PT: Your name alone implies your pizzas function as a work of art. How is that carried through to the product?

MA: We’re specialty pizza, and we have more than 60 different toppings. We used a corporate chef for several years in the ‘90s to create a lot of different taste profiles, working not only presentation but also textures, colors and taste. We see “works” as two different things: artwork and (the) works of overwhelming variety.

PT: You offer unusual toppings such as alligator, crawfish and –– gulp –– hot dogs. We have to ask: how well do these sell?

MA: It depends on where we are. In North Carolina, we might sell 220 pounds of alligator a year or a year-and-a-half. In Louisiana, we might sell 20 pounds in two weeks. Crawfish, of course, is a big seller in Louisiana. We sell a lot of crawfish. Alligator is not really as popular as it used to be and I’m not really sure why, but crawfish is steadily becoming an ingredient of choice, especially in Louisiana.

PT: Where most pizzerias might offer one or two seafood pies, your menu boasts five. Why so many?

ME: Uniqueness, first of all. A lot of people offer seafood, and we’re a Louisiana-based concept –– it’s very high in food culture here. We have a long history of food taste and culinary sophistication. Seafood just seems to go with what we do and who we are.

PT: Pieworks sits at No. 71 on Pizza Today’s Hot 100 Independents list. How have you used that in your marketing?

MA: We use it in our franchising efforts and when we open a new restaurant. We have a number of different awards that we’ve won, and we like to list them, especially when we’re introducing ourselves to a new market. We use the Hot 100 especially when we’re promoting franchises.

PT: We know Pieworks has stepped up franchising –– why now, and what is your expected growth?

MA: We’ve been around since 1990. Although we’ve been offering franchises since 2002, we really haven’t gone after it like we’re planning on doing in the next 12 to 24 months. Primarily, I had felt that we didn’t have a strong enough base. We have fi ve locations now, and three of them are our new prototype. Just now, I think we’re getting a strong enough base to support franchisees regardless of where they are. We’ve had to evolve our concept over the years –– part in the changing times, and part to become more contemporary. We look at offering franchises as a way to grow as our concept evolves.

The post 2009 February: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

I’ve seen and lived through some similar economic times. I remember when, with absolutely no notice, Richard Nixon imposed an executive order that froze all wages and prices for most of a year. This order made it a crime to raise your prices on anything as well as give an employee a wage hike. The economy needed some time to get itself back on track. A few years later, the economy again went into a funk. During Jimmy Carter’s administration, we watched interest rates climb to close to 20 percent. Not a good time to be in the real estate or banking business. A few months after the first Desert Storm, the Department of Defense decreed the closing of many air bases. Wurtsmith AFB closed in my town. I lost half of my customer base in less than a year. Bumper stickers were going around town that said, “Last one leaving Oscoda –– Turn off the lights”. Nine thousand people were reassigned in less than a year. All I saw were 50 moving vans a day heading out of town. A couple of years later, I was setting all-time sales records in a town that shrunk by half. We got through the mess and so will you.

Through it all, the restaurant and pizza industry survived and grew to thrive. We will again. In the last 30 years, food not prepared at home for immediate consumption has almost doubled. America and the world would really rather let someone else cook for them. That would be you and me.

The current economic crunch time we’re in now will pass. Unfortunately, underperforming operations will be driven out of business. Hanging on is not a recommended business strategy. Eventually, your grip will loosen on your lifeline and you may find yourself in a financial freefall.

In the past few months I’ve visited many successful operations. They called me in to see if there was anything they were overlooking that could help bolster their sagging bottom lines. Each one of them has adjusted a certain area that will send lots of newfound money to the bottom line. If our customers are tightening their restaurant spending habits we need to look inside our operations and trim any wasteful spending.

The pizza industry is what we make it. Creating the very best pie possible and serving it with a smile is a must. I’m convinced that the industry needs to raise the bar and do a more professional job on portioning, pricing, purchasing and marketing.

Pizza Today has assembled dozens of expert speakers who will answer all of your questions at International Pizza Expo this year. I hope to see you there. Your future may depend in it. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally soughtafter trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2009 February: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

Besides affecting crust color development, sugar also provides a source of nutrient for the yeast to feed upon. So if you are holding your dough for several days in the cooler, a small amount of sugar added to the dough formula –– about 1 percent –– may help your dough to perform better after several days of cooler storage. Since much of this sugar will be consumed by the yeast, there will be very little, if any, of it left to contribute to crust color development in the oven. The type of sugar added can have an impact on both the flavor and crumb color of the finished crust, and this is what we are going to review in this article.

When it comes to selecting a sugar for its flavor contribution, we have several choices. Honey comes in a number of color-based grades. The higher the grade, the lighter the color. Since the price of honey is based on its color, the lighter the color, the more expensive — but that doesn’t always mean that it is the best suited to our specific application in a crust. Taking into account the high cost of honey, it makes a lot of sense to use a darker colored, more intensely flavored honey at a lower level to achieve the desired flavor in our crusts. The only time when a lighter colored honey needs to be considered is when a honey flavor is desired and you want to minimize any darkening of the crumb color in the finished crust. If you’re making a wheat or whole-wheat crust, one of the darker colored, lower cost grades of honey will provide both flavor and crumb color improvement to the finished crust and save you a few dollars in the long run.

Molasses can also be added to pizza doughs to impart a unique flavor. But like with dark colored honey and malt syrup, the color of molasses is also dark, so it will have a darkening effect on the crumb portion of the finished pizza crust. The flavor imparted by molasses is truly unique and it blends well with dark colored fl ours such as whole-wheat, multigrain or even many of the more exotic fl ours such as buckwheat, quinua, amaranth, and a host of others. About the only thing to watch for with molasses is to purchase only unsulfured molasses, as other forms of this sweetener can be detrimental to yeast activity, resulting in poor dough performance.

While not exactly a sweetener, fruit juice and juice concentrates have been used in some applications. Some of the more common ones are apple juice, apple juice concentrate, raisin juice, raisin juice concentrate, and prune juice. While these can be effectively used as sweeteners, their main shortfall is with the flavor that they impart. In some products, the flavor may not be an issue, but in others, the flavor might be construed as off, foreign, or different. In any case, this is something that you would have to seriously consider to determine if it might be right for your product or application.

Corn sugar, (dextrose) either as a dry sugar, or as syrup, may also have a unique application in pizza crusts. Dextrose differs from sucrose (regular table sugar or cane/beet sugar) in that it is less sweet, only about 90 percent as sweet as sucrose, and it also imparts a lighter crust color to the baked product than sucrose. What this means is that it can be used to provide some level of sweetness, or nutrient for the yeast to feed upon without getting quite as dark of a baked crust color as would be had with other sweetener forms.

Brown sugar is another sugar type that we see occasionally used. This is really nothing more than white table sugar (sucrose) with a small portion of the black strap molasses added back to the sugar to give it the darker color and slight molasses like flavor. Because of its low level in the sugar, the molasses really doesn’t provide for much flavor, but it does give more of a “natural” formulation than the refined, white sugar.

Finally, lactose, also known as milk sugar, is a truly different type of sugar from those previously mentioned sugars because it is not fermented by the yeast and it also has a very low sweetness, only 15 percent that of sucrose, so it doesn’t really contribute any sweetness to the finished crust. What it does bring to the party is crust color development, or browning. This can come in handy when formulating a dough for a take-and-bake application. Because a take-and-bake pizza will be baked in a home oven, which doesn’t have the strong bottom heat to really bake the pizza well, the addition of 3- to 5-percent lactose to the dough formula will provide for the necessary browning properties without any unwanted sweetness. And since the lactose isn’t fermented by the yeast, you don’t have to worry about the sugar level diminishing with time as the dough/pizza is stored in the refrigerator.

While many of these sweeteners are syrups rather than dry, their flavor and/or color contribution are more significant than that of regular white sugar. You will want to experiment with a lower use level than you are presently using for your regular sugar. A good place to start is to replace the dry sugar with the syrup at the same weight. Due to the water content of the syrup, this will provide about a 20-percent reduction in overall sugar level. You can then make additional adjustments as necessary to achieve the desired flavor and color characteristics. If you are making a natural type of crust, or just want to add more of a “natural” or “healthy” appeal to your existing crust, proper selection of sugar type can play an important roll in the way your consumer perceives your crust and your overall pizza. ?

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

The post 2009 February: Dough Doctor appeared first on Pizza Today.

It’s easy to get blind-sided by a generational trend. For example, I owned a nightclub in the mid 80s. And at the time I was convinced that a new thing called “rap music” was doomed. I hated it, just like my mom hated the rock ‘n roll I listened to when I was a teenager. But the kids loved it. Boy, was I wrong on that one. Then, in the early 90’s a friend asked me for my e-mail address? Huh? E-mail? Oh yeah that Internet stuff. I told him it was unlikely that I’d ever get an “e-mail” account. After all, I’ve got a phone. I’ll just pick it up and call if I need to talk about something. He gave me his e-mail address and told me that someday I would have an e-mail account. What an idiot … not him — me!

I’m giving you an assignment today. Check out the Web sites of all the major pizza chains. Papa John’s has video telling their core stories about dough and toppings. Pizza Hut uses a fancy flash site to promote new items. Domino’s features their Pizza Tracker. All three heavily promote online ordering.

My suggestion is to launch a Web site or launch the lifeboats. An entire generation is firmly plugged into the Web right now. They use it for everything.

More and more people are using the Web to get instant information. They want it now. Here’s the major advantage to you: instead of blowing a huge wad of money every month in the yellow pages, run a smaller yellow pages ad that lists your Web address. People without a Web address in their yellow page ad may as well show a picture of a tombstone — because most people are simply going to the yellow pages to get the phone number of a business they intend to visit anyway — or for the Web address of a business so they can get more detailed information right now.

Your Web site can do a much better job of selling your place than a yellow page ad ever will. You can list your:

? Menu

? Specials

? Full color photos

? Directions

? Testimonials

? Guarantee

? Online ordering link

? Loyalty program sign-up

? Videos Web sites are cheap to build and inexpensive to maintain.

Be aware, though, the days of basic Web sites are numbered. Flash sites with animation are becoming commonplace and I strongly believe you should pony up and build a site that competes. And since Google is the new yellow pages, keep in mind that your competitors are just one click away. Don’t let them show you up.

All the major chains are hyping online ordering. And Domino’s Pizza even has “Pizza Tracker” that keeps you updated on the progress of your online order, all the way to your front door.

So, whether you’re hip to the Web or not, a majority of your customers are. And the trend is unstoppable. Everything is moving to wireless devices and the Web … everything. Many people simply ignore businesses without a Web site.

Fact: As of February 2008 – 79 percent of all consumers have visited a restaurant’s Web site. 70 percent visit to check out the menu, while 27 percent are there to place an online order.

Fact: Papa John’s will sell $400 million worth of food via online orders this year. Here’s another surprising stat: ticket averages skyrocket when people place orders online. Why? Simple: They are not rushed by an order-taker who just wants to get off the phone so he can get back to texting his friend.

Online ordering invites browsing and exploring the menu and side items. And if your online ordering system is doing its job it will automatically “upsell” for you. It will suggest menu items as customers make selections. It will offer package deals with higher profit margins.

Right now ticket averages are about 18 percent higher with online ordering than with regular table or phone orders (some clients report 40 to 50 percent higher ticket averages because of business orders).

American Express reports that 37 percent of consumers have placed an online restaurant order. Of those, 54 percent say they are “extremely satisfied” with the experience. Many of my own clients are seeing over 100 online orders per month — and that’s within just a few months of launch. This trend is huge. Online ordering is here to stay. Are you? ?

Kamron Karington owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and author of The Black Book: Your Complete Guide to Creating Staggering Profi ts in Your Pizza Business. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

The post 2009 January: The Tech Edge appeared first on Pizza Today.

Then he bit into a Marco’s pie while passing though Toledo. Though it was late into the evening on a weekend, he immediately began working the phones and brainstorming.

“The quality was better than anything I’d had,” recalls Butorac. “It was fresh and hot and just really tasted delicious. I knew right away it was something I wanted to look into.”

Butorac and a group of investors went on to purchase the franchise rights to Marco’s in 2004. Flash forward to today, and the company now has more than 170 stores in 14 states. Marco’s added nearly 40 locations in 2008 and says it plans to have 500 units in operation by the end of next year. Thus far, 735 total locations commitments have been signed.

That’s aggressive, but company officials say they’re prepared to sell, build and service those planned locations. They point to their same-store sales increase of 6 percent systemwide last year (13.1 percent for company-managed stores) as proof that they’re on the right track. Perunit sales at Marco’s were $498,000 in 2003. They now stand at $660,000.

“That was one of our goals early on,” says Butorac. “We had some primary goals and 190 action plans. We wanted to build brand awareness to 60 percent in each store area; we wanted to reach $600,000 for our average store sales; and we wanted to run 15 percent EBIDTA.”

EBIDTA, also known as operational cash fl ow, stands for Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, Taxes and Amortization.

One of the fi rst things Butorac did after becoming president and CEO of Marco’s Pizza was to assemble a supporting cast. He considers his crew, pieced together from foodservice and outside industries alike, to be “a group of allstars.” Says Butorac: “We have some very impressive, accomplished people on board here. These are people who have already made a very nice career for themselves and decided to join Marco’s because they saw where the company was headed and wanted to be part of something special from the ground up.”

That cast includes Dave Black (executive vice president of operations), Cameron Cummins (VP of franchise marketing and recruitment), Mike Jaynes (VP of sales, research and development), Bryon Stephens (VP of new business development), Don Vlcek (VP of purchasing) and Peter Wise (VP of marketing). Together with Butorac, the aforementioned company officials sat down with Pizza Today last fall to talk about the company’s structure and its future plans. They all agreed the recipe to success starts with a quality product. They are so adamant on that point that they designed a poster that hangs in the kitchen of every Marco’s store. The poster is a mission statement of sorts with a twist — it also serves as a pep talk.

“It’s something that’s very important to us,” says Jaynes. “When you go down through it you see it covers service, product, image. It’s what we want our employees to project to our customers and it really keys in on our freshness and quality.”

When asked how the company goes about getting its employees to buy into its mentality, training was a quick answer. All new hires undergo online training as part of their orientation.

“It’s a Web-based system consisting of 12 modules,” Butorac says. Adds Jaynes: “Marco’s University is meant to enhance what they’ll be learning in the stores from their manager. It’s easy to use and is very direct.”

Of course, there’s a lot that has to happen before that point is reached. First, stores must be sold and built. That’s where the growth goals and action plans come in. A substantial investment in both time and money was given to these points from the very beginning, says Cummins.

“When we retooled the brand, 11 of us were here working,” he says. “Bryon and I worked on growth. We took the good points of chains like Subway, Quizno’s, Coldstone (Creamery) and used what worked. We contacted Walgreen’s, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and CVS — the ones that were really growing — and three of those four pointed us to MapInfo.”

MapInfo, Cummins continues, “did a regression analysis of 400-something variables. They took our typical consumer profile and put that through four additional filters: traffic counts, high schools, shopping malls over 100,000 square feet … and then competitors served as the negative filter.”

In all, Cummins says Marco’s spent “well into six figures” for the information, but the result is the foundation of the company’s future growth. Butorac and his team are using the data to determine precisely where to put their stores — which markets, which streets, etc. As Butorac put it, the information shined some light on a difficult area and will “allow us to pick the low-hanging fruit first.”

The stores are being sold by approximately 20 area reps that Cummins describes as “brand ambassadors.” Single and multi-unit operators alike are taken on, and Cummins says Marco’s meets with the area reps every two weeks as a way of keeping track of progress.

Once ground is broken in a market, Butorac says the goal is to get enough stores in the area to justify television advertising.

“We want to build enough stores to get on TV in a DMA to differentiate our brand,” he explains. Aside from television, Marco’s also utilizes print advertising as well as a new-store promotion called “Free Slice Saturday.” As the name implies, the concept is quite simple.

“Not only do we give away slices of pizza, but at the same time the customer also gets a $6.99 coupon,” says Cummins. “It’s a pretty crazy day, but it actually turns out to be profitable in the long run.”

That’s because the coupon, according to Jaynes, typically has a 30 percent redemption rate.

“It’s not something you want to do in the first week after your store opens,” adds Wise. “But we recommend you do it after the first month.”

At a time when other chains are losing ground, Marco’s recently reported its ninth consecutive quarter of samestores sales increases. Because of its momentum, Vlcek says he’s had an easier time negotiating with suppliers.

“I’ve got vendors saying ‘many of our pizza chains are going down. We want an account like you.’ I was doing a lot of single sourcing from the same people, but when I first got involved with Marco’s I had to educate myself and call people I knew and try to get people interested. Now, we’ve looked at the key components of our cost, and with the economy and everything that’s going on you can’t really give yourself to just one company these days. That said, if we add a supplier or change a supplier, we do it very, very cautiously.”

That approach, coupled with a focus on the end product, is what Black considers to be the Marco’s difference.

“One thing that has amazed me is that the product really is the same after we’ve added all these stores,” he says. “There’s consistency with the product. That’s hard to do. I was scared to death about that. I was scared it would be all over the board, but we have the quality control systems.”

Now, the trick is to continue growing and for the existing stores to stay sharp. Stephens doesn’t see that as a problem.

“We’re going to have 198 locations in Florida, and we have 31 commitments from franchisees right now,” he says. “Some of the other markets we’re looking at for growth soon are cities like Atlanta and Columbus. We’re also looking at Arizona. But all of the markets are making progress.” ?

Jeremy White is editor-in-chief at Pizza Today.

The post 2009 January: Il Pizzaiolo: Marcos appeared first on Pizza Today.

In a typical room of 200 people or so, only two or three will raise their hands and announce the answer. This is scary to me. I realize more than a few are shy and may be embarrassed answering the question in a public group setting. At the same time, though, I lost most of the eye contact in the rooms. Folks were praying that I wouldn’t call on them to answer the question.

Now it is your turn. I’m addressing that identical fundamental question to Pizza Today readers. Write down, right now, how much it costs you to make that pie.

Don’t know the answer? Then you’ve failed the test.

If you are not sure of your exact food cost in percentage, as well as dollars, how can you price your menu? One way is to gather up all of your competitors’ menus and spread them out on your kitchen table and take an average. You don’t want to be the highest or the lowest. But when you do that, you are assuming that the other guys have done the math and have a handle on true costs. I wouldn’t bet the shop on it.

Computing the cost of a pizza is not an easy task, especially when the cost of the raw ingredients is constantly changing. You know you have to do it. Your entire future is on the line. It is time to stop the guessing. Let me describe how it is done.

First, you will need to set aside several blocks of uninterrupted time. I recommend three sessions of two hours. Session one will be devoted to assembling your last two months’ food invoices. You’ll also need to weigh out your topping weights for every pizza, salad, appetizer and any other entree on your menu in ounces (grams). I do this task with a digital electronic portion scale that has a tare (zero reset) function. I first write down my doughball weight, then move on to sauce, cheese and other ingredients as I build the actual pizza on the scale. By using a corrugated pizza circle instead of a dough, I can recycle the toppings after every weight and not waste them. I call this information the Weighout Sheet.

From your invoices, you’ll need to determine price per ounce on each ingredient. If you purchase your cheese by the pound you’ll need to divide the price per pound by 16 to get price per ounce. If you buy your onions by the 50-pound bag you’ll need to compute the edible yield ounces (EYO) per bag. You’ll take into account how many ounces per bag or box of onions or peppers are trim and waste. Do the same on ingredients that are packed in one-gallon jars and number ten cans, like ripe olives and banana peppers. Drain off all of the liquid and weigh the EYO of all of these toppings. This should do it for Session I.

Once you have done the math on the weights and cost per ounce on your pizza as well as salads, sandwiches and other entrees you’ll need to start doing some addition. Welcome to Session II. For pizza boxes, packaging and other things like sheeted dough and disposables, you’ll need to give the ingredient a unit/ each cost. This is right about where I personally dropped the ball.

So far I got the math right, but finding a place to assemble all of the info is a problem. At first, I forced myself to use the huge green accountant’s columnar work sheet paper. Printing tiny and writing all of those numbers in those itty-bitty boxes was almost too much for this ADD pizzaman. After I bought my first computer, I transferred all of the data to a spreadsheet program like Excel. This was a giant leap from pencil and paper until I inevitably entered a value in a wrong cell and crashed the sheet. But since I spent hours and hours doing the algebra for the cells, I usually could find out where I went wrong and fix it. I used this system for many years. I searched the world over for a better way and found none.

After you’ve created and formatted your worksheets you can now start seeing how much it costs to assemble a pizza. You’ll add the sum of the dough, sauce, cheese, pepperoni, mushroom, ham and pizza box. Divide this total into the menu selling price and you’ll finally know the real ideal foodcost for that pie. This will do it for Session II.

Session III is the OMG session. On paper, you should be running, hypothetically, a 30 percent (or less) food cost. In reality, your financials are showing a 37 percent food cost. How can this be? Where is the missing seven percent? That’s a lot of money. It’s quite often the difference between success and failure, real income or living on credit card debt. The key here is replicating each pizza exactly as you did in session one. I’m talking exact portion control by using scales, spoodles or cups to dole out every ingredient, every time. If you are not weighing it, you are winging it. Every ounce counts. Especially in these days of rollercoaster pricing and escalating expenses.

The difference between ideal and actual foodcost is the sum of the following: non-food items on your weekly invoices like hand towels, garbage bags, soap, etc. These purchases should be classified as supplies and not charged to food cost. Most distributors break out non-food items on invoices. I intentionally added in the cost of a pizza box and recommend it if an operation’s gross sales exceed 50 percent in carryout and delivery.

The next area to be concerned about is employee waste. This can be significant. I allowed my managers 1.5 percent here.

The final dark area is theft or under-ringed/reported sales. Every time I visit a pizzeria client and the food cost is way out of whack, I begin scrutinizing these areas right away. You’d be wise to begin doing the same today. Otherwise, you could be leaving thousands of profit dollars behind.

Now, back to the original question. How much does it take you to make that pizza? If you don’t know, get started finding out right now. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2009 January: Cost It Out appeared first on Pizza Today.

As well he should. But, at what price? In today’s market, having great pizza may not be enough. The operator I was speaking with seemed to agree with that point to a small degree. He had a complete menu, but he seemed to treat the nonpizza items as unwanted stepchildren. Case in point: I asked him about his chicken wings.

“Oh,” he said, “those are just on there because people expect us to have them. But we don’t really sell many of them.” “Hmmm,” I replied. “Most places do. Have you tried having your servers push them a little?”

“It wouldn’t matter,” the operator responded. He then named a competitor up the street. We’ll call the place Dave’s Pizza for this commentary. “Dave’s has much better wings, so people go there when they want those.”

I asked what made Dave’s wings better. The operator answered that they were larger and just fl at-out had better flavor.

I couldn’t help but ask why he didn’t upgrade his wings to be more competitive. He more or less dodged the question and said he was thinking of taking wings off his menu altogether. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. If you try really hard to sell a product and just can’t move it, then, by all means, take it off the menu. But this was a different story altogether. The operator in question admitted he was serving an inferior product and he didn’t care because he had great pizza and that was enough for him.

As for me, I believe that an operation should strive for perfection on every menu item. Sure, you want the best pizza in town. But you also want the best wings, the best hoagies, the best carrot cake … you name it. If you’re going to serve it, do it right. Otherwise, don’t do it at all.

Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief

jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2009 February: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

“It’s important that the customer’s first impression be a good one, especially since people are more health conscious these days,” Ray said. “If customers sit down at a clean table with clean silverware and napkin holders, it’s natural for them to assume the rest of the business is so. For that to happen, though, there’s a reliance on your bus staff to do their job right.”

Though bussers are often considered the backbone of a restaurant, they remain huddled in an often overlooked, undertrained post. Yet, a prompt, courteous bus staff can do wonders to boost an operation’s image. ”

Bussers are a visible part of the restaurant landscape and as a part of that environment, they’re an asset as well,” says Lou Greenstein, head of Epicurean Restaurant Consulting based in North Reading, Massachusetts. “Customers are looking at dining with new eyes these days and they’re looking and watching things like the actions of bus staff. If a bus staff isn’t handling their business properly or is rude or unkempt, then that’s going to cost a restaurant some credibility with the dining public.”

Adds Ezra Eichelberger, professor in Table Service at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York: A well-trained, friendly bus staff “helps people have confidence in the restaurant and when they have more confidence, they’re likely to visit more often.”

But it’s more than image alone. From the five-star bistros in Miami to the family pizzerias in Phoenix, every restaurant faces the reality of turnover. The more tables an operation can turn, the better sales the establishment will earn. An efficient bus staff does plenty more than clear a table after diners leave; they sharpen an operation’s bottom line.

“If you don’t have a quality bussing team, then the tables won’t turn as they should,” Greenstein says. “That could make the difference between three to four turnovers in an evening.”

