Its crowded. It’s a little chaotic. The line is long, the band is loud, and you suddenly find yourself at the register, needing to communicate, through all this cacophony, how much pizza you want to buy. Common vocabulary can only help this situation. And so we present a cheat sheet, or if you prefer, a glossary of terms that we hope will help you cut through the noise and get your pizza even faster!
Slice, not piece
In our world of aural bombardment, the word “piece” is often mistaken for “pizza.” Thus we prefer to use the word “slice” when we’re talking about pizza triangles, and “pie” when we’re talking about pizza circles.
For Here or To Go?
This is the question that pizza workers utter in their sleep. An Individual worker can ask it upwards of 300 times a day, and can sometimes do that multiple times a week. So when we don’t have to ask it, we are always grateful. Also, if you include the information in your order, we can repeat your order to the person preparing your pizza that much more quickly, and get the pizza in your hands pronto.
Light bakes, not half bakes –or– How many halves in a half of a half baked?
Because we sell our light bakes as both halves and wholes, when they are called “half bakes,” the result can be the sort of linguistic brain-twister referenced above. The term “light bakes” is an attempt to avoid such flumdugery*. “Par bakes” also works nicely.
One and One Is Not Two
This one falls under the category of extra credit.
If you are one person and you want two slices, those two slices will arrive on one plate, with one sliver (the bonus mini-slice you get with each order). If you are one person and you ask for two slices on two plates, you will likely receive “two and two for here,” which is two plates, each with two slices and a sliver. But wait, you only wanted two slices, one on each plate. We call that “one and one for here.”** Each slice will have a sliver, because we like you.
The trick here is that the number that is said aloud is always the number of slices per plate, and the amount of times that number is varied or repeated is the number of plates desired.
One and One = 1 slice, 1 slice
Two and One = 2 slices, 1 slice
Two and Two = 2 slices, 2 slices
Three and Two = 3 slices, 2 slices
Two, Two and One = 2 slices, 2 slices, 1 slice
One, One, One and One = 1 slice, 1 slice, 1 slice, 1 slice
Etc.
This whole process can be repeated to go, where instead of separate plates, we have separate bags.
Crispy or “on the light side”?
Just as many people like their pizza dark as others like it light. Someone’s “burnt” is someone else’s “crispy.” The same is true on the flip side. Your “under-baked” is “on the light side” for someone else. Just let us know your preference, if any. We like to use the terms “crispy” or “on the light side.” Stating your preference may mean that you will wait a little longer until a pizza that meets your criteria emerges from the ovens.
We hope you have found some useful piece of information that will make you next visit a little bit better. Are there other pieces of pizza talk that confuse you? Let us know!
Thanks for reading, and see you in the pizza line!
*this is a word I made up. Its definition is “continued repetition between two or sometimes three people, of the same, or very nearly the same phrase, the purpose of which is to ensure that the correct amount of pizza is both delivered to the customer and charged for.”
**an example of the second, less repetitious definition of flumdugery.
