Growing up, director and quintessential New Yorker Spike Lee lived on pizza, particularly from a pizzeria on the corner of Baltic and Henry Streets in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill.
“My mother would give me a quarter for lunch every day,” Lee told Metro. “It was 15 cents for a slice and a dime for a Coke. Every day, I would have a slice of pizza and a cup of Coke, in a paper cup, for a quarter.”
Lee’s lifelong love of this very New York staple made him the perfect person to help JetBlue launch “Pie in the Sky,” a limited-edition pizza delivery program that will send authentic pizza pies from Patsy’s Pizzeria of East Harlem to Los Angeles from May 9-11.
Since 1933, Patsy’s Pizzeria has been drawing in neighbors, celebrities and foodies alike for its classic brick-oven pies, which you can get by the slice. Rumor even has it that Patsy’s Pizzeria, which Lee called “the cathedral of pizza in New York City,” was the first to sell by the slice.
“As New York’s Hometown Airline, we know there’s no slice like a New York slice,” said Elizabeth Windram, JetBlue’s vice president of marketing. “In creating the first-ever coast-to-coast pizza delivery by an airline, we’re bringing the best pizza to Los Angeles to share an authentic taste of our home.”
So what makes our pizza so damn good? Lee thinks it’s a combination of the water, dough or “just the New York City air and whatever je ne sais quoi is in Italian, that’s what it is,” he said.
While we may never know the exact secret is, we do know how Los Angeles residents should not eat their Patsy’s Pizzeria pies.
“People are gonna look at you funny if you’re eating your pizza with a knife and fork,” Lee said. “Usually if someone’s doing that, they’re just a tourist. As a New Yorker, you just don’t do that. If you do, we’re gonna slap you in the head.”
To help Angelenos eat their pizza even more, Lee did a “DOs and DON’Ts of Eating New York Pizza” video for “Pie in the Sky,” which you can watch below.
How Angelenos can order authentic pies from Patsy’s Pizzeria
JetBlue’s “Pie in the Sky” promotion runs from May 9-11. Los Angeles residents can visit jetblue.pizza to start their order and validate their zip code to ensure they’re in the delivery zone.
Ordering begins at midnight PDT each day, and quantities are limited to 350 pies per day, so first come, first served for a 16-inch cheese pie for $12 or $15 for pepperoni.
Angelenos can track their order as it flies from JFK to LAX, and once it’s ready, they’ll be notified of their delivery ETA, which will be between 7-10 p.m. PDT. Then they can enjoy their slice and share it on social media using #JetBluePieInTheSky.
