog is you now don’t have to fly to the Big Apple to experience Prince Street Pizza. The website Blog TO announced way back in May 2022 we would be getting the first CDN location in the spring of 2023.

Well of course that date came and went and it wasn’t till October of this year that it finally opened. I knew it would be busy so I waited a week before venturing south to the corner of Spadina and Front. The article said it was in the “Well” which is a new real estate venture still under construction.

I wandered through the Well in pursuit of where it might be and after about 15 minutes of lost time, I decided it might make more sense to just ask someone.

Once I found it there was a long slow moving lineup that took about 40 minutes to get inside. I know….. its just a slice of pizza. Similar to the NYC experience this is takeout only.

I guess I didn’t remember but they are famous for their Sicilian and according to Blog TO it is an airy dough with a really full-bodied, spicy fra diavolo sauce." Each and every one is made "with the freshest, best ingredients. It's all made daily, with a lot of love and passion," according to the owner.

The best way to start? The Spicy Spring, the chain's signature square slice, layered with fresh mozzarella, followed by spicy sauce, more pepperoni than seems prudent to pack together, and a (perhaps superfluous) smattering of Pecorino Romano cheese.

Never one to rock the boat the Spicy Spring was going to be it. I grabbed two slices to take home with me and share with the “boss.” Now if you like hot then you will be fine but please note that the Spicy Spring is very, very spicy. Definately needed a glass of water nearby.

But, since it was lunch time and I was hungry, I asked for a slice of the Boozy Broome which was a traditional shape made up with Vodka sauce and fresh mozzarella.

It was very good.

When I was thinking about writing this post I started to wonder about other places that I’ve enjoyed and maybe are no longer with us. I had fond memories of this great place in midtown NYC called Ray Bari. It was located on 3rd Avenue at 56th.

If you were walking uptown towards Bloomingdales, I always made an effort to stop in and have a slice or two. It was a large location with lots of seating and many, many choices of differant types of slices.

I would continue to look for it on various trips and eventually, I learned that it closed a number of years ago - which is probably why I couldn’t find it anymore. A Google search came up short for reasons why?

In my research I learned some other interesting tidbits some of it relating back to Prince Street Pizza. Humour me here.

If you walked the streets of NYC you couldn’t help notice that there sure was a lot of guys named Ray selling pizza.

And guess what? There actually never was a Ray.

The first opening of Rays Pizza began in 1959 at 27 Prince Street by a man named Ralph Cuomo. Note that this now the home of Prince Street Pizza.

In the early 1960's he briefly had another Ray's Pizza at 1073 First Avenue near 59th Street, but he sold that, and in 1964 it ended up in the hands of Rosolino Mangano.

The NYT times wrote an in-depth article on the story of the “Ray’s”

The expansionist era began with Rosolino Mangano, an immigrant from Sicily, who used that First Avenue Ray's to found an empire which now includes a dozen Famous Original Ray's pizzerias in Manhattan, each adorned with a coat of arms featuring tomatoes, wheat and a cow.

During an interview at his flagship pizzeria, at 462 Columbus Avenue near 82d Street, Mr. Mangano insisted that he himself was the original Ray.

"Everybody knows me as Ray. I can't go no place -- Ray, Ray, Ray. Nobody ever heard of Ralph Cuomo. I was the one who made Ray famous."

Under further questioning, however, Mr. Mangano conceded that he had not been called Ray until he bought a Ray's Pizza. And later, in a gathering of the Rays at Mr. Cuomo's pizzeria in Little Italy, he grudgingly pointed to Mr. Cuomo when asked to name the original Ray. His conciliatory attitude was due to the efforts of . . .

A Ray Named Gary. In 1981 Mr. Mangano sold a Ray's pizzeria at Second Avenue and 51st Street to Gary Esposito, who grew up in Floral Park, Queens. Mr. Esposito opened five more Original Ray's pizzerias on Long Island and in New Jersey, but he showed one remarkable bit of restraint.

"I have never said that I am Ray," he declared last week. "That's my claim to originality."

After opening his second Original Ray's, Mr. Esposito got curious. "Who was Ray? The mystery, the mystique was so built up that nobody knew anymore," he said. He investigated, found Mr. Cuomo in Little Italy, bought the right to the name and set up a joint company with him to franchise Ray's.

But when they tried to get a Federal trademark for the name, they ran into opposition from Mr. Mangano, and the legal fight dragged on for five years, until Mr. Mangano agreed to join their company last year. This coalition prepared a common logo and recipe to be licensed to Famous Original Ray's Pizza shops, and Mr. Mangano himself went around in a limousine several months ago to warn unlicensed Rays.

"I went to a dozen places in New York and New Jersey," Mr. Mangano recalled. "I said to them, 'You want to be Ray's Pizza, you got to pay. You got to use the same sign, put up the same tile inside, use the same ingredients. You don't want to pay, take down the sign.' "

It is unclear how many other Rays are out there or how many will choose to fight the lawsuits the Rays coalition expects to file in Federal Court in Manhattan by the end of this week. At least one remains unbowed:

A Ray Named Joseph. He does not claim to be named Ray, but Joseph Bari insists he is Ray. In 1973 he bought a Ray's Pizza formerly owned by Mr. Mangano at Third Avenue and 76th Street, and he went on to open five other pizzerias in Manhattan and on Long Island. He named them Ray Bari Pizza.

Who is Ray Bari?

"There is no Ray Bari," said Mr. Bari, an immigrant from Sicily. Someone else may have been Ray's on a small street in Little Italy before us, but we were the ones who made Ray's popular."

Although Mr. Bari once claimed that he had the sole rights to use any form of the name Ray -- because he had registered it with New York State -- he now says that he is resigned to letting the Rays coalition get a Federal trademark for the Ray's and Famous Ray's and Original Ray's. But he wants to keep the name Ray Bari, and his lawyers are battling the Rays coalition's lawyers on this issue.

Talk about going full circle. What started with Prince Street, then to Ray Bari followed by the pizza war’s of the Ray’s. And from what I’m told there still are over 40 pizza locations in NYC with the name Ray.

And of course the beginning of Prince Street Pizza would not have happened without the closing of the original Ray’s Pizza. Following a dispute of rent and other legal issues and after 52 years it was time to close according to the owners back in 2011.

I have made it to the Toronto location twice and each time there was a lineup. Is it worth the hype? Sure why not. Everyone has their own fantasies….enjoy.

Of course hopefully we will all get excited with the 2024 launch of Shake Shack. Then we can start talking about hamburgers….till next time.