Blog

I’ve been fortunate enough to take a few days off from the office and spend some quality time with my family.  In the last 72 hours, from being around them constantly, I’ve experienced every emotion possible.  From being absolutely, positively ecstatic to just down right irritated and needing to put myself in a timeout, it’s been quite the mini vacation to say the least!  The kids, husband and I drove to Sacramento to spend a few days at Grandpa& Grandma’s house.  I love watching the grandparents interact with my children.  It brings back such fond memories of my childhood and how lucky I was to have such great parents. As the year comes to an end, I have so much to be thankful for and FAMILY tops my list.  Through good times and bad, ups & downs, family is always there to give you that support when you need it the most.  No matter what, just be grateful for the time you have to spend with your loved ones.  And because I can’t write something without mentioning pizza, here are some words to live by.  Life is like a pizza.  Enjoy every slice. What are you thankful for?

If love is food then is eating the most important thing we do?  Food is a way that people connect and come together.  I love having guests over.  Cooking and eating is how I relate to people and feel most comfortable.  This is my way of showing affection to my family and friends.  Last week, we had a guest call in a pizza request.  She was celebrating her anniversary and wanted to know if we could create an extra special pizza for their extra special day.  With no hesitations, we happily obliged.  Today she picked up her pizza.  If this doesn’t have love written all over it, then I don’t know what does!  Patxi’s <3 you!

Picky kids always love pizza.  But can Patxi’s make pizza healthy?  Absolutely!  I woke up in the middle of the night starving. I got up and made myself a quick snack.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t a slice of leftover Patxi’s, but…. it got me thinking to why pizza has such a bad rap??!!   I mean after all, pizza can be a nutritious meal and healthy snack.   As a parent, I often struggle with healthier restaurant options for my kids.  Even a nice restaurant will have disguised crap on their kids menu.  Pizza doesn’t have to be fattening.  It can be healthy.  (Think whole wheat crust, lots of veggies, and low fat cheese.)  As an added bonus, order the extra thin crust which will only highlight the toppings!!  And because kids are always so picky, keep in mind that at Patxi’s, you CAN order a pizza without the cornmeal.

Christmas Eve has come and gone.  While many of you  were at home with your families, our Patxi’s staff were working to serve our hungry guests! We couldn’t leave you hanging without pizza now could we??!!  Keeping this short and sweet, we just want to express how grateful we are to all of you.  A big thank you to our Patxi’s Staff who worked on a holiday.  To all those who work behind the scenes at Patxi’s-the kitchen crew, bussers, servers and bartenders.  You are a BIG part of what Patxi’s is and we couldn’t do it without all of you.  We appreciate your dediciation to Patxi’s and to our guests.  And of course, a big thanks to our guests who celebrated the holiday in Patxi’s style and dined on pizza!  We know you have options and we thank you for your support.  We hope that you enjoy your holiday and don’t forget your pineapples!  Have a safe and happy holiday!

Did you know that the Pineapple has been a symbol of hospitality dating back to the 1400’s?   When Christopher Columbus arrived at the island of Guadalupe, he was greeted with a pineapple. He brought pineapples back to Europe to carry on this tradition. Since then it has been through the symbol of a pineapple that hosts have given personality and intrigue to the welcoming of guests when they entertain. At Patxi’s we would like to continue with that tradition.  Each  guest who dines with us on Christmas Eve will be presented with a pineapple of their own this holiday season!  Thank you for your support.  Warm wishes to you and yours this holiday season.

