99˘ Fresh Pizza

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We are not Harvard-trained behavioral economists, but we do know enough to tell you that when a dining establishment makes a good slice of pizza for 99 cents, the chances are excellent that there’s going to be a rabble of slavering slice hounds beating down its door. Such has proved to be the case at 99˘ Fresh Pizza, the second hole-in-the-wall branch of a slice-joint concept so foolproof, so compelling, that the elusive owner—who goes only by Abdul—has decided to spell it out in the name. Don’t get the wrong idea. Di Fara’s—or even the old Joe’s—this ain’t. The cheese is standard-issue Polly-O or its equivalent, the sauce is not made from D.O.P. San Marzano tomatoes picked and canned by Italian peasants, and the crust is a little pale and lacking in character. But the pizza is fresh as advertised owing to the high rate of turnover, and it has a decent, ungloppy balance. And even though Abdul may have cannily neglected to mention anywhere that, with tax, a 99-cent slice actually works out to $1.07, who’s complaining? — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

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