And just how do operators boost the efficiency of their bus staff? In a word: training. Eichelberger digs into his past, back when he directed a Manhattan restaurant. On one slow night, two of his busboys took it upon themselves to polish the silverware. Eichelberger watched as one of the employees lifted a knife into the light, noticed a blemish, blew on it, and then wiped it off. At once,

Eichelberger was enchanted by his employee’s attentiveness and motivation while simultaneously repelled by his simple act. Instead of reprimanding the busboy, however, Eichelberger put the blame on his shoulders.

“It was my fault because I never trained him properly,” he said, “and I think all operators need to have that consideration. Are we training the bussers properly and giving them the tools to do their job right? Are we giving them a bottle with disinfectant or a tub without a hole in it?”

Both Greenstein and Eichelberger, veterans of the restaurant industry, offer these four tips for training a quality bus staff:

? Stress the difference between cleaning and sanitizing. Cleaning and sanitizing are not synonyms. While one might “clean” a table, one very well might not have “sanitized” the table with disinfectant and a clean rag; Eichelberger, in fact, has seen a rise in the use of disposable sanitizing wipes. It’s paramount that tables, seats and anything else the dining public will touch be sanitized after each group departs. Every time a bus tub is taken into the back, it should also be sanitized.

? Save it for the back. Bussers should never scrap plates, speak loudly to others, or eat in the dining room. En route to the kitchen, staff might also toss a clean napkin over the cart rather than walking by diners with a bucket full of half-eaten crusts and dirty plates. And bussers should never reach across guests to grab an item. “It all seems like rudimentary stuff,” Greenstein says, “but it’s easy to make mistakes.”

? Cleanliness is next to Godliness. As visible staff in the establishment, bussers shouldn’t be tossed into the dining room wearing t-shirts, jeans and aprons. A greater sense of decorum should be cultivated. Staff should also receive thorough training on the proper handling of clean tableware, such as never touching a glass or grabbing silverware where the mouth has been or will go.

? Thank those who least receive it. If bussers do their job well, then wait staff has a much better opportunity to provide better service, thereby helping the entire restaurant operation. Although managers cannot require tip sharing, Eichelberger says most operations have a system in place to recognize the help of bus staff, one often directed by the servers themselves. “Most servers understand that they should tip out to those who help them. Bussers and bartenders, then, typically share in 10 to 15 percent of the tips,” he said. “Because keeping good help is as good as keeping good customers.” ?

Solo Act:

Should an operator hire personnel only to bus tables?

Hiring staff whose sole responsibility is to bus tables might be an outdated, unrealistic model to follow given the rising costs of labor, which long ago overtook product as the most expensive slice of a restaurant’s budget. As such, many operations look to the general utility worker, an employee who can handle a range of duties from bussing tables to stocking the kitchen.

But for some, a bus staff doing that work alone might be the best bet, so long as they’re not consistently standing around. Eichelberger urges operators to take an assessment of their staff and consider if other units of the restaurant could handle the increased turnover an efficient bus staff could bring.

“Keep in mind that greater turnover at the tables means an increased workload in the kitchen, where they’re also trying to fill pick-up and delivery orders,” Eichelberger said. “There always needs to be a fl ow of some sort to keep the restaurant balanced.”

Chicago-based writer Daniel P. Smith has covered business issues and best practices for a variety of trade publications, newspapers, and magazines.

The post 2009 January: Get on the Bus appeared first on Pizza Today.

Let’s start with the bad, shall we? Like many people, my home phone, Internet and cable television connections are all sourced to one company. The bundle saves me money every month, and I haven’t had much trouble with my service. Until recently.

My home phone stopped working on a Thursday night. On Friday, I called my service provider. It was late in the day, so they couldn’t get out to fix it that day. But they could send someone on Saturday. Unfortunately, I had to be out of town on Saturday. I requested a Sunday appointment. I was told the company doesn’t make calls on Sunday, which I understood. So I took a Monday appointment. You know the joy: they’ll be there between 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Nice.

One problem: they never came. So I called to get to the bottom of it. I was told my appointment was actually for Tuesday, not Monday. The somewhat mechanical lady on the phone explained to me that I never had an appointment scheduled for Monday. I had one scheduled for Sunday that I had been rescheduled to Tuesday.

“What?” I asked. “I thought you didn’t do Sunday appointments.”

As it turns out, they do in fact schedule Sunday appointments when the problem is the phone, I was told. Now I was really upset. My phone could have been fixed on Sunday and I wouldn’t have had to waste my time waiting for the company to show up on Monday only to find out they made a scheduling error and weren’t coming until Tuesday.

It gets worse. A company representative shows up on Tuesday and fixes my phone in two minutes. After he’s gone I realize that though my phone was up and running, my Internet was now down for the count. So I call customer service once again and am put on hold several times. Finally, the problem gets fixed. No one had a good answer for this question: “Shouldn’t the technician have checked that my Internet and cable were still working after he tinkered with the phone?”

A few nights later, I call my favorite pizzeria to place a pick-up order. The friendly, perky voice on the line informs me that “We now have curbside service, sir. Would you like me to bring your food out to your car?”

It was cold and raining. A no-brainer for me. I pull into the designated spot 25 minutes later. I barely had time to get the vehicle into park before the aforementioned employee was standing next to my window, a big smile on her face and two bags of food in her hands. I look up to see how she spotted me so quickly and notice the camera pointed towards the three curbside pickup parking spots. She got it right the first time and did so with a smile. I wish my cable company could learn a lesson from my local pizzeria.
Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2009 January: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

Garlic is the ultimate sauce enhancer. Whether used fresh, sautéed, crushed or chopped, garlic adds its own unique flavor interest. On the other hand, try to avoid garlic powder in this particular situation; it will add a bitter, heavy aftertaste to a sauce.

Taking Stock

Another way to change the flavor of a sauce is to add chicken stock or chicken broth. This gives a tomato sauce a quick flavor fix. Add about ¼ cup of chicken stock or broth for each cup of tomato sauce. Use a little less than ¼ cup if using stock to enhance a white sauce. Beef stock is another option for a red sauce. Again, use about ¼ cup of beef broth to 1 cup of tomato sauce.

Herbal Supplements

When using fresh herbs in a sauce, add them near the end of the cooking time. Putting them in too early will alter the taste since fresh herbs do not hold up as well in heat as dried herbs. Conversely, if you are using dried herbs in a sauce, put them in at the very beginning. Dried herbs need time (and heat) to rehydrate and round out their flavor. Generally, you will need to add three times as much fresh herb as dried herb in a recipe. For example, you would use 3 tablespoons of fresh basil in place of 1 tablespoon of dried basil.

Oh, Sugar

Want to sweeten your tomato sauce? Sugar may be a good bet, but use with caution. While it can be used to cut the acidity of tomato sauce, it must be used sparingly because too much sugar will result in a “bottled” taste. Keep in mind that some of the best flavor in a tomato sauce comes from the natural acidity of the tomatoes, so don’t blot it all out.

The post 2009 January: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

Papa John’s sold nearly $400 million worth of food via online ordering last year.
There are 1,512 pizzerias in Missouri
Perard’s Pizza & Italian Cuisine / Datsa Pizza / Cappetto’s Italian Restaurant
Perard’s Pizza & Italian Cuisine
11043-2 Crystal Springs Road
Jacksonville, FL 32221
(904) 378-8131
www.perardspizza.com A friendly staff. Complimentary Wi-Fi Internet access. Curbside pickup. Those are just three reasons customers in Jacksonville feel at home at Perard’s Pizza, a neighborhood favorite with a jumbo menu that serves Italian dinners in addition to pizza, soups, salads, sandwiches, stromboli, calzones, wraps … the list goes on and on. It may be a little overwhelming figuring out what to order at first, but the good news is that the menu caters to all tastes. Plus, customers can always take the easy way out and start off with the garlic knots while making their decision — they’re always glad they did!

Datsa Pizza
907 North Pennsylvania Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204
(317) 423-3940
www.datsapizza.com This place is far from lavish on the inside, but the pizza is inexpensive and filling and comes to the table piping hot. In this economy, it’s difficult for a family to do better than that! Spinach Artichoke Dip served with ciabatta bread is a good place to start no matter where you are, and the pizza is full of flavor thanks to a liberal brushing of garlic butter on the crust. With a downtown location in a major city, close to colleges and hospitals, Datsa Pizza hits its desired demographics right on the spot.

Cappetto’s Italian Restaurant
2285 Trawood Avenue
El Paso, TX 79935
(915) 591-8907
www.cappettos.com Close your eyes and conjure up an image of a traditional Italian-American restaurant in the 1950s. Cappetto’s is that place. Still going strong after opening in 1956, this eatery thrives with pizza, steak, veal and homemade desserts. The sweet tooth in us has a special affection for the Chocolate Walnut Mascarpone Torte: raspberries, mascarpone cream, buttery chocolate cake and walnut praline glaze. What’s not to love?

The post 2009 January: Did You Know? appeared first on Pizza Today.

Just before the official opening time of 11 o’clock, the owner does a sales reading on the POS system. Almost $4,000 in sales. I was impressed and curious.

I asked my client to explain to me how the phenomenon happens. Off-premises lunch catering sales like this are very rare, but he told me today wasn’t that extraordinary for his business. His restaurant performs like this two or three days a week. After they opened and the tables were put back into their places, they jammed hard for two more hours.

He explained the secrets to his success in the next few minutes. When he first opened, his lunch sales barely held their own. Sales were dismal and often were less than labor expenses. At this point they decided to go for broke. The owner’s wife decided to take off her apron and get out into the community. She started knocking on doors and inviting dozens and dozens of office people to join her for lunch. She also pulled out her four most powerful weapons:

1. Fast, on time delivery. You can never ever be late.
2. Great value for the price.
3. Free samples of her most popular entrees.
4. A line of communication directly to her.

Calling a few businesses a week and providing the office staff with a sampling of your good stuff will reap you huge rewards and goodwill. The rub is this: you have get out of your restaurant and troll your neighborhood to get the sales. They won’t just show up. For much less than any other form of marketing, this tactic will offer a huge return on investment. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2009 January: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

PT: What were the primary challenges you faced when you took over as CEO just over a year ago?

CM: The biggest was just our concept and how we needed to make it more relevant to a broader audience, meaning both in terms of customers and franchisees alike. We rolled out a new concept in Denton, Texas, where we re-integrated delivery back into the concept and put more of a nostalgic feel back into Pizza Inn. We had moved away from that over the years. The new prototype has been a great success.

PT: Aside from the prototype’s successful launch, what do you consider to be the biggest accomplishments of the last year?

CM: We implemented a back-to-basics program with our franchisees that included everything from service execution to the dough and the quality of our product. It’s been very successful.

PT: Does this economy favor buffet concepts?

CM: Absolutely. I think our concept in particular can weather this economic storm very well. For $5.99 typically, plus a drink, we offer a variety of fresh-made pizzas on two types of crust, thick and thin, plus fresh salad and desserts — which we call ‘Pizzerts’. All that comes at a very attractive price — plus kids eat free on Tuesdays in many of our restaurants. We feel like our affordability and our high quality make a very strong value proposition.

PT: How did Pizza Inn celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2008?

CM: We celebrated it by bringing back our famed mascot, Jo Jo. He will appear in the restaurants as we migrate to change the look and feel of them. Our customers and franchisees alike have been very excited about him coming back. We can get a lot of play out of him.

PT: How many stores do you plan to open in 2009?

CM: I think in the next year you’ll see us bring more company owned stores and more franchised stores into play. I haven’t given any guidance on that yet in terms of a number, but we’re excited about the new look and feel and we’ll add a number of new stores before our fiscal year ends, which is in June. I think the new restaurant prototype will be a catalyst, and I anticipate that you’ll see a lot of new stores opening in the future.

The post 2009 January: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

When I first began marketing my pizzeria, I spent hours and hours writing mouthwatering descriptions for each pizza on my menu.

For example, our Veggie Wedgie Pizza: A rich harvest of broccoli, sweet red onions, whole roasted garlic, green peppers and garden fresh tomatoes with an irresistible blend of mozzarella and cheddar.

Our Northwest Pizza: A lavish blend of smoked salmon, gulf prawns, capers, sautéed mushrooms, sweet red onions, smoked Gouda, fresh rosemary and toasted pine-nuts crown our original recipe olive paste … financing available. (A mental movie intended to perk up the taste buds).

So you can imagine my dilemma when I would overhear an order-taker saying:

“The Veggie Wedgie? Yeah, it’s got a bunch of vegetables on it.” Or the Northwest: “It’s got fi sh and shrimp and onions and stuff.” Ouch!

Well-crafted descriptions on the menu were not getting transferred correctly over the phone. What to do, what to do?

And so I set out to find a foolproof way to insure that each pizza would always be portrayed in the most flattering way.

I immediately ripped down the cheat-sheets in the kitchen. They listed generic items in the order they were to be placed on the pizza. This insured consistency, but at the same time they programmed my crew to speak generically, too.

The cheat-sheet for the Northwest read from top to bottom: Olive paste, cheese, onions, capers, mushrooms, gouda, prawns, salmon, rosemary, pine-nuts. I changed it to: Olive paste, whole-milk mozzarella, sweet red onions, capers, sautéed mushrooms, smoked gouda, gulf prawns, smoked salmon, fresh rosemary and high-mountain pine-nuts.

Then I marched up front and changed every pop-up description in my POS to read the same way. Now when a customer asks about a pizza, the order taker has been immersed in the right language from the menu, to the cheat-sheets, to the POS descriptions. Pretty hard to mess it up.

Another thing I quickly caught on to was this: Until we got really busy, we did our prep during the day (later on it was a night shift). People coming in while we were roasting garlic would roll their eyes and say, “Man, that smells delicious!”

Bingo! So, we started roasting a few garlic cloves just before dinner rush — and we kept putting fresh cloves in the oven as needed. Now, customers could really lock in the fact that we were baking fresh homemade pizza (you never smell fresh roasted garlic at fast-food pizza shops).

It’s no secret that the smell of coffee, fresh baked cookies or bread will help sell a house — because they invoke feelings of “home.”

Sensory input conjures up emotions, desires and memories. It sells products everyday. In fact, that “new” car smell comes straight out of a spray can. ?

Kamron Karington owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and author of The Black Book: Your Complete Guide to Creating Staggering Profits in Your Pizza Business. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today

The post 2009 January: Marketing Matters appeared first on Pizza Today.

Ninety minutes before the game’s 2:30 p.m. kickoff, Razorback fans had fi lled Gusano’s, gobbling up appetizers, pizza and drinks. Twenty fl at-screen televisions and two projector screens showcased a game undecided until its final minutes.

“Other than being at the game, this is as close as you can be to the action,” Chappell says of Gusano’s, which has become one of Little Rock’s go-to destinations for Razorback football.

For Chappell and his Gusano’s partners, playing to a crowd of Razorback-loving fans is a wise business practice, an annual ritual that packs the restaurant and delivers the establishment’s highest revenue days.

“These are our money days,” Chappell says of Arkansas football game days. “There’s no doubt we’re going to be full.”

In spots throughout the country, pizzeria owners have embraced televising athletic events as a moneymaking play. From NCAA basketball’s March Madness to the World Series, World Cup, and UFC, many operators have captured the sports-enthused crowd with targeted marketing, a high-end audio-visual experience, and a festive atmosphere mimicking the in-stadium experience.

As the Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup run unfolded last spring, Piece Brewery and Pizzeria capitalized on the euphoria. The restaurant crafted in-house marketing materials for tables, bathrooms, and point of purchase. It also displayed outdoor banners and utilized social media outlets to establish itself as a game-day destination. Patrons responded.

“Being a destination point for these big events is a conscious decision on our part and a viable business for us,” Piece owner Bill Jacobs says. “We were filled during every Hawks game and reaped the benefits of that exciting run.”

Last year, Piecora’s Pizza owner Dan Piecora took the suggestion of a regular patron to televise UFC events in his intimate, 60-seat banquet room. On the first fight night, 50 people attended; at the second Piecora’s fi ght night, fans filled the room, all of them paying an $8 cover to watch the UFC event on a 10-foot HD screen.

“It costs me $925 to show the fight in HD, but it’s worth every penny,” Piecora says. “These folks are eating and drinking, and many of them are new customers that have never been here before.” Piecora’s has now established itself as one of Seattle’s premier spots for an orderly, respectful and fan friendly viewing of UFC. Better yet, the highgrossing events have alleviated a revenue gap created by the recession.

But Piecora — and certainly Jacobs and Chappell — know they have to deliver a crowd-pleasing experience to gain fan interest.

It begins with a game that can be seen as well as heard. The audio-visual experience includes big-screen televisions or projection screens as well as clear, audible sound so fans can keep abreast of game information.

To foster a lively atmosphere that parallels the game-day experience, Gusano’s features former members of the Arkansas band playing the university fi ght song and leading cheers. Their presence, secured by a small fee and complimentary food and drink, contributes to Gusano’s robust reputation as a game-day destination.

“The band differentiates us from everyone else out there,” Chappell says.

At Piece, Jacobs believes his full-service bar, stocked with craft brews, resonates with sports fans who view beer and sports as a natural combination. “For my dollar, having a full bar is central to capitalizing on the sports audience,” he says.

But unlike bars, a pizzeria’s main source of sports viewing competition, generations can enjoy the game together at a pizzeria. Wise operators often play on that all-ages advantage.

A packed restaurant on game-day, however, can be a double-edged sword, particularly since fans will linger and control their dining room real estate. Waiting lists will swell as customers languish at tables, a challenge only combated with the right staffing and mindset.

On Razorback football Saturdays, Chappell loads the schedule with servers, bussers and cooks, all of whom are focused on customer service. Piecora hires a parking attendant during UFC events and directs staff to park on the street to free up his small lot. “The best we can do is to be focused on what we can do and what we need to do to make all customers happy,” Jacobs says of busy game days.

A packed game-day dining room (and no-smoking ban) compelled Ray Perkins, owner of Chubby Ray’s in Louisville, Kentucky, to build a 3,000-square-foot outdoor pavilion outfitted with four fl at-screen televisions. Though costly, Perkins says, the extra space has allowed him to accommodate fans and repel overcrowding issues.

In many cases, operators spend money to make money. Whether payper- view events, NFL Sunday Ticket, or a comprehensive cable package, restaurants often invest in premium TV offerings to appease fans. In other cases, the games trump other business. Piecora, for instance, must schedule his banquet room around monthly UFC events, thereby losing out on private parties. Though frustrating, the benefits are well worth the drawbacks.

“In the end, getting these fans brings far more positive than negative,” Piecora says. “It increases my cash fl ow and exposure while keeping my labor busy.” ?

Chicago-based writer Daniel P. Smith has covered business issues and best practices for a variety of trade publications, newspapers, and magazines.

The post 2010 December: Game On appeared first on Pizza Today.

52 percent of pizzerias offer deep-dish pizza on their menus.
There are 366 pizzerias in New Mexico

Artichoke Basille’s Pizza & Brewery / Nonna Vivi Wood Oven Pizzeria / Pizza Sola

Artichoke Basille’s Pizza & Brewery
328 E. 14th Street
New York, New York 10003
(212) 228-2004
www.artichokepizza.com

Owned by two cousins who got their start working in a family restaurant in Staten Island, this charming pizzeria is quintessential NYC. Located in an empty storefront, the fledgling restaurant has already garnered several positive write-ups in some of NYC’s venerable publications, and with good cause. Artichoke is pizza as it is supposed to be. Don’t expect a big variety here –– the simple menu features slices of artichoke, margarita, Sicilian or crab pizzas.

Nonna Vivi Wood Oven Pizzeria
1060 Yavapai Drive, Suite 5
Rio Rico, Arizona 85648
(520) 761-2825
www.Nonnavivi.blogspot.com

Though Arizona is more known for it cacti and deserts than its lasagna and pizza, Nonna Vivi Pizzeria is combining the rich cultures of both its local community and its Italian heritage. The restaurant uses local, organicraised and -grown ingredients and bakes in a wood-fired oven. We especially like the Pizza Capricciosa, which features artichokes, mushrooms, ham, Kalamata olives and homemade fresh mozzarella.

Pizza Sola
1417 E. Carson Street
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15203
(412) 481-3888
www.pizzasola.com

If you build it, they will come –– or so thought two Pittsburgh natives who believed their hometown lacked a true New York-style pizzeria experience. And, they were right. Pizza Sola recently won accolades from Pittsburgh Magazine for its pizza, which features homemade, handcrushed plum tomato sauce made from imported San Marzano tomatoes, 100-percent whole milk Mozzarella cheese and homemade gourmet toppings. We agree that the Mezzo Mezzo is a stand-out: one half is New York while the other is a white “Bianca”!

The post 2010 July: Did You Know? appeared first on Pizza Today.

Domino’s Pizza reported an 11.7% comps increase for domestic stores in the third quarter of this Year

According to a recent PizzaToday.com poll, 75 percent of pizzeria operators anticipate experiencing a sales increase over the next 12 months.

Delaware has 235 pizzerias
Rubber City Pizza / The Don’s Wood-Fired Pizza / Cicero’s Pizza

Rubber City Pizza
1110 E. Tallmadge Avenue
Akron, Ohio 44310
(330) 633-777
www.rubbercitypizza.com

This Ohio pizzeria is locally owned and operated and proud of it! It’s hard to argue with the insanity behind the company’s “Crazy Mondays” –– a medium 13-inch carryout pepperoni pizza is just $4.99. Still, there’s more to the menu besides traditional pies. We love the signature specialty offerings, including the Chicken Teriyaki (grilled chicken, onions, tomatoes and blended cheeses on a teriyaki sauce) and the BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, blended cheeses and mayonnaise on a garlic butter sauce). Way to think outside the box!

The Dons’ Wood-Fired Pizza
21018 South Bank Street
Sterling, Virginia 20165
(703) 444-4959
www.thedonspizza.com

When you think of wood-fired pizza, you typically think of those classic, old-school pizzerias that get all the attention in the media. Introducing The Dons’ Wood-Fired Pizza. This D.C.-area pizzeria is getting accolades from local residents and garnering awards for its classic Italian menu. Here, you’ll find classics like the Quattro Formaggi (tomato sauce, mozzarella, The Dons’ fresh mozzarella, Italian fontina, Parmigiano, Romano, fresh basil and olive oil) and the Neapolitan Margherita (tomato sauce, The Dons’ fresh mozz, Parmigiano, Romano, fresh basil and olive oil). We hear the sandwiches are fantastic as well!

Cicero’s Pizza
6138 Bollinger Road
San Jose, California 95129
(408) 777-0690
www.cicerospizza.com

Cicero’s Pizza had a deep and storied history that began in 1968 in Niagara Falls, New York. When then owner Nunzio Cicero moved to Cupertino, California, he was joined by family and watched the area transition from agricultural to the Silicon Valley. Although Cicero closed shop in 1991 and passed away soon after, his family re-opened the following year in a new location in San Jose. Today, Cicero’s legacy continues with thin and crispy pizza topped with fresh ingredients in a family-friendly atmosphere. Long live Cicero!

The post 2010 December: Did You Know? appeared first on Pizza Today.

]]> https://pizzatoday.com/2010-may-did-you-know/ Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:00:00 +0000 https://pizzatoday.com/2010-may-did-you-know/ 6,067 pizzeria owners and managers attended International Pizza Expo 2010 in Las Vegas In a recent Pizza Today Web poll, 13 percent of respondents said they do not have a marketing budget. Meanwhile, 24 percent said they budget five percent, or more, of their sales for marketing. 3.7 billion pizzas will be sold in the […]

The post 2010 May: Did You Know? appeared first on Pizza Today.

]]> 6,067 pizzeria owners and managers attended International Pizza Expo 2010 in Las Vegas
In a recent Pizza Today Web poll, 13 percent of respondents said they do not have a marketing budget. Meanwhile, 24 percent said they budget five percent, or more, of their sales for marketing.

3.7 billion pizzas will be sold in the U.S. this year.
Vermont has 195 pizzerias.
Wave Pizza Café / The Good Pizza Company / Pie Guys Pizzeria

Wave Pizza Café
1190 Duck Road Duck,
North Carolina 27949
(252) 255-0375
www.thewavepizza.com

This pizzeria may have hot pies, slices and cold beer, but it’s the beachfront killer view that has guests talking. One look at the menu and it’s easy to see what Wave is all about –– the pizzas (and even the sandwiches) all carry delightful seaside names. We especially like the sound of Blackbeard’s Revenge: pepper, jalapéno, sausage and red onion. Now that’s hot!

The Good Pizza Company
14300 NE 20th Avenue #103
Vancouver, Washington 98686
(360) 573-0355

Don’t let its deceptively simple name fool you –– The Good Pizza Co. has been voted Best Pizza in Vancouver by Vancouver Family Magazine. Aside from its creative menu (the Sante Fé Taco Pizza features refried beans, enchilada sauce, seasoned taco beef, mozzarella and cheddar cheeses, green chilies, tortilla chips, shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, olives and red onion — whew!) the company is known for its 99 cent slices. And oversized they are — for less than a buck, customers get one-sixth of the company’s extra large cheese pizza!

