The Whitman tradition of going to Sweet Basil Pizzeria‘s monthly $1 slice night has come to an end. The last of the discounted nights, which until last year were weekly, was Wednesday, April 7; this coming Wednesday, May 5, will mark the first first Wednesday of the month without the deal.
For sophomore Julia Schneider, no discounts will likely mean fewer trips to the downtown pizza joint.
“I feel like it was such a good deal. It’ll be special to go there but I’ll probably go less often,” she said. “It is very nice pizza so it can’t be very lucrative to sell it so inexpensively.”
For first-year Alison Zegarra, however, the news was unfortunate but not disheartening.
“It’s a pretty good price anyway in retrospect and it doesn’t change how I feel about Sweet Basil,” she said.
Senior Lewis Silver recalled going weekly with friends, sometimes just to be with the hustle bustle of people.
“I think that there are a lot of groups that have made it a part of their routine and I think that it will definitely end that immediate tradition although I don’t think it will stop people from going on a pretty regular basis,” he said. “There are pretty limited locations that you can walk to around Whitman that have good food.”
Sweet Basil Manager Stephanie Bowen said the original intent of dollar slice night was to encourage students to visit Sweet Basil. However, in recent months, the sheer volume of customers on discounted days was not only stressful on the facilities, but also for customers who often turned away due to the line.
“We just don’t feel we have the space or the time to adequately get the product out in a timely fashion,” said Bowen.
Many students were curious as to why Sweet Basil would eliminate the discounted night completely rather than simply adjusting it.
“Whenever I’ve gone there . . . it has been packed, line out the door, and so it seems like even if they were to slightly raise the price they would still get to keep that rise [in customers] if they had a discount,” said Silver.
Though the dollar a slice night has ended, there are still student discounts available at Sweet Basil.
“We really appreciate the students,” said Bowen.
Sweet Basil’s decision, though not popular, does not seem like it will result in too much of a change for students.
“I think people already really like [Sweet Basil] and it has already established a name for itself so people will still go,” said sophomore Alyssa Breetwor.
