The Super Bowl and Life

              "This game is not just important to me," Tom Brady replied to the ESPN interviewer, "It is important to all of us, everyone one wearing Patriots gear today, we will win." All the workers at Tri Pi began to laugh, "Ahh I got 50 for Seattle", "Richard Sherman will tear Tom Brady from limb to limb", and then a more convinced voice, "I don't know guys, Tom has 15 years under his belt, He's got experience, ehh none of y'all young folks would understand that anyway." They all became silent. This tends to be the environment of Tri Pi Pizzeria in downtown Bloomsburg, a serene spot for anyone to go to and under control by two great bosses.

One of the college students (Figure 1)

          Walking into Tri Pi the aroma of garlic and marinara sauce hits anyone that comes in and the sound of sports and guys yelling about which team is better gives it a welcoming feel for almost any college student. It's not too flashy with overly expensive decorations, it's just the basics, and considering most college kids are tight on money, this is why they go here anyway (Figure 1). With burgundy brick walls on both sides, six televisions and one huge one at the front of the store all playing ESPN is a great way to lure in almost any college student.

 "When the university is in, business is good and that being considered and us being a new business we are constantly gaining more students", as Kelby, the co-owner of Tri Pi explained. The building may be a little small but it consists of two long black tables on each side of the eatery with dark brown stools under them to give it that "bar-like" feel and then three square tables in the middle of the room with four ivory green chairs at each table. There are many signs in Tri Pi, a orange one stating, "Our Pretzelini's are delightful". Right next to that sign is the order table all the way in the back of the pizzeria with an already awaiting employee there in all black, from the hat on their head to the black non-slip shoes on their feet, asking you the most obvious question, "Hi welcome to Tri-Pi, what can I get you today?"

        Kelby walks out from the back with a dusty apron full of dough with another one of his employees to watch ESPN before the big game, "I'm telling you guys, Patriots will win" "and if they don't, can we make a pizza?" Kelby ponders, "Okay,why not, but I'm telling you, Patriots are gonna win." Kelby Taylor is a Bloomsburg University graduate and the co-owner of Tri Pi Pizzeria with his right hand man, Joey Yannone. Kelby and Joey have been working together for two years and just as Kelby snickered he asked himself, "Why stop now?" Kelby giggled as to why he decided to start working in the food industry in the first place. "I like my job. The most satisfying part is that when I went to Bloom, there happened to be so much appreciation for being able to get food late at night." Kelby began to look around his pizzeria while tapping his fingers, "I played football in college and obviously I eat a lot and for us, the schedule we used to have made it hard for us to find good food and for it to be delivered late at night, it was really frustrating." The retired football player reminisced, "That's the thing I like about this place the most, is that students can get food late at night and it's good. I've been to many places where you can get food late at night and I rather have not even ate and went to bed hungry because of how horrible it is."

     As a woman came in looking around startled as if she had never been to Tri Pi before, Kelby noticed her and quickly stopped what he was doing to help the woman, "Hi, welcome to Tri Pi." The woman questioned Kelby, "What are pretzelini's?" Kelby was very eager to answer, "Well, they are our most famous dish here, they have pretzel bun--" Kelby stopped and became a little interesting, "You know what, I'm not even gonna tell you, Just try it", He insisted, "You won't be dissapointed." (Figure 2) The woman nodded and then walked back to the order station. Kelby confessed, "You 

The famous "Pretzelini" (Figure 2)

know the pretzelini wasn't supposed to be this big?" Behind Kelby, he heard the woman order a Philly Cheesteak pretzelini, giggling with a huge satisfying grin on his face. "Joey is the creator of it and what we wanted to do first was a soft pretzel, like a Philadelphia soft pretzel, cut it in half, put mozzarella cheese and pepperoni inside and stick it in the oven and then put garlic, butter and salt on top. We didn't mean for it to sell like this, we didn't think it would be as popular as it is now. When it sold so well, me and Joey decided to make different pretzelini's and now we have a big portion of our menu with over 12 pretzelini's. The pretzel bun is a big hit right now and I think especially our combinations are unique and that's what sells them." Kelby admitted, "The pretzelini's was just a 'we'll see how it goes' type of idea and then it exploded!" As the woman walked out eating her pretzelini, she asked Kelby, "I've never had a pretzelini before, they're delicious!" Kelby with a fulfilling look on his face and a smile, "I'm glad you like it, please come back any time!" As he watched the woman leave his store eating her food, he whispered, "The one thing I love the most about this place is how happy I make my customers, I love to see a smile on their face, that just tells me that I'm doing something right."

      As the sun started to go down and the phones started to ring every few minutes, Kelby began to look at his watch frequently. "I have to get back there soon, we have so much to do tonight, all hands on deck, you know? From cutting up chicken into tiny pieces to slapping out our dough we make fresh here every day (Figure 3), it's a lot of work,

Freshly Made Dough (Figure 3)

but I'm pretty sure we can do it. It's just like nights like these, it takes a lot of prep work. Just like last night." Joey looked up from his watch and started bursting out laughing, "Speaking of last night, I gotta tell you about it. I swear college kids can be so hilarious. Joey called me this morning to tell me about last nights shift, he said it was really busy and then when things started to slow down, there was a surprise visitor." Kelby kept going, "We had a kid here and my guess was he was a drunk kid that just transferred here this semester. But anyway, he stumbled into our back door and was chillin' in the kitchen. The employees had to escort him out and remind him that this wasn't a party." Kelby began to look at his employees, "Ya know, we get a lot of stuff like that considering we're near the bar and stuff but me and the staff just find it hilarious." As Kelby looked at the time, he admitted that he had to go into the back to start prepping for that night. "I gotta show my staff how its done, ya know what I'm sayin?" He began to take off his North Face jacket, his watch and put his cellphone away to put on a dusty black Tri Pi t-shirt and hat on and tie his apron with a ton of dough on it as if he was an employee there too. He yelled out to his employees, "Alright guys, let's get ready for tonight. I'm pumped!"
     Walking out of  Tri Pi, everyone could hear Tom Brady talking about the game that was going to happen in just a few short hours. "Every team has a journey," Brady continued, "and a lot of people lost faith in us early. But we held strong. We held together. This is why we will win" Kelby yelled out, "I know that's right Tom, these youngin's don't understand that, it's experience that will win you the super bowl. Well, the super bowl and life."