Third and Long Memories

Twice in the past week, I found myself passing the corner of Third Avenue and 51st St., once in a car and yesterday on foot. When I worked at a publishing house on Madison Avenue in the late 80's, my friend Leslie and I sometimes came here for pizza. The pizza wasn't very good, but it was cheap and a good excuse to get away from the office and the blandness of Madison Avenue for a few minutes.

There wasn't much left of the old Third Avenue in those days. Two blocks north, Philip Johnson's  "Lipstick Building" was going up. There's even less now. Just a lonely block here and there of those four-story tenements with first-floor storefronts.

What was the name of that pizza place?