Working for the weekend

I got into Houston last Wednesday night at around 11:30, and got in a car with 2 zombies. This is a rough translation of the conversation that occurred.

“So how was opening day?”
“Mmmmmm . . .”
”Busy?”
“Lines out the door”
“Well, it’s good you’re busy at least. Any problems?”
“Well, we think we accidentally charged one lady $148 for her pizza, and then broke the credit card machine and could only take cash for a while.”
“Wow; do you have it all figured out now?”
“Yeah; now you’re here so you can deal with it”

I am told that the weather in Houston was nice while I was there. I wouldn’t really know, though, considering all I really saw of the city this trip was the inside of Windy City Pizza from 10:00 A.M. to 10: 00 P.M. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Givcn that I never had experienced the joy of working in the food service industry during my minimum wage teen years, this was altogether new for me. About the closest I came was working the concessions at a movie theatre during high school, but of course transactions are a lot simpler and the menu is a lot more limited. Plus, that was back in the cash-only days so it really was my first time dealing with a credit card machine. Overall, I’d say that the experience was a lot of fun but also that I was definitely ready to leave by Sunday.

We got to the pizza place at 10:00 on Thursday morning and that whole day was pretty slow. While not ideal from a profitability standpoint, it was perfect for me to be able to learn how to work the register without getting mobbed. Friday was significantly busier and then Saturday most of the day was crazy. Overall, between Wednesday and Saturday the place did a little over $2700 worth of business. That’s actually real impressive considering so far they have done exactly 0 advertising and thus the only customers have been people from the area that saw the sign and people who knew one us. Almost without exception, everybody that tried either the deep dish or thin crust said it was far and away the best pizza you can get in the area. I also had the following conversation with at least 15 initially skeptical people:

Them: So, real Chicago pizza huh?
Me: Yep
Them: OK, but I’m from Chicago. I’ll know.
Me: Well, I still live in Chicago and I guarantee that it is.

Then I left them to figure out why someone who lives in Chicago was working a cash register in Houston.

Some quirks about Houstonians. First, they want to order a ridiculous amount of toppings on their pizza. Like 5-6 toppings is not unusual, even if they’re just ordering a 10 or 12 inch pizza. I am told that this is because most of the pizza places have really bland crust, sauce, and cheese and thus they’ve become used to the fact that the only taste they will get from the pizza is from the toppings. Second, they love ground beef as a topping. Everytime I heard “I’d like a meat-lovers pizza, but instead of Italian sausage can I get ground beef” there was a part of me that wanted to reach across the counter and slap them. But, seeing as we’re not going for “The Wiener Circle” feel, I restrained myself. We also had to introduce the greater Houston area to Italian beef, because they have absolutely no idea what it is. It was a dead giveaway whenever someone ordered one that they were from Chicago. During the slower times we brought out some samples to people while they waited for the pizza and everyone said that was really good too. I guess the proof will show up in the number of sales over the next couple weeks.

Anyway, I think those were the highlights. Throughout the weekend, I tried almost every major item. The thin crust is excellent; both the sauce and the crust are extremely flavorful. I’ve been trying to think about which place it is most similar to, but so far I can’t place it.. The deep dish is also excellent and is actually very similar to Giordano’s. I also tried the Slider burgers, which taste almost exactly like White Castles, except thicker and without the holes in the meat. Finally, Saturday night I treated myself to a meat calzone, which I made myself. That was also good, but honestly after working for 12 hours just about anything would have tasted good so I am a little biased. My nightly routine after closing was to go home and have a couple beers and then collapse in bed around midnight. On Thursday night I laid down and saw that the UCLA game was on and had 90 seconds left in the 2nd half. I didn’t even make it to the end of the game. The final little kick in the teeth was Saturday night when I figured I’d finally get to catch up on sleep only to remember that it was daylight savings time day. I usually look forward to that day, but this year I really wouldn’t have minded at all if it had been at least a week later.

I did finally get a little chance to relax Sunday afternoon. A friend of my Ps was having a crawfish boil at their place so we went over there and I got to lay in the sun for a couple hours before I headed back to the arctic. I got to try crawfish for the first time too. For those that have never had the experience of attending a crawfish boil, it is pretty interesting. They line up about 5 or 6 picnic tables, cover them with tablecloths and paper, and then just dump literally thousands of steamed crawfish on top and everybody just digs in. If you can get past the fact that it’s just one small step above eating an insect, they are pretty tasty. Although the amount of work that you have to do to get just a tiny bit of meat makes it not really worth it, in my opinion. But I guess that’s what makes me a northerner.

In any case, the business is certainly off and running, and the place looks great! I’ve attached a few pictures below so you can get a sense for how they tried to bring a real Chicago feel to the place. I’d like to point out that it is my Kerry Wood jersey that can be seen framed in the dining room. Note that the pictures were taken before it opened, so that's why there are no customers.