Reykjavík Grapevine - 14.07.2017, Side 66

Joaquim Monera Carretey is preparing
for his night shift at champion pizza
joint Eldsmiðjan.
I don’t know what I had imagined when
it comes to late night shifts at a pizzeria.
Considering that Iceland’s outpost of the
universal drunk food favourite McDon-
ald's went bankrupt during last decade’s
economic crisis, I guess I thought that
people would queue for a cheesy pizza as
an alternative to a cheeseburger in the
wee small hours of a bar crawl.
But turns Joaquim experiences it as
quite calm. “We get some regulars, of
course,” he says. “There’s one guy, who
repeatedly comes in during night shifts.
He has a very characteristic way of dress-
ing, and must be on something—alcohol,
drugs, life, I don’t know. And he always
orders one litre of Coca Cola. No pizza,
always Coca Cola. There’s only been one
time when he actually ordered a pizza.
And then he didn’t want anything to
drink with it instead. I was so confused.
I still am.”
In the middle of our chat, an order
request from the children's hospital
comes in. Then it hits me—home deliv-
ery! There must be some tidbits when it
comes to that. The restaurant manager
then tells me about one night few years
back when he delivered to two drunk
guys halfway passed out on a sofa, and
one of them couldn’t even recall ordering
pizzas: “Turns out neither one of them
had any money. So they offered me an
iPod instead.” The desperate things you
do when the craving for pizza is larger
than life…
He then continues, “Once we also had
an offer of 100 ISK per topping so you
could create your own mix. One guy or-
dered a pizza with fifteen toppings—it
was crazy, but I mean we had to do it. An-
chovy, ham, blue cheese, banana, pine-
apple to mention a few.” We all agreed
that at least that person must’ve been
trippin’.
HOUR OF THE WOLF
CITY SHOT
Confusing
Customers & A
Fifteen-Topping
Pizza
Anecdotes from night shifts
at a pizzeria
Words & Photo:
Johanna
Eriksson
By Art Bicnick
DON’T ASK NANNA...
About Ravens
Words: Nanna Árnadóttir
Hey Nanna
I loved your article on April 14 sharing
with your loyal readers the story of the
raven cam under the roof of home store
BYKO in Selfoss. I have followed and have
been enthralled with their development
since their birth. Unfortunately, the cam
seems to have gone offline a few weeks
ago and my life, without my daily fix of
watching their development, has taken a
turn for the worse. Seriously, I have lost
all my appetite, have begun to shrivel up
and those concerned are worried I might
lose the will to live entirely. Dearest dear-
est Nanna, is there any news, any other
URL to the webcam? Any way that I might
once again share in the lives of Mr. and
Mrs. Raven and their beautiful chicks?
Please Nanna, please help me find them
again!
Bird Lover
Dear Bird Lover,
I’ve spoken with the staff of BYKO in Sel-
foss and I have been informed that the
ravens were called away on urgent busi-
ness. Something about flying over the
world and collecting secret information
to whisper into the ears of a one-eyed man
called Wednesday. I don’t know who those
losers at BYKO were trying to fool though.
We all know the ravens were recruited by
Russia to compromise global cyber se-
curity.
Nanna
Don't email: nanna@grapevine.is
Don't tweet at: @NannaArnadottir
West-Iceland
66 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 12 — 2017