BRAD HORN/Nevada Appeal Carson City Raider Booster treasurer from right Nancie (Michael) Pitts and secretary Leni (Peyton) Manning cheer after a 50-yard field goal by Carolina Panther kicker John Kasay right before the half ended Sunday at Joe Bob's Chicken in Carson City.
Things started to heat up for the 18 employees at the Carson Domino's on Highway 50 East Sunday afternoon. At 2:54 p.m. - while the Patriots and Panthers were getting psyched up for Super Bowl XXXVIII in Houston - shift leader Tasha Gonzales took an order for 30 chicken wings.
"That's one of the popular items for football Sundays," she explained, hanging up the phone and spinning around to the printer.
Domino's sells more than one million pizzas on Super Bowl Sunday - making it the busiest day of the year for the company, according to Dominos.com.
Carson Domino's employees were stacking pizza boxes 10-feet high to prepare for the rush. Kimberly King, 18, was pressing out doughs on a dusting of corn meal then sliding them over to the "Top it off Right" topping station.
Driver Matt Cole was ready for action. One of 12 drivers for the night, he was waiting by the dispatch screen for his turn to go.
"The screen tells you the address you're going to and it keeps track of which driver is going next and also keeps track of how long it's been since the order was placed," he said. He was rooting for the Patriots.
"That's who I bet on with the guys at my other job."
Cole is also a supervisor at T&D Machine Products off Arrowhead.
He leaned into the slicer wheel, rolling it through a hot medium pizza with sausage. The pies were coming out of the conveyor belt oven more frequently now. The printer screeched out another order, one of the five phone lines rang and the oven fan whirred.
"Coming through! Coming through!" called out a driver with two empty Heat Wave delivery bags. Kimberly King's cheeks were getting rosy from the heat of the ovens.
It was busy, but not too bad, said general manager Mark Bader.
"It used to get really busy on Super Bowl Sunday but over the last couple years it's dropped off a bit. If the 49ers or the Raiders are in it we'll do exceptionally well. But it's not until the second half that business really picks up."
It was pretty quiet at Carson's watering holes, too.
"We have a pretty good turnout, considering it's two teams nobody really cares about," said Rod Fox, owner of Decades Bar & Grill.
As he spoke the first quarter came to an end with the score still zero to zero. That means Bill and Christy W. won $750 on the Decades Super Bowl pool. Whoever guessed the exact score would win $4,800.
"Somebody's going to be really happy," said Fox.
Norman and Susie Westgate of Susie's BBQ brought their new Ole Hickory Smoker trailer out from Fallon. It can cook 800 pounds of meat at once.
"We can do pork butts, ribs, you name it," Norman said.
His daughter Holly, 15, came running for another load of potato salad.
"This is the best little place in town to come for a good time, straight up," said Steve Ritter.
"It's like being in your own living room with all your friends," added his wife Becky.
She pointed to co-owner Jennifer Fox.
"The Fox's are great. They put on a really good show for the price."
Over at Joe Bob's Hot Springs Roadhouse the Carson City Raiders Booster Club was enjoying the game.
"The Super Bowl is just an excuse to get together even though our team isn't playing," said Nancie Pitts, club treasurer. "It doesn't matter who's playing - we're all football fans."
The club was raising funds for seniors they adopt at Christmas. They offer a large collection of items up for auction and hold a raffle.
"We are doing this basically to raise money for our seniors," said secretary Leni Manning.
Contact Karl Horeis at khoreis@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1219.
