GREENVILLE AVENUE PIZZA COMPANY

AM2:15

Small clusters of people huddle around tables in front of Greenville Avenue Pizza Company (GAPCo) holding private conversations at a higher-than-necessary volume. Two guests almost collide with a glassyeyed man who’s bumbling out of the popular pizza joint at the same time they’re trying to make their way inside. There’s even more noise inside the restaurant than outside as people talk loudly to be heard over the din. Various couples claim the small tables along the wall, two men share a pizza at the bar by the front door and at least 10 people cram shoulder to shoulder at the community table in the back corner of the narrow room. Whether they’re on a date or with friends, they’re all here for the same reason: carbs.

AM2:20

Two pizza makers, Adrian Guerrero and Amy Mosqueda, frantically roll pizza dough right in front of the two guys chowing down at the bar. After they skillfully slice off the edges, they slather on a heaping spoonful of tomato or barbecue sauce and then sprinkle on the desired toppings. “We try to make everything where everyone can see it,” manager Jess Beckwith explains. “People like that." It takes roughly 15-20 minutes per pizza, she says.

AM2:21

Beckwith pulls a pizza out of the industrial oven, cuts it into slices, throws it in a box and yells "Pick up for Jynean!” before tossing it on the top of another box on the oven.

AM2:22

A phone rings and Beckwith answers it. "Hello? Oh, we close at 3 o'clock,” she says, then hangs up and moves onto the next task at hand.

AM2:35

Not only do Guerrero and Mosqueda have to churn out hundreds of pizzas a night in full view of customers, which is “physically demanding,” Mosqueda admits, but they also have to be friendly and somewhat entertaining for the folks who sit at the bar by the front door. They overhear some funny conversations that way, Guerrero points out. He’s particularly fond of watching drunken men attempt to flirt. “Drunk guys have no moves,” he says, and Mosqueda agrees.

"They don't really have any pick-up lines,” she says. "They’re just like, 'Hey, you're a girl.'"

AM2:44

No sooner had Taylor Free, one of GAPCo’s delivery drivers, arrived at the backdoor than he was on his way right back out, pizza in hand.

When he climbs into the driver’s seat of his car and turns the key in the ignition, techno music blasts from the stereo with a boom and a quake. He turns it down with a chuckle. "That's the best part of being a driver,” he says.

AM2:47

Free pulls out of the parking lot and checks the address to his next delivery location. He has only been a driver for GAPCo for a few months. “I needed a job and I thought, ‘Why not pizza delivery? I mean, you’re the guy with the pizza. No one can be mad at you,” he quips. “I recently took up another job that I’m working part-time because this job pays really well, but it’s really hard on my car. That’s the cool and weird thing about this job is that you make money with your car, but when your car goes out that changes everything.”

AM2:50

“Let’s see …” Free says as he slows down to check the nearby addresses. “It’s going to be on the left.” He parks and then a woman approaches the driver’s side window. “This is going to be interesting,” Free says as he rolls down the window. The woman asks if he is making a delivery and rattles off the address. He checks the address and confirms it’s the same one. “Sweet. This makes it so much easier,” he tells her, and she exchanges her signature for a pizza. As Free drives away he remarks that “that doesn’t usually happen, but every now and then you get one of those customers who just really wants their pizza,” he says.

AM2:56

Free pulls into the parking lot behind GAPCo and heads inside to pick up the next pizza.

AM3:00

The music goes off, but a handful of people still occupy the space. Guerrero and Mosqueda start packing up the pizza-making materials and scraping the pizza peels.

AM3:17

Beckwith tells the last stragglers the restaurant is closed and it’s time for them to leave. A girl exits with her arm around another girl. "You can be a superhero. What's your name?" she asks, but the door closes before a response can be heard.

Nunn