It’s a story about the demise of my first management job… the place where I made the majority of my management errors and learned that a good manager actually listens to staff – because they can make life miserable for you if you don’t – but also can say “so quit” – and mean it.
Where I first learned to hand-toss pizza back in 1968.
I was in high school and had a job delivering pizza for a single-shop pizzeria. $1.25 per hour, 50¢ per delivery, plus tips. It wasn’t long before I was inside washing dishes and bussing tables, doing prep for Barry – the owner and sole cook – and learning to spin pizzas.
Me working with dough was like a duck to water. I had learned about baking several years earlier when I started off at the Donut Center from the German baker, Hans. Spinning dough was easy. Making the dough was easy. Making hundreds of pizzas a night was hard. Everything we did was hand-made, from the dough and sauce and grinding our own sausage to shredding our own cheese. We made our own meatballs, sliced our own mushrooms, salami, pepperoni… Everything was done by hand and from scratch. It was some damned fine pizza.
We were popular. We also made our own lasagne, meat sauce, cannelloni, salad dressings. The only thing we bought was Homestead Ravioli – fresh, not frozen.
I stayed through high school and when lottery numbers were announced, I joined the Navy – as a cook/baker. While stationed in San Diego – going to school M-F – Barry paid me to fly up to San Francisco and work weekends with him – and then fly back Sunday night.
By then, I was manager.
When I got back from Viet Nam in June, 1973, Barry started talking about expanding and moving the restaurant down the street. He bought a building at 2244-46 Taraval and the fun really started.
The store was one building with two storefronts. We sat down with architects and contractors and drew out our perfect restaurant. And then we started tearing down walls to make it one huge space. Literally tearing down the walls. Hauling the lathe and plaster, chiseling up the linoleum – most likely asbestos – floors. Putting in insulation, building shelving… Literally building the place. We opened in 1974. I was now salaried and making $1000/month! $12,000 a year! I was rich!
So why this long story?!? Because I was just down in San Francisco for a retirement party at UCSF for an old friend. I stayed at my brother’s – who lives around the corner and where both his kids once worked. I walked by and noticed it closed. Not only closed, but empty inside. It was run-down looking, Granted, we built this place in 1974 – but still – it was totally worn out.
The poor, faded sign was the sign we brought down from 21st & Taraval to 33rd & Taraval. The roof façade was all faded and peeling… It was a shadow of its former self…
I had left in 1975 after a fight with Barry about scheduling. By this time we had about 25 employees and I had just spent hours working out a schedule. One guy didn’t want to work a specific shift or day – I don’t really remember what it was, exactly – so he went to Barry and Barry said he didn’t have to. And then he left. I went over to the restaurant across the street, got fairly drunk, went home, packed up my car, and moved to Portland. I was 23 years old.
So… in honor of Pirro’s, we had pizza last night. We bought a specific pizza-blend flour in 42 pound bags back in the day, but the dough always sat in the walk-in for at least a day – if not two. I use Tipo “00”.
2-Day Rise Pizza Dough
- 360 ml warm water (105°F/38ºC to 110°F/40ºC)
- 1 g active dry yeast
- 500 g “00” flour or unbleached all-purpose flour (plus more for dusting)
- 10 g fine sea salt
- Olive oil for the bowl
Sprinkle yeast over warm water in bowl of mixer fitted with dough hook. Let proof about 5 minutes.
Mix together flour and salt. Add to yeast mixture. Mix on low speed about 4 minutes or until dough forms a coarse ball. Stop mixer and cover bowl with a towel. Let dough rest about 5 minutes, then remove towel and continue mixing another 2 minutes or so.
Lightly oil a large bowl. Form dough into a ball, transfer to bowl and turn to lightly coat with oil. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, then refrigerate overnight.
Punch down dough, re-roll, and return to bowl. Tightly cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
Divide dough into 2 pieces; shape pieces into balls and place on a lightly floured work surface. Loosely cover with a damp kitchen towel and let rise at warm room temperature until doubled, about 2 hours.
Pizza is best cooked on a pizza stone in a VERY hot oven – 500°F+. At Pirro’s, our ovens were set at 650°F.
The pizza was great – excellent crust, and we had leftovers for lunch, today…
Pirro’s may be stuttered, right now, but good pizza is still available!
