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De Blasio blasts Domino’s over $30 New Year’s Eve pizzas

By Ben Cohn and Bruce Golding

New York Post
January 1, 2019

Mayor Bill de Blasio got hot and crusty Wednesday over a Post report about a Domino’s pizzeria in Midtown that sold pies for $30 apiece to penned-in New Year’s Eve revelers in Times Square.

“Jacking up your prices on people trying to celebrate the holidays? Classy, @dominos,” de Blasio tweeted from his official city account.

“To the thousands who came to Times Square last night to ring in 2020, I’m sorry this corporate chain exploited you — stick it to them by patronizing one of our fantastic LOCAL pizzerias.”

But Hizzoner’s furious accusations of profiteering drew heaps of scorn from Twitter users who promptly delivered a menu of insults that included reminders of his infamous 2014 pizza peccadillo on Staten Island.

“Don’t worry @dominos this is coming from a guy who eats pizza with a knife and fork. New Yorkers have enough love for you and their local pizzeria,” tweeted Jeff Anzulewicz of the Brooklyn-based consulting company A Design Desk.

Multiple commenters also pointed the left-leaning pol to the basic laws of economics, with Matthew Baden tweeting: “How is this different to a million other things? Airlines, Uber, property. It’s called supply and demand.”

Others noted that many city pizzerias charge $4 a slice — which works out to $32 for a pie — and that restaurants regularly raise their rates on New Year’s Eve.

De Blasio — who tweeted a cropped screenshot of The Post’s article that obscured its origin and didn’t link back to the paper’s website — was also called out for seizing on the work of an outlet he’s claimed not to read.

“I thought you hated the Post,” tweeted Kevin Walsh, Webmaster of the site “Forgotten New York.”

The New Year’s Eve pizzas — which sold for more than twice the regular $14.49 price of a large cheese pie — were hawked by Domino’s delivery worker Ratan Banik, who did brisk business with hungry tourists waiting in holding pens for the ball drop.

“It’s absolutely worth it. It was hot. It seems like it just came out of the oven,” Amit Zanwar, 31, of New Jersey said Tuesday. “If he comes back, I will buy some more.”

The pizzas came from a franchise at 40th Street and Seventh Avenue, where a woman said the business had sold more than 50 pies by 6 p.m. and would continue offering them until the midnight ball drop.

The franchise has been selling New Year’s Eve pizzas in Times Square for more than 15 years, she added.

On Wednesday afternoon, the eatery was packed with patrons, including two NYPD cops on their lunch break.

Sarah Reyes, 19, of Queens, described herself as a loyal Domino’s customer and defended the New Year’s Eve price hike.

“What’s wrong with Domino’s cashing in? Everyone else was doing it last night,” Reyes said. “The mayor has more to worry about. How about he fixes the trains?”

A customer who gave his name as Robert said it was wrong for de Blasio to attack Domino’s because it “keeps people working.”

“Most people think it’s corporate but it’s important to the neighborhood,” he said. “I mean, they deliver cheap, fast food and they employ people.”

Store owner Robert Cookston declined to comment and referred The Post to a corporate spokesman who didn’t return a message.

Cookston, who delivered Domino’s pizzas in college during the 1980s and has at times owned more than two dozen franchises, has settled at least two suits that accused him of underpaying workers.