Pie Guys Pizzeria
2222 Rio Grande Street
Austin, Texas 78705
(512) 477-7437

www.pieguyspizza.com

Austin, Texas is a haven of music, food and Southern hospitality, and you’ll fi nd it all at this rising Texas star. The founders have built the company with a strong foundation, including a pizzaiolo capable of building New York-style pies, a series of daily specials that foster repeat business (quarter beer night, anyone?) and an eyecatching menu. We like the meatless Farmer Joe, which features carmelized red onions, roasted red peppers, green olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses with house-made tomato sauce.

The post 2010 May: Did You Know? appeared first on Pizza Today.

Halloween October 31 is one of the pizza industry’s five biggest sales days of the entire year.
Hawaii has 166 pizzerias
Joseppi’s Pizza / Farinella Italian Bakery Pizza & Panini / Perfetto’s Pizzeria

Joseppi’s Pizza
3179 Sullivant Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43204
(614) 272-2724
www.joseppispizza.com

This family-owned restaurant has been in business for more than 30 years, so it’s no wonder their Facebook fan page is filled with requests for the company’s signature pizzas far outside its delivery area (sorry, Tennessee, –– you’re a bit out of range!). Still, the menu goes beyond the pie. Among its specials is homemade lasagna served in-house as a single portion or for a family via carryout or delivery. We love the value of salad, lasagna and breadsticks sold as a meal!

Farinella Italian Bakery Pizza & Panini
90 Worth Street
New York, New York 10013
(212) 608-3222
www.farinellabakery.com

Owner Alberto Polo Cretara certainly thinks outside the, er, box at NYC’s Farinella Italian Bakery. Here, you’ll find squares of pizza rather than the traditional oversized slice found at so many metro pizzerias. The company bakes its pizza palamstyle on four-foot wooden boards. A full palam feeds five to six hungry diners. Plus, you’ll find everything from traditonal Margherita to calzones featuring sautéed escarole, Gaeta black olives, Sicilian capers, garlic, and pinch of peperonico. Now that’s Italian!

Perfetto’s Pizzeria
9910 Linn Station
Louisville, Kentucky 40223
(502) 426-4644

Even though Louisville, Kentucky, is home to the venerable Papa John’s Pizza, it is also privy to a host of independent pizzerias, as well as the home offices of Pizza Today. Situated a small strip mall amidst office buildings and middleclass neighborhoods is Perfetto’s Pizzeria. Here, the pies are stretched thin, gooey and oily –– just the way New Yorkers like But Kentuckians? Yeah, they’re eating it up, too. Best of all Perfetto’s makes its own sauce. On top of all that, the pizza reasonably priced, making it great for daytime lunch diners gobbling up slices or families looking to share a pie or two.

The post 2010 October: Did You Know? appeared first on Pizza Today.

84.8 percent of Pizza Today subscribers are independent operators.

56 percent of dinner patrons and 30 percent of lunch patrons at table service restaurants with check averages over $25 order dessert, says the NRA.
There are 265 pizzerias in Montana.
The Copper Oven / Dante Pizzeria Napoletana / Patxi’s Chicago Pizza

The Copper Oven
6800 State Route 89 Ovid,
New York 14521
(607) 220-8794
www.slowfoodonthego.com

Located at the Cayuga Ridge Estate Winery, newly opened The Copper Oven serves wood-fired pizzas featuring home- and locally produced ingredients. The menu is seasonal and ever-changing. One recent summer offering was 100-percent locally sourced and included carmelized onion, herb chevre and a drizzle of butternut squash seed oil. The restaurant also donates five percent of its profi ts to a locally based program that reduces the cost of fresh, locally grown produce for low income families in the region.

Dante Pizzeria Napoletana

168th & Center
16901 Wright Plaza
Omaha, Nebraska 68130
(402) 932-3078
www.dantepizzeria.com

 

This isn’t just a regular ol’ heartland pizzeria. Owner Nick Strawhecker is certified by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana. That means Omaha residents are privy to pizza as it’s served in Naples. Still, there’s more than Neapolitan pizza here. Dante’s ever-evolving menu is a study in culinary perfection, from warm olives garnished with thyme and chili to the rustic chicken liver crostini and the sheep’s milk ricotta. It’s hard to ignore Dante’s classic Margherita pizza featuring homemade mozzarella!

Patxi’s Chicago Pizza
441 Emerson Street
Palo Alto, California 94301
(650) 473-9999
www.patxispizza.com

 

Customers of these Bay-area pizzerias might not be able to say the company’s name, but it’s hard to speak around a mouthful of the restaurants’ Chicago-style pizza. Co-owner Patxi Azpiroz got his start in the industry at San Francisco legend Zachary’s. From stunning antipasto platters to upscale toppings and craft beers, Patxi’s fits right into an area known for its industry diversity. We especially like the Californian, which features whole wheat crust, low fat mozzarella cheese, red onions, and fresh spinach. How appropriate!

The post 2010 August: Did You Know? appeared first on Pizza Today.

]]> https://pizzatoday.com/2010-december-dough-doctor/ Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:00:00 +0000 https://pizzatoday.com/2010-december-dough-doctor/ Q: We are baking garlic knots in our air impingement oven, right along with our pizzas, but the bottom of the knots are getting too dark. Aside from pulling them out of the oven a little before they fully exit the oven, is there anything we can do that might correct this problem?     […]

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]]> Q: We are baking garlic knots in our air impingement oven, right along with our pizzas, but the bottom of the knots are getting too dark. Aside from pulling them out of the oven a little before they fully exit the oven, is there anything we can do that might correct this problem?

 

 

A: The problem you describe is due to the excessive bottom heat, which is needed to properly bake your regular pizzas, so unless you have a split conveyor, it is not practical to reduce the baking time by speeding up the conveyor, and adjusting the baking conditions is out of the question as you would not be able to bake your pizzas while the garlic knots are being baked. The best solution will be in either of the two following approaches:

1) Double pan the garlic knots for baking. This means placing an extra pan under the knots when you place them into the oven. The second pan will help to reduce heat to the bottom of the baking pan, hence reducing the bottom heat (and, hopefully, no more excessively dark bottoms).

2) You might try using an Air Bake pan, available from any supermarket or discount house. These pans are constructed with two layers of metal on the bottom, thus creating a dead air space between the product and the bottom heat of the oven. This is very similar to the double panning described above.

Question:

We have a potential market for our dough at a nearby bar, but they want the dough already formed and frozen. What is the best way to go about this?

Answer:

If you don’t already have a walk in or reach in freezer with some extra space, you may need to invest in a small chest type freezer, then get a couple dozen expanded aluminum baking screens (they don’t need to be seasoned as you won’t be baking on them) and a couple wire tree racks that you can fit into your freezer. Use your regular dough, and open it up to the desired diameter, and place it onto a screen, then put the screen into the rack, which is in the freezer. When the rack(s) are filled, make a note of the time and allow the dough skins to thoroughly freeze for 2-hours, then transfer the frozen dough skins to a food safe plastic bag, fitted inside of a corrugated cardboard box, also stored in the freezer. Just slide the dough skins off of the screens and stack-up inside the lined box. As soon as the box is filled (do not stack more than 12 to 15 skins in a box to prevent damaging the fragile dough skins) twist the open end of the bag to close it, and tuck it down, alongside the dough skins to secure it. Close the box flaps and tape closed. Place an adhesive label on the box showing the product and size, production date, and use by date. The use by date should be projected 10-days beyond the actual production date. Commercially frozen dough can have a shelf life of 12 to 20-weeks, but these doughs were frozen at much lower temperatures than your dough was frozen at. Commercially made frozen dough is frozen at -25 to -40 F, and sometimes even as low as -55 F, but your dough is only being frozen at 0 F, or slightly below that. The higher freezing temperature has a significant, harmful effect upon the yeast. That’s why, in this case, we’ve got to limit the shelf life. Once you have your dough skins bulk packaged, it’s important to keep them frozen at a temperature as close to -5 F as possible. To use the dough skins, we recommend that whatever quantity is needed be removed from the case and placed directly onto the baking tray. Allow it to sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes, then dress and bake in the normal manner.

Question:

We presently use two deck ovens to make our thin and deep-dish pizzas, but we are contemplating changing over to using conveyor ovens for their increased production capacity. Will we need to have dedicated ovens for each type (thin and deep-dish) of pizza?

Answer:

When you say conveyor, I’m going to assume that you mean air impingement ovens.

If you are planning to buy any of the new, high-efficiency air impingement ovens, there is a possibility that you will not need to have dedicated ovens for each of your two pizza types. I’ve personally evaluated all but one of the new generation ovens, and have found –– to my amazement –– that they do a fine job of baking both thin and thick (deep-dish) pizzas side by side in the same oven, at the same time and temperature, using the same finger profile. However, since there are so many different dough formulations, pans, topping concepts, etc., I cannot say for sure that the oven of your choice will bake both of your pizza types side by side, but I do know that the same top and bottom finger profile will work for both, so at the very worst, a split conveyor, allowing for two different baking times, simultaneously, in the same oven chamber should do the trick. To be sure, I would highly encourage you to contact the oven company you’re interested in and ask them if you can test bake your dough/ pizzas in their oven at their test facility. It is a small expense for the security of knowing that your new ovens will indeed be set-up and profiled correctly for your product, and perform as expected right from the start. I just assisted with a start-up of a new, triple deck oven at Kansas State University. We did the homework, and the ovens performed flawlessly from the start.

If, by chance, you are planning to buy older ovens, used or refurbished, you’re probably going to need to go the dedicated deck route, with one oven dedicated to each type of pizza. This is due to the fact that in most cases, the deep-dish pizzas will need to be baked at a different time and temperature than the thin crust pizzas.

A couple of things that you should be aware of: When I did the evaluation of the new ovens, I used the deep-dish pans (dark, anodized finish) and cloud patterned baking disks for all of the testing. So if you encounter problems in baking both pizza types side by side, you might want to give these a try to see if it works for you. Also, I would highly recommend that you consider getting at least one, if not both, ovens set up with a split conveyor configuration. This will allow you much greater flexibility for baking other products along with your pizzas (such as breadsticks, wings, or calzones.) ?

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

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]]> https://pizzatoday.com/2010-december-five-questions/ Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:00:00 +0000 https://pizzatoday.com/2010-december-five-questions/ Q. When formulating your new concept, how did you want it to differ from your smaller location, Italian Gator? A. The smaller location is a walk-up, window service pizzeria specializing in slices and with only 122 square feet of space. It is the feel and flavor of authentic New York City. Piesanos Stoned Fired Pizza […]

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]]> Q. When formulating your new concept, how did you want it to differ from your smaller location, Italian Gator?

A. The smaller location is a walk-up, window service pizzeria specializing in slices and with only 122 square feet of space. It is the feel and flavor of authentic New York City. Piesanos Stoned Fired Pizza was built to be a full service restaurant seating 125 people — with a blend of Italian entreés and pizza cooked in our unique, granite, stone-fi red pizza oven.

Q. Your menu is an eclectic blend of pizzas, fresh-baked breads, seafood, burgers, calzones and plated entreés. How are you controlling your food costs with such a large offering?

A. When creating the menu, we decided that a lot of the ingredients would be interchangeable in most of our dishes, ensuring everything stays fresh. With 20 years of experience and a well-trained staff, we have minimal waste.

Q. You bake your own breads in stone rotary ovens. How well do items like the garlic cheese knots and garlic breadsticks sell?

A. Even with complementary stone baked rolls, our garlic cheese knots are a big dine-in seller. The garlic bread sticks are very popular in our express take-out portion of the restaurant.

Q. You have a series of lunch specials at prix fixe prices. How do these boost your lunch sales?

A. We believe you need to give people excellent food for a fair price with quick, friendly service. Our lunch specials are very popular with customers, starting at only $6.99. When creating the menu, we had to have a system to put out lunch in a timely manner. Our fresh soups, salads, slices and personal pizzas make it very easy to put out high volume and control costs.

Q. As a new business, dining Web sites like Yelp and Urbanspoon. Do you keep up with these reviews and use them to make your business better?

A. These Web sites allow us to gain valuable insight into our customer’s perception of our business, allowing us to correct issues that we otherwise would miss. This allows us to focus on all aspects of the restaurant — including service, food quality and marketing.

The post 2010 December: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

]]> https://pizzatoday.com/2010-june-did-you-know/ Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:00:00 +0000 https://pizzatoday.com/2010-june-did-you-know/ Domino’s has been named our Chain of the Year twice 2003 and 2010 KA-CHING America’s 10 largest pizza companies control more than 23billion in revenue According to a recent PizzaToday.com Web poll, 62 percent of respondents said their ovens are fired by gas There are 3,783 pizzerias in Ohio Nella Pizzeria Napoletana / Caputo’s Pizzeria […]

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]]> Domino’s has been named our Chain of the Year twice 2003 and 2010
KA-CHING America’s 10 largest pizza companies control more than 23billion in revenue

According to a recent PizzaToday.com Web poll, 62 percent of respondents said their ovens are fired by gas
There are 3,783 pizzerias in Ohio
Nella Pizzeria Napoletana / Caputo’s Pizzeria / The Dons’ Wood-Fried PizzaNella Pizzeria Napoletana

2423 N. Clark Street
Chicago, Illinois 60614
(773) 327-3400

Yes, we know Chicago has a lot of stellar pizzerias, and you can count Nella among them. This is true Neapolitan pizza. Behind the scenes is Italian-born Nella Grassano, one of only two women in the U.S. to have earned the accreditation of Pizzaiola D.O.C., and Scott Harris, the co-founder and chef of Francesca’s Restaurants. They join a hard-working oven made from volcanic ash and a menu of traditional Neapolitan favorites. We fell in love with the classic Romana: tomatoes, mozzarella, capers, black olives, olive oil, anchovies and oregano.

Caputo’s Pizzeria
4229 Main Street
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19127
(215) 483-2780
www.caputospizzeria.net

Located in Philly’s fashionable Manayunk area, Caputo’s Pizzeria has a long list of specialty pizzas featuring fresh ingredients and plenty of options. But while pizza might be the name of the game here, there are also calzones, stromboli and sandwiches. You’d be remiss not to try the cheesesteak menu –– there’s a full 12 ounces of meat on every sandwich!

The Dons’ Wood-Fired Pizza
21018 South Bank
Street Sterling, Virginia 20165
(703) 444-4959
www.thedonspizza.com

This isn’t an ordinary pizzeria slinging pepperoni and sausage. Here you’ll find a traditional Caprese salad and upscale toppings ranging from pancetta to roasted rosemary chicken and artichokes. We think the Tommy Guns Tomato & Mozz is divine. It features fresh basil, The Dons’ fresh mozzrella, sliced tomato, Parmigiano, Romano, sea salt and olive oil. Now that’s Italian!

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]]> https://pizzatoday.com/2010-november-did-you-know/ Thu, 07 Feb 2013 04:00:00 +0000 https://pizzatoday.com/2010-november-did-you-know/ $1,500,000,000 ($1.5 billion) is spent in U.S. restaurants each and every day. According to the National Restaurant Association 70% of adults say they are more likely to visit a restaurant that offers locally produced food items. CiCi’s Pizza intends to add 500 restaurants over the next 8 years. Michigan has 3,018 pizzerias Pizzeria Guido / […]

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]]> $1,500,000,000 ($1.5 billion) is spent in U.S. restaurants each and every day.

According to the National Restaurant Association 70% of adults say they are more likely to visit a restaurant that offers locally produced food items.

CiCi’s Pizza intends to add 500 restaurants over the next 8 years.
Michigan has 3,018 pizzerias

Pizzeria Guido / Massey’s Pizza / Belltown Pizza

Pizzeria Guido
15600 NE 13th St.
Bellevue, Washington 98008
(425) 614-0007
www.pizzeriaguido.com

This Washington-based pizzeria turns out Tuscan-style dishes and pizzas using a custom-made open flame brick oven. Using ingredients imported from Italy, here you’ll find traditional dishes like Mozzarella Caprese (fresh buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and basil) and pizzas proving that less is more –– ranging from a classic Margherita to Salsiccia (pomodoro sauce, fresh mozzarella and Italian sausage). We love the extensive and generous happy hour menu featuring $4 beer and wines starting at just $3.50 a glass. Paired with calamari fritti ($5.50), it’s one of the best happy hours around!

Massey’s Pizza
4464 E. Main Street
Whitehall, Ohio 43213
(614) 559-2222

www.masseyspizza.com

This award-winning chain of central Ohio pizzerias has been a longtime local secret. Although there are some non-traditional offerings like the Chicken Cheddar Bacon Ranch and the Bar- B-Q Chicken Pizza, it’s the company’s classic pepperoni pizza that has us talking. A 14-inch large pizza sports more than 150 pieces of pepperoni. It’s hard to complain about that!

Belltown Pizza
2422 First Avenue
Seattle, Washington 98121
(206) 441-2653

www.belltownpizza.net

This upscale pizzeria fits right into Seattle’s acclaimed dining scene, and with good reason — here you’ll find gourmet offerings ranging from the Vine Street (sausage, sun-dried tomato and red onion) to the Derby Special (mushrooms, tomato, prosciutto basil and goat cheese). What caught our eye? The Fire in Belltown — roasted red pepper, fresh garlic and red onion on a spicy red sauce. If you can’t take the heat, get outta Belltown!

The post 2010 November: Did You Know appeared first on Pizza Today.

I interviewed several expert business consultants for this article, and the one point that stuck out with all of them was best summed up by James Sinclair of OnSite Consulting: “Operators generally tend not to love advice, especially advice that counters their own system or beliefs, and especially if they have to pay for someone to give an opinion they disagree with.” When all the experts are saying, “Here is a way to increase your sales, brand yourself with a customized look and complement that with enticing images by a world-renowned food photographer,” the question becomes this: Will you lean on your own understanding? Get over yourself. Let’s be doers, not forgetful hearers of what experts preach.

Peter F. Drucker, American educator and writer, said “Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” As operators, we need to decide to listen, profit from the advice and be courageous.

Sinclair concurs: “Operators can benefit from outsiders who understand the market from a macro perspective and franchisees that have worked closely with a franchisor either for testing or on a model variation. Being a franchisee does not waive your requirement to innovate and be dynamic. Localization is 90 percent.”

Doing so gives you a concise and well crafted message. You are now on the same playing field as the big guys — and you have a home field advantage.

Tony Troiano, co-owner of J.B. Alberto’s Pizza, spent 32 years growing his business into a Chicago tradition. Troiano says: “I certainly think, from a food standpoint, we (independents) have a huge advantage over the Big Three, but we can learn a lot from them as far as marketing and operations are concerned.”

Troiano learned to profit in several ways. “I promote online ordering on all of my printed material,” he says. “This is something the Big 3 have promoted for many years — and, thanks to them, it has certainly taken off. Why not piggy back on the millions that they are spending to promote this? Let’s face it, online ordering is here to stay and growing every year.”

My pizzeria has seen online sales double in the past year, and Troiano reports similar results.

We can also take a design lesson from the big operations. J.B. Alberto’s Pizza, for example, is a delco unit (offering only delivery or carryout). Since no one spends much time in there or dines inside the unit, how much does the small interior space of the pizzeria matter?

“Last year, I remodeled the carryout area to create a warm and inviting feel with cherry wood and granite countertops,” says Troiano. “Our carry out sales increased 6 percent.”

Statistically, most franchise chains either strongly encourage or require their franchisees to remodel or upgrade interior spaces every fi ve years. Troiano’s results show the importance of this. ?

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

The post 2010 November: Marketing Matters appeared first on Pizza Today.

What did I do in an uncommon way to gain not just the attention of many, but the loyalty of my customers? Pizza & Prevention. At its conception, this event was my way of commemorating the tragedy of 9/11. I needed to recognize our hometown heroes and all they do for us. The basic concept was a community event designed to promote disaster prevention and introduce the community to local volunteer firefighters. How does a pizza shop do that and make this a win-win promotion for everyone? Answer this question: What’s in it for me?

Fire company: I will sell my signature pizza for $9.11, donating the entire amount to the volunteer fire company.

Community: Community members get a great deal on a pizza, plus we have firemen check their smoke detector and provide them with a fresh battery or smoke detector, if needed.

Me: I involve myself in an event with benefits.

A major part of the planning was to locate a co-sponsor to provide the smoke detectors. Enter Nationwide, the Kengersky Insurance Agency.

“I look forward to our involvement each year,” says Nationwide’s Matthew E. Kengersky. “Scott’s hard work and generosity have been the keys to nine years of success doing the event. The direct marketing exposure is substantial, and the goodwill is enormous. Both current and prospective customers give me wonderful feedback.”

Did I mention that I was up to my elbows in dough? The 2010 event sold 3,072 Big Daddy pizzas (24″ x12″), a 25 percent increase over 2009. The week before the event, I have to make projections for sales and supplies needed. Unfortunately, I don’t have storage for that amount of food. Once again it is back to the community. The fire department and I both realize that the people we serve have to be ‘wowed’.

It is not uncommon for people to support the fire department. Doing it in an uncommon way has made people see my business in a new light.

“The fact that one business cares enough to step outside of their normal role of selling food and making a profit, and step into the role of fire prevention and fund-raising, is just plain amazing in today’s economy,” says Scott Depp, Chief Central Fire Department. “I believe that Scott’s business continues to grow — not just on this one day, but throughout the year — because of the customer loyalty he has created with this event. This community has chosen to support his business by being repeat customers and telling others to frequent his business.” This event has gained national attention and plenty of free publicity for me and my town. Together, we have equipped more than 2,000 homes with new smoke detectors and made sure that another 1,000 detectors had fresh batteries. In 2002, we raised $5,800. In 2010, we raised $30,000 in this one-day event. In 2002, we had two impinger ovens running from 2 p.m. till 8 p.m. Now we have a triple deck oven, plus a rented pizza trailer, cranking from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m. to meet the demand. By the third year, ‘Pizza and Prevention’ had become our own holiday of sorts. Now we designate the first Saturday in October for the event.

Organize, plan and consult with others in your community. Use every avenue available to you to do your best. If you do, you will reap the benefits (whether they are profits, accolades or just feeling good knowing your business was a catalyst in making a difference).?

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

The post 2010 December: Marketing Matters appeared first on Pizza Today.

At about the same time, Matt McClellan, owner of Tour de Pizza in St. Petersburg, Florida, was on a mission of his own. He wanted to educate America about pizza’s positive attributes. To do this, he hopped on a bike and hit the road. Cycling much of the way from St. Petersburg to New York City, McClellan stopped in at dozens of pizzerias up the East Coast and held press conferences in which he touted pizza as part of an overall balanced diet. Pizza Today publisher Pete Lachapelle pedaled part of the way with McClellan, and the aforementioned White, along with Pizza Today Art Director Josh Keown and Web Developer Dennis Wyatt, also made appearances on the Tour.

“I got tired of people at my local gym calling pizza junk food,” says McClellan. “I wanted to prove that you could eat pizza and be healthy. So I went on a 30-day pizza diet and still lost weight and lowered my cholesterol.”

Adds White: “It’s time to change pizza’s fast food image. Pizza clearly is not fast food. Period.” White argues that America’s pizzerias make their products to order, whereas fast food restaurants have items ready at all times.

“At a fast food restaurant, you pick a number from a menu board and are handed your meal 30 seconds later,” says White. “At a pizzeria, you customize your meal and then wait 15 to 20 minutes while the staff makes your order fresh. The dough is typically fresh and made in-house. The sauce has typically been customized. The pizza is baked fresh and served fresh and piping hot. It’s convenient, but it sure isn’t fast. Nor should it be. Quality takes time.”

White says operators should take a cue from the Tour de Pizza and host their own media event. There’s no better advertising than free news press, he says.

“You don’t have to cycle hundreds or thousands of miles to be newsworthy,” he suggests. “Small, local newspapers across the country are starving for good stories. What have you done recently that is newsworthy? If nothing comes to mind, plan an event now. Start a fundraiser for a local elementary school or create a fun contest. Then send a press release to the local features or business editor. Tell them what you’re doing and why it will benefit the community. If it isn’t purely self-serving, the press will most likely be interested.”

In fact, says White, October is a perfect time to go after local press. It’s National Pizza Month. “That’s a story of immediate interest,” says White. “Send local newspapers and radio stations a pizza and a press release. The headline should read: ‘Pizza XYZ Celebrates National Pizza Month by Raising Money for Local Children’s Hospital.’ Whatever your promotion is, tie it in to National Pizza Month. Tell the press that for one weekend in October, or the whole month, or one day — whatever works for you — that you’ll donate ‘X’ percent of your sales to a local organization as your way of celebrating National Pizza Month. That’s the type of story that draws interest from editors.”

Don’t forget, when you do get press, to mention that pizza is not fast food — it’s something more substantial and wholesome. It’s a message the public should hear, says White. , “Some of pizza’s key attributes are convenience and price,” says White. “Ironically, those characteristics have helped put pizza into the fast food corner in the eyes of many. If you think about it, that’s what pizza and fast food have in common — convenience and affordability. But price and value should not be confused: price is what you pay; value is what you get. Let’s face it, pizza provides much more value than fast food. Few would argue that. But the industry hasn’t done a very good job of driving that point home. It’s time that happens.” Start by taking a look at some of pizzas benefits, says White. Take lycopenes, for example.

