S'ghetti Eddie's

S'ghetti Eddie's
410 W. Cold Spring Lane
Roland Park, Baltimore
410-235-5999
Pizza
www.sghettieddies.com
Cost: $$
Reservations: No, Take out
Date of meal: various
National Price-Quality Frontier: Inside It
Baltimore Price-Quality Frontier: On It

To date, I haven't been to anywhere in Baltimore with better pizza than S'ghetti Eddie's. However, my sample is small and I expect I'll revise this assessment. While completely solid, S'ghetti Eddie's is not earth shattering.

S'ghetti Eddie's is part of a group of restaurants (with Miss Shirley's, Loco Hombre, and Alonso's) all owned by the same people in the same cluster on W. Cold Spring just east of I-83. It's worth noting that pictures on the Miss Shirley's website show that it used to be located where S'ghetti Eddies is now.

The business model is quite smart. They aim to serve the yuppie parents of Roland park with pizza that is yuppie enough to please parents (broccoli rabe is a topping) but standard enough to please their kids. Pizzas are roughly $15 for a large. There is a pretty basic area to sit, though the place is mainly set up for take-out. Ingredients are of fairly good quality and I had no complaints about the pizza. I would happily do take-out from them again, though am on the lookout for other options.

In general, this complex of restaurants with the same owner raises interesting questions about local monopoly. Should one owner be able to control all or nearly all of the establishments (in this case, Keswick/south Roland Park restaurants, though you could say the same of gas stations) in the same area? To me prices seem high at all four restaurants. I wonder if prices would be lower if these restaurants had different owners and therefore competed with one another. Of course, one is always free to travel 10 mins in any direction for lots of food options (e.g., Petit Louis Bistro). However, busy people may be willing to pay a premium for convenience that limits the ability of of non-local establishments to compete with local ones. I don't think there is a real problem here; another mid-level restaurant with a different owner could probably set up shop here (assuming the whole complex isn't owned by the restaurant group). If it happened, I'd be curious to see if prices dropped.