HIGHLIHTS

Some highlights from this weekend:

Lots of cute babies at the restaurant.

No A/C in 90 degree weather.

25 customers asking if they could get "just a slice" of pizza....hehe - what will we do with the rest?

A complaining male customer with no shoes on. Is it time to put "No shoes - no service" sign?

Running out of pizza dough on Saturday. Honestly, this one was a blessing of sorts - it made people order panuozzi (sandwiches) which are great but nobody orders them otherwise - everyone always wants pizza. So, this way they had something they otherwise would not have.

A female customer hated one of the wines we had. We love the wine, and customers mostly love it too, but it's not for everybody, I understand. She took few sips and actually returned it to me. And then another customer, in line behind her asked me not to throw it out cuz he'll drink it....Too funny.

A customer leaving a bigger tip than their meal was. We love you mister III.

An amazing number of Italians coming to the restaurant. Who knew there were so many people from Italy in Arlington?

Discovering how much better arancini are when wrapped in prosciutto.

Realizing that the World Cup is coming up and we still don't have a TV. Enzo demands a huge projector on the wall so that he could watch the games while making pizzas.

Most of all, all our patient and gracious customers who withstand the heat, order mistakes, and all the quirks due to the recent opening.

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.