“Lycopenes are extraordinarily good for the human body — and tomatoes are a tremendous source of lycopenes,” says White. “Lycopenes are powerful antioxidants that have been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer and protect against heart disease. Your pizza sauce is full of lycopenes. Do your customers know that?”

Pizza also contains plenty of calcium. And while it is true that pizza is high in fat and sodium, it can fit into an overall balanced diet. “I eat pizza all the time, but I manage to stay thin and have good cholesterol,” says White. “The key is that I exercise daily and balance my meals. If I know I’m having three slices of pizza for dinner, I make sure I have a salad or plenty of vegetables and fruits for lunch. It isn’t a difficult equation. If you burn more calories than you take in, you’re not going to gain weight.” While most people assume pizza constitutes a high calorie meal, the fact is that balancing vegetables and protein and cutting the cheese portion a bit can make all the difference. In fact, says White, most people eat far more calories in other types of restaurants and don’t know it.

“Part of the problem is that many restaurants are afraid to publish their nutritional information,” he says. “They know the news isn’t good, so they opt not to share it with customers. As a result, most people really have no idea what they’re taking in when they go out to eat. They tend to grossly underestimate the number of calories and fat.”

For example, “typically, ballpark, two slices of pepperoni pizza will equal right around 700 calories,” White says. “That may sound bad. But compare it to other meals out there, and you’ll see that what an average customer might eat elsewhere actually adds up to more calories. Spaghetti and meatballs at Olive Garden, for example, takes you over 1,000 calories, according to Olive Garden’s Web site.

“Go to many casual dining restaurants, like Outback Steakhouse or Applebees or Ruby Tuesday, and there’s a really good chance your meal will go over 1,000 calories. Even the Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich at Panera Bread is 610 calories. Have a side item with that and you’re over 700 calories.” ?

The post 2010 October: On Tour appeared first on Pizza Today.

While there are many changes that carry Pizza Today into the publishing future, one of the new sections I’m most excited about is decidedly retro: we’re bringing back a “Letters to the Editor” page. It’s been well over a decade since Pizza Today has published letters to the editor, and my crew thought it would be fun to revive that nod to magazine tradition while we move forward.

So tell me what’s on your mind (in 200 words or less). Something you love — or hate — about the magazine? Let me know. Did you really dig a recipe or article? Tell me why you loved it. Did you vehemently disagree with one of my commentaries or really think a particular article missed the mark? Let me know. Positive feedback encourages us. Negative feedback helps us improve. Getting a letter to me is easy.

The preferred and most efficient way is through e-mail. Just put “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line and e-mail me: jwhite@ pizzatoday.com. If e-mail is too old school for you, direct message me on Twitter. Pizza Today can be found at www.twitter.com/pizzatoday. Again, make it clear it’s a letter to the editor. You can also fi nd us on Facebook and send us a private message: www. facebook.com/pages/Pizza-Today/135784216462442. Not real computer savvy? No problem. Fax your letter to my attention at (502) 736-9501.

I won’t be able to publish every letter I get due to space requirements. But I look forward to publishing — and sometimes responding to — your comments each month in the magazine. Tear out this page and tuck it in a drawer next to your computer. When we inspire you or hit a nerve, make sure you tell me about it … in no more than 200 words.

WANNA GO FOR A RIDE? While we’re at it, I want to directly solicit your thoughts on a pizza industry event my publisher and I would like to make happen on an annual basis.

A few of us in the Pizza Today office are really into cycling. Since October is National Pizza Month as well as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I was thinking Pizza Today should organize a large group ride from one major city to the next. We could pair with an organization such as the American Cancer Society or the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and use the ride to raise money for the chosen charity. Pizzerias nationwide would be encouraged to make a donation (perhaps a percentage of sales on a given day?). Pizzerias along the route we cycle would be encouraged to join in by having their employees cycle along, accept donations from the public, etc. I know from past fundraising experience that the local chapter of the chosen charity will help any pizzeria that wants to be involved by providing marketing for the event. They’ll provide press releases and maybe even signage, flyers, etc. if warranted.

It would be a way the pizza industry could give back to society and make a difference on a meaningful level.

October isn’t the only month we could do this ride in the future. Breast cancer isn’t the only cause we could work to aid. These are my thoughts, but I’m open to suggestions. • What charity should we work to help?
• Where should we do the ride?
Portland to Seattle? Louisville to Chicago? Los Angeles to San Diego? Madison to Minneapolis? St. Louis to Kansas City? Tell me in your first letter to the editor.

Regards,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2010 December: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

Broccoli works well in pasta and on salads, but what about pizza? Not only does it add taste, but it also boosts the nutritional value of pizza. To use, blanche broccoli in boiling water for four to five minutes, then submerge it in cold water to protect the color. You’re going to want to chop it evenly to spread it over the pizza. Remember that the crown has the most flavor and easiest texture for consumption. Try creating a vegetable “Primavera” pizza with loads of veggies for a healthy alternative.

Keep it Contained

Prep tables are the backbone of your restaurant. It’s here that you house all of the readied ingredients needed to make your restaurant run smoothly. Take a good look at how the compartments latch. Pay attention to the mechanisms used for closure. Magnetic closures tend to break less than those with latches, but they can sometimes pop up accidentially. Train your staff to ensure they’re closing compartments tightly when using the prep table to keep ingredients from drying out. Finally, be sure to keep the gaskets clean. When they become brittle, it’s time for replacement.

Taste versus Texture

We all know that nuts, pine nuts in particular, are the quintessential ingredient in a homemade pesto sauce, but did you know that it doesn’t have to be that way? The key is to maintain a pesto’s integrity by creating that smooth tasting, gritty textured sauce that coats pasta like a warm hug. To create a variation of traditional pesto, try replacing pines nuts with walnuts. You can also leave a recipe’s cheese coarsely ground to enhance the texture. Finally, don’t overlook the power of veggies. Finely diced carrots, zucchini and celery add a unique fl avor to pesto. Bon appetit!

Short Staffed

Let’s pretend you’ve had a couple of servers call –– or text –– that they won’t be coming in for today’s lunch rush. Although you’re going to be short-staffed, there’s no reason why your manager can’t step in and cover a table or two. If managers are going to oversee a staff, they need to be able to smoothly step into place when there’s a gap. Cross-training is great, but your managers shouldn’t be above pitching in when needed.

The post 2010 December: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

Or so customers thought. The Monaghans merely built the costs of delivery into their margins and quoted one price. With almost no competition for delivery, what later became Domino’s formula worked brilliantly for a while until others matched that service advantage. From then on, most customers believed “free delivery” was here forever.

That is until Saddam Hussein convinced us all otherwise in 1990. Back then he thought it would be cool to send the Iraqi army on a road trip to Kuwait and see if the rest of the world would notice that it was heavily armed. It did — especially the U.S., whose need for Middle East oil put its supply in a precarious position.

Gasoline prices soared and my delivery drivers freaked out. Big Dave’s supposedly free delivery was suddenly costing them, and they couldn’t afford it. The drivers held a meeting out behind the dumpster — to which I wasn’t invited — and they appointed a spokesman who very subtlety asked for more money.

I sympathized with them and promised to raise their run compensation from 50 to 75 cents per run. Since we were delivering about 4,000 pizzas a month, that meant I’d created out of thin air a $1,000 monthly expense. Ouch!

When I told my accountant to comb through every line item on my financials and find a grand in fat, he assured me those funds didn’t exist. When I said they had to be there, he said: “Well, Dave, it looks like you and your wife just financed a raise for the drivers.”

As I fretted over what to do, he asked, “What does it cost you to deliver a pizza?” I had no answer. So we crunched the numbers and discovered that every “free” delivery actually cost me $2.51. I dreaded what I knew he’d say next: “You have to charge for delivery.” I whined and told him he didn’t understand the pizza business. He agreed and told me, “You don’t understand the money business.”

Naturally, I feared customers would hate us for it and go elsewhere, but I had no choice other than to charge a buck per delivery. I experienced some pretty severe tongue lashings, threats of false advertising and bodily harm. Over a buck! I blamed it on Saddam Hussein and the gas crisis. Some accepted it, some didn’t. Some saved the dollar and drove in to pick up their orders. I came very close to caving in under the pressure, but held steadfast. Within 30 days, we dropped from about 4,000 deliveries a month to 3,000. That was scary, but just a couple months later we were back to normal. Long story short, we kept our delivery charge and gradually increased it over the years as needed.

Not everyone joined us, of course — especially large chains. It would take the brutal price slashing, 2-for-1s and 5-5-5 deals of the new millennium to crush margins so thin that most of the industry knew it had to flee the “free delivery” model.

By my calculations, it costs between $3 and $4 to deliver a pizza in 2010. Whether that’s tacked on as a fee, absorbed into the pizza price or spread between both changes with every operator. In addition to the added expense, the hassle factor of delivery created more than its share of grey hairs for me.

Either way, you cannot eat the cost of free delivery if you expect to make money. You might fool your customers into thinking you’re doing it for free, but you’ll never fool your accountant.?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2010 November: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

The hostess then left her stand to tend to a chore. While she was gone, two college-aged females walked in. They were attractive, and they caught the eye of a young male server who happened to be passing through the lobby. He stopped and asked the young women if they’d been helped yet by the hostess. When they said they hadn’t, he replied: “I have a table for you and can seat you right now.” The hostess returned shortly to find a few angry customers. “Excuse me,” said the woman. “Two girls just walked in and were seated right away.” She paused briefly, then repeated herself, with a twist, for emphasis: “Two young, pretty girls were taken to a table right away by one of your servers.” The hostess was obviously unprepared for the situation and looked somewhat stunned.

She was not sure how to react. Then, the customer spoke up again. “I’d like to know how that happens,” she said. “The old lady is told 20 minutes, while the young ones are seated right away.” Now, let me interject here. I’d seen the whole thing play out. I don’t think the waiting customers were snubbed. I think it was an honest mistake by the server. He saw two customers enter and asked if they’d been helped. He then seated them. His mistake was not checking the hostess’ notebook first. Had he done that, he would have realized the other three were waiting on a table as opposed to simply waiting for another family member or friend to come out of the restroom.

In any case, the slip was much more innocent than the waiting family imagined it to be. Still, the woman did have a legitimate complaint — customers who entered after her family were seated first. (This restaurant does not take reservations, in case you are wondering.)

Still not sure what to say or do, the hostess fetched the manager. The manager immediately apologized and said he would get to the bottom of the situation. He left to speak to the server. He then returned and explained to the woman that a simple oversight had occurred, that the server meant no disrespect, and that he was sorry (again) and would seat her family immediately.

The family followed the manager into the dining room as my food was being handed to me by the hostess, who still looked bewildered.

As I drove home, I couldn’t help but wonder if the manager had ever taken the time to properly train the hostess on how to diffuse an upset customer. Clearly, the poor girl had no clue. The manager handled the situation quickly and with tact, but what if he had not been available at that exact moment for some reason? The restaurant would have lost three customers — for good.

As the initial point of contact to your dine-in customers, a well-trained hostess is critical to your operation’s success. Don’t just hire a pretty face. Take the time to train whomever it is you hire. A hostess doesn’t simply smile, say hello and write down names. The job also requires one to juggle seating assignments, make wait-time forecasts the customers expect to be accurate and, yes, even interact with upset customers.

Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2010 November: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

In order to keep your dream, business, employees and customers safe, operators have to be aware of dangers in the kitchen, adhere to local fire codes and practice fire safety — because it only takes a moment to lose everything.

Rob Raia, owner of Colorado Springs-based Borriello Brothers, knows the devastation a fire can cause. In August, a fire broke out in the restaurant due to what appears to be a failed exhaust fan, causing critical damage to the roof.

“The smoke damage was extensive,” Raia said. “The fire started in between the drop ceiling and the roof itself. The whole roof was damaged extensively.” According to Raia, the fire started around 6 p.m. when the restaurant was just starting to get crowded, and the staff was gearing up for the evening.

“The managers took over and got everybody out real quick,” Raia said. “They did what they were supposed to do.”

According to Raia, the roof and ceiling have to be gutted. Although repairs have not started, he is hoping to reopen in three months.

“We do have a contract with a company to clean our hoods every six months,” Raia said. “We do what we’re supposed to do.”

Since fi res can happen anytime and anywhere, even when operators are practicing fi re safety, how can operators protect their businesses better?

Matt Klaus, senior fi re protection engineer with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), says the document NFPA 96, The Standard for Ventilation Control and Fire Protection of Commercial Cooking Operations, is a great source on fire codes and fire prevention.

“This document provides the requirements for the design and installation of a fire safe cooking area within a commercial cooking environment,” said Klaus. “There are two main types of systems that are found in commercial cooking areas, an exhaust system and a fire suppression system. The ducted exhaust system is required for all ‘cooking equipment used in processes producing smoke or grease laden vapor’ (NFPA 96 Section 4.1.1 2011 Edition).”
To investigate local fire codes, Scott Dawkins, director of business operations for kitchen exhaust cleaning specialists HOODZ, advises operators to contact their local authority having jurisdiction (AHJ) to ensure the restaurant system is being properly inspected and maintained.

“Grease in an exhaust system is a potential fire hazard. In most municipalities, the AHJ is the fire marshal,” Dawkins said. “The AHJ will inform the restaurant owner of the local codes they have adopted in their area. The NFPA 96 outlines the minimal inspection frequency.”

Dawkins says exhaust cleaning companies are contracted by restaurant owners to regularly clean and inspect their systems. The volume of grease vapors the cooking equipment produces determines the maintenance schedule (which can be monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually).

“Hire qualified companies to help keep their investment fire safe. Always inspect the company’s work that is performing the exhaust cleaning and ask them for pictures of the cleaned system,” Dawkins said.

Upon reopening, Raia plans to implement a logbook of maintenance to record what equipment was serviced, when and by whom, and keep warranties accessible.

Dawkins, meanwhile, says operators need to know how the design of their kitchen and location of the equipment can increase or decrease fire risk.

“The restaurant owner will want to ensure they are following the local codes when designing or changing the layout of the kitchen to ensure the proper exhaust system is in place over the various cooking appliances,” Dawkins says. “Ensure all cooking equipment is functioning appropriately and the kitchen staff is properly trained on the necessary precautions.”

Klaus says grease fires are exceptionally challenging because they can provide a suppression challenge; a wet sprinkler will be ineffective and may even cause the fire to spread. “The general concern of the fi re marshals, building officials or responding personnel is that the appropriate systems have been put in place for the hazards present. This can be accomplished by providing the equipment as outlined in NFPA 96,” Klaus says. “Once the system has been properly designed and installed, maintaining and cleaning the system becomes the ongoing battle for the owner and fire department. The build-up of grease within the system can be the source of the fire or contribute to the development of a fire if it is permitted to ignite. Proper cleaning and inspection in accordance with Chapter 11 of NFPA 96 is one way to limit the exposure of a property to grease fires.”

Operators not only need to educate themselves on fire codes and fire safety, but they must also educate their staff.

According to OSHA’s Fire Safety in the Workplace Fact Sheet, “Employers should train workers about fire hazards in the workplace and about what to do in a fire emergency. If you want your workers to evacuate, you should train them on how to escape. If you expect your workers to use portable fire extinguishers, you must provide hands-on training in using this equipment.”

Successful fire prevention requires education and hard work. By following local fire codes, matching up the right systems to the present dangers, maintaining those systems to keep them working efficiently and educating your staff on fire safety procedures, operators can reduce their risk of fire to their businesses and dreams. ?

DeAnn Owens is a freelance journalist living in Indianapolis. She specializes in features and human interest stories.

The post 2010 November: Fire in the Hole! appeared first on Pizza Today.

Q: Your menu items use expensive ingredients like San Marzano tomatoes, seafood and fresh cheeses. How are you keeping food costs down?

A: We run a 29-percent food cost, which is high for a typical pizzeria and low for a full service restaurant. Controlling food cost always starts with your menu and amount of inventory items, especially perishable inventory. We limit our seafood to two items on the menu –– shrimp and clams. Both come out of the freezer and have no or very little waste. We run one fresh fish special at a time and watch over it like a hawk to maintain proper par levels. Portion control is crucial. We portion everything from all of our different pastas to sauces, proteins and breads. Lastly, we have a very detailed system for hot prep that allows us to make many items from scratch and still maintain consistency in our flavor profiles.

Q: Your weekly specials are inventive! What’s your secret for duplicating these homestyle recipes in a commercial kitchen?

A: We are a company of systems and recipes. We change our specials every two weeks. We limit them to two lunches and two dinners. We have make-cards for the line to ensure that everyone is preparing them the same. We also are very careful that the special fi ts our hot line system. It cannot be too complicated, too many ingredients or take too long to get out of the kitchen. It is very important that the quality of any special be consistent whether there are two checks hanging or 20 checks hanging. This takes careful planning and monitoring.

Q: You make your own desserts, and they’re decadent –– like your Smores Cookie Pizzette and Chocolate Cassata Cake. Why not outsource these like so many other restaurants?

A: I believe that appetizers and desserts are two great ways to differentiate you from the competition. If you are buying desserts from your purveyor or from a local provider, the restaurant across the street could be serving the same item. We do buy a couple desserts from a local purveyor, but we make the rest. We limit the dessert menu and run monthly specials. This controls the amount of prep and inventory and allows us to take advantage of seasonal items.

Q: Your menu transcends pizza and spaghetti. How well do items like cioppino & baked wild mushroom ravioli sell?

A: Selling specials is all about the customer’s confidence in your kitchen. After we opened, it took about six months of aggressive in-house marketing and strong server suggestive selling to get customers to try some unconventional specials. Unconventional for a pizzeria, that is. Now our specials usually outsell most menu items. Once again, it is all about differentiating you from the competition. Offering specials like cioppino or wild mushroom ravioli and preparing them with quality ingredients consistently gives you a leg up on the competition and allows you to build the important “regular” customer base.

Q: You’ve been open more than a year now. What’s the one thing that has surprised you the most about this business?

A: One of the changes I have noticed over the last year is customer knowledge of culinary ingredients and preparation. The plethora of food and cooking programs on television are making for a more educated and adventurous dining public. More so now than at any time in my 30 years in the restaurant business. You can’t brown some ground meat, add it to your marinara sauce and call it Bolognese. This does put pressure on operators to be creative and truthful in their menus and specials. If you don’t, the restaurants down the street will, and take some of your customers along with them.

The post 2010 November: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

In early July, I flew to New York and stayed in Times Square. It’s always nice to be in the center of a thriving city, whether it be New York or San Francisco. The pace is so much different than what I experience on a typical day in Louisville, Kentucky, where Pizza Today is based.

After getting settled in, the first thing I did was hook up with my friend Scott Weiner, who owns and operates Scott’s Pizza Tours in New York. We met up at Kesté, a highly revered Neapolitan pizzeria that is operated by a true pizza legend, Roberto Caporuscio. Roberto recognized me immediately when I walked in (we’ve met several times at International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas), and the Italian hospitality began. He was pleased to host me, and that became more and more evident as pizza after pizza made its way to my table. Scott and I went through much of the Kesté menu, including a special lard pie that harkens back to the purest of early pizzas. It was more or less a historical and contemporary gastronomical tour rolled into one. I can’t wait to go back to Bleecker Street for round two, which Roberto promised as Scott and I exited his restaurant late into the New York night.

Speaking of Bleecker Street, I’d been informed before heading to New York that the “Food Wars” episode would pit John’s of Bleecker against Grimaldi’s Pizzeria. I knew I was in for a really difficult decision when it came time to vote in front of the Travel Channel cameras. You see, I’ve been to each of these spots dozens of times and hold them in very high regard. I’ve never had anything close to a sub-par pizza from either of these shops. In fact, when I take friends around New York to sample pizza, there are five or six iconic establishments I never miss. John’s and Grimaldi’s are among them.

The producers wanted to start at John’s and then work our way to Grimaldi’s later in the filming. When I arrived, I was greeted on the sidewalk by the director and his assistant. I was told it would be a while and to make myself comfortable. In the meantime, I had the pleasure of meeting my co-judge, Mark Bello of Pizza a Casa, a pizza cooking school located in New York’s Chinatown. Though I’d heard of Mark and knew about his pizza expertise, I had never met him until arriving on the “Food Wars” set. We share a lot of common interests and became fast friends. In fact, later that night, after a day of stuffing ourselves with John’s and Grimaldi’s pizzas, I went to Pizza a Casa for a late-night crash course with Mark and the aforementioned Scott Weiner. Mark fi red up his oven and began to show us how he teaches his pizzamaking class (which is geared for home cooks). We listened to great music and had some beer as we developed dough and made thin-crust beauties in several varieties. I was two-for-two when it came to my NYC “down time.”

Anyway, let’s get back to the filming set. I was put into makeup as about 50 production crew members set up cameras, lights, umbrellas, audio equipment, etc. “Food Wars” host Camille Ford dropped by to say hello, and we, too, hit it off. Just like with Bello, I quickly discovered that Camille and I have a lot in common. We talked first about food, then about our love of working out.

When the set was ready, Mark, Camille and I were all seated in a booth at John’s of Bleecker Street. Camille made her introduction for the camera, then we were off. She introduced the judges and asked us a little about what we look for in a New York pizza. From there, it was time to eat!

A fresh John’s pizza was placed before us and it was our duty to taste and critique it. I found few flaws with it. To me, the first critical step to a great pizza is getting the dough right. So I quickly tore into the crust to dissect it. No, I don’t eat pizza in this sloppy fashion, but I do find it particularly helpful if I’m judging.

This strategy amused the host and director, who asked me about my “pizza autopsy.” So I explained to them what I was looking for (internal crumb structure, as Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann calls it) and why I chose to tear my pizza open during the tasting.

Unfortunately, filming a show doesn’t go as quickly or easily as one might expect when they watch a 30-minute episode on television. It takes a few 12-hour days to yield that half hour of footage, so we were in it for the long haul. Television, as the director put it, is “hurry up and wait.” It’s also somewhat of a lie. When you watch the episode, there are times you may see a close up of me nodding or listening to Mike Frank of John’s or Gina Peluso of Grimaldi’s. In reality, I conversed with them on camera very little. Much of that “nodding and listening” happened artificially — I stared at a wall behind an empty chair and provided that animation on the director’s cue.

At any rate, after enjoying many very good pies from John’s, we had a 90-minute break. I spent that down time with Mark, Camille and Marissa (the Coordinating Producer) in a coffee shop. We just hung out and talked about all kinds of things ranging from our college experiences to our favorite sports teams to television production. Of course, we talked a lot about pizza — but not what we thought about the pies from John’s. Discussing John’s or Grimaldi’s with one another was strictly off-limits. The producers didn’t want us to inadvertently sway one another with our thoughts or comments.

We arrived at Grimaldi’s and it was somewhat of a circus act. At John’s, you see, we’d been on a closed set. When we arrived, the pizzeria wasn’t yet open for business. It has two dining rooms divided by a wall, so the production company set up in the smaller of the two. Even after John’s opened for business, we weren’t bothered and didn’t have an audience thanks to the partitioned, split floor plan.

Grimaldi’s, on the other hand, was very much open when we arrived. It was about 3 p.m. and a long line stretched down the sidewalk. As people waited to get into the tiny dining room, the production crew carried its mounds of equipment in and set up. Camille, Mark and I chatted with some waiting customers and posed with a few for pictures.

When the director was ready, we took our places in the center of a packed house at Grimaldi’s. The staff kept working away in the open kitchen behind us as customers came and went. I feel sorry for the folks waiting outside to get in — we were taking up tons of room and most of the customers inside stuck around well after their pizza was gone to watch us film. It was somewhat surreal. Not only were the cameras and the eyes of the crew on us, but the eyes of dozens of customers — locals and tourists alike — hung on our every words.

Just like at John’s, we were presented a pizza from Grimaldi’s to taste and critique. Again, I found few flaws. I knew after my first slice at Grimaldi’s that picking a winner was going to be more difficult than I first imagined.

Luckily for me, I devised a weighted scoring system of my own before leaving for New York. In the event that there wasn’t an overwhelming favorite after tasting both pies, I knew I could fall back on my scoring system to pick a winner.

As it turns out, that’s exactly what I had to do. In my system, the most critical elements, such as the sauce, for example, are given more importance than, say, the herbs. When I went through my calculations, it could not have been any closer — one pizzeria scored a half-point higher than the other. Wow.

We finished filming at a park in Brooklyn. The beautiful location provided unobstructed and world-class views of the Manhattan skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge. It was an ideal spot to wrap the show.

A crowd gathered around us as supporters of both John’s and Grimaldi’s showed up to cheer for their favorite pizzeria. When crunch time came, the judges were given “Food Wars” cards and asked to write down the name of the pizzeria for which we were voting. Not easy to do when both pizzeria managers are standing next to you, but it was a job I gladly accepted, I had to remind myself.

The three of us wrote down our votes and were instructed by the director to keep them to ourselves. Camille then asked both me and Mark to talk about the two pizzerias and discuss why we picked the one we chose — without giving our votes away.

