Cogan’s Pizza vs. Jerome Must End!
Words Jesse Scaccia
Saturday, September 26th, 2009 at 9:40 am
If Norfolk were a Civil War battle, and AltDaily were the field, then the reason arms were raised would be because one tall, Jewsexy writer said the staff at a local pizza bar was salty.
Or so it seems if you edit this site and all you do all day is stare at it.
Here’s the quick and sticky breakdown of what happened:
1. Jerome writes a series called “Reinventing Norfolk” where he goes somewhere in town he used to go with his ex-girlfriend, and tries to ‘recapture’ the place from his memories.
2. In his latest installment he talked about Cogan’s.
3. Jerome doesn’t like Cogan’s because he thinks the staff are gay-bashing, anti-Semite, bad daddy, cut-off short wearing Puddle of Mudd fans.
4. Cogan’s people responded in the comments section by calling Jerome an Andre Leon Talley look-a-like, blamed him for taking Mary’s virginity, good daughter, never-nude, Nickelback fan.
The one on the left is Jerome, middle is the bartender, to the right is the blonde waitress that has a bit of a Scarlett Johansen thing going after a beer and a half. (Which is a compliment.)
I am writing to ask that Jerome and the Cogan’s people make like NKOTB and get the band back together again.
Enough. For real.
If Jerome’s one major critique of Cogan’s (the saltiness of the staff) is true, it’s really not such a big f’ing deal. To those of you who agree, it’s almost a rule that cool bars have to have an elitist, ornery staff. A crusty, holier-than-thou staff might be annoying sometimes and make you feel a little self-conscious for a fleeting second, but it’s the kind of place Nick Hornby or Chuck Klosterman would write about. And I want to live in a place that Nick Hornby or Chuck Klosterman might write about.
To the Cogan’s people, well, I’d be remiss in my duty as an honest person if I didn’t point out that you totally proved Jerome’s point with your name calling aggression. But let’s ignore that; you felt attacked, and you had every right to defend this bar you love that also pays your bills. I actually wish y’all had defended your arrogance. “Fuck yeah we’re cocky. We’ve got the best fucking pizza place in town and the best fucking bar. We earned it.” And please realize that Jerome wasn’t literally blaming Cogan’s for his troubles, and that the article was just one fairly downtrodden person’s opinion. Don’t forget the implicit subjectivity of the word, and remember that standards of rudeness vary widely between individuals. If you did think you were a dick you’d change it, right?
Most of all:
Stop this nonsense because it’s the wrong argument to be having. We’re on the same team. If you read this site, your vision of Norfolkian Utopia would be one where Colley and Colonial (and everywhere else) are populated only by independent local businesses with character. Businesses like Cogan’s. Rather than bicker amongst ourselves, let’s turn our collective fire toward the real enemies: the box stores, the chains, the corporations where not one employee or owner would actually care enough to comment back, and the impending cultural doom where there’s only one restaurant left in the whole world, and it’s called something horrible like McDonaldbuck’s, and they only serve Budweiser (not even Bud Lite or Select).
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Jesse is the editor in chief of AltDaily, and he's going to take this bio seriously, but not so seriously that he's going to continue in the third person. I've been involved with a bunch of local projects and civic groups in various roles, including: Hampton Roads, The Canvas; Art | Everywhere, Street Performance in Norfolk; Survive Norfolk; Hampton Roads Pride/Out in the Park; Bike Norfolk; re:Vision Norfolk, and such.
I originally came to Norfolk as a Perry Morgan fellow in ODU's creative writing program. Before that I bummed around quite a bit, writing stacks of books that never got published, hitchhiking, couchsurfing, riding the Greyhound up down and back across this country. Some of my favorite jobs and volunteer gigs have included working on organic farms in Ireland; being first mate on an old sail boat in Holland; working at a long-term home for young men in South Africa; being a journalist and high school teacher in New York and California; washing dishes in Yosemite National Park; teaching English in DC and swimming in Florida; and interning at ESPN in Bristol, which was much less cool that you'd want it to be. My career highlights have been having three of my op-eds run in the New York Times, and being the executive producer of a six-part docu-drama on BET. Because school is cool I have three master's degrees (ODU for MFA, NYU for magazine journalism, University of Connecticut for secondary English education). I live in Norfolk because I believe in its potential. Email your ideas or nicely couched criticism to jesse@altdaily.com.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
Other posts by Jesse Scaccia.
