EATING OKLAHOMA
Friday, February 06, 2004
Pat, I'll pick the letter 'P', please...
Mazzio's
405-799-9999
1425 Gateway Plaza
Midwest City, OK. 73110
This particular place has been a regular rally point for the Taskforce even before there was a Taskforce. Pieces of Mazzio's pizza too plentiful to count have found there way into the deep dark bottomless pit that is my stomach. Well, maybe I could get a rough estimate with a little pontificating... I've been at my present place of employment for 7 plus years and on average I eat there about once a month and each visit to Mazzio's pizza buffet requires about 10 pieces before I'll say "Uncle". 7 x 12 x 10 = 840, so, if you factor in the times when I went more than once in a month or had more than my usual 10 pieces, I could safely say that 900 pieces isn't too far off the mark. It's good stuff. Not great, not incredible, but steady. However, as is the case with many chain restaurants, not all stores are created equal. I've partaken of Mazzio's pizza that crossed my palate and I was pretty perturbed to find that the quality of the location turned out plenty poor. The location that we go to in Midwest City is good and I've never had anything less than a feast there. I recommend it even though at times, they get a bit behind in restocking the buffet (such as this last visit). When this tragic event, known as a Pizza Phamin, does happen, things can and do get interesting. Any time you've got 85 pizza starved people with a one hour lunch break and there's no pizza to be seen, things happen. Things like the inevitable 'Pizza Wall'. That's where the angry pizza mob stands around the buffet waiting for the Pleasant Pizza Proprietor to promptly place another pie on the plate. This always leads to much groaning and sobbing from the back of the wall when delivery number one is devoured by the crowd. The back of the wall always has to wait for round 2. Now, on this fine day in pizza-ville I was unfortunate enough to be a member of round 2 for my second trip. As I got up to the buffet and selected my first slice (Cheese with that funny white sauce) another pizza-pie-picker-outter stepped in front of me. The nerve! I had visions of smacking her hand with spatula as she scooped up her pizza prey or shouting, "Drop the Pizza now and no one gets hurt!". However, at this point in the game, I'd already had 4 pieces so I wasn't in a pizza starved craze, so I politely let her step in front of me, choose her slice and then I quietly and overly politely said, "Oh, that's the one I was going to get". Hoever, the subject of my pizza prank didn't bite. With the pizza firmly on her spatula she placed it on her plate. She was a rock... A proverbial pizza pro. I barely heard her say, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even see you there." Drat! My pizza plan foiled by a prim and proper patron of the female persuasion. Oh well, not to be deterred, I stocked up and headed back to the rally point and proceeded to partake. All in all it was a plentiful visit. Today my count went to 912...
Here's a look at my pile of plates