One of the benefits of working at Patxi’s is that I get to eat a lot of pizza.  And when I say a lot, I mean just about everyday.  In addition to eating Patxi’s for lunch, I frequent a Patxi’s restaurant with my family one night a week, usually on Thursdays.  The typical order for us is one Antipasto plate for me, Greek salad for my husband, thin crust half pepperoni/half cheese for the kids, and a deep dish Classic meat or Special minus the mushrooms and a Greek Extra Thin Snack Size Pizza for the hubby and I.  We order far too much leaving us with lots of leftovers to take home.  Not a problem because I/WE <3 pizza.  Anyone who opens the stainless steel doors of our Frigidaire knows that they will always find leftover pizza of some kind.  Each piece is carefully wrapped individually in ziplock bags courtesy of my husband…which reminds me….  I can’t even begin to tell you  how excited he was last night after seeing the variety of ziplock bags in the fridge!!  Winner winner pizza dinner!  (We’re still on a pizza-leftover overload from our Monday night football party)  I loathe leftovers except there’s something about day old pizza, or days old for that matter, that just tastes absolutely wonderful!  As a triathlete in her off-season, I have taken full advantage of enjoying every piece, bite, morsel, nook and cranny of pizza because come January, it’s back to the long, grueling workouts and instead of eating pizza 5 days a week, I’ll be eating pizza….well, probably 5 days a week because you can take away the workouts but you can’t take away my Patxi’s Pizza.  Because nothing comes between me and my Patxi’s!

Below-is a picture taken of the inside of my fridge.  The frosting is for decorating cookies with the kids.  Notice the last remains of the pizza stash to the right-2 different styles!

One of the things I love about working for Patxi’s Pizza is their commitment to giving back to the community.  Every week of the calendar year, Patxi’s restaurants host local fundraisers for organizations dedicated to education and children’s health & welfare.  Patxi’s donates a percentage of ALL sales from these events to these local organizations.  As the point person for our 52 Week Program, it gives me great pleasure working with such organizations in planning the events and watching them come together.  Schools, kids, parents, neighborhoods, and friends all under the Patxi’s roof, eating together and supporting one another and their cause.  In some ways, I feel like Mrs. Clause 52 Weeks out of the year when I send the organization an email letting them know how much they raised! Thank you to all of the organizations who have chosen Patxi’s to be an integral part of their community.  Here at Patxi’s, we believe in community involvement.  You have our commitment to act as a responsible neighbor and partner in the towns where we live, work, and do business.  We believe in making our communities better every day.  For more info, visit: http://patxispizza.com/52weeks.html

Last night I created a bit of “Polpetti” magic at my house.  I’m still adjusting to working, taking care of kids, finding time to train for triathlon and making a decent dinner at home for the family in under 30 minutes!  I had some left over Polpetti from Monday night’s 49er game.  I know not all of our locations have them on the menu.  But, if you can get to a location that does, they are absolutely delicious and get better over time.  They are made in house with beef, pork, and porcini mushrooms. They are served in a slightly spicy red sauce.  I decided to “cheat” last night and serve them over pasta (think spaghetti and meatballs) and voila, dinner is served with some Patxi’s pizazz! Here is the Polpetti Appetizer!

A friend of mine  told me a few months ago that he refuses to order pizza because it’s just flour, water and salt. Or in other words, bread with sauce.  Really?  Did my friend just say that to my face?  Yes, he did. Well, let me set the record straight.  Before working at Patxi’s, my family and I would dine at a pizza place at least 2x a week.  When you have kids, pizza just somehow becomes  part of your “daily recommended diet” so I consider myself a pizza connoisseur if you know what I mean!  That said, there’s pizza where the crust tastes like a saltine cracker and then you have Patxi’s Pizza….and notice I didn’t just say Chicago Style.  Call me biased, but anyone who has ever tasted a Patxi’s pizza can attest that our pizza crust doesn’t taste anything like just flour, water, & salt.  Its buttery, crisp, and flaky crust is all the rage, even more so when accompanied by the Honey Bear!  The pan pizza is fluffier and its cornmeal crust just takes your taste buds to another dimension.  All of the crusts can hold their own even when piled high with toppings!!  So next time, I’m bringing my “friend” who refuses to order pizza to Patxi’s.  After all, it’s all in the crust!

Tonight, I couldn’t help but think about a certain Facebook posting we received today.  One of our Facebook followers @Michael Harms asked, “ Would you guys Fedex a pizza to LA? I have recently moved out here and nothing comes anywhere close to a comparison.”  It got me thinking back to a few years ago, when I was living in NYC and was craving some good’ole cheesecake from a local bakery in SF.  I called the bakery and to my surprise, they shipped over night my favorite cheesecake, packed oh-so-carefully on dry ice. Would you order a half-baked pizza if it could be shipped to you next day? How far would you go for a Patxi’s Pizza?  Dinner as usual is dead!