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Last Call For Real Original Ray's Pizza, Now Going For $1.50 A Slice
By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 30, 2011
Modified Oct 30, 2011
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By
John Del Signore
Published Oct 30, 2011
Modified Oct 30, 2011
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The real original Ray's Pizza on Prince Street is folding its last slice today. A worker at the widely ripped off restaurant tells us that they're making pies "until the dough runs out. $1.50! $1.50! Come down now!" The slices at Ray's usually go for $2.65, but today everything must go. Next week everything will be sold at auction, and when asked if he felt sad about all this, the employee told us he was too busy to feel anything.
It seems that Ray's is the victim of a complicated real estate battle between family members with opposing interests in the space, which also holds an Italian restaurant and apartments in addition to the pizzeria. Current owner Helen Mistretta, a 79-year-old cousin of the original owner Ralph "Ray" Cuomo (who spent the later years of his life in prison for alleged mob ties), has decided to walk away from the location, where Cuomo opened almost half a century ago. This is the second Ray's pizza to close in Manhattan this month, raising the question: is any Ray safe?
DNAinfo stopped by the restaurant for its final weekend, and Mistretta said, "We've been getting constant, steady customers who can't get enough of this place. They're coming until the end." And server Nuri Beltre, who has worked at Ray's for 23 years, told DNAinfo, "In all honesty, I'm in shock. I tell the customers 'I'll see you," not 'goodbye' because I don't believe it's really happening."
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original ray's pizza
pizza
ray's pizza
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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