I’ve been wrestling a lot lately with the\u00a0proper way to format Phase 3 of the Margot’s Pizza\u00a0project \u2014 the actual public-facing pop-up. It’s clear from the Phase 2 private tastings that, yes, we can make a pizza we’re proud of but that our turnaround time is slower than we’d like. I will present my constraints first, since that may answer some questions or at least give a clear picture why I can’t “just do X” or “just do Y.”<\/p>\n
I have a 2-hour window<\/strong> at lunchtime on the occasional Saturday to do this pop-up. From noon to 2pm<\/strong> for service. The pizzeria I’m doing this in (EMILY<\/a>) opens at 5, but we have to be cleaned up by 2:30 so the actual staff can do its job for the day.<\/p>\n It takes about 15 minutes per round<\/strong>\u00a0of pizzas. From saucing and topping through to\u00a0cooking, plating, and cutting. A round of pizzas (for now) is four (4), the number we can fit and deal with comfortably in the oven. (We can actually fit more (up to 6), but it\u00a0introduces some variables with different cook times and complicates the process. Not insurmountable, but more than I want to attempt in the first pop-up.)<\/p>\n So, the most we could do in that window is ~32 pizzas.<\/strong>\u00a0I still need to run some scenarios, but my estimate is 32 comfortably, <\/em>and that’s not taking into account screw-ups. So let’s drop that number to 24 just to be safe. (I’m working in multiples of 4 because that’s how many we can fit in the oven at a time, see above.)<\/p>\n That’s assuming 4 pizzas every 15 minutes, but for the first pop-up, we’ll probably want to drop that number down JUST TO BE SURE we don’t screw up. I’m thinking more like 4 pizzas every 20 minutes, which puts us at 24 tops and maybe 20 if we give ourselves a safety\u00a0valve.<\/p>\n Now, considering we\u00a0have ~280 people on the M’sP\u00a0email list, given even a 10% turnout,\u00a0it’s likely the pizzas will sell out.<\/p>\n The way I see it, I have these options:<\/p>\n Word gets out, people come to Clinton Hill\u2014maybe from all over the boroughs. The 24 people who get there at noon get a pizza\u2014at some point. Anyone after them gets told to go home. Persons\u00a013\u201324 get a 1-hour wait guaranteed; Persons 21\u201324 get a 2-hour wait<\/em>.\u00a0On top of whatever time they may have\u00a0already incurred traveling.<\/p>\n To me, this just seems like a recipe for pissing off\u00a0potential customers. As Nick Kokonas mentions in his recent data dump<\/a>, it’s\u00a0a quick way to tell a lot of people No<\/em> \u2014 and to make even those who manage a Yes<\/em>\u00a0stand around hungry.<\/p>\n I don’t like lines or long wait times, and I don’t want to subject my customers to them. Not if there’s some way it can be avoided\u2026<\/p>\n My first thought was of Keith Freilich of\u00a0Emilia’s Pizzeria<\/a> in Berkeley. He’s running what would be the closest to what we’d be doing at Margot’s \u2014 and with\u00a0even\u00a0lighter\u00a0personnel: JUST HIM. He makes one pizza at a time, taking most of his orders for the evening in advance, by phone, between\u00a04 and 5pm, when he opens. If he doesn’t fill his dance card completely by his 5pm open time, he tweets out pizza times:<\/p>\n We’ve got 5:15ish and 9:00ish pizzas still available….<\/p>\n \u2014 Emilia’s Pizzeria (@emiliaspizzeria) May 30, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\nWalk-ups only<\/h3>\n
Pre-orders<\/h3>\n