goodbye, di fara

In a crushing blow to people who feel crushed by this sort of blow, Midwood's Di Fara pizza has been shut down. Whether or not it's for good will likely depend on whether the owner can scrounge up the $200,000 that is owed in state taxes, or Mayor DeBlasio manages to get the state to forgive the debt.

This wouldn't be a big deal -- standalone business shut down all the time. But it's big news because Di Fara is kind of a local icon. It's often cited as being the best or among the best pizza shops in this city that prides itself on pizza. As near as I understand it (and I'm not really paying close attention, so I could be getting details wrong), the restaurant owes back taxes. They had worked out a payment plan which would have kept them open. But they missed a payment on that plan (when they were temporarilly shut down for health code violations. So, this week, they were shuttered by the state. DeBlasio (with whom I usually disagree) floated the idea of having the tax debt forgiven (an awful idea), but Governor Andrew Cuomo (with whom I usually disagree) shot down that idea. Good for him.

Now, why am I bothering to comment on this? Well, for starters, I like good pizza as much as the next guy. But also, this is ,my chance to share my Di Fara experience -- I ate there. Once.

It was June 28, 2014 (the reason I know the date will be revealed in the narrative -- have patience). My sister was in town. She had recently seen an article that purported to name the best pizza shop in each of the 50 states, and she had set herself to the task of trying each of those bests*. Since Di Fara was picked as New York's best (spoiler alert: I disagree), we decided to go check it out.

So my family, my sister, and two other guests we had staying with us all drove down to Midwood for pizza. Be aware that the drive from Jamaica, Queens, to Midwood, Brooklyn, is not a five minute jaunt. On a Saturday night, even with decent traffic, it take can take an hour or more. Anyway, we got there. It wasn't crowded or anything, but it was going to be a long wait for our two pies because there was one person running the place, and he was working very slowly. The pizza was expensive -- much more so than your typical pizzeria.

When we got our pizza -- we had ordered two pies, so it took  a long time to get it -- it was...good. Not great. Good. Maybe better than average. But the best in the state? No. I have been to better pizza shops -- notably Lucia on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, which is my personal favorite. It was a little different than the typical Neopolitan pie. It was drenched in oil -- the old man poured extra olive oil on it (one of his signature touches, apparently). It also had extra basil on it -- another Di Fara signature. Those unique touches, and the fact that it's been the same old man for decades contribute to the Di Fara mystique.

I was wearing a shirt with a math joke on it, and someone else there asked if we had ordered two pies in honor of Tau Day**. And that's how I remember that it was June 28. But it was just a coincidence. I also know that it was a Saturday night because, the next day I mentioned have gone there to an Orthodox Jewish colleague who lives in Midwood. He asked why, if I wanted pizza in Midwood (which has many kosher places), did I go to a nonkosher place. I asked rhetorically, if he could think of any reason that I couldn't go to a kosher place on that evening.*** And that exchange is why I remember that this happened on a Saturday night. The last time June 28 was on a Saturday was 2014. The time before that was 2008, and I know that this happened more recently than that. So June 28, 2014 it was.

Anyway, I was interested to learn of Di Fara's closure. But I won't be losing any sleep over it. There are many places that are better, cheaper and more convenient.

*Yeah, my family is prone to that sort of thing.

**The number, pi (named after and indicated by the Greek letter pi), is defined as the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. As it is an irrational number, it cannot be completely written out in decimal form.But it is It's approximately equal to 3.14. Some mathematicians prefer to work with tau, defined as twice pi. Since it is approximately 6.28, June 28 (6/28) is sometimes called Tau Day.

***As a general rule, if a restaurant is open on the Sabbath, it is not reliably kosher -- at least not reliably enough for this colleague's milieu.