Thanks for the review. My brother is coming to DC next month and I will definitely have him try the pizzas. One thing I don't understand though is the long wait even when you are already seated. Isn't the Forno Napoletano oven supposed to crank out 200+ pies in an hour as per Marco? I'm not sure why you have to wait 45 mins-1 hr after ordering. I can understand the long wait to get seated but once you get seated, the pizza should come out pretty fast. Maybe someone with experience can help explain.
There are a lot of variables involved. One of particular note is how many patrons enter the establishment within a short time of each other. Many popular places get a crush of people during busy times (regardless of restaurant type). And this would certainly be the case right as a restaurant opens. Most of the really popular pizza joints fill up immediately after opening.
And patrons are generally not machine guns at ordering. So, if tables take time to get situated, look at them menu, order drinks, etc, that is down time. If enough tables do this within a close enough time period, it could impact the workflow.
There are more variables, but there are multiple issues that may keep the pizzamaking from just knocking out pie one after the other. There may be a short down period and then a crush of orders.
If an oven
can put out 200 pies per hour, that is 3.33 pizzas per minute (and that assumes the pizzaiolo always has 3.33 pizzas opened and dressed so they can be launched the instant the previous 3.33 pies are taken out of the oven by the fornaio). As a high level simple example, say there are 50 pizzas in front of you. That would take 15 minutes to cook those 50 pies before your order came up....and that is assuming the staff on hand is capable of that workrate and that the orders are all coming in a somewhat orderly sequence (meaning that all 50 pizzas are already ordered on the make table). Using this example, the realistic scenario is that while there may be enough tables and patrons sat before you to order/demand 50 pizzas, there are enough pauses (looking at menus, ordering drinks) from the patrons and other events (short-staffed for an evening, a newer employee not yet up to full speed with his skillset, etc) that keep the workflow from operating in one-after-another machine gun fashion from time to time. Hence the wait.
A poor example and explanation perhaps and I'm in a rush, but it can often take longer than expected to get the orders out.
That being said, Pupatella is excellent pizza. My favorite I've had in the Maryland-NoVa-Baltimore metropolitan region. --K