Finally, it was time to reveal our votes. I went first, followed by Mark. He and I disagreed on the winner, which meant Camille, as the show host, had to break the tie. The air was filled with anticipation as she flipped her card over to reveal the winner of “Food Wars” in New York. To find out which pizzeria won — and see yours truly in action — watch the “Food Wars” episode on New York pizza Wednesday, November 17 at 10 p.m. on the Travel Channel.

In the meantime, the photos accompanying this article provide a brief glimpse of my time on the “Food Wars” set. ?

Jeremy White is Editor-in-Chief of Pizza Today.

The post 2010 November: Food Wars: New York appeared first on Pizza Today.

The first argument most Slow Food advocates make is about taste. According to Lois Hoffbauer, the chairperson of the Duluth Farmer’s Market in northern Minnesota, fresher is better. She says that the produce, oregano and cheese available at local markets are tastier and purer than processed food.

“If you are a faceless entity, like a big factory farm, you’re not going to know your customers,” Hoffbauer says. “We’re not going to do something to our fruits and vegetables that we wouldn’t eat ourselves.”

David Yudkin would agree. He’s the co-owner of Hotlips Pizza, a five-location chain in the Portland area with a focus on fresh, local ingredients. Since the chain opened in 1984, they’ve been looking for ways to incorporate area produce onto their menu.

“In the winter, we use more potatoes and onions and kale,” Yudkin says. “In the summer, we’re using more tomatoes and peppers and basil. If you do it right, it’s glorious.” Even Yudkin would agree that local has its limits, however. Sometimes a particular food is better when it’s imported. Olive oil, cheese and wine are all tied to the place they’re produced, and local products usually don’t compare.

“There are certain things you just don’t buy locally,” Yudkin says. “You don’t buy local Parmesan. (Imported Parmesan) is a fine product; it’s high value, and that’s the way it’s always been for centuries.”

Furthermore, some prefer their tomatoes canned. Jeff Varasano, the owner of Varasano’s Pizzeria, is one of them. He says that fresh tomatoes might be great in Caprese salads or on top of a pie, but they have no place in the sauce.

“In terms of sauce, we definitely only use canned tomatoes,” Varasano says. “You cannot make a pizza with fresh tomatoes. I’ve tried it many times, (and) it just doesn’t have the right flavor to it.”

Another concern for operators is the cost. Local produce is a small-scale operation, and that means it’s more expensive. When Varasano ran out of his favorite kind of oregano, he tried –– and rejected — 46 different kinds from his supplier. Finally, he realized his only option was to pay a local nursery to grow it for him, with the first harvest last September. While he was thrilled to recover the taste he was missing, he admits it cut into his profits.

“I’m going to pay through the nose,” Varasano says. “My cost for that would probably be in the neighborhood of 10 times more than I’m going to buy commercially. It’s totally impractical, but I just really want that one ingredient.”

Partially due to cost pressure from local ingredients, Yudkin’s 18-inch pies cost around $30 each. To prevent that figure from spiking even more, he’s had to consider when going local is worth it. While he says that canning his own tomatoes would be prohibitively expensive, using local fl our was a relatively cheap fix.

“You have to do it smartly,” Yudkin says. “If it’s wheat, you’re talking generally about pennies. It’s not like going to local cheese or local protein.”

Of course, some products are not available locally at any price. Varasano says it’s difficult to find good local cheese in Georgia, and Yudkin says it’s difficult to find it in Oregon. Produce varies with the season. And then there are those weeks where the local farmers simply have a bad harvest. Even when everything is going smoothly, it can be very time-consuming to get local products.

“Last summer, I was running up to the farmer’s market every Saturday and getting basil,” Varasano says. “But it was basically an hour out of my day just to get one ingredient.”

Is it worth it? Clearly, Varasano and Yudkin think so, at least for some ingredients. Varasano says his oregano and basil are worth the time, cost, and effort, and he splurges for local tomatoes when they’re in season. Yudkin has gone further, making local a part of his brand and his reputation. He’s connected his site with various local-food causes, introduced a pizza – by- bike program, and brought in extras like locally made soda to bring additional prestige and foot traffic. But in the end, he says, every operator must concentrate on three things. The restaurant must be profitable, local ingredients and all. The service must be good. And the pizza must be worth it.

“If you’re not doing those,” Yudkin says, “You can’t even have a conversation about sustainable ingredients. You have to have credibility. It could be the most sustainable pizza in the world, but if it’s crappy pizza … eating is believing.” ?

Useful Resources

sustainabletable.org

A thorough introduction to the idea of sustainable and organic food with discussions on where to buy, the meaning of technical terms, and questions to ask dairy, hog and produce farmers.

localharvest.org

This extensive map shows farmer’s markets, family farms, co-ops, and more, and contains a searchable index of where to get sustainable food.

farmsreach.com

An online farm food marketplace that connects farmers to business buyers. It’s essentially a networking tool — restaurant owners make their own deals once the site connects them to nearby farmers.

Robert Lillegard is a freelance writer in Superior, Wisconsin.

The post 2010 November: From Farm to Table appeared first on Pizza Today.

Americans love mushrooms on pizza, but they can be delicate and have a relatively short shelf life. Portobello mushrooms add a dense, hearty flavor to pizzas, and they can carry their own as a topping. When shopping, choose ones that are fi rm and dark-brown with no blemishes. When cooked, they turn black –– be sure to trim the stem and use them thinly sliced. Portobellos also make a hearty addition to salads –– they pair especially well with steak!

Surprise!

Health inspectors don’t care if you’re not prepared for their visit. Your best bet? Train your staff to clean as you go. That includes brushing debris and keeping spills off the make line, keeping the kitchen floor free of debris, stacking pans and screens neatly and emptying garbage regularly.

Create a monthly (or bi-monthly) chore cleaning walk-in coolers, dusting shelving, cleaning corners and washing the ovens, hoods, walls, lights and trash cans. These can all be done during slow periods. Finally, keep a vigilant eye for those pesky deductions –– they’re usually an easy fix but can bring a score down quickly. These include improperly stored chemicals, employee drinks on the prep table, improperly labeled containers and incorrectly calibrated meat thermometers.

Finally, if you’re leaving all this to your employees, consider conducting your own surprise inspection. You’ll be able to see who’s on the ball –– and who’s playing dangerously on your home field.

Perfect Peppers

Bell peppers look and taste great as a pizza topping, but if you want to add a gourmet touch to your menu, consider taking one easy step –– sautéing them. It’s easy! Simply place chopped or sliced peppers in a warm pan with olive oil and garlic and cook until soft and limp. You can also blanch peppers in boiling water for two to three minutes. Drain, cool and toss with olive oil. These methods lend a different flavor profile to dishes rather than raw peppers. Give it a try!

Simple Sweets

Americans love their sweets, and a recent NRA survey found that 56 percent of dinner patrons and 30 percent of lunch patrons order dessert in restaurants with per-person checks of more than $25. Since pizzerias check averages often fall below that, pushing desserts can be difficult. One easy way to boost check averages is to add cookies to your menu. You’ve already got an oven –– train your employees to suggest warm, fresh baked cookies when customers place their orders. Stick to one or two varieties (chocolate chip is the top selling snack food in America!), utilize your pizza ovens and watch profit margins soar.

The post 2010 November: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

“The tables, along with all the furniture, are a piece of your décor package,” says Michelle Bushey, a partner and the creative director at Vision 360, a hospitality design firm in Dallas. “The tables bring continuity to the brand.”

It sounds simple enough, but there are many details to consider when you are choosing a tabletop. You have to choose not only whether to go with wood, plastic, metal, or a combination of these, but shapes and sizes are important too. You want to make sure you can fit enough customers during your lunch or dinner rush to keep waiting times to a minimum. At the same time, you need a minimum amount of space between tables in order to meet local ordinances about the number of people you may have at one time in the restaurant.

Most importantly, you want your eatery to look a certain way, and you have to stay within your food and fixtures (FF&E) budget. Michael Solomon, the northeast sales manager for the Web site division of College Point, New York-based Restaurant Depot, recommends 36 inches between tables, and 42 to 48 inches in the main aisle. That leaves enough room for staff and customers to walk, but there is another advantage to having some room between tables. “My biggest concern is flexibility,” he says. “You want to be able to slide tables together to accommodate parties of six or eight.”

He recommends buying tables that are the same width so that they can be pushed together. He doesn’t like round tables, especially drop leaf tables, because they take up too much room.

Michael Nolan, manager of franchise operations for Elkhorn, Nebraska-based Sam and Louie’s New York Pizzeria, says it’s important to choose the right tables to make the place look like a restaurant, not a mess hall. “We use a mixture of tables, booths and banquettes in our locations,” he says. “We also use a combination of square tables, rectangular tables and round tables.”

At Sam and Louie’s 19 locations, the tabletops are laminate covered plywood. “When picking a laminate, it is important to consider the pattern,” he says. “You don’t want something that is too busy. At the same time you typically want to stay away from dark colors and solid colors as they typically show scratches and fingerprints more prominently.”

Phil Hartman, owner of the New York City-based Two Boots Pizza, agrees that the right tables can set the tone for the restaurant. He wanted Two Boots’ ten restaurants to have an old-school vibe, so he chose a laminate called “Cracked Ice,” which he says looks very close to vintage 1950s Formica. “We edge it with ribbed metal trim,” he says. “We also like to intersperse traditional red check tablecloths, which soften the feel of the place.”

Hartman adds that Two Boots Pizza uses cotton tablecloths, “not the polyester ones that linen companies love to foist on us.”

Bushey says some restaurants don’t want to use linens because they are expensive. However, if you do cover your tables with tablecloths, you can get away with buying less pricey table tops that are made of particleboard or plywood covered with vinyl or plastic laminate. “If we have a client that is using tablecloths, we will spec something inexpensive,” Bushey says.

Another important factor is cleaning. “You want to look at it from an operational standpoint. Your staff is going to have to be trained so that they’re not cleaning granite with Windex,” she says.

There are advantages and disadvantages to the various materials. Plastic laminate is easy to clean and it’s among the least expensive tabletop materials. Plastic laminate is often referred to as Formica, but Formica is actually one brand of plastic laminate. There are other brands such as Wilson-Art. Plastic laminate comes in many colors and patterns, and then you can add a metal edge or wood edge.

Kurt Petersen, who owns the restaurant furniture supplier Petersen Furniture in suburban Chicago, says plastic laminate is popular because of the cost, but also because it comes in many patterns, and is durable. “If some kid wants to carve his initials in your table, they can do it in wood or steel, but plastic laminate will make that carving a lot of work,” he says. “It used to be plastic laminate was popular because it stood up against cigarettes.”

Vinyl is also inexpensive. Bushey says one popular choice now is a sort of hybrid of a wood edge with laminate inlay. “It can give you a nice wood feeling but it’s easier to clean, and it cuts down cost.”

Solid wood can be expensive, depending on the wood species and the thickness. “The only caveat with wood is someone has to take care of it,” Petersen says. “You have to keep it clean with mild soap and water and make sure it stays dry.”

Stainless steel, or stainless steel with wood cores, is easy to clean but can be scratched.

Then there is the square corner versus round corner decision. “The square and rectangular tables need to have rounded corners to help protect children’s foreheads,” Nolan says. “They’re still hard, but at least they aren’t sharp, too.”

Bushey says furniture could total 10 to 15 percent of your budget. Table tops can cost anywhere from less than $100 for a 36-inch by 36-inch square made of plastic laminate on particleboard, to about $400 for the same size table top made of plantation grown sustainable Brazilian oak.

The tops are sold separately from the bases. The bases are typically steel or cast iron, and the shapes vary. In general, your customers will likely not see the base, so appearance is less important than whether the base can hold whatever size table top you choose.

Finally, go ahead and make the pizzas as large as you want. “You don’t need larger tables,” Solomon says. “Use a stand.”

Nolan says Sam & Louie’s uses a cake stand. “Of course we call it a pizza stand,” he says. “The pizza is elevated above the table so you have room for your plates, drinks, shakers, etc., even if you have an 18-inch pizza, which most of ours are.” ?

Nora Caley is a freelance writer specializing in food and business topics. She lives in Denver, Colorado.

The post 2010 November: Table Games appeared first on Pizza Today.

We saw the blue car (pictured at left) out front and knew we had to stop. When we were served a bubbling hot pizza from a wood-burning oven, we were glad we did.

The creations at Pizza Volante occupy the middle ground somewhere between a New York pizza and a Neapolitan pie. Volante refers to its pizza as “Roman-style.” No matter what you call it, we called it well executed and downright tasty.

Opened in 2009, this new neighborhood favorite also offers panini, pasta dishes, and an array of wines. The quarters are a little cramped and spartan (save for the gaudy orange chairs), but Pizza Volante customers aren’t stopping in for comfort.

The wine list is notable because each of its 18 offerings are priced at $18 for the bottle. A night out in the Design District need not break the bank, and that’s always a good thing.

Pizza Volante was our first stop of the day, and what a day it was. We hit Miami early and decided to discover the city’s pizza scene the old-fashioned way — by dropping in unannounced, sampling the fare and taking pictures. How did we find out where to go? We asked locals or simply stopped into places that caught our collective pizza eye — such was the case with Pizza Volante. Sure, you’re going to miss great places when you do it this way. But you also discover the unsung heroes. And don’t worry if you were passed over. We have found that South Florida’s pizza scene has exploded in the past five years. We’ll be back soon to detail it in all its glory from West Palm Beach down through Miami. In the meantime, enjoy the limited roster of hotspots we turned up on our anonymous pizza quest in one of America’s most fashion-forward cities.

ANDIAMO

As unique a pizzeria as one will find, stucturally speaking. The building that houses Andiamo apparently was a carwash in a previous life. As wild as that sounds, the layout is perfect for a pizza parlor: open kitchen, indoor seating, a large spread for outdoor dining.

The pizzas here are served on a fluffy, chewy, traditional crust. They’re gourmet, to be sure, and delicious. The “Genovese” features rosemary potatoes, fresh garlic, pancetta, caramelized onions, mozzarella and gorgonzola. The “Vesuvio” is adorned with salami, olives, hot cherry peppers, tomato sauce and mozzarella.

Our server recommended the “BBQ Chicken”, so we gave that a whirl. We also dug into the “Mediterraneo,” which is topped with roasted peppers, artichokes, sundried tomatoes, basil pesto and feta cheese. Breadsticks, salads, panini, desserts and Philly cheesesteaks round out the impressive menu.

After hitting Pizza Volante and then Andiamo, we were two-for-two in the city’s Design District. From there, we branched out to other parts of Miami — and found more winners along the way.

CASOLA’S PIZZERIA

Opened in 1982, Casola’s is the exact opposite of the pizzerias you’ll find profiled on the following two pages. A throwback to pizza’s old-school heyday, Casola’s Pizzeria and Sub Shop is a no-frills spot favored by locals who want traditional pizza and pasta dinners. The menu also offers subs, chicken wings, hot dogs, croissants, salads, burgers and desserts.

There’s a little something for everyone here. It’s not as representative of fl ashy Miami as it is of, say, New Jersey … but that’s what makes it stand out in the crowd and keeps local American pizza purists coming back for more.

SPRIS

South Beach’s Lincoln Road is a place to see and be seen. The shopping is good, but the food is even better. Plenty of restaurants line the walk, and there’s al fresco seating galore in this breezy city. Among the throng of dining choices sits Spris, a wood-burning pizzeria that serves thin-crusted beauties. The gourmet pizzas have earned an “excellent” rating from Zagat, and for good reason.

The menu offers creations like the “Carbonara” pizza — tomato sauce, mozzarella, pancetta, sunny-sideup eggs, Parmesan and black pepper. The “Saporita” features tomato sauce, mozzarella, spicy Italian salami, gorgonzola, capers, Kalamata olives and garlic.

From there, the offerings branch out to a number of appetizers, focaccia, bruschetta, salad, panini, woodbaked sandwiches and calzones. Draft and bottled beers, sparkling waters and a selection of wines help push check averages up.

In its review of Spris, Miami.com called the restaurant one of the most popular and affordable dining destinations on trendy Lincoln Road. Isn’t that what pizza is all about, no matter how fancy you decide to get with it?

SOSTA

Also located on Lincoln Road, Sosta Pizzeria Enoteca is another trendy establishment with a typical Miami twist. Here, the pizzas are gourmet and priced to sell. The marinara pie goes for just $8.50, while the house favored Sosta pizza is priced at $15 (sun-dried tomato spreads, mozzarella, burratta cheese, prosciutto).

The unique calling card at Sosta is the dessert menu, which offers everything at the set price of $6.50. In all, eight delectable dishes ranging from cheesecake with strawberry sauce to Pizza alla Nutella tempt sweet-toothed diners. Four dessert wines and an espresso lineup complement the fine finishes and give patrons of Sosta something to write home about.

Plus, the regular wine list is quite extensive for a pizzeria. It features champagne and prosecco, two rose wines and a battery of whites and reds. With selections from around the globe, it’s easy to choose a winner at Sosta.

In a sophisticated, fashionable city like Miami, what else would you expect?

PIZZA RUSTICA

Pizza Rustica also has roots on Lincoln Road in South Beach, but its product differs greatly from the competition. Baked in oversized rectangular pans, the crust here is thicker and the fare is heartier than found elsewhere in the vicinity.

The pies are cut into large rectangular slices and served with toppings piled high. Founder Pino Piroso opened Pizza Rustica in 1996. Since then, the company has expanded to 19 locations throughout the United States and France. There are 10 Pizza Rusticas in Florida, one in Arkansas, three in California, one in Michigan, one in South Carolina and three in Paris, France. Two more stores — one in Texas, one in Ohio — are set to open soon.

Pizza Rustica has gotten its fair share of press over the years. Expect that to continue as the company grows through franchising and expands its presence in both the United States and Europe alike.

The post 2010 November: Welcome to Miami! appeared first on Pizza Today.

The first Lui Lui opened in 1991 in West Lebanon, New Hampshire, in what seemed to be a doomed location –– an old mill where several other restaurant attempts had failed. Roberts, along with a couple of partners, saw potential, namely a lack of homemade Italian food in the area. It wasn’t enough to simply offer pizza and pasta –– atmosphere, they believed, was also key to success. Why pizza? “Everybody loves it,” Roberts says. “You grow up with it. And, it was fun. I went to Italy, I toured around there and had some great pizza. It was just something that I knew and loved, and felt comfortable with. “We hired over a hundred people to open that store, and it’s been a hit ever since.”

Five years later, the second location opened in Nashua (a suburb of Manchester) on a busy highway populated mainly by big chains. “There are very few independent restaurants here,” Roberts says. “It was another risk, another gamble. How were we going to fare among all these big national chains?”

Apparently well. Today, the two-unit concept is slated to earn $6 million in sales.

Central to the restaurants are their wood-burning ovens. The Nashua oven was built by mason Peter Moore in Vermont; the 10-foot, 10-ton behemoth is supported by steel I-beams in the basement. “Every brick is cut by hand,” Roberts says, scrupulously eyeing the flames inside. “The oven is so well-insulated. It’s a showpiece.” (The West Lebanon oven is painted to resemble a tomato and is supported by concrete.) There’s no thermostat and no gas –– these babies are fueled purely by wood (kiln-dried at $400 a cord), requiring the pizzaioli to learn them inside and out. “The reason we buy kiln-dried is because it is super dried and burns cleanly,” Roberts adds. “When it goes in the oven, it lights right away. This oven will stay hot for three days.” Why are the ovens so crucial to Lui Lui’s atmosphere? “If we were going to do pizza, we wanted to do it as close to authentic as we could, and show people that we meant business,” Roberts explains. “We weren’t going to have an oven in the back kitchen where no one could see. We wanted exhibition cooking to show people the fresh ingredients that we prepare and how clean everything is. We’re sticklers for quality and cleanliness, and we have nothing to hide.”

Cross-training is important to Lui Lui, and Roberts says employees will train as long as needed in an area. Managers at each store “are trained at least a week in every single area, so that every manager can help out if needed,” he adds. In all, Lui Lui employs 150.

And, it takes a small army to pull off Lui Lui’s emphasis on fresh food. Here, bread is made from scratch, as are soups, salad dressings, croutons and sauces. Of course, dough is made in-house daily, as are decadent desserts such as tiramisu, cannoli and Sicilian chocolate mousse. Why not outsource the one menu component most restaurants do? “The quality and, again, being on a strip with all these chain restaurants, we’ve got to differentiate ourselves,” Roberts says. “In the 14 years we’ve been open, there have been over 15 new restaurants that have come into the area. And we’ve still survived. … We feel like we owe it to our customers to give them the best that we can –– as much as we can make here, in house.”

They use fresh pasta –– such as ravioli, fettuccine and linguini –– sourced from a company in Boston as well as some dried varieties imported from Italy. In fact, Roberts and his team go a step further when it comes to sourcing products –– they actually visit the plants where their products are made. “We build relationships,” Roberts says. “We’re not out there to find the lowest price, no matter who we buy from.”

That keen attention to detail is paying off. They’ve won accolades at the state and local level –– including “Best of” awards for the restaurants’ Caesar salad and childrens’ menu –– as a result of their quality control.

Aside from the food is Lui Lui’s drink menu. Sure, there’s beer and wine, but a full bar is available “so we can cater to everyone,” Roberts says. “If someone does not want a beer or a glass of wine, there’s a menu of drinks that they can sort of create with all those different spirits and add-ons. It’s a lot like making pizza. The glass is a canvas for whatever you can come up with. We do bellinis with fresh peach puree. (We use) fresh-squeezed juices and … marinate fruits in rum and vodka.”

Happy Hour (from 2 to 6 p.m. daily) is a big ticket add-on ––the company sells more than 1,000 $2 margaritas a week.

Popular dishes include the chicken and proscuitto marsala ($12.99), the Caesar Pizza ($10.99 –– purchased often as an appetizer), the best-selling Marcherita Pizza ($10.99/ $18.99) and the stunning seafood cioppino (shrimp, lobster, clams and mussels in a slightly spicy seafood broth served with fresh linguine for $21.50).

In the last year, an under-$10 menu was added that helped the company’s check average rise. “We lowered prices, and people seemed to order more food,” Roberts says.

Although Lui Lui uses high-end ingredients, Roberts says they are able to keep food costs down by using a computer software program that ties in food costs with their point-of-sale system, a major expense that they initially held off purchasing. “That’s how we’re able to maintain our quality, but we were also able to increase portions because we’re saving money on the other end,” he adds. “We’re able to track it, where before, we were just throwing money away.”

Still, Roberts is also not afraid to spend money on marketing. He’s done radio, television and direct mail, but says that fishbowl e-mail marketing (customers fi ll out a form and drop it into a fish bowl) and having his managers deliver menus to local businesses are cost effective and efficient. “The customers can put a face to it,” he says. “It’s not just something arriving in their mailbox.”

Television was especially effective after the Nashua location suffered a crippling blow following a Christmas Day pipe burst that closed the store for several months (see sidebar on page 77).

For those who have ordered a large carryout order, “We’ll call back and ask how everything was,” Roberts adds. “We encourage managers to visit tables when people come in, and (encourage them to) try things they’ve never had before.” That’s a level of personalization that also sets Lui Lui apart from its big-box chains.

With a steady business already in the Manchester region, could more Lui Lui locations spring up? Roberts says they’ve been approached to franchise, but “our feeling was ‘are we going to lose some of the control?’ ” he says. They hope to grow regionally while promoting from within. Although there are no immediate plans for future locations, Roberts says they’ll strike when the right location hits in the right market. For now, being a technicolor independent in a sea of bland chains feels just right. ?

Ensured by Insurance

Last Christmas, owner Eric Roberts found the Lui Lui Nashua location awash in water after a sprinkler pipe froze and burst. Four to five inches of water ran down the steps and out the front door, and part of the ceiling had collapsed. Both the sprinkler and the lighting systems were ruined.

Within two hours, the company’s insurance company sent a team to start cleaning up the mess. The next day, contractors were on the scene.

“If ever there was an ad for having the right insurance coverage, it’s us,” Roberts says. “For all these business owners who think that premiums are high, we would not have been able to re-open if we didn’t heed the advice of our insurance agent.

“It took two-and-a-half months to put the restaurant back together better than it was in the beginning.”

During that time, they paid all of their employees and managers and the insurance company helped them set up a temporary office –– especially important for fielding phone calls from customers who had bought holiday gift cards and believed that the restaurant had shut down.

With insurance, they advertised that they would be re-open and were able to bring points of concern up to current code standards. “Any business owner out there, you’ve got to have it,” Roberts advises. “We didn’t plan on this. In our wildest dreams, we never could have imagined something of this magnitude.”

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor of PIZZA TODAY.

The post 2010 October: Il Pizzaiolo: Lui Lui appeared first on Pizza Today.

NASCAR pit crews spend days practicing pit stops, changing tires and pumping gas rapidly so that under race conditions, every move is second nature. At that level, hundredths of seconds count. My volunteer fire department has elected to formally train at least once a week. Seconds count when a house or business is on fi re or you are trapped in a car wreck and bleeding out. When the pager goes off, you have got to be on your game or possibly be part of a tragedy. When the heat is on, one either shifts into an unconscious competency or is paralyzed with fear. I train the staffs of my clients to be efficient by:

1.) Determining how long each task should take, and;
2.) Timing employees on completing those tasks.

