Jay Jerrier decided to close Zoli’s NY Pizza for the day about an hour and a half after it opened Tuesday. He later wrote on Facebook:
Hello All – well tonight was a disaster. 5 minutes before we opened, our computer system crashed. The reboot caused chaos with the ordering process. Because of this, along with new staff, and large crowds we made the decision to shut things down early. We’re retooling things tonight to get the systems fixed and the menu streamlined. We’ll open at 5pm on Wednesday. We apologize for any inconvenience or problems this caused for everyone!
We were among the last people served, placing our order at about 6:15 p.m., and we only scored a table because the people who had been sitting there before us left before their food arrived. The couple at the next table were among the first to order, and they watched table after table receive their meals before they finally got their food at around 7:45. They were a little frustrated, but not mad. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back,” the guy told the manager.
Scott Reitz at City of Ate said it well. Jerrier is social media savvy and had been hyping the restaurant for months prior to the opening. He has received a ton of media publicity since the spring. “Suddenly the old-school, pre-Internet, quiet soft opening isn’t looking so bad,” Reitz writes.
Zoli’s is opening again at 5 p.m. today.
The Lockhart from Zoli’s
The best things we tried Tuesday were the New York-style hot sopressata slice — the salami is sliced paper thin and crisps up in the oven like bacon. The Lockhart is a Sicilian slice with brisket from Lockhart Smokehouse, roasted Hatch chiles and a drizzle of barbecue sauce. My slice had bits of brisket fat and crispy meat sunken into the mozzarella, and the chiles gave it a kick. The New York-style white slice comes with dollops of the most delicious ricotta. We loved almost everything we tried, including the sangria. We tried our first “grandma slice,” and found it too bready. It just wasn’t our thing, but we dipped some of the bread into the super yummy house-made ranch, and it was awesome. Hey, you can put New York-style pizza in Texas, but it’s still Texas.
