Antico Pizza

First! Here are photos from our night at Antico Pizza last Saturday. Click.

We shot about 120 mini photo shoots last Saturday at the Indie Craft Experience!… and while it originally started out as just a ‘photobooth’ – I don’t really know how to operate one of those, so instead of leaving the camera on a tripod and pressing a button on a remote – everything turned into a mini photo shoot and in some cases – a whole Sears Photo Package! Depending on how far back the line went, each session went longer or shorter between 2-7 minutes. Not a lot of time, but I was also shooting in an old warehouse cargo elevator – so it’s not like I had a crazy wild variation in poses. Still – you have to be creative and I did my best.

Click here for the ICE Photobooth Preview (I’m gonna work hard and finish these up by the end of Wednesday hopefully).

After shooting for 7 hours – we went to Antico Pizza to celebrate the birthday of our friend Adam! It was packed and soon after we entered, they locked the doors and pretty much shut down the restaurant to any new customers. They were running out of pizza! – and it was only 8pm on a Saturday! In case you have no idea and have never been to Antico Pizza – here are the Yelp Reviews.

And no matter what anyone says – this pie is different and better than 99% of the pizza out there – even when they’re off – I’d still rather have one of these pizzas than anyplace else. Sure you’ve only got  a 3 minute window as to when they’re at their peak for eating, but that just means you have to stop talking and just eat.

Now there aren’t any real ‘waitstaff’ to speak of, but that doesn’t mean that the people working there aren’t a part of the whole experience. Since I think 8/11 of the people work there are from Italy, and you hear them speaking italian, it adds to the whole experience – especially when you’re surrounded by all of the products imported from Italy with the labels clearly visible.

I was very tired when I arrived and it was busy (hence the locking of the doors) – but by the time we left – I felt 1,000 times better.

The top shot above with the champagne? It was a really busy night, and everyone was in such a great mood. The kitchen area was packed with our party and two others – dining back there with the GIGANTIC wood fire ovens. Near the end of the night the owners lined up the staff and spoke a few words – specifically about the guys he had brought over from Naples – to cook pizza! Conveying his appreciation for them and the sacrifice they had made to leave their families and come here to Atlanta – and after seeing these guys work back there during the dinner rush to the end, you kind of understand why the owners went to such great lengths.

So although I had already put my camera away, when he started talking I could kind of tell it was going to be something special – and you know, I stopped shooting food/restaurant photos a while back but I had a feeling that some shots were about to come up that no one else was ever going to be able to get.

I pulled out my camera and started shooting just a few moments before the champagne started spraying into the air! – deciding when to shield my lens and when to keep shooting – it’s just champagne right?

It was a full day of photography for us – but to be there to capture those moments at Antico…the look of appreciation and really – love for his employees – it’s always great when you capture something genuine.

Here are photos from our night at Antico Pizza last Saturday. Click.