A timer is a great way to objectively measure speed and build a mindset of urgency. It also nurtures healthy competition on staff while shaving dollars off your labor costs. For example, I train just one way to cut a green pepper. I demonstrate how quickly I do it and then expect trainees to copy me. I hand them a bunch of peppers and tell them it should take X minutes to cut all of them to spec. Same with dough production, same with cheese grating or mopping the floor — virtually anything done in a pizzeria can be time standardized.

I expected my crew to set the bar at 100 percent productivity 80 percent of the time. That means when an employee is performing any task at all, it’s at maximum efficiency, even during off-peak hours. And when you’ve blown through the night’s rush or a busy prep period and people could use a break, let ‘em relax. Remember the generally accepted truism that one highly trained and skilled cook can outperform two or more novices? These folks develop their personal high sense of urgency by being really mentored by a master pizza maker. I had several mentors, and every one of these guys had one expectation in common: keep up or clock out.

And remember those labor savings I mentioned? Use them to reward your fastest employees, sometimes with cash or prizes awarded in front of others (I call that building healthy envy), and sometimes with hourly raises. But asking them to perform at full tilt without any gratitude is a recipe for frustration and discontent. When they win, you will, too. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the Internationa Pizza Expo

The post 2010 December: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

A: The finished dough temperature is varied by making adjustments to the temperature of the water added to the dough. Colder water results in a lower finished dough temperature, and warmer water results in a higher finished dough temperature. For the most part, the dough mixing time will be a constant once you have determined the correct mixing time for your specific dough. For most applications, we recommend a finished dough temperature in the 80 to 85 degree range. This is assuming your kitchen area will have a room temperature in the 70 to 80 F range. Cooler or warmer kitchens may require a slightly warmer or colder temperature range.

There are two common ways to calculate the correct water temperature needed to arrive at a predetermined finished dough temperature. One is the procedure given out by Lesaffre/Red Star Yeast Corporation. This formula simply requires that you subtract the fl our temperature from 145, with the answer being the correct water temperature to use.

The other is a little different in that there are more factors involved, and it goes as follows: three times the desired finished dough temperature, minus the sum of the fl our temperature, room temperature, and friction factor (while this can be calculated, for your specific dough size and mixer, most people who use this method just plug in the number 30 for the friction factor when a planetary type mixer is used). The result is the recommended water temperature. In either case, the finished dough temperature will be close to, or at, the targeted finished dough temperature, and a slight adjustment in the water temperature may still be required to zero in on the desired temperature. When making changes to the water temperature, we recommend that you change it in 5 F increments, either up or down, as necessary.

I keep hearing all these different views on how pizza dough should be mixed. What is your recommendation? Pizza dough, unlike bread dough, should be under mixed to some extent. The under mixing of the dough results in incomplete gluten development, which in turn helps to make the dough a little easier to ball. It also contributes to a more open, coarse crumb structure in the finished/baked crust. Excessive mixing of the dough can result in a tough, rubbery dough consistency while you’re trying to round the scaled dough pieces into balls. But, even worse, it can also result in a finer, more bread-like finished crumb structure in the baked crust. From a personal perspective, I think the only time it is desirable to fully develop the gluten structure in pizza dough is when you are going to produce frozen dough. In that application, you will find that fully developed dough will have improved freezer tolerance and longer shelf life if the gluten is more fully developed.

The best way to ascertain proper dough/gluten development in pizza dough is through visual appearance of the dough during mixing. Near perfect dough development can be achieved by mixing the dough just until it takes on a smooth, satiny appearance. At that point, you can stop mixing and be confident that the dough is properly mixed for 90 percent of our applications.

Another, and probably a little more accurate method of assessing proper dough development is to remove a hen’s-egg piece of dough from the mixer and form it into a ball. Then, bending the fingers of both hands inward at the second knuckle, bring your hands together so the back of your fingers are touching. Orient the dough ball so it is on top of your finger tips, and bring your thumbs down to capture the dough ball between your finger tips and thumbs. Now, roll your hands downward, causing your thumbs to pull on the dough ball, stretching the skin. If the dough skin shows signs of tearing, you might want to mix the dough a little longer. If it doesn’t tear, the dough is properly mixed.

Because of the under-mixed nature of a pizza dough, it really doesn’t make much difference if we achieve the dough development using low or medium speed on the mixer. It just takes less time if we can use medium speed.

At the last Pizza Expo I heard you mention that it isn’t necessary to put the yeast (compressed) into the water to dissolve before adding the fl our and other ingredients. If you don’t do this, how will it get mixed into the dough?

Compressed yeast, a.k.a. fresh yeast, is actually best added directly to the fl our, much in the same way that instant dry yeast (IDY) is added. It actually goes into the dough quite easily, with very little mixing action required. The only time that I ever recommend suspending the compressed yeast in the water is when a VCM type of mixer is used. In this case, the mixing time is so short, measured in seconds, that suspending it in the water is the only sure way to ensure that it is thoroughly and uniformly distributed throughout the dough.

The same recommendation is made when making a cracker type dough, again for the same reason. In this case, the mixing time is even shorter, typically a minute or less, and in this specific case, we go so far as to recommend that the salt, sugar and yeast are all added to the water in the mixing bowl and stirred together for a few seconds prior to adding the flour.

This is one of the few times when I ever recommend mixing the yeast, salt and sugar (if used) together in the water, but it’s the only way to get them evenly distributed throughout the dough in view of the very short mixing time. It isn’t so much a matter of the salt and sugar immediately damaging the yeast and impairing its ability to ferment a dough; but, rather, if the salt, sugar and yeast are allowed to set in the mixing bowl for an extended period of time before the fl our is added and the mixing procedure started (like that never happens), there is a probability that the yeast can be damaged. The result would be a softer-than expected dough consistency, unwanted dough stickiness — and possibly a reduction in refrigerated shelf life. ?

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

The post 2010 October: Dough Doctor appeared first on Pizza Today.

I’ve consulted with dozens of mature pizzerias this year. They have been in business for years. Many are landmarks in their markets. Many of them report same or declining sales and are feeling the pinch of the recession. Owners are scratching their heads trying to figure out what has happened. These aren’t the good old days.

Three very recent events are top of mind this issue, and are driving this article. The first event was a quick assignment for a client back in my old ‘hood of Detroit. I spent the day with a young couple in the store their family opened when I was a teenager. I still remember this mini-chain and how busy they were. The pizzas were made with love and everyone smiled. All the way to the bank.

Those days are a memory of days gone by. The stark reality in the current economy: what used to be a money machine in bygone years has dried up. The second-generation owners are slowly dying a death from a thousand small cuts. They are struggling to make their monthly payments to Papa and Mama for their retirement. I see this scenario from coast to coast. So many places are frozen in times gone by.

I recently pondered a quote attributed to Fred DeLuca, founder of Subway Restaurants. It was thought provoking: “The world doesn’t stand still, and we don’t deserve to be where we are unless we stay ahead of things and take the necessary steps to remain competitive.”

His second quote hit a nerve as well: “I tell my team all the time, ‘The biggest chain in the world used to be Howard Johnson. Now no one eats at a Howard Johnson.’ ”

I had the opportunity to go back to pizza school this summer. I enrolled to spend a week in San Francisco at Tony Gemignani’s International School of Pizza. I really didn’t know the first thing about true Neopolitan or Classic Italian Style other than the fact that I fell in love with them the first time I went to Italy. I tried to duplicate these pies unsuccessfully. After years of trial and error, I gave up and stuck to what I knew.

Yet, while in San Francisco, Tony walked a small class through the hands-on as well as book theory. What an enlightening time. Our class cleared out of the kitchen when the customers started to come in. Tony’s staff took over and almost effortlessly created hundreds of masterpieces.

Fred DeLuca nailed it. Be proactive in your thinking, or your customers will one day abandon you. You are only as good as your last hit record. When is the last time you wowed your customers with anything they could get excited about, other than a $2 off coupon?

If you and your menu are burned out, like my wood stove, feed the fi re. I’m your customer; amaze me.?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2010 October: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

For me, Halloween has always been a special day. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of dressing up as a vampire or football player and trick-or-treating. When I take my two boys trick-or-treating, I think I have as much fun as they do.

Considering Halloween means big-time pizza sales, I’m guessing you feel the same way about the holiday. Which is why I hope you took Big Dave’s September article to heart and have implemented some of his suggestions. There’s no reason National Pizza Month can’t be your biggest sales month of the year if you take the right steps. So, if you missed Big Dave’s article from our September issue, go to PizzaToday.com and read it in our digital archives. It will help you make sure every October is a great one.

Speaking of PizzaToday.com, we have big plans for it in the works. We are in the middle of a massive overhaul of the Web site. You may recall us totally revamping it about two years ago, and that move has served both us and our readers well. But now it’s time to build upon that foundation and continue evolving the site. We’re going to provide more organic editorial content on PizzaToday.com than ever before.

Simultaneously, we are also working on a redesign of the magazine. It’s been a few years since we’ve updated our look, so it’s time to push the envelope a bit. I’m excited about what our designers are putting together, and I can’t wait until you see the new layout beginning in January. My sincere hope is that it helps you improve your business more than ever.

While we’re on the subject of self-improvement, one of the keys to any business — whether it focuses on publishing or foodservice — is to constantly progress and never rest on your laurels. As the old cliché goes, the only constant in life is change.

Ask yourself right now, “When was the last time I made a change for the better in my pizzeria?” If it’s been a while, get started now — before your competition steals away your customers.

Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief

jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2010 October: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

Q. Pizza Ranch is slated to open more than a dozen stores. Why such an aggressive growth plan?

A. We are projecting to have a 10-percent store growth, which would be 14 stores. … I just think it’s a healthy growth. There’s a lot of excitement around our brand and it’s a unique concept with great-tasting food. We have an unrivaled guest experience that is fun, and it appeals to a broad range of guests. The big part about our concept is we’re so received in communities because we really want to support the communities of which we are a part.

Q. Why expand in a time when many companies are tightening the reigns?

A. We are franchise derived. We have all 151 restaurants franchised. We are doing well. We continue to have interest in expansion, so it’s not like we’re going to turn that down.

Q. As you grow, how important is consistency across the brand?

A. Consistency is very important, and we have standards in place. We work very hard to provide that consistent experience, whether it is in the food, the guest experience or the décor because, yeah — consistency is what franchising expects.

Q. You are focusing on Midwestern expansion. Are there future plans to expand outside of that region?

A. We would like to grow out from the states that we’re in. There are some states that we’re going to have opportunities for development, but as we continue to grow, we will expand out from where we are.

Q. Pizza Ranch’s concept combines pizza with menu items not typically found in a pizzeria. Why such diversity?

A. People do rave about our fried chicken. With a name like ‘Pizza Ranch,’ you may not expect to find chicken on the menu, but word soon got out. … That is trademarked. To accompany that part of the buffet, we have vegetables and potatoes. People love that, but of course they love our pizza. The salad bar is just beautiful. We have lots of choices. We do offer quarterly changes of our featured salads … and we have a featured pizza as well. … By popular demand, some of the featured pizzas become regular menu items. So, yeah, it’s a buffet concept, but it’s so much more.

The post 2010 October: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

Greenery can also enhance diners’ comfort by reducing background noise. Experts say that plants make the biggest difference in areas that are “acoustically live,” meaning they contain many hard surfaces that sound bounces off of (as opposed to carpeting, heavy curtains or upholstered furniture, which absorb sound better).

In addition, a growing body of research shows that live plants bring benefits beyond the aesthetic. Studies performed at both Texas A&M University and Washington State University found that a plantfilled environment lowered workplace stress (as measured by employees’ blood pressure readings) while increasing worker productivity and problem solving skills. And plants are also natural air purifiers: a 1989 NASA study concluded that certain common houseplants like ivy and palms can remove up to 87 percent of indoor pollutants — including benzene and formaldehyde — within 24 hours.

Selecting and arranging plant material takes a bit of know-how; variables to consider include existing light levels, container size and type, and the effect plant placement will have on traffic patterns. Spiro Alexandrides, franchise owner of two Double Dave’s Pizzaworks locations, opted for a professionally designed plantscape in his Euless, Texas, store. “We thought about doing it on our own, but didn’t think we could do a good enough job,” he says. Rather than individual plants, the dining area now contains six long, rectangular planters that are filled with several varieties of plants for a lush, multi-tiered appearance. “The design helps divide the restaurant into cozier areas,” Alexandrides explains. “It really adds a lot of character, and it literally changed the restaurant once they installed the planters.” He also relies on a professional service to care for the plants, watering and fertilizing as necessary, and keeping the leaves free from dust — a maintenance chore that is often overlooked, to the detriment of plant health and appearance.

Ferguson advises that a professional plant scape service can be especially useful for restaurants with dim lighting, where do-it yourself plant installations may be destined to fail. Yet many restaurant managers report they do fine without professional horticultural oversight. At Chris’ Pizza House in Atlanta, booths and tables line the perimeter of the restaurant, while the center contains a multitude of clustered house plants in all sizes, thriving under a large skylight. A fountain (no longer operational) contributes to the air of a Mediterranean terrace. Manager Akbar Faiz says he got the design idea 25 years ago from magazine pictures of open-air restaurants in Greece. The kitchen staff waters the plants and handles the relatively infrequent need for repotting, but overall it’s the abundance of natural light that keeps them healthy, says Faiz.

Luciano Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria in Herndon, Virginia, contains over 100 potted plants. Many are low-light tolerant vines, like philodendron, that are trained on lattice suspended from the ceiling so that patrons feel like they’re dining under an arbor. More plants line the windowsills and sit on the floor in front of windows. “My busboy takes care of the plants; he knows what he’s doing,” says manager Patrick Noonan.

Surprisingly enough, a restaurateur can expect to budget much less for live greenery than for artwork or cut fl owers. Do-it-yourselfers may spend several hundred dollars up front to fi ll a dining room with plants, but ongoing costs to maintain and replace plants are negligible. “We spend perhaps $200 a year,” estimates Faiz.

At Double Dave’s, Alexandrides eliminated upfront costs of owning plants outright by contracting with a professional fi rm on a monthly fee arrangement, paying only $60 a month. “It’s a very nominal amount,” he says, “and for what these guys do, this is a no-brainer. They take care of all the plants and replace them if there are problems. They do a very good job.” He notes that he can also upgrade his existing contract at any time to add more plants or seasonal color.

Ferguson concurs that by contracting with a professional firm, a small restaurant can easily keep costs as low as $100 a month for either live greenery or replica plants (silk or plastic). “People often think there’s a cost savings with replica plants, and there might potentially be some, but a silk plant needs to be cleaned regularly, maybe more so than a live plant. So there are costs involved with maintaining, cleaning and replacing replica plants,” he says. ?

Green Walls = Hot Trend
The hottest new trend in interior landscaping is the use of green walls – vertical spaces that are covered with vegetation.

In New York City, Pizza by Cer té uses two living walls to further its image as a “green” pizzeria emphasizing recyclable materials and sustainability. One is made up of general plants, but the other is a two-foot wide swath of basil, oregano and thyme that brings a new slant to locally grown produce. “We use the herbs in our pizza,” says manager Miguel Palma. “People know it’s fresh because you can see it growing here. We don’t use any food in cans.”

According to Todd Ferguson of Ambius, an interior landscaping fi rm, modern technology makes the vertical gardens possible. A system of modular panels holds plants, as well as the growing medium and even the irrigation system. “It’s computer driven, to deliver the right amount of moisture to each panel in the wall,” he explains.

Hilda Brucker is an Atlanta-based freelancer who often writes about plants and horticulture. She’s been published in many consumer and trade magazines and she blogs about gardening at www.gadaboutmedia.com and www.bluestonegarden.com.

The post 2010 October: Interior Landscaping appeared first on Pizza Today.

If you have a wine list, then perhaps you are schooled in the fine art of pricing. Diners in this lean economical atmosphere are looking for ways to maintain luxuries –– such as dining out –– without busting their wallets. Spirits are one of the first items often to go –– but it doesn’t have to be. If you’re offering wines on the low-end, price around three times up, and double on the high end. Aim for $5 to $9 per glass –– that won’t break the bank for diners but will pad checks. Also, some operators have found success offering a weekly or monthly bottle special under $10 to $15. Work with your distributor.

Ahhh, Bacon!

Bacon products –– yes, including flavored lip glosses and shaped Band-Aids –– have taken America by storm. If you’re using it in-house, remember that the lean-to-fat ratio is critical. It should be even, around 50- to 60-percent, for the best flavor profile. Consider crumbling it on salads, using diced bacon as garnish and in white sauces for a salty finish.

Security Alert

Do your employees wear gloves? If so, both you and your staff could be lulled into a false sense of security. More than once, we’ve seen cashiers in gloves put money into the cash register, turn around and start preparing food. Train your staff to replace gloves when soiled, torn or if they touch any part of their bodies. Staying conscientious of their actions is the best way to keep customers –– and your bottom line –– safe.

The Big Dipper

It can be disheartening to see a pile of leftover pizza crusts lining plates after customers finish eating. Consider offering a small container of sauce for dunking –– it can be a signature addition that sets you apart from your competitors. It doesn’t have to be marinara or pizza sauce. For an additional cost, offer nacho cheese, a vodka sauce, buttery Parmesan, ranch dressing or Buffalo sauce. It’s a great add-on customers love!

The post 2010 October: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

Doug Ferriman, owner, Crazy Dough’s Pizza, Boston

Kevin Suto, CEO and President, Zachary’s Chicago Pizza, Oakland

Dan Collier, franchisee, Rusty’s Pizza Parlors, Ventura, California

Peg Tomasso, owner, Tomasso’s Pizza & Subs, Boca Raton, Florida

Joe Crowley, owner, Pisa Pizza, Malden, Massachusetts

Chef Jeff Freehof, owner, Garlic Clove Italian Eatery, Evans, Georgia

Scott Anthony, franchisee, Fox’s Pizza Den, Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania

Do you feel like, based on your sales, the recession is nearing its end?

Ferriman: Yes, I do think the recession is slowly improving. We have seen mixed sales at our stores. While one store is up five percent, another is fl at or down two percent. But, all in all, I do believe consumer confidence is coming back.

Suto: I have not seen any indication that the economy is going to recover any time soon. It is tough out there for many businesses and individuals. I base this feeling not necessarily on our sales, but on what I see and hear from individuals in our community and around the country.

Collier: No, I do not believe the recession is nearing the end. Not even close. Yes, my sales are up over last year. However, that is because we adjusted our marketing, did more events and added new marketing for catering. All this effort has led to a 5 percent increase only. In the past two months, two more pizza places and multiple restaurants in our market have gone out of business. I get a call almost weekly from some restaurant owner asking if I’d like their restaurant for pennies on the dollar.

Tomasso: No, because we have found that our customers are still cautious with their money. Our sales have been increasing. Pizza is healthy and affordable for a family. People still want to eat out, or order in, and pizza fits the bill.

Crowley: No. Sales have been great because of our marketing and reinvestment, but our customers are still facing layoffs and financial problems.

Freehof: I am seeing slight increases over last year, but not over two years ago. It’s a good sign, but I wouldn’t come close to calling it ‘near its end.’

Anthony: Yes, but consumers have lost a lot of confidence in the system and are still spending conservatively.

What steps have you taken to battle the recession? What have the results been?

Ferriman: We have stepped up our direct mail campaign, specifically targeting corporate catering as well as residential delivery. The results have been strong due to pizza’s ability to stretch the catering dollar better than other food categories.

Suto: We have been very careful to monitor our costs and to eliminate waste. Most importantly, we work very hard to be the best we can be every day. We are satisfied with the results so far and can thank our loyal customers and committed employee-owners for our longevity and success.

Collier: Our coupon offers were for 10 to 15 percent off. We increased that to 20 percent, on average. We now aggressively market catering, and we doubled the number of off-site events (festivals, schools, sporting tournaments, etc.). We eliminated all ‘mass’ marketing. Excepting door hanging, all print marketing is to our own database. We also cut labor two percent, renegotiated all rents with landlords and renegotiated all bank notes with banks.

Tomasso: We simply continue to do business as always, providing delicious pizza using quality ingredients. Our customers have come to rely on our commitment to excellence and have rewarded us with a stable business.

Crowley: Steps taken to battle the recession include a major remodel and an aggressive marketing campaign. We reinvested over $100,000 on a remodel, using many vendors that I met at International Pizza Expo. Our marketing campaign focused on massive fundraising programs, direct mail, Facebook and theme nights. Results have been a 10 percent increase in sales and great crew morale.

Freehof: We’ve marketed in new and innovative ways. We’ve connected with new customers and focused on catering any event possible, and it has helped keep our heads above water.

Anthony: We have focused on prime costs and community marketing. As for prime cost, even though my sales were down three percent in 2009 versus 2008, my profits still stayed up. I was able to meet the demands of my customers and have no price increases. Community marketing: In this economy, this was a vital step in earning customer loyalty. Especially when competitors are waging price wars, I can still compete on quality.

As a business owner, what’s your primary concern heading into 2011?

Ferriman: My primary concern heading into 2011 is commodity prices, specifically cheese and wheat. One ounce of cheese is 16 cents, so you really must focus on portion control and watch it like a hawk.

Suto: The economy is No. 1. Extreme and sudden cost escalation is always a major concern as well. Health care is out of control, and we all know what happened with cheese, fl our and other commodities not so long ago.

Collier: I believe that the recession will not end until unemployment comes down under 9 percent. We benefit from an employee standpoint since no one leaves because there are no jobs available. But our customers have less money due to layoffs, reduced benefits and reduced hours. The second concern is money to borrow. Tighter bank restrictions mean no money available to borrow to grow.

Tomasso: Politics are killing this country. Republicans and Democrats need to stop this constant ‘going for the throat’ over every issue and work together to find solutions to our problems. We worry about how healthcare initiatives and taxes are going to affect us.

Crowley: My primary headache heading into 2011 is dealing with political issues: Health insurance, increased meals tax, immigration reform, local and state increases in taxes and fees, and changes in local and state fi ling procedures.

Freehof: Finding new ways to grow my business. Thinking about home meal replacement.

Anthony: While I expect my sales volume to go up, I don’t want to forget all I learned from the recession. Never take a good economy for granted. What’s the one critical thing you know now that you wish you knew when you first opened your business?

Ferriman: The one thing I wish I knew when I opened would be how to effectively market my brand. As many small businesses do, we tried everything, but never focused on one or two proven marketing vehicles using one message. Now, we focus on two to three marketing vehicles and just hammer away at them. We target college students through a collegiate promotion book that is distributed throughout the city. We constantly mail menus in a radius around a location, and we also send direct mail pieces to corporations.

Suto: Our business is constantly evolving, and yet we are firmly rooted in the vision set forth by our founders, Zach Zachowski and Barbara Gabel, in 1983. There isn’t really one big thing that stands out as critical information we were lacking in the beginning. We are constantly presented with opportunities to learn as individuals and evolve as a company.

Collier: As I opened more locations, I thought I could continue to wear all the same ‘hats’. As a result, some critical parts of operations did not get enough attention. If I had it to do all over again, I would have promoted an area supervisor when I opened the third location.

Tomasso: Do not skimp on the quality or portions of your product. People will pay for good food. Don’t be afraid to charge for it.

Crowley: I wish I knew back in 1993 that I needed to give up responsibility and trust my key employees. It took many years for me to stop being a worker and start being an owner.

Freehof: That in a recession, everybody is looking for a deal or discount.

Anthony: Making a good pizza is only a fraction of what it takes to have a good pizza business.

What’s your biggest business headache, operationally speaking?

Ferriman: My biggest headache would be running a delivery business in Boston. It is a challenge dealing with traffic and highrise buildings. One of our stores in Boston is located near Fenway Park. Every time there is a game, it is gridlock around the store, which makes it difficult to maintain good delivery times. Another challenge in a city is delivering to the high-rise buildings. When a driver has to go to the 20th floor of a building, he or she could get bogged down, adding an extra 15 minutes to a delivery.

Suto: The unpredictability of the human condition is to me the most diffi cult thing to deal with. We depend on a lot of great people to do what we do, and we are very lucky that our employees are so dedicated and reliable. With a staff as large as ours and providing for as many customers as we do, there is always something that is going to happen with an employee or customer that is out of our control that can create hardship for our business. We deal with these issues as they arise. We do whatever we can to help these people through their difficulties. It can be challenging, but also rewarding at the same time.

Collier: The constant effort to ensure we produce the best pizza in the market. Since we charge more, the pizza must be worth it.

Tomasso: Constantly reinforcing proper procedures with our staff.

Freehof: In times like these, more people use credit cards, which changes cash fl ow and increases costs!

Anthony: Employees’ sense of entitlement and lack of initiative/ motivation. When you find a star employee, do what it takes to keep them.

What has been your most effective form of marketing?

Ferriman: The best form of marketing we have used is direct mail. We are constantly sending mail pieces out to corporations and residents. It is the tried and true form of pizza marketing and always provides the best results.

