There is a great little pizza place about half a mile from my house. Its an independent storefront operation with a couple of flimsy tables in its lobby that you could stand at and eat a slice when they are not being used to set up pizza boxes. The while shop is smaller than my living room.

They offer free delivery but I prefer to go there for the atmosphere.

There is no barrier between the kitchen and the customer area. It's about 90 degrees in there all the time, its usually smokey and it smells like 25 different kinds of pizza.

The back area is always busy with the guy working the dough, the guy making the pies and the guy pulling them out of the oven and boxing them. The delivery guys come and go in a blur.

They have a problem though. They are too good for their own good. On a Friday night - particularly a rainy Friday night like last night was - the organized chaos in the back becomes madness. They fall apart when things get busy.

I called in my order and arrived to pick it up about 5 minutes after they said it would be ready. In the 10 minutes I waited three people called to complain that they hadn't gotten their delivery or that their order was wrong. Several people in the lobby had been waiting long enough that they obviously hadn't made their pizza until they walked in the door to pick it up.

They need a new system to manage orders. What works for them on an average day can't handle the stress of busier than normal.

The brothers that run the place and work in the back making the pizzas are great guys. Always friendly - always working hard. More than once they've handed me a free slice if I had been waiting too long.

They make a good product. They need to get better at selling it. They probably wont lose me as a customer, good pizza that close to home is impossible to give up. But some people will decide it's not worth the wait.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 08:18 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment