apparently up there in dallas, marco’sreally made a name for himself. sorry, marco - down here in the woodlands, this biotch ain’t impressed. i stopped in for lunch today - and here, in no particular order, were my observations:
first of all, they didn’t do a damn thing with the decor. if you’ll recall, the place used to be extreme pizza (which, i know first hand, was a franchise operated by an extreme $#*^&). at least though when it was extreme, there was some semblance of care taken in color coordination and such. when marco moved in, despite the fact that little needed to be done, it would almost appear as though they’re squatting there. only one picture on the wall, two tv’s (both in terrible places, since one has to look toward the window to watch. they also seemingly don’t feel the need to have seating space; having removed several tables to replace with one long bench.
while waiting for 15 minutes to get my one slice of pie, i wondered if perhaps this first franchisee (apparently this is the first non-family-owned marco’s) didn’t have english as it’s first language for a couple of reasons. the posted menu board was clearly not double-checked prior to mounting as one menu item ran right into another, forcing them to have to highlight the second item. and the print menus made no sense to me whatsoever. the items are not in any order - not by price, not alphabetically, not by number of ingredients. there’s an image of some pasta dish on it (actually the first of only three food images on the menu) although i was later informed after noting there was no pasta dishes listed on the menu that only one of the family stores did actually offer pasta.
apparently, old man marco still rules the roost. with an iron fist. from the grave… i learned a couple of interesting facts, when i couldn’t help but ask the man busing the tables (after all, i was still waiting on my lunch). as this is the first franchise, they actually have to drive halfway to dallas twice a week to pick up dough and sauce in buckets; franchisees are not trusted to keep the “famous” recipes to themselves. the family is also in charge of all printing.Â
sad. sad really. considering how bad it looked.
when my much-anticipated lunch finally arrived, it did look fantastic. but as i took my first bite - well, as you can guess from the headline, i wasn’t wowed. and i don’t see what the family is so damn protective of. the sauce was meh. the crust was thin. the grease was generous.
and so it is, i wait patiently for grimaldi’s to finally open up. i’ve only been waiting nearly a year now. no need to rush it.