Bonci Pizza in New Orleans

Pizza is good. Set up bad.

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Pizza is good. Set up bad.

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Yes, exactly. I've been three times now, and the counter service layout and line/queue and payment only work if there isn't anyone in line.

They're not going to prosper unless they make some changes.
-Put up a damn sign saying what's available so people don't have to mill around looking in the case. If it changes frequently, put up an LED screen that is easily changed.
-Put up a clear queue, so people don't have to stand around in an undifferentiated mass, gawking at the pizzas and trying to figure out if their number has been called.
-Stop having the food cutting/handling employees be the same person who runs the credit card (it doesn't accept cash). Employees are constantly wasting steps and seconds as they move back and forth. Why on earth wouldn't you have a designated person who follows the customer down the display, cuts what he/she wants, and then turns the pizza and ticket over to someone who weighs and charges?
--the area between the door and the line is, like, 2 feet. Did I mention this is also the pass from the service counter/warming area to the dining room? Truly, it's an amateur hour shitshow of terrible organization. Anyone with half a brain and 30 minutes of hospitality experience could do a little reconfiguring and improve the flow.
--it has no rear entrance, so deliveries come through that same front door, right through the scrum of customers waiting to be served

I hope they sort it out, b/c I'd like to use it for some regular meeting catering. At present, they're still in too much of a kerfuffle to pull it off.

Pizza is good to excellent, depending on the toppings.

Went to the one in Rome. It was exactly the same. Packed and pure chaos. Gave up after about 15 minutes of trying to order or even get someone’s attention.

So how is the food?

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So how is the food?

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Good to great, depending on the topping choices. I've sampled a few (this is from memory, so don't quote me)
--potato & cheese; surprisingly delicious for such a simple combo
--sausage & scrambled eggs; not something I'd order every day, but was quite tasty at 11 am on a Sat.
--tomato, mozzarella, arugula; classic. Would have liked it better if not reheated to wilt the arugula
--spicy calabrese salami; tasty
--zucchini & ricotta; my favorite by far
--at least three more topping choices, which I didn't photograph so I can't precisely remember

Also tried a suppli (aka arancino). It was a rice & tomato mix stuffed w/mozz. Can't really judge it as I got it takeout & reheated it two days later. By that point, it was a bit heavy...innards were delicious, tho.

Crust here is a naturally leavened, bubbly, airy cousin of focaccia....it's closer to the Roman pizza bianca than most traditional Roman pizza al taglio (which is flatter/thinner, in my experience). It is crisp and flavorful, as much a part of the whole as the toppings.

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They DON’T take cash? Wtf

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Ostensibly, they don't take cash to speed up transaction time. Whether places should or should not take cash is a whole separate thread.

There are just as many ppl who hate cash-only places as there are ppl who hate no-cash establishments.

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Is a place that takes reservations? I’m not sure I fully understand the concept

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It's a replication of a Roman style typical pizza establishment that sells pizza cooked in long planks, topped with various combinations of seasonal & traditional things. Customers don't get to choose the toppings; the pizza shop or bakery makes various kinds and puts them out. In the Roman original shops, this kind of pizza is sold by the length--you tell the counter person how much you want (usually by weight, un'etto, due'etti, or 100 or 200 grams or by pointing or showing how big a piece you'd like). It's priced by weight, depending on the toppings. Your slice/portion is heated or not, depending, wrapped in paper, and handed over. You go off and eat it (most of these places don't have much seating, if any).

The NO incarnation of Bonci tries to preserve this style of service, with no formal line. At Bonci, you walk through the door, take a numbered paper ticket, and stand around in a mass of ppl near the display counter until your number is called. Then you step up to the counter and indicate which of the pizzas on display you'd like, and how much. Counter person cuts your pizza, weighs it, you hand over your credit card and pay, remembering to order a drink if necessary, & get a receipt with a DIFFERENT number on it. Pizza goes into a hot warming oven; you go take a seat at a table and wait for your second number to be called.

Half of the ppl in line don't understand the process, don't remember to order a drink along with the pizza (as there is no list of what's on offer, and the drinks case is not adjacent to the pizza case), don't understand that the receipt has a different number than their initial number.....and the mass of ppl waiting to be served means you don't know what kinds of pizza are on offer until you push your way to the front of the herd...so service slows down while ppl unfamiliar with the combinations/ingredients try to make up their minds.

In short, a CF of typically Italian proportions, like mailing something at an Italian post office LOL.

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To really make it fun, I went with four other people and I was paying for the whole group. So when our number was called, I had five people trying to get to the counter and order from one guy. And he didn't have enough room on his staging space to sit our whole order. It was a huge mess and, now that I have posted again in this thread and relived the nightmare, I am never going back.*



*Fun fact. The restaurant sits on top of an old parking lot. The exact spot where the restaurant sits was where a group of my friends and families have Mardi Gras tailgated for 30 years. The restaurant isn't just in the same parking lot but in the very corner where we stood. I got shite from family for even patronizing the place in the first place. They really hold a grudge over that place getting developed.

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My first visit was a similar complete disaster....so I went back early on a Sat to try to give it another go. Things were much more peaceful...but the other visit was a semi madhouse as well. I am nuts about Roman food in general, and more than low key obsessed with various pizza styles, so I'm sure I'll be back despite the obstacles.

RE: development on "sacred" ground, I feel the same way about certain parts of the LSU campus...what in the hell is a new building doing in my favorite old spots?

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Margherita was meh. I think there was one sprig of basil on 4 slices.

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I did notice that the counter staff didn't quite seem to grasp that they should choose the cutting spot a bit more carefully, rather than obliterating the toppings with a carelessly chosen slicing spot. Cut to the left or right of a clump of toppings, rather than right thru the middle so that your half hunk of ricotta falls off.

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It was confusing as well at first but it wasn't pack and Romans embrace chaos so it isn't a big deal.

They really can't do it the same here.

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Similar semi chaos prevails at Roscioli bakery on the weekends, with minimal seating and crazy hordes of tourists who would never find Pizzarium. But the pizza bianca stuffed with porchetta makes any inconvenience so...worth...it. Last time I was there, someone forgot our order in the warming oven & all my choices were burned to a crisp! Much laughter and ribbing between the kitchen guys, esp since we were jammed into a table right up against the kitchen/ovens. They gave us a pile of the little two-bite pizzette to make up for the do-over.