Pizza Today - August 2015 - 18

MAN ON THE STREET / BY SCOTT WIENER

BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
A case of ambiance gone wrong

I

t was the second place on a
private pizza tour and I decided
to take a risk by taking my group
to a new stop. Part of my job is to
introduce New Yorkers to great underthe-radar pizzerias and this one had
opened in an otherwise pizza-deprived
neighborhood, so I was extra excited.
Everything seemed to be going great;
the pizza was perfect, beverages were
appropriately paired and service was
exactly what we needed. That's why I
was completely shocked when every
single person in the group told me
that they weren't likely to go back. I
1 8 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / A U G U S T 2 0 1 5

was stunned. How could a seemingly
brilliant experience like this not lead to
return business for the restaurant? As
our conversation unraveled, I quickly
saw that they were absolutely right.
The biggest complaint was that the
pizzeria was too bright. New York
City restaurants are deep into a trend
toward low lighting and lots of other
cities are following suit. Customers
love the cozy vibe created by candles
and Edison bulbs even if it comes at
the expense of menu visibility. Low
lighting creates an intimate atmosphere
that makes customers feel like they're

getting a unique experience and brightly
lit spaces have the opposite effect. I
noticed that every other stop on the tour
that night had lower lighting than the
pizzeria in question and my group liked
all of them more.
Our problem with lighting was
accentuated by the restaurant's physical
space. First, the walls are painted bright
yellow. That's not a big help to a space
that's already brightly lit. Secondly, the
ceilings are extremely high. Small spaces
have the same effect as dim lighting -
which is why they're often paired - so
large spaces only highlight the harsh
reality of ample luminescence. This
pizzeria has two levels, but the second
floor is a mezzanine so it doesn't cover
the entire footprint of the space. My
group felt lost in the room because of
its high ceilings even though the square
footage wasn't much greater than any of
our other pizzeria stops that night.
The final flaw came in the form of
floor-to-ceiling windows. Not only did
my group feel lost in a cavernous room
with bright lighting, they also felt like
they were on display to the public. We
tend to visit restaurants as an escape
from our regularly schedule programs so
it can be a little unnerving to have reality
peering in at us from all angles.
Between the lighting, room size and
gigantic windows, the general consensus
was that the pizzeria felt too corporate.
That's a bad trait for a restaurant in
New York, whose residents herald
independent businesses and shiver at
the thought of anything with enough
locations that it might be considered
a chain. This particular location had
housed two restaurants prior to its
current tenant so the problems have been
inherited. Let's hope that the pizzeria we
visited on that fateful night makes the
necessary changes to keep people coming
back. After all, their food is fantastic and
that's harder to repair than the wattage
on their bulbs or the color of their walls.
Scott Wiener owns and operates Scott's
Pizza Tours in New York City.
BY JOSH KEOWN
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - August 2015

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