Suto: Word of mouth, by far. Customers sharing their positive experience at Zachary’s with others has been our most effective form of marketing from the beginning.

Collier: New customers: Door-hanging. Existing delivery customers: Direct mail. Existing dinein customers: 15 percent off business card for next time. Also, online ordering now represents 7 percent of our sales.

Tomasso: Community involvement. Sponsoring youth teams, providing gift certificates, special pricing for youth groups and running special events throughout the year. For example, we began Pizzas for Pencils 15 years ago, where we gather new school supplies to give to needy children. This year we are inviting customers in to make their own pizza — and in exchange we are asking for $10 worth of new school supplies. People have fun and save a few bucks on the cost of a pizza. We help a worthy cause — and people talk about it.

Collier: We use it, but it is not effective at this point. Facebook is designed for personal relationships, not so much for pizza business. All the creative cell phone apps and texting advertising are useless. They have become the new sales people to replace the old print advertising sales people who only serve to distract you from ops. YouTube is probably the most effective of the bunch.

Tomasso: Yes, we do use social media. We launched a Facebook fan page and linked it to our Twitter account, allowing users from both networks to see our updates. We uploaded photos of the pizzeria and staff, and let our fans know of specials and events with daily updates. Occasionally, we offer freebies to customers who mention they are a Facebook fan.

Crowley: We are using Facebook, and it has been incredible. We have over 3,400 fans, and that number is growing every day. We use it to ‘promote’ rather than ‘sell’. We run contests and giveaways and have fun with it.

Freehof: We have a Facebook fanpage. It continues to grow, and now customers are starting to post their favorite things about our restaurant, which we obviously love!

Anthony: While I am not convinced that these forms of media are here to stay (as they will go the way of MySpace), we are giving it a try. We use Facebook. It is a good, inexpensive way to get your message out. But I really don’t see it driving traffic on its own. I view it as an additional way to make an impression on people.

Pepperoni aside, what’s your bestselling pizza? How many of those per week do you sale?

Freehof: “Meat Lovers” is 25 percent of all my specialty pizza sales.

Ferriman: Our best-selling pizza is the potato bacon cheddar sicilian slice: Seasoned red bliss potatoes, smoked bacon, scallions, cheddar cheese and swirl of ranch dressing. It is a favorite among the student population. We sell about 50 a day.

Suto: Our ‘Pride and Joy’ is our spinach and mushroom stuffed pizza. We sell a lot of them. We haven’t taken the time to count how many we sell in a week!

Collier: Tough call since 80 percent of our pizzas have pepperoni. Our BBQ Chicken pizza sells well, along with our signature ‘Rusty’s Special’ (meats and veggies).

Tomasso: Pepperoni is indeed the king. Our second best seller is cheese, which we sell a few hundred of. Sausage is next. We have a local meat market make our Italian sausage, and he uses just enough red pepper for a little kick. One of our specialty pies, ‘The Carnivore,’ made with pepperoni, sausage, meatball and bacon, is popular, too. The aroma of that pie is to die for. Something we have been playing around with lately, we call them ‘Pizza Popovers,’ is gaining fans. We roll up a pizza, cut it into sections and bake in muffin tins. Light, fluffy and different. Something for our customers to talk about.

Crowley: Our best-selling specialty pizza is our buffalo chicken with a bleu cheese base, marinated buffalo chicken, roasted red peppers and our three-cheese blend.

Anthony: Pizza makes up 70 percent of our menu mix per week, and we sell about 700 pizzas a week. Plain cheese pizza has really grown in popularity (thank you, recession). That now accounts for 14 percent of our pizza sales. Pepperoni is 56 percent. Additionally, our gourmet pizzas account for 10 percent of pizza sales. Our ‘Pierogi Pizza’ and the ‘Chicken Rancher’ make up more than half of that (about four percent each).

The post 2010 September: Beer & Bull appeared first on Pizza Today.

A humble Italian food that once fed peasants, today pizza is a staple of the American diet. But it wasn’t always so, and we wouldn’t have the bustling pizza industry we have in 2010 (more than 70,000 pizzerias and $39 billion in annual sales) if it weren’t for one man’s change of focus in 1905. That man was named Gennaro Lombardi, and he was an Italian immigrant who ventured to the United States in 1897, like so many before and after him, to capitalize on the boundless opportunity that made America famous.

A baker by trade, Lombardi rented an apartment above the grocery store in which he worked upon his arrival in the Little Italy section of New York City. He often stayed late into the night baking pizzas that the grocer would sell out of his shop the next day. Eventually, Lombardi bought the building that housed the grocery store. It did not take him long to figure out that the thousands of nearby factory workers represented a growth market for his modest business. In 1905, at 32½ Spring Street, Lombardi’s became the first officially licensed pizzeria in the United States.

With all that was going on in the nation and world, it isn’t surprising that the birth of American pizza didn’t cause any ripples in the news. After all, pizza was still a poor man’s meal — and the U.S. had its collective eye focused on a revolution in Russia. Looking back, it’s easy to see that 1905 was an important year in history. Aside from the Russo-Japanese War and the aforementioned revolution that resulted from it, 1905 witnessed the founding of the city of Las Vegas and the birth of influential author Ayn Rand. Theodore Roosevelt began a full term as President, while Albert Einstein proffered his theory of relativity to the scientific community. The Wright Brothers put their third airplane in the sky, and this one flew for an impressive 39 minutes. The world’s fi rst U-boat was launched and novocaine was introduced. Christian Dior was born and Jules Verne died.

In New York, all eyes were on the baseball world: the New York Giants won the World Series by defeating the Philadelphia Athletics four games to one.

Amidst all this, Lombardi used his coal-fired oven to turn out thin-crusted beauties fashioned after the traditional pizza of his home city, Naples, Italy. His pizza was simple — tomato and cheese — and received a sterling reception from the lower-middle-class workers in his target market.

The kitchen at Lombardi’s was stocked with able and enterprising pizza makers, and many of them eventually left to start their own pizzerias. Chief among them was Anthony Pero (nicknamed Totonno), who opened the famed New York pizzeria, Totonno’s, in 1924 on Coney Island. Both Lombardi’s and Totonno’s still do a brisk business today and continue to win over critics and pizza lovers alike.

Through the 1920s many pizzerias that can be considered offshoots of Lombardi’s opened in and around Little Italy. It took two decades for pizzerias to gain a strong foothold in New York City’s other neighborhoods, but they eventually did just that. Even then, the typical American outside of New York wasn’t hip to pizza’s attributes. You had pockets — New Haven, Connecticut, for example — that served pizza to the masses, but they were few and far between.

The Chicago-style deep-dish pizza that’s so popular in the Midwest today was invented in 1941, and some claim it was the first truly American pizza. One thing is certain: the product was completely different from the Neapolitan style pizzas found in the Northeast.

Ironically, it took a World War for pizza to hit its stride. American soldiers stationed in Europe during WWII eventually developed a hankering for the food while on tour in Italy, and when they returned home they raved about it to family and friends. By the 1950s, pizzerias could be found in many of America’s cities and suburbs, even those further out to the West. According to American Heritage, the number of American pizza parlors grew from 500 in 1934 to 20,000 in 1956.

A new deck oven, fired not by wood or coal, but by gas, made pizza production easier and more convenient (and, down the road, conveyors would come into play). As a result, pizza-bythe- slice gained in popularity in New York and tiny pizzerias continued to proliferate throughout the nation. The first Pizza Hut, in fact, was opened in 1958 by Frank and Dean Carney in Wichita, Kansas.

The No. 2 chain, Domino’s, was born shortly thereafter when brothers Tom and James Monaghan borrowed $500 to purchase DomiNick’s Pizza in Ypsilanti, Michigan, in 1960. A year later James traded his share of the business to Tom for a car (a Volkswagen Beetle, for the record), and Tom changed the pizzeria’s name to Domino’s. What distinguished Domino’s from everyone else was the delivery aspect of the business.

Aside from witnessing the birth of Domino’s, the 1960s saw franchising become a hot growth vehicle. This continued through the following decade, and the 1970s were a period of major growth for pizza chains as they realized they could offer value pricing and gain market share through advertising. Pizza chains proliferated in the 1980s and some of today’s major players — Papa John’s, California Pizza Kitchen — popped onto the scene. In California, the “gourmet” pizzas many Americans enjoy today were invented by personalities like Alice Waters and Ed LaDou, the man who brought specialty pizzas to the repertoire at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, Spago. During the 1980s, the pizza chains refined their practices and began a cutthroat price war that still defines the pizza category today. Meanwhile, independent pizzerias continued thriving with grassroots marketing, community involvement and a dedication to offering their customers hand-made pizzas topped with high quality ingredients.

More than 100 years after Gennaro Lombardi opened America’s first licensed pizzeria, the U.S. pizza market is filled to the brim with independents and chains alike. In fact, the pizza segment is one of the few foodservice categories that isn’t entirely dominated by major chains, and that’s part of what makes the industry so competitive, fresh and fun a century after its beginning in New York City.

Before Pizza Became ‘American’

Pizza is much older than America itself. In fact, its precursor is believed to have originated in prehistoric times when Egyptians cooked bread on fl at, hot stones. Later down the road — approximately 1,000 years ago — Neapolitans began covering focaccia with herbs and spices, according to the Smithsonian. Next came pizza’s most direct ancestor, “Casa de nanza,” which were doughs pounded into thin crusts and topped with leftovers prior to baking.

Interestingly enough, early Europeans feared the tomato was poisonous. Native to the South American countries of Peru and Ecuador, tomatoes were introduced to Europe in the early 1500s by Spanish Conquistadors. But Europeans would not eat the tomato until nearly 150 years later when, in the late 1600s, some brave soul discovered the fruit was not only safe to consume, but delicious. This opened the door for modernday pizza as we know it, which was developed in Naples, Italy.

The world’s first pizzeria, Port’ Alba, opened in Naples in 1830. According to the Smithsonian, the pizzas there were cooked in an oven lined with lava from nearby Mount Vesuvius, a world-famous and historically important volcano. The early pizzas in Naples were flavored with oil, lard, tallow, cheese, tomato and often anchovies.

In 1889, Don Raffaele Esposito created the Margherita Pizza, which is adorned with nothing but tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil, in honor of Margherita Teresa Giovanni, who was the Italian Queen at the time.

Even today, the classic Margherita remains one of the world’s most popular pizzas.

The post 2010 September: History of Pizza appeared first on Pizza Today.

In 2001, I bought a small mom and pop pizzeria in Medina, Ohio, called Romeo’s Pizza. It was operated very poorly, but yet still managed to do some good numbers and the pizza seemed pretty solid. This was my third pizza restaurant, and I looked forward to growing the business. I tweaked the recipes, added better management and began to see a lot of potential. Four months later, September 11th happened, and the world stopped. Sales dropped significantly as people began to experience some of the financial uncertainty that is still with us today.

In March of 2002, I asked industry consultant Big Dave Ostrander for some help in making my concept duplicable. My goal was to open multiple Romeo’s Pizzas and possibly start franchising, but first I had to fix the areas of my operation that were still broken and fine tune the areas that weren’t. So Big Dave invited me to the NAPICS food show in Columbus, Ohio, to meet him, and told me to enter the pizza contest since I would be down there anyway. After dreaming that I won that night, I entered the most popular of our pizzas –– The Butcher Shop –– and proceeded to win first place! The prize was an all expense paid trip to Italy to compete at the World Pizza Championships.

Over the next couple of years, I worked on my system. I had a strong grasp of food and labor costs, focused on marketing and customer service, and found ways to make my business not depend on me to run it day to day. I hired two managers and paid them well (both of whom own multiple Romeo’s Pizza stores today). I also put together a very aggressive bonus program for them. One of the biggest keys to success I have found is to have a bonus program for your manager. My managers get bonuses based on sales, labor cost and food cost. This gives them a vested financial interest in my business, which is priceless. I love to pay bonuses! Managers that don’t bonus in my company usually aren’t around long. Get your people invested in your business!

I spent about four years trying to perfect my system, focusing on menu engineering, training programs, operations manuals and marketing programs. During that time, I won the Best Pizza in the Midwest at NAPICS again, Best Gourmet Pizza in America in New York City, and was featured on the Food Network’s $10,000 Pizza Challenge. I have gone to Italy to compete at the World Pizza Championships 7 times as a founding member of the World Pizza Champions. Throughout, my main focus was always building a system that would allow me to open another store. I have identified three of the most important areas I focused on that led to the growth of Romeo’s Pizza. There are many other factors, including luck, but these three things are absolutely necessary if you want to grow your operation: • Defining your brand marketing strategy. • Creating a system. • Personal development.

Defi ning Your Brand Marketing Strategy Since December of 2008, Romeo’s Pizza has grown from 10 stores to 31. Same-store sales have risen 20 percent month after month during that time. We have beaten down the $5 pizza guys, destroyed the “Buy 1, Get 2 Free” guys, and have overcome an unprecedented marketing blitz this industry has never seen before by the Big 3. So the big question is how did we do it? What is the magic button that you can push to make all of that happen for you and your business? It all starts with marketing. Brand Marketing. While most of the smaller pizza chains and independents stopped advertising during the recession, we actually spent the most we ever have. More importantly, we changed the way we marketed. Being fed up with competing in the money mailers and coupon books for the best deal, we stopped doing them. Advertising is only a piece of marketing. It isn’t the only thing. We began to focus on building our brand. Branding is all about creating an image of your company that gives your customers and prospective customers confidence that your company and products will meet or exceed their expectations every time. Marketing your brand will continue to pay you back long after the coupons have expired.

The first step is to determine who you want to be and create your brand based on the customers that you want to attract. We wanted to attract loyal, value-oriented (not price driven) customers who appreciate quality over garbage — so we built our brand around them. I stopped using coupons as my marketing strategy and started to build real value into our offerings. I created package deals that would help Romeo’s keep our average ticket around $20. Some of the packages included a pizza with wings or a pizza with a salad, breadsticks and pop. We even had some two- and three-pizza packages. Recently, I created the “Romeo’s Pizza Build Your own Ultimate Supreme Pizza” with up to five toppings for only $13.99. It allows us to compete with the $10 price point and still maintain our position as a premium brand. We are going to truly have it for a limited time so that our promotional price doesn’t become a permanent price reduction.

I firmly believe that, as an industry, we need stop lowering our prices. Pizza is the most popular food in America, and the most economical for a family — yet many of us try to market solely based on price. I tell customers all of the time I would rather explain my price than apologize for my quality, and no matter how large we become, we will always use only the best possible ingredients on our pizza.

Once you determine what you want your brand to stand for, you must create marketing materials that represent that image. We built menus, flyers, magnets, door hangers, menuboards and box toppers with the highest quality paper and images, and put our brand “look” together. Our menu is the second most effective marketing tool we have (our pizza is the first). We are trying to attract people that are loyal and are not afraid to pay for quality; and all of our marketing materials, especially our menu, need to represent that. I also insert our menus everywhere. Today, we insert our menu in those same coupon books we shunned, but now we stand out. Our brand marketing image separates us from the barrage of coupons and cheap pizzas, and has allowed us to grow our sales system-wide 20 percent.

In your advertising you must communicate your unique selling proposition, or USP. What do you do that nobody else can do or say? At Romeo’s, we use only the best tomatoes from California, which go from the field to the can in mere hours. We make our own dough daily by trained dough masters in each of the stores. We have a specially blended cheese made in Wisconsin using provolone and mozzarella that is used exclusively by Romeo’s Pizza. That is the way we promote our brand. What can you say about your pizza that either no one else can say, or no one else has said? A lot of people use the same sauce we use or get their cheese from Wisconsin. A lot of people make their dough fresh every day … The difference is how we communicate it to the customer.

Remember, advertising is only part of marketing (the most expensive part!). Other areas of marketing we focused on were lazy customer cards, new mover programs, up-sell contests in the stores, local sponsorships and other direct mail pieces specifically targeted down to the carrier route for neighborhoods in which we wanted a better presence. We also give a menu and a magnet to every customer, and we put box toppers and bounce-back coupons on every pizza. Soon we are starting a rewards program that will be integrated with our POS system. I also have a weekly email that goes out to our database (and a text program as well).

The best way to win a customer is to give them a pizza for free. We look to give our pizza away at as many places as we can. I would rather give a group a bunch of pizzas for free than try to sell them for five bucks each (because I maintain my brand image and value, and I know that I will gain customers for life if they just try it). A lot of people are afraid to try new things, so you have to make it very easy to try your pizza.

Marketing is the lifeblood of your business, and it’s like a tree … you need to water it to make it grow, not wait for it to grow and then water it. But your operations have to meet the promises that your marketing makes, and that’s where creating a system comes into play.

The next area of focus for me was operations and creating a system. I wanted to have a very duplicable concept, and I spent four years trying to perfect it before I opened our second store. We constantly try to improve every aspect of our business, so the work on the system is never done. Some of the areas that we addressed were the look and appearance of the lobby, employees and food. We’ve standardized and weigh every pizza, sub and pasta dish. We set a strict dress code for our management and staff, and created and enforced an employee handbook. We also aligned ourselves with a POS system, which I feel is absolutely critical in duplicating your concept. I would never open a store without a POS system.

We also spent a lot of time and effort on documenting the way everything is supposed to be done. We created a food prep manual that details how to make everything we make, as well as an operations manual, which details how we operate a Romeo’s Pizza restaurant. Additionally, our employee handbooks detail what is expected from each employee in writing before they start. My goal was to create a system that would run my stores, allowing me to work on my system. If your store depends on you to be successful, then you haven’t created a strong enough system and you are not ready to grow. As we have grown, I often have to go back and change some of the policies and procedures, so I look at these manuals as a fluid document that has the rigidity to run the store, and yet has the flexibility to make changes for the better.

I attribute a lot of the growth of Romeo’s Pizza to personal development. I believe that in order to grow you need to become a master of many skills. You need to understand finance and accounting, you need to be able to hire and train good employees, and you need to become a strong leader. You need to be able to calculate food costs, create effective advertising campaigns, and be able to hear opportunity knocking. You also need to eliminate negativity and excuse making from your vocabulary. All of these skills can be learned, and I focused a lot on my own personal development. If you are weak in these areas begin investing in yourself. Take a class, read as many books as you can, and attend International Pizza Expo 2011 next March. People ask me all the time if I ever thought Romeo’s would be this big, and I can honestly answer “yes.” I truly believed we could.

I have tried to give you a glimpse into the process I took to build a successful pizza company. Our plans are to go back and tighten up our system again and add stores in 2011. We are looking at multiple DMA’s to grow and expand as we become a regional chain. Our goal for the next 10 years is to have 1,000 stores. We will also grow same-store sales as we continue growing externally through opening company stores and franchising. You too can create the business of your dreams. Get started today.

The post 2010 September: How to Survive in a Bad Economy appeared first on Pizza Today.

October is a perfect month to jumpstart your PR and marketing strategy into high gear. Vacations are over, and school is back in session. The weather is cooler, and families have gotten over the cash fl ow crunch of the September “back to school blues” (which comes with outfitting all of the kids in new wardrobes, supplies, etc). I would propose that every pizzeria operator in the country get behind this awareness campaign. Your campaign could use the following tools to get the awareness out to your area:

• Get a banner made for the front of your store.
• Headline it on your next fl yer printing.
• Mention it on box toppers and door hangers.
• Change your marquee or changeable copy sign.

If you blend National Pizza Month with another event, like National Fire Prevention Month, it will gather more momentum. You will not get free public relations if the media or public thinks it is a ploy to sell more pizzas or advertising. Your celebration must include some benefit for the customer. If you don’t answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” it may be perceived as self-serving. Here are some ideas I’ve successfully used for awareness and sales builders.

• Team up with the local fi re department to do a smoke detector battery check and replacement check. This is so important for seniors because they are very afraid of climbing up on a step stool or chair to service a detector. Any fi re department worth their salt will jump at the chance of lending a hand. Just cross-promote the idea and offer to help fund the battery costs. This is a perfect cross promotion with a local insurance company.

• October was my anniversary month. All month long we held a weekly super deal and topped off the month with Customer Appreciation Night. This was by far the best single marketing event I ever did.

• You may want to tie the affair in with an employee bounce back certificate. During the month of October, employees hand out half off any large specialty pizza to lost and non customers. Add this disclaimer: “One certificate per person, valid only during October.” To finish off the month, organize a Halloween costume parade at your store. All dressed kids and chaperones get a free slice of pie from 6-7 pm. Would a few pieces of candy and a small gift certificate also be in order? Imagine if every single pizza place advertised National Pizza Month on a banner, poster, changeable copy sign, fl yer, box-topper or any other collateral piece for five weeks. The power of 70,000 establishments is a big number.

October is right around the corner. Make your place the talk of the town.

The post 2010 September: Promoting National Pizza Month appeared first on Pizza Today.

Of course, this was so different than what we had been experiencing –– we doubled in size during in the previous five years –– that it was like saying that the rain was coming even as the sun shined. The signs, though, were all around us. As in any bubble, the housing market behaved irrationally. Housing was experiencing what I can only describe as hyperinflation. People would compete with each other to buy properties, only to turn around immediately after the purchase and list it for sale at a higher price. Many times, this would also attract buyers competing with each other for the real estate — and the cycle would begin again in a manner that was obviously unsustainable. Bankers were lining up to supply this insatiable demand for mortgages, and they too became complacent in not requiring the borrowers to substantiate their incomes. These signs were all around us, but I suspect when you are experiencing it first hand, it is difficult to recognize the dangers that await you. There were other signs out there. Out of the blue, one of our franchise stores in northern San Diego County declared that he was in trouble. His location was just not generating the traffic that his high-priced lease had promised him. He was in a mall –– one of the first places to be hit right in the heart of consumer spending. Another franchise store was also struggling, but we had known this and were fighting what seemed to be an uphill battle to reverse the sales trends in that store. This store was in the Phoenix area and was also being hit hard by the real estate decline.

The signs were all around us. All anyone had to do was look at them. Well, we did. Not only did we see this tsunami, but we also prepared some measures that we felt would insulate our stores from the dangers. We at least prepared for the onslaught of bad economic news and did what I believe any business needs to do in this type of scenario — get in front of the curve.

Long ago, back in my graduate school days, we subscribed to the philosophy of being in touch with what was really going on. It stemmed from our reading of the book “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert M. Pirsig. I’ll never forget the part in the book where one of the riders on a motorcycle trip who relied only upon the gauges that indicated trouble broke down and had to cancel the rest of his adventure. In the meantime the other rider, who was very in tune with the noises and vibrations of his machine, felt that it was not running “right.” As a result, he put a fix in place so that he didn’t break down like the other rider. In our world, knowing what it was supposed to feel like as opposed to what it did feel like meant that we reviewed our key performance index numbers on a weekly basis. As we mentioned, the signs were all there.

Our strategy of co-branding with our local professional sports teams has undergone its test as a major strategy play for us. Our belief that it will carry us forward through this recession was further tested when we decided to sponsor the Anaheim Ducks even though the recession was looming down on us. Maybe I should say “because the recession was looming down on us.” We really believe in the soundness of this strategy for our concept. Nevertheless, we needed to make some adjustments to help us on the costs side. The moves that we engineered made us more efficient and cut our expenses as we headed into this dangerous climate. We cancelled our suite at Petco Park as part of our renewal with the Padres and reorganized management in the field. Now that our costs at the franchise level were under control, we concentrated on preparing our franchisees to survive and maybe even prosper in this storm. In the 2009 menu update, we introduced 27 new menu items for our customers to explore and experiment with. Our hope here was for us to tempt them with diversity and give them a reason to frequent us more often (while our competitors bombarded them with advertisements to try and lure them away). In addition to the new menu items, we introduced a newly designed menu format that included pictures of many of our dishes. Finally, we focused a lot of our attention on creating some below 550-calorie menu selections, which were highlighted in our menu as well as our advertising.

We would all like to believe that these measures helped our small chain weather most of the storm. The results seem to support that notion with same store sales declining 3.5 percent last year and running relatively fl at so far this year (down 1 percent). Our forecast is for same store sales to start improving in the second half. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed.

Our family is at the heart of our business. Each family member holds an important position in the hierarchy that is Oggi’s Pizza & Brewing Company. The fact that we have stayed together for so many years (just about 20) is a testament to mutual respect and familial love. Of course, all things eventually come to an end. It was our goal for the first generation to exit in a step-by-step fashion while the second generation steps up to lead the company. To a large degree, we seem to be achieving this. My daughter, Estella, was awarded her MBA from San Diego State late last year, which was the catalyst for the changing of the guard. She is following in my footsteps (MBA from Pepperdine University in 1985) and, quite honestly, has all of the knowledge necessary to bring Oggi’s and our business partners to the next level.

My son, Tommy, has also made an impact as he recently took command of the beer production portion of the business. Tommy is the general manager of Left Coast Brewing Company, the company charged with producing those award-winning micro brews that are served at our 17 outlets. Tommy has a degree in marketing from the University of San Diego, but has a love for brewing great beers. He recently traveled to Chicago to receive a gold medal for his Black Magic Stout Beer at the World Beer Cup. It was an honor beyond imagination for Tommy, who is recently married and brought his bride along for the ceremonies. At the award ceremonies, Tommy flew out of his seat as he heard his beer was the winner in the American Style Stout category. This type of enthusiasm is a critical aspect of his leadership style.

