Politics everywhere: The art on a restaurant's wall causes indigestion in one customer
Short story shorter: Andy Shallal runs some DC-area eateries. Bradley Blakeman loves Shallal’s pizza. One recent night while dining at the Shirlington branch, Blakeman looks up from his deliciious thin-crust pizza and what does he espy on the restaurant’s wall? Among other things, posters of Che Guevara and Lenin. Blakeman e-mails Shallal to object and urge Shallal to remove the offending posters. Shallal e-mails back, refusing to do so. Blakeman vows never to return. He’ll be eating his pizza elsewhere from now on. Let me suggest that political scientists consider employing the Pizza Tradeoff Test (PTT) as a true measure of ideological commitment. Someone who is willing to forsake a really tasty slice in deference to his political beliefs definitely qualifies. But what about Andy Shallal? He’s a true believer, too, but perhaps the PTT wouldn’t work so well for him, as he’s presumably gotten a little tired of eating pizza by now.
Anyway, as a service to Bradley Blakeman, here are some suggestions for other pizza joints to check out.
Comments
I would say get over yourself. Or learn to enjoy the irony of a business with symbols of socialism and communism decorating the walls.
Posted by: Jacob | November 9, 2009 10:22 AM
Andy Shallal not only runs some great places to eat (with fair prices and many healthy choices, too) but has a long history of making his spaces available for local community organizations and displaying artwork by locals. His Busboys and Poets is a popular place for documentary and indie films to be shown and discussed. Dutch TV filmed me there once for a very odd interview about the 2008 elections. The interview wanted to use pizza slices to discuss statistics…and then eat it.
(Aside: Some DCists may recall a very popular bar on U Street in the 1990s that was decorated entirely in Soviet motifs. Don’t know what happened to it or what it was named. I assume the decoration was ironic.)
Posted by: Doug Hess | November 9, 2009 12:24 PM