From: Jimmy Wales jwales@bomis.com
I think that's right. It's best, whenever possible, to think creatively about what sort of olive branch might be offered to the other person. In this particular case, the joyful compromise seems to have been to leave in "Louis' Lunch" which is undeniably of encyclopedia importance, and to remove the others.
I think the story is a bit more complicated. I'm just going to mention some salient facts. I believe there was quite a bit of less-than-ideal communication going on. I contributed to some of it, which I regret and for which I apologize.
The original language, by an anon, was:
"New Haven has 2 claims of the worlds first. 1 being the Pizza and 2 being the Hamburger. For pizza there are 2 choices Sally's Pizza and Pepe's Pizza. MBoth reside on Wooster St. And beleive you me, Its the BEST pizza in the world. For burgers, there's Louis' Lunch, using old fashiond vertical burners Louis willmake you a damn goor burger." [sic]
This was arguably POV (if "beleive you me" isn't POV I don't know what is), and certainly needed editing. In my own view, its removal was understandable, though possibly an over-reaction.
It was then reinserted by a non-anon in an improved form:
"New Haven is home of many homey eateries, including Louis' Lunch, a restaurant that claims to have originated the hamburger: its vertical burners, freshly-ground beef, and burgers on toast has long but orderly queues ten deep at lunchtime. New Haven also boasts several pizza places of distinction, notably Sally's Pizza and Pepe's Pizza, both on Wooster St., and Frank's Pizza, offering chicken pizza and clam pizza. Other spots catering to the college population include the Yankee Doodle Coffee Shop."
There were then some cycles of removal and reinsertion. Somewhere along the way the incorrect name (Sally's Pizza) was corrected to "Sally's Apizza."
What I wish to note is that on the one hand, a) the removers, including myself, didn't do much independent research to see whether the establishments really had any claim to being notable. On the other hand, b) the re-inserters didn't do much to explain _why_ the establishments were notable. Some of the re-inserters simply appealed to _their own_ authority.
Another thing that got lost in the shuffle is that even if the reinserters were correct, simply naming an establishment carries very little value to a reader who doesn't already know the establishment.
Since then, a number of points have come out. In addition to Louis' Lunch claim to notability, Sally's Apizza was apparently a favorite hangout of Garry Trudeau during his Yale years. Frank Sinatra also patronized it. One of the reinserters has since noted that the Phantom Gourmet website gave Sally's Apizza some kind of best-pizza (in the US) award in 2001; the same website says "New Haven’s Wooster Street is to pizza what Newcastle is to coal and Maine is to lobster. The two great rivals are Frank Pepe’s and Sally’s Apizza." The site rated Pepe's as having the best white-clam pizza.
Also, a claim mentioned by the original inserter that has gotten lost in the various edits is that Pepe's Pizza claims to have introduced pizza into the U.S. in 1925. (Or possibly, invented the "white pizza," I'm not quite sure which).
I'm not quite sure what counts as "notable enough" for inclusion, but these all sound like legitimate local landmarks. I realize that every town has restaurants with autographed pictures in them, but noting that "thus-and-such famous person ate there" and "it won thus-and-such national award" would, IMHO, go a long way to validating the inclusion of a place.