$3 Slice? Not Until 2010, Cheese!

A Brooklyn pizzeria charges $2.30, shocking local economists who know that the price of a slice is pegged to the cost of subway fare*:

A slice of pizza has hit $2.30 in Carroll Gardens — and the shop’s owner says it’s “just a matter of time” before a perfect storm of soaring cheese prices and higher fuel costs hit Brooklyn with the ultimate insult: the $3 slice.

Sal’s Pizzeria, a venerable joint at the corner of Court and DeGraw streets, has punched a huge hole in the informal guideline that the price of a slice should mirror the price of a swipe on the subway.

Last week, owner John Esposito hung a sign in his front window blaming “an increase in cheese prices” for the sudden price hike from $2.15, which he set last year.

To bolster his case, Esposito also posted copies of a typewritten “update” from his Wisconsin-based cheese supplier, Grande Cheese, explaining that its prices had risen 35 cents a pound because of an “unprecedented” 18-percent spike in milk costs.

“We didn’t want to hammer our customers, so we’re trying to explain that we have to raise our prices to survive,” he said.

But why is Sal’s leading the pack?

“Maybe the other guys are still asleep,” Esposito said. “But the cost of cheese is way up. The cost of energy is up and the cost of staying in business is up. I don’t think [the costs] are going to come down again anytime soon.”

Cheese is now $1.98 a pound on the commodities market — up 64 percent from last year, according to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. The fuel to transport ingredients from one place to another is on a comparably steep incline, too.

. . .

“A pizzeria’s costs go up like everything goes up, but $2 a slice is still pretty fair,” said Sal Leonardi, part owner of Front Street Pizza in DUMBO.

Leonardi’s cheese supplier, Joseph Campagna and Sons, also hiked prices, raising the cost of making a Front Street pie by 63 cents — but Leonardi said that his joint won’t stray from the subway ride rule.

“Every three years, the price goes up about a dime to cover [the price increases]. That seems right to me,” he said. “We don’t even see $2.10 coming yet, so I don’t see $3 for another seven years.”

*Which, if true, means that slices should not rise to $3, as the Brooklyn Paper headline scares, until 2010.