When Sookie Orth sat down to write her college essay last fall, something quickly came to mind. A pizza box. Orth, then a senior at Sequoyah School in Pasadena, began her draft with a declaration: “I learned how to fold a pizza box at the age of nine.
” She told the story of her years-long connection with Pizza of Venice in Altadena, where she often dined with her family as a little kid. One day, the manager invited her to assemble a box. Impressed with Orth’s speed, the woman told her she could work at the pizzeria when she was older.
Eventually, Orth got that job — and it changed her life by showing her the value of hard work. “Folding those boxes feels different now,” she wrote. It was a particular kind of box.
The one used by the restaurant features artwork of a pizza kitchen: There’s a brick oven, shelves stocked with ingredients, and, notably, two incongruous chefs at work. One is rendered in a lifelike fashion, the other is a simply drawn cartoon, his smiling face just a few squiggly lines. There’s a slogan at the bottom of the box: “Enjoy your delicious moments!” It makes for a strange tableau.
“It is really kind of messed up when you look at it closely,” said Orth, 18, a server at Pizza of Venice. “Everything feels very cut and paste. And the phrase, ‘Enjoy your delicious moments!’ — what if I don’t? It’s like a command.
” Internet denizens have long been captivated by the box, which can be found at pizzerias across the West, inclu.
