After 20 Year of Business, Local Pizzeria Owner is Shocked to Discover that Penne and Ziti are not t
"I was shocked," says Dan Porcelli, owner of Porcelli's Pizza in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "I think it came as a surprise to everyone."
Daniel Porcelli, 49, or Cambridge, Massachusetts, opened his pizzeria over 20 years ago and recently celebrated the business' 20th anniversary. But simply being in business for 20 years hasn't stopped him from learning new things about Italian-American food.
"I was behind the counter one Thursday evening," recalls Dan, "And a customer ordered the Ziti with Meatballs, so I sent the order to the kitchen and thought nothing of it. But then twenty minutes later, the customer walked back up to the counter and told me he wanted Ziti and not Penne as his pasta."
Dan stared down at the dish in confusion, unaware of the truth he did not know.
"So I looked at the guy, all confused, right?" recalls Dan, "And I say to the guy, "isn't that Ziti?" And the guy scowled and said, "Are you f@#king kidding me? This is Penne, idiot. Ziti isn't shaped like a parallelogram.""
The truth shook Dan Porcelli's world. He quickly conducted an Internet search to see if the customer was correct, and to his surprise, the customer was.
"I took all the menus and updated them after that," recalls Dan. "The pasta we serve is Penne, which is shaped differently from Ziti."
I asked Dan if this was the first complaint he'd gotten about the improperly-named pasta, and he said, "Nah, usually the complaints are about the tomatoes in the salad. I guess there are a lot of people that prefer the tomatoes to be sliced into small pieces rather than having an entire tomato that's just been cut in half with a knife, but we're a pizzeria, and that's how tomatoes are cut for salads in pizzerias."
Since the renaming of the dish on the menu, Dan Porcelli has reported a 2% increase in revenues compared to the same month in the 2 previous years.
