Gotta love the digital age.

It amazes me how much the times have changed. It used to take months, even years for a restaurant to be noticed and for the word to get around. Nowadays, we don't have to wait till people tell each other about us, we get new customers almost instantly, due to positive reviews on-line. I will even go as far as to say that every new customer that comes into our pizzeria has come because they read something about us on the Internet. And I don't count the folks that came to the pizza cart before as new customers. We became an over-night sensation of some sort, and it is scary and amazing. All it takes is a google search and you will know what was happening in the restaurant just 10 minutes ago.

Thrillist

Yesterday we had a visit from Joe Epstein, a man who "fearlessly sifts through crap every day to uncover your city's finest new food, drinks, gear, travel, and entertainment".

He made this little video that we just love.

http://www.thrillist.com/arlington/pupatella

THANK YOU EVERYBODY!

We wanted to thank everybody for coming and enjoying our pizza. We felt so lucky and fortunate that you guys came to the restaurant last couple of days. It is a scary thing to open a restaurant and you guys give us confidence that everything will be alright.

Cured meats

Cured meat, such as prosciutto, bresaola, salami, etc. make a fine topping on a Neapolitan pizza. We have thought long and hard about whether to go domestic or Italian on this one, until we tried La Quercia prosciutto. Made from grain-fed antibiotic free pork, with no nitrates or artificial anything, it is the best prosciutto we had, here or in Italy. It won even side-by-side tasting with Prosciutto di Parma. Any skepticism we had about American cured meats was gone. Those guys do great work and we're proud to sell their product.

http://www.laquercia.us/home/what-we-make.html

ZAGAT

Zagat, the famous restaurant reviewer, came to interview us the other day and they ran a nice little post about us today:

http://blog.zagat.com/pupatella-goes-brick-and-mortar-this-weekend

GELATO!

We found a lovely local gelato making business called Dolci Gelati. The gelato maker, Gianluigi, is also from the Naples area, just like Enzo. He brought us samples today and we were won over! The gelato is the best we've could find in the US. I especially liked the "Baci" flavor. Gianluigi is going to be bringing us 12 different flavors on a regular basis and we're excited to share them with you.

FOCUS ON WINES

Yesterday with met with the most amazing wine distributor. It's a local family business called Downey Selections run by two siblings and their mom. They import just the right wines from the Campania region, where Naples is located. Wines that are rare to find in the US, but commonly drunk in Naples. They travelled to Campania personally to see the wineries and get to know the makers. Most wineries are small and family-owned.

PUPATELLA is not going to have a huge wine selection, rather, we'd like to have few wines that are authentic to Campania, and most importantly go well with pizza. No, most importantly, very tasty wines :-) We purposely will not have commonly liked wines like merlots, cabernets, pinot grigios, etc. because we want you guys to try something rare that perhaps otherwise you would not.

Also, we are planning to have weekly "wine specials", just like we'll have weekly pizza specials, where we'll bring in some unusual wines for you to try.

AND THE OPENING DATE IS....

THIS SATURDAY, MAY 22!

We're going to be open at the end of next week!! Most likely.

I don't know what day yet, though. We're having our final inspection beginning of next week, wish us well! We'll be open as soon as we get cleared with the county. Meanwhile, here are some new pictures for you. The place looks nice, doesn't it? And those pizza boxes...:-)))

WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE!

www.pupatella.com