Fly-on-the-wall narrative: A weekend at Capriottis

Life around a university can become eventful as students and faculty are constantly walking around and on the campus, even on the weekend. One particular fast food restaurant, Capriotti’s, thrives on being near the University of Nevada, Reno, along with being directly off of the freeway. With a combination of both of these, it can become clear that Capriotti’s is quite eventful during a Saturday and Sunday lunch rush. This includes the customers who enter the store, the workers who consistently serve and prepare their orders, and everything in between. On the weekend at Capriotti’s, workers must remain productive in order to successfully serve their customers.

I entered the store at 11:50am, preparing to witness the lunch rush on a busy Saturday. The store smelled of fresh bread and produce, and sounded of a college football game, Cincinnati against Indiana along with the voices of stressed workers. One of the workers, Ethan Ostrea, stated the kitchen was running about 20 minutes behind their ordering time, as mobile orders were also coming from the lunch rush. After entering the store, I waited a few minutes, ordered food, and sat down. Their rush had already begun before I entered the store. The workers on this particular Saturday shift at Capriotti’s were William Grove, Stephanie Fedele, and Macaia, a new worker.

As it approached 12:30pm, the restaurant started to slow down from the rush of customers it had earlier. Only a few customers remained sitting and eating their food, while others were waiting for the food to be made and leaning against the glass in the store. Some of them seemed to be growing impatient, while others didn’t mind waiting.

Around 12:45pm, the lunch rush continued again. The customer service at this store was great, and it seemed to keep most customers from growing impatient. Out of all of the customers who would approach to order, those who seemed to be the most impatient were those picking up food for others, such as Doordash drivers. The workers would bring the food out to customers who had been waiting a while, and this was appreciated by a majority of them. As it approached 1pm, customers still remained waiting for food, but the dining tables seemed to have emptied, except for two younger men — most likely college students.

Many of the individuals that crowded around the television in the store to watch the football game were men, and they often would talk to each other about how the game was going. A couple of men, Arnold and Richard, were just a couple feet from my table, having a conversation about their plans for the day and looking at their phones. They were talking about the easiest way to travel somewhere, as one of them stated, “It might be easier to take the shuttle in order to arrive in town on time”. Another guy, Dwight, joined in on their conversation as they looked at his phone and discussed the easiest way to travel. They began talking about how large the sandwiches were that they received and were laughing. Soon after Arnold and the others received their food, he left the store, leaving the other two to talk.

Most of the customers didn’t seem to be in a rush, and the restaurant seemed to be less busy than it was earlier. “The wait for sandwiches is about 10–15 minutes”, Stephanie, the general manager at the store stated.

As customers continued coming in throughout the afternoon, a majority of them seemed to be college students. Many of these individuals would come in with backpacks, most likely after having been on campus from weekend classes, work, or studying on campus. The campus is just about a five minute walk from Capriotti’s, making this a convenient place for college students to go for a quick study break.

Most of the kitchen wasn’t within the customer’s view in the dining room, but it was visible to see when the workers were preparing food and bringing it out to customers. The salads seemed to be made in a separate area compared to where the sandwiches were. A couple young adults who had brought their baby in came to use the bathroom, and left soon after. Both of them seemed to be in a good mood, and smiled at me. Quickly after this, the woman said to the man, “Oh my god I graduate next year. Are you excited?”. Both of them seemed to be in their mid to late 20’s.

As it reached 1:45pm, the amount of customers didn’t seem to be overwhelming, but the wait was high. “It’s about a 20 minute wait”, Stephanie said. This likely meant they had received a lot of online orders, and were needing to finish those up at the same time. After observation on such a busy Saturday, it was expected that Sunday would be busy as well.

I walked in the next day at 11:30am, and was surprised to see people already waiting for their orders. Many of the customers seemed to be adults, likely coming from their jobs to enjoy their lunch breaks. One customer, in particular, was wearing doctor scrubs in the lobby of the store. The television was playing on an infomercial channel advertising different workout CD’s that you could buy.

I ordered some food once I walked in, and began sitting at one of the tables in their dining room. While I waited for my food, the customers in the lobby began to disappear, and the lobby got quieter. I heard from one of the workers, Mireina Martinez, that, “There is a 20 minute wait!”. This comes just before noon, when they typically are their busiest.

One particular family came in with a couple children. As one of the toddlers was waiting rather impatiently for his sandwich, he threw his bag of chips across the dining room and almost into the kitchen. The father lectured him and said he needs to sit down, and kicked the remaining chips closer into the Capriotti’s kitchen. A girl wearing a University of Nevada, Reno shirt saw this occur, and seemed shocked at the action of the boy. He seemed to still be impatient, but the father was now making sure he wouldn’t do that again.

A couple other workers began to trickle in as the Sunday lunch rush began. One of the workers had worked on Saturday, and another worker named Erik Harper entered the store. As it got busier, they decided to change the television station to a basketball game. It quickly became difficult to comprehend much of what was being said in the store, as the store got loud fast.

The customer service was nice to watch, as one worker spoke to an elderly woman giving her food and saying, “I got you girl!”, after repeating the woman’s order to her. When the dining room began to slow down at the end of the lunch rush, William decided to change the channel to a football game — the Las Vegas Raiders against the Pittsburgh Steelers. The game was already in the fourth quarter, and not many customers were paying attention to the game. Once it hit 12:30pm, only a couple other individuals were in the lobby, making it a much slower lunch rush than Saturday was.

The lunch rush continued at 12:45pm, with a majority of these individuals being college students, carrying backpacks and large purses as they walked in. One particular older man who came in and ordered food, George, was interested in the game and stood nearby across the table I was sitting at. He stood there just swaying back and forth, his eyes glued on the screen while he waited for his food to be prepared. Eventually, he decided to take a seat at the next table over from me.

Another couple of customers who seemed to be growing impatient sat in the dining room, one of them wearing a mask that said, “Shut the fuck up!” and the other wearing a bandana as a mask. These customers were also intrigued with the football game, and didn’t seem interested in much else going on in the store.

The workers seemed to be getting stressed, as they were having issues with the soda machine. “The Dr. Pepper isn’t working,” said one customer impatiently. A worker assured them that once they were able to get it working, they would be able to fill their drink up. A worker had to quickly adjust this issue in order to avoid any other upset reactions. As the customers continued coming through, the sounds of knives clicking against the stovetop rang along with the smoke sizzling above.

Eventually, the line of customers slowed down, but the dining room became full with customers enjoying their food. Football was on, but it was a different game now. Some customers got mad when they didn’t get their food as quickly as they wanted, even when it was because they didn’t hear their name get called out. One customer began yelling, “Excuse me!” multiple times until they received their food, almost immediately after getting it.

Throughout the day, it was noticeable that the tip jar became full, and likely would continue to do so the rest of the day. The workers were giving great customer service, and many customers appreciated this. The lunch rush slowed at around 1:30pm, around when I left the store on Sunday.

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