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lol, McDonaldbuck’s.
Seems like sort of a tribute to the growing influence of altdaily that it attracted forty people to snap at each other over Cogans. I probably wouldn’t have said anything about the story in the first place if I hadn’t just taken my whole family there the night before to eat pizza on my birthday. I had a manifestly different experience than old Jerome. Funny how everyone brings their own perspective to a place, and how Cogans seems to function as a sort of “perspective amplifier.” I hadn’t realized until I read this article just how much loyalty/disgust that place inspires in people. I feel like I understand it much more broadly now. I just hope that I can continue to go there and experience something like the uncomplicated enjoyment that I have in the past…
Not a bad summation. It should be noted that, as far as I can tell, only three staff members actually responded, only one of whom used salty language which was used towards another commenter, not Jerome. Can’t speak for the others, though!
Just to be clear: it’s certainly about something/someone more complicated than a mere “ex-girlfriend”. And, when put into perspective, my relationship with her is a lot higher on my list of priorities than my relationship with Cogan’s. It’s the thought that counts, Jesse.
hating for its own sake is just the wackest, but this plea for peace and positivity the moment folks take umbrage is just the weakest, and dubiously sincere on mr. jesse’s part.
jerome is allowed to not care for a popular spot, as am i. commenters are allowed to invite us to eat a dick (not literally, jesse). that’s how the internet rolls. at least jerome had the balls to publicly and honestly express his opinion rather than snidely bitching at the back table like myself and others.
if anything, the response shows that a blog is not going to break the cogan’s clientele, so why the fear? if altdaily is going to have a variety of material on seven cities culture, how is it going to appear in the long term if every negative impression that gets some blowback results in a cowardly “can’t we all just get along?” apologia from the editor?
1. I wouldn’t call what I wrote an apology. I made it pretty clear that I agreed with Jerome’s basic premise.
2. Internet yelling makes us all look stupid.
3. Cowardly? Fuck you, Booker. We’ve been extremely critical of PETA, Skinnies, 201 Twenty-One, The Pilot, and even a mentally deranged person in my short time as co-editor. Some of those, and Cogan’s, *were* potential advertisers that we can essentially cross off the list. And you know we’re not exactly a couple of Richie Riches over here. You can say a lot of things about us, but cowardly is not one of them.
4. Whoops, just went against my own #2.
5. Whenever we do a story where there is an independent local business that adds character to our community involved, the last word on the issue will be a positive one, (unless they’re skinning terriers). Being a champion of the points of light in this largely uninspired suburbanopolis is a far more important value to me than drawing a hard line on issues like whether a bartender was a dick to Jerome. If that makes me seem like _____________, so be it. If it makes me feel bad that’s just pride fucking with me anyway. And if you find that disingenuous or insincere, well, it’s just a lot more expedient to tell you to go fuck yourself, so I’ll stick with that.
Yeah, you tell them Jesse. Perhaps some of thoe people should just get off their fat asses more often and THINK! and be more open to constructive criticism…Why would you need to apologize? Unfucking believable this guy! Really; apolize, ha!
Ok, no more screaming. We are gonna end this in a happy note right?
We are all happy, we -must of all maybe?- still like Cogans. Some of the staff is not always nice, now they know…
I assume we are all adults here and can just move on, there is much more to life than this, really.
Now, altoghether….ooooommmmm!
Happy faces, work with me…..
Awwwww.
wow. all this is really ridiculous. if only people were this passionate about starving children or the raping of our human rights. jesus…
Regardless, the original article sounded biased.
The whole “I didn’t get invited to the party” mentality towards
counter-culture is trite, and all I really got from the piece
was embarrassment transfer.
Don’t get mad because you didn’t get a fake smile when you sat
at the bar, when the staff have been dealing with crazy drunks all
night. Go with a friend, get your beer and your pizza and just
do your thing.
Real talk from a patron.
By the way, email if you want a real writer. Hah!