NYC: Pizza Encounter

Saturday night before seeing How To Succeed In Business..., we wanted New York style pizza for dinner. Since the theater was pretty close to our hotel, we decided to just go to a pizza place near Times Square. 

This wasn't the smartest idea. It was more like Sbarro than New York style.

But you know, it's all about the experience. 

I guess part of the experience is protecting your wallet. Here's my interaction with the cashier:

"$22.30," he says.

I slide $30.30 across the counter

"Thank you," he says and shuts the register drawer.

"Oh, I gave you $30."

He smiles, opens the drawer and hands me $3.00, and shuts the drawer again.

I take the three ones and say, "I need $8.00."

He smiles again, opens the drawer, and gives me a five. 

My first thought was, "This guy's really an idiot with math. Why didn't he just plug in the numbers so the cash register would give him the amount of change?" To evade taxes, I guess. Then I wondered how many clueless tourists, who don't think about their change, get scammed by this guy.

He's one of two things: an idiot or a sleazy scammer.

I wish I remembered the name of the restaurant. I'd tell you to avoid it, but oh well! All part of the NYC experience, right?