Pizza

We'd heard about this great new pizza place in Small Town which is about five miles northeast of Red State Capital City Suburb. The Red State Capital City Suburb restaurant situation is dismal. The chains run the gamut from Long John Silver to Bob Evans, there are mediocre Mexican and mediocre-er Chinese, and the independent American family-style restaurants are, alas, worse than the chains. Needless to say, S does not work in town. A few years ago he was the managing partner of a nice little restaurant on Main Street, but it folded, which tells you something about local culinary priorities. Now he works in Red State Capital City WEALTHY Suburb about 25 minutes away.

The only time I'd actually been to Small Town was when I was training for the marathon two years ago and my 20 mile route took me through it. It's your basic one-horse town: a block of Main Street that is really just a slowdown on the county road, a few side streets with houses, a post office, a school, a church, a store, and, now, this pizza place. M, E, and I tried to go last Saturday night, but there was an hour wait. In Small Town! We were too hungry to stay, but decided we had to come back on S's next night home.

So we went the other night, and it was great. All they serve is caesar salad, pizza, and crepes for dessert. There's a high tin ceiling painted light green, assorted chairs and tables with matching flowered vinyl tablecloths, walls covered with bad art and statues and tins and knick-knacks, toys kids can play with and games and books and old Life magazines. The caesar salad is perfect, the pizza is delicious, the crepes were a bit sweet for me but devoured by everyone else. And, best of all, from the restaurant business perspective, over the hour or so we were there, every table filled, in the middle of the week, in Small Town.

We spend a lot of time thinking about why restaurants succeed or fail. S has been involved in wildly successful restaurants and catastrophes, including catastrophes with some great food. They say it's location, location, location, but this place has nothing in the way of location. Nada. Zero. Zip. It does have great food, though we know that isn't enough, and excellent atmosphere, which helps a lot. When S took over the restaurant in Red State Capital City Suburb, it was an aesthetic and atmospheric sinkhole. He did the best he could to improve things, but there was only so much he could do in the face of architectural and financial constraints. It definitely was an issue.

As S pointed out, this place also has a great business plan. Two people can run the kitchen--one to do pizzas and the other to do salad, crepes, and dishes. There are only six tables, so just one server. Rent is low because it's Small Town, food and equipment costs are low because they only serve three things, and labor is low. What more could you ask?

You could ask for the one thing S will never have: a cost-free partner. The husband was manning the oven and the wife was womanning the tables. She was great: friendly, helpful, personable, patient, exactly the kind of restaurant wife an independent chef needs, exactly the kind of restaurant wife I'll never be, for my sole three months of restaurant work, way back in 1990, were not a success, and while I love to eat in restaurants and talk about restaurants and read about restaurants and plan restaurants, I cannot bear even the thought of ever working in a restaurant again. Poor S.