The Three Hour "tour"

There’s not many things I am willing to wait 3 hours in line for.

Front row seats to Les Miserables, a free trip to Europe, a shopping spree at Fashion Square, a year of massages…sure!

But food? No way.

Or so I thought.

Jon and I were in the area around Pizzeria Bianco a few weeks ago on a Saturday night. We had heard great things. “The best pizza…ever,” “that place is delicious,” and, “they know how to cook pizza there” were just some of the samplings of positive feedback. In fact, a few years ago Oprah sent Gayle there to try the pizza, and in 2005 it was named the best pizza in the US. We had to find out for ourselves.

The restaurant opened for business at 5;00PM, and we arrived at 5:20 and were told it would be 2.5-3 hours before we’d be seated. We decided to suck it up and wait. After all, we weren’t in the area very often. We tried to use up the time by going next door and ordering some drinks and appetizers. We were starving so we ordered what appeared to be the largest on the menu, especially if price is a good indicator because it was the most expensive: a $10 cheese plate. When it arrived we wolfed it down and there wasn’t a bite left to be found except for the wax from one of the cheese samples. And we were still hungry. It was only 6;00 o’clock.

Then we sat in the crowded room as it started to clear out. Maybe we’d get a table earlier than we were told. Finally after sitting there for another 45 minutes we decided to walk around Heritage Square. Five minutes later, and feeling sweaty because of the heat, we parked our behinds on a park bench and tried to play games with the menu.

You’d be amazed how much fun you can have when you are bordering on nausea from lack of food, heat, and boredom. We walked around some more. We sat. We talked. We tried to make nice conversation, but we were both getting antsy. We moved to a closer bench to the front door, and every time it opened the smell from inside kept urging us to stay a bit longer. Finally, over 3 hours after we arrived, we were called to our table at 8:45.

Jon and I new exactly what to order since we had ample time to decide. The food came out quickly. I expected perfection. Heck, when you’re as hungry as I was anything should have tasted like the best pizza…ever.

But I was disappointed. Jon was disappointed. In fact one of the pizzas we ordered had such spicy sausage it started to make me sick to my stomach. Was the food hot? Yes. Was the service fast? Yes. Was the food worth the wait? Unfortunately, no.

So when is the next time I’ll be willing to wait 3 hours for food? When I’m being paid for waiting.