My nephew, Shawn, has been described as an Oggi’s expert. He can recite historical data as well as minutia only someone obsessed with this business can remember. As director of operations for franchising, Shawn has had a personal role in hiring most people, training them and watching as the stores spawned under his supervision embrace their markets with the newly minted franchisees in our system.

My wife, Dora, has always been involved, even though she is now stepping back a bit as we await our first grandchild. Although our family is important to the future of Oggi’s, expanding our horizons and bringing in fresh ideas as well as new people is even more important as we continue to paint the portrait that is our business. Making good hires is always a challenge. When you make successful hires, it can turn your world upside down, and mostly for the better. This has been one of the areas that has shown the most improvement during this period. Who knows, maybe we had a wider selection to choose from. Nevertheless, we have made great strides internally with a fantastic controller. We also hired a corporate chef to guide us through this nutritionally challenged era. Finally, we created a new position of franchise business consultant. This post will work directly with our franchisees in order to help them improve their business and their bottom lines. These three hires were made possible by our reorganization, which freed the funds necessary to improve our support staff.

Besides our new hires, we have invested in some management intelligence that will also give us a leg up on the competition. In this type of business environment, advertising becomes an important element of any offensive that you may have for your business. Just spending advertising dollars, though, isn’t enough. With redemption rates for normal advertising running at less than one percent, it becomes an exercise in futility when you spend your hard earned and limited advertising budget on something that returns one new customer for every 100 solicitations. We invested in market research software to help us better target our advertising to those customers that have the highest probability of responding to our offers. This partnership helps us to not only analyze demographic data, but now psychographic data, which will help us better understand our markets.

Making each advertising dollar count more is an important element in becoming more efficient — which can only lead to greater profitability. Of course, in order to fully utilize this, you first have to know what your customer looks like. What is your customer profile? The good news here is that this software is telling us. Armed with this knowledge, we are able to advise each of our stores more effectively as it relates to what to advertise as well as how to advertise it. Because this market has created the so-called “trading down” mentality, we are also busy conducting focus groups and trying to find out what our customers like and don’t like about us. In this economic environment, you can take nothing for granted.

At the end of the day, though, it all boils down to the customer experience. It is essential that you try and please each and every customer that chooses your restaurant over another one. Remember, the very nature of what we call a “recession” means that the market that you once catered to is now shrinking. Not only is it shrinking, but your remaining customers are being lured away by all of your competitors. To survive, you must never lose sight of quality of product and quality of service. Providing value in both pricing as well as total customer experience is about as important as oxygen in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

My brother, John, and I opened our first restaurant in 1991. It was the beginning of a terrible recession, and all of our plans were put on hold by an economy that was in transition. I remember the real estate agents when they told us of their rally cry: “Stay alive till ‘95.” Well, 1995 came and we were still standing. Interestingly, though, a lot of our competition was gone. What it meant for us was that in this now increasing expansionary market, we were positioned to enjoy a bigger piece of the market as those competitors who tried to hit home runs went out of business.

Sometimes hitting singles and scoring runs is better than that grand slam. When you swing for the fences, you sometimes have the propensity to strike out. In order to survive, we must look at each of our customers as potential singles and just keep doing the things that feel right for our circumstances.

The post 2010 September: Survival of the Fittest appeared first on Pizza Today.

With all that going for us, how could we not do it again? This year, our September “Event in Print” again offers a plethora of priceless advice. Some of my favorite takes from this issue include:

• George Hadjis (page 12) explaining the steps he took prior to the recession to prepare for it. Then, like any good leader, Hadjis has continued to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his company. Not one to sit back idly, Hadjis and his family continue to push Oggi’s forward.
•Big Dave’s suggestion that every pizzeria in America should promote National Pizza Month (page 18). October brings us Halloween, one of the industry’s fi ve most important sales days. Imagine how successful your October could be if every pizzeria in the nation encouraged consumers to eat more pizza during National Pizza Month.
•Pat Bruno, a food critic himself, explaining first-hand what a food critic looks for when walking into a restaurant (page 22). It’s interesting to see which things earn points and which miscues get them deducted. A bad review can break a restaurant’s back, but a good one can catapult business to the stars.
• The different answers to the same questions in our Beer & Bull in Print (page 64). It’s interesting to read that some operators believe the recession is nearing an end, while others are far less optimistic. Additionally, the different takes on the effectiveness of social media mirror a debate that I imagine pizzeria owners will continue at the real Beer & Bull at International Pizza Expo 2011 in Las Vegas.
• Sean Brauser’s assertion that he would rather explain his prices to a customer than have to apologize to that customer for his food quality (page 76).

Cheers,

Jeremy White editor-in-chief
jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2010 September: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

“If the community is happy, then they support your business. And if your business is doing well, then you can give back even more to the community.” – NBA star, Magic Johnson.

“You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar, author and businessman.

“When it comes to anything that’s social, whether it’s your family, your school, your community, your business or your country, winning is a team sport.” – Bill Clinton, former US President.

Politicians, athletes and businessmen agree that community and business form a powerful alliance that equates into a win-win situation for all. How can your business contribute to the happiness of the community? How can you harness the power of community marketing?

Papa Murphy’s franchisee Scott Bauer owns eight units based in Northern California. Three years ago, Bauer participated in a community event where he sold his product and then donated the profits to the local recreation department. Okay … so the recreation department is happy, but what about Bauer?

“This event really opened our eyes to the power of having potential customers coming up to our booth and tasting our product,” he says. “The feeling of talking and promoting our product to potential customers outside the confines of our store was exciting.”

Bauer now participates in at least 36 annual events benefiting his community. As a result, brand awareness escalates. Subsequently, sales are up about 4 percent in the midst of a recession. Bauer now touts an excellence award for his marketing based on local involvement, dedication to brand and giving back to the community.

Evan G. Evans, Vice President of Field Marketing and Corporate Communications for Papa Murphy’s, encourages franchisees to spend about 20 percent of their marketing time and budget on community events. Evans says that “Local store marketing is a must; community and business need to come together. This affords the opportunity for consumers to taste the quality and understand the value of our product.”

While I get tired just thinking of what goes into hosting an event, I concur with Evans and Bauer that working alongside your community is an excellent and rewarding way to market your business.

Executive director of the Punxsutawney Area Community Center, Rob McCoy, says: “A few years ago I would go to Fox’s a few times, here and there, until I got to know the owner and all they had to offer.” As the owner of Fox’s Pizza Den, I stay attuned to ideas that I can implement in my community. While reading Pizza Today’s online bulletin boards I came across an idea about teaming up with a local organization to sell more pizzas. Basically, you set a goal and offer to donate $1 per pizza sold if the goal is met. My association with McCoy and the PACC convinced me to try this. Together we created ‘Eat a Pizza – Make a Difference’. In one week I doubled my pizza sales and generated enough profit to donate $2 per pizza sold.

Ziglar’s quote earlier in this article is one of my favorites — because it works. I have put it to the test many times.

Businessmen often hesitate to embrace the rewards of giving. Open your eyes of understanding. View such community interaction as a program to earn the respect and loyalty of your market. Bauer sees his time and investment at local events not as mere charity, but as marketing dollars well spent. Try it yourself and see what happens. You’ll be glad you did. ?

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

The post 2010 October: Marketing Matters appeared first on Pizza Today.

Appetizers are hot. Go beyond the typical fried mozzarella or bruschetta and offer your customers a zucchini Parmigiana that will have them coming back for more. Take a fresh zucchini peel and trim off the stem end. Slice the zucchini lengthwise and dip in fl our. Shake off the excess and dip into a beaten egg. When covered, coat in breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan. Fry until golden and serve with warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Yeast Affection

We frequently get questions about the differences between fresh, instant and active dry yeast and whether they can be interchanged in recipes. First, don’t confuse the three. They are different products that require their own unique handling. Secondly, yes, with a little work you can convert recipes to conform to your chosen yeast. For instance, one pound of fresh yeast can be replaced with eight ounces of active dry yeast and eight ounces of water. Or it can be replaced with 5½ ounces of instant dry yeast and 10½ ounces of water.

Thrill of the Grill

Grilled pizza is easier than you think. The hardest part is making room in your kitchen for a grill, which a pizzeria really doesn’t need. In other words, don’t go out and buy a grill simply to offer a few grilled pizzas. On the other hand, if you happen to have a grill — make use of it! Start by rolling dough out thin and brushing it with seasoned olive oil. Grill the oiled side until it’s lightly browned. While it’s on the grill, brush the top with olive oil. When the bottom is browned, remove from the grill,flip it over and add sauce and toppings. Return to the grill and cook until finished.

Going to Sicily?

Here are some tips to keep in mind should you be thinking of adding a Sicilian pie to your menu:
? Use a dough that has some olive oil in its formulation for a lighter, more flavorful crust.
? For a really light crust, allow the dough to go through three risings: two outside the pan, one inside it.
? Generously oil the baking pan. Use vegetable oil for this — it’s cheaper.
? If you want a crunch to the bottom of the crust, sprinkle the bottom of the baking pan with cornmeal.

The post 2010 August: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

Consider this: every business has factors to consider regarding going green, especially budget-wise. Experts advise focusing on long-term effects, and not just upfront costs. “Restaurants and commercial kitchens are one of the highest energy consumers — using approximately 250,000 BTUs per square foot, which is roughly 2½ times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings,” says Una Song, program manager of the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program’s commercial food service equipment division. “Restaurants that invest strategically can cut utility costs while making significant contributions to a cleaner environment. Restaurateurs should consider total lifecycle costs in their decisions.”

When it comes to green, planning is everything. Check out www.energystar.gov for step-by-step green restaurant guides. “Decide your motivation, and your desired outcome, and start researching things you can do,” says Dan Simons, principal of Vucurevich- Simons Advisory Group (VSAG), a restaurant consulting organization specializing in green practices. “Pick an area: trash that goes to landfills — research composting, recycling, and reducing what you send to landfills — it’s not glamorous, but it can make a big impact.”

The EPA recommends installing compact fluorescent lamps in refrigerators and kitchen ventilation hoods, and high-efficiency pre-rinse spray valves in kitchens. Conduct refrigerator maintenance: check and replace door gaskets, clean evaporator and condenser coils and check refrigerant charge. Set water temperatures at about 120 F for hand washing and 140 F for dishwashing. “Fix water leaks immediately — especially hot water leaks: wasted water, sewer and water heating costs can add up to hundreds of dollars a year,” says Song.

Government tax credits are available for upgrading features such as heating and cooling units, lighting, windows, doors, etc., and some cover installation costs. Many states provide rebates for energy friendly appliances such as ovens and dishwashers. Check out EPA’s ENERGY STAR building upgrade manual, featuring a free online tool, Portfolio Manager (which estimates monthly energy usage from utility bills, and tracks these stats over time as compared with the national average), as well as calculators to estimate returns on product investments. (See www.energystar. gov)

A significant way to green a pizzeria is through LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifi cation, granted to eco-friendly building or remodeling projects by a rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council. Certifi cation includes an application and approval process. (See www.usgbc.org/)

Last spring, owner/chef Edward Sylvia — bringing the established customer base from his Cer Té cafe and catering — transformed a 1,200 square foot former sub shop into Pizza by Cer Té, New York City’s fi rst green pizzeria. “Being a chef, I always believed in local being better, and I’ve always used local farmers markets, local cheeses and everything else,” says Sylvia. “I wanted to take it a step further and have the construction LEED (Gold) certified so everything was in sync with the philosophy of the food.” Challenges included a yearlong building process, versus about six months for a regular pizzeria, and finding local fresh sauce during the winter — Sylvia’s in talks to obtain sauce from a local greenhouse grower. Designed for delivery and takeout, the space features herbs grown onsite, rain water storage to water herbs and clean premises, converted heat energy, river rock fixtures, filtered and aerated water for drinks and options for hybrid and bicycle delivery.

Going green provides a unique opportunity to stand out from competitors. “There are a few thousand pizzerias in NYC, and if we were a regular pizzeria, we’d be just another one opening,” says Sylvia, who is planning a free-slice incentive for customers who bring in a Pizza by Cer Té reusable plate made of sugar and printed with edible ink. “Being green has become a PR and marketing dream … once you mention it, people are interested immediately.”

Zpizza, with 95 franchise locations throughout the U.S., is also offering an extra large pie for the price of a large for bringing in their reusable tray or handing it to delivery drivers.

Solidify your restaurant’s green position and plan for the future by joining a green restaurant organization. In conjunction with Earth Day 2010, VSAG launched the Leadership in Eco-Hospitality Advocacy Foundation (LEAF), a non-profit membership organization providing green info and networking for restaurants — Pizza Fusion is a potential founding member. The Green Restaurant Association (www. dinegreen.com) also provides green certification and resources.

“The future of the green movement belongs to entrepreneurs, because green is good for business and has become a business itself, with an exploding array of products and services demanded by consumers in the marketplace,” says Lawson. Sylvia agrees. “What I’m doing is for the next generation,” he says. “Whether I stay in the space or someone else takes it over, it will help the environment. It’s almost like planting a seed.” ?

‘The key characteristic of “going green” is that it is a continual process of improvement and is relative to where the individual pizzeria begins the process. Customers care and want to be supportive of businesses who are striving to earn profits in an environmentally responsible manner, and business owners care as much about the environment as anyone, but they are learning that many aspects of green are just good business.’ —Jerry Lawson, National Manager of the ENERGY STAR Small Business and Congregations Network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Lee Erica Elder is a freelance writer in New York City.

The post 2010 August: Slicing into the Green Market appeared first on Pizza Today.

It’s time to unlock your creative juices and get something exciting happening in your menu. You have all the tools you need. What you don’t have in specialized equipment you probably can live without. Can you create a new pizza or entrée so good or different that people are talking about it? If you are serving the same pie as your daddy, you are missing a big surge in new sales. Reinvent your menu with some excitement in it. Your new creation doesn’t have to live forever, just long enough to shine the spotlight on you and your culinary expertise. If all it does is entice a hundred or two of you competitors’ customers to try you out, it’s worth it. Just don’t forget to have them get entered into your database. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2010 July: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

Fast forward to today. The restaurant industry is reeling with chains and independents failing or shuttering underperforming locations. Same store sales fell precipitously in recent years, forcing many restaurants to re-engineer their menu with “value offerings” to entice the public to open their wallets. Bank financing has dried up, with financiers running away when they hear anything with the name “restaurant” in it.

You’d think it was the end of the world for restaurants. Instead, today offers an unprecedented opportunity for pizzerias with the right concept looking to expand.

There are some obvious reasons. The downturn in the commercial real estate market and failure of retail chains has forced landlords to lower rents quite markedly in some markets. According to CoStar, a commercial real estate information fi rm, the most recent data available showed that the national average asking retail rental rate fell 4 percent to $16.94 per square foot at the end of the third quarter of 2009 from a year earlier. And the decimation is expected to continue as Reis, another provider of commercial real estate market information, predicts that the vacancy rate will continue to climb throughout the end of this year, while effective rents will further slip another 1.4 percent.

Even traditional high-cost cities have seen rents fall. Numero 28 Pizzeria co-owner Rolando Biamonte has expanded to three locations in New York City over the last two years. “Greater space availability and falling rents have made it easier for us to bring our gourmet pizza to more locations,” says Biamonte. The company recently opened a location in the East Village to complement an existing West Village location.

Weaker operators, saddled with poor management, significant debt loads or high occupancy costs are being pushed out of business — resulting in less competition. Some failed restaurant locations are leaving suitable space and equipment. This is the strategy Vinny Williams, co-owner of Massachusettsbased Rose and Vicki’s, often employs when looking for new locations.

“We’ve been able to acquire restaurant equipment vacated by previous tenants from banks for pennies on the dollar,” says Williams. He and his partner just opened their fourth location in a former freestanding sandwich and pizza restaurant.

Lower rents lead to lower breakeven points, providing new restaurants with greater pricing flexibility and fewer required customer visits to prosper. “It certainly gave us more breathing room,” adds Williams. The annual rent on his most recent location is $40,000 less than what the previous tenant was paying. Some owners have even received free rent. And lots of it, in fact.

“On one of our leases, we received a year of free rent on a 5-year lease containing two additional five-year options,” says to Brian Ognian, vice president of development for Hungry Howie’s Pizza. The company has even been approached by landlords offering incentives for them to leave existing locations and reopen nearby. “In all the years, I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”

While some concepts are negotiating lower rents, some chains are using these troubled times to move their brand up-market. This is exactly what the Marietta, Georgia-based Stevi B’s pizza buffet chain is doing. According to Matt Loney, president, three years ago a company the size of Stevi B’s could never get into prime, top-tier locations since space was often gobbled up by larger chains. “The downturn has afforded our company the chance to get into Class A locations at former Class B prices,” says Loney. The downturn has led Stevi B’s to plan aggressive growth with eight additional locations projected to open in 2010 to add to the current 35 locations they operate today. “We’ve even repositioned our brand to take advantage of these opportunities,” says Loney, who has been busy adjusting the company’s concept to take advantage of these new upper scale markets.

“We’ve been able to serve a whole new clientele with our latest locations”.

Landlords, in addition to offering lower rents, have increased tenant improvement allowances. Charlie Morrison, president of 360-unit Pizza Inn, has seen this phenomenon in Texas.

“I’ve seen tenant improvements steadily increase from $20 to $30 per square foot three years ago to $30 to $50 per square foot today,” says Morrison. “If you’re selective about opportunities, you’ll find them”.

Loney has also seen an increase in tenant improvement allowances. “Landlords know that traditional financing has dried up,” he says. He has seen landlords with strong capital backing increase tenant improvement funding to reduce the chain’s initial investment in new locations.

Sometimes the opposite occurs with TI allowances because landlords themselves lose access to capital. When they can’t fund tenant improvements, landlords are forced to drastically slash rents to entice tenants to pay for their own tenant improvements. Morrison saw rents at one retail shopping plaza fall below $10 per square foot from $25 per square foot four years ago because the landlord could no longer fund tenant improvements.

The drop in construction activity has been a boon for some pizza owners. According to Ognian from Hungry Howie’s Pizza, with unemployment in the construction industry in a state of depression, general contractors are lowering prices because their costs are dropping due to greater availability of subcontractors.

“Our contractors have been very aggressive and cooperative in lowering investment costs,” says Ognian. “The lower upfront investment is allowing some of our multi-unit operators a chance to open additional locations sooner than anticipated.”

Contractors aren’t the only vendors Ognian has seen getting aggressive on price. “We’ve been able to hire a design fi rm to help augment our brand that frankly was out of reach a few years ago,” adds Ognian.

Just remember that good times don’t last forever — but neither do bad ones. Expanding pizzeria operators are getting well-positioned for the next upturn, whether the good times return in six months or six years. ?

Timothy Howes is a business consultant and an Assistant Professor of Management at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.

The post 2010 August: The Time is NOW appeared first on Pizza Today.

It has an estimated food cost of 19 percent. It should come as no surprise that eggplant Parmesan continues to reign over vegetarian menu items. After all, diners would be hard-pressed, and most likely disappointed, to not find this comfort food classic on menus. Originating from Southern Italy, eggplant Parmesan traditionally calls for either fried or breaded and fried thin slices of eggplant blanketed in marinara and mozzarella that is then baked until the cheese melts and browns. The dish provides a win-win for operators and diners. Operators like its ease to prepare and low food cost (eggplant provides 100-percent yield), while diners enjoy its comfort-food factor.

Just because a menu item is a classic doesn’t mean it isn’t due for an update. Some operators execute the dish with a more modern approach. For example, instead of breading and deep-frying eggplant, Silvio Medoro, owner of Silvio’s Organic Pizza in Ann Arbor, Michigan, seasons eggplant slices with oregano, rosemary, salt and pepper and grills it. Then he layers three to four rows of eggplant in a baking dish between housemade tomato sauce and a mixture of eggs, romano, mozzarella and Parmesan. This bakes in a 500 F oven for one hour and sells for $12.50. “We try to be healthier, and our diners appreciate it,” says Medoro, who incorporates organic ingredients such as olive oil, fl our, herbs, vegetables, eggs and mozzarella into all of his dishes.

It’s not an option to remove the eggplant Parmesan ($10.50) from the menu of the New Berlin, New York based, New York Pizzeria, says Frank Baio, who co-owns the restaurant with his wife Betsey. The dish runs a 200-percent profit margin.

To prepare, Baio cuts round slices of eggplant a half-inch thick. Then he salts it and lets it sit a minimum of 40 minutes. Salting is the most important step when working with eggplant, says Baio, since it removes the eggplant’s bitterness.

He rinses the eggplant in cold water, pats it dry and dips it into a batter of heavy cream and eggs, then dredges it in toasted house-made breadcrumbs. He fries the eggplant in extra-virgin olive oil, then places it in a baking dish where it is topped with house-made marinara and mozzarella. After baking, it arrives with a side of pasta. Baio estimates the dish’s food cost is 30 percent, with eggplant costing $20 to $25 a case.

Baio further capitalized on his eggplant Parmesan’s success by introducing two eggplant dishes. Eggplant rollatini with spaghetti showcases lengthwise slices of fried eggplant wrapped around sweet ricotta cheese and spaghetti. While vacationing in Sicily for his mother’s 80th birthday, Baio was inspired by a dish his sister, Rosa, prepared. The Zia Rosa Eggplant resulted. It displays layers of eggplant, tomato sauce, breadcrumbs, toasted pine nuts, raisins and Italian Provolone. Baio plans to add this special to the menu permanently in the spring. “All of our eggplant dishes are pretty good sellers,” he says. “It’s because diners are into healthy food. Many customers reason that even though the eggplant is fried, it’s still somewhat healthy.”

The biggest challenge to preparing eggplant Parmesan and other eggplant dishes isn’t the technique, but the eggplant. Before beginning any eggplant dish, check to ensure that the eggplant is not bruised, scratched or discolored. “Make sure the eggplant is hard on the it, use your judgment. If you see brown seeds inside, it’s not worth using,” Baio says. Bigger does not always mean better. Baio recommends choosing medium-sized eggplants. Remember eggplant becomes bitter with age, so use quickly. DiSilvestro alleviates his eggplant consistency issues by purchasing frozen, sliced and breaded, skin-on eggplant. “Without a doubt, going with a frozen product is a huge labor and time saver,” he says. “The frozen product works well. It is sliced nice and thin. Sometimes when you make the product fresh, the breading comes off. This product’s breading never comes off.” Another reason why operators enjoy serving eggplant Parmesan, in all its incarnations: it gives diners more choices. “It’s nice to have variety of vegetarian items on the menu,” DiSilvestro says. ?

Eggplant Parmesan

Yield: 6 servings

1 large eggplant, about 1½ pounds
Salt, as needed
2 eggs, beaten
1½ cups fine, dry bread crumbs mixed with ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Olive oil
8 ounces tomato sauce
1 teaspoon dried leaf basil
½ teaspoon dried leaf oregano, crumbled
16 ounces sliced mozzarella cheese
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Wash eggplant and cut crosswise into ½-inch thick slices. Salt eggplant and let sit for 40 minutes. Rinse eggplant in cold water and pat dry.

Dip eggplant into beaten eggs then dredge with seasoned breadcrumbs.

Place slices on a plate and chill for 30 to 45 minutes.

Heat about 1?8-inch of oil in a heavy skillet. Fry eggplant on both sides until golden brown and crispy. Drain well on paper towels.

In a saucepan, heat tomato sauce, basil and oregano. Spread 1?3 of the sauce in a greased 12 x 8 x 2-inch baking dish. Layer half of the eggplant, half of the mozzarella, another 1?3 of the sauce, and half the Parmesan. Repeat layers. Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.

Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman is a freelance writer in Louisville, Kentucky. She covers food, business and liefestyle trends.

The post 2010 July: Italian Classic appeared first on Pizza Today.

Legal professionals say that every restaurant needs to have a policy stating that racial harassment is not acceptable and will result in termination or other disciplinary measures. This written policy should be given to all new hires before they begin work.

If your workforce includes a lot of non-English speakers, it’s a good idea to have your policy translated and available in more than one language.

Without a written policy, “you are reckless beyond belief,” says Jon Hyman, a management-side employment lawyer at Kohrman Jackson and Krantz law firm in Cleveland, Ohio.

It’s a good idea — at least every other year, but probably more often for a pizzeria operator with high turnover — to talk to employees about harassment, says Hyman. Managers should also make sure they know the policy inside out, and should keep up with the laws because they change regularly, explains Ann Kiernan, a New Brunswick, New Jersey-based lawyer and a trainer with Fair Measures, a company that teaches managers and employees the skills they need to create respectful workplaces. Small businesses can keep updated on the laws through a business association or industry, or their local chamber of commerce.

If a supervisor hears of harassment, it’s important to take steps immediately. “It can often lead to a hostile work environment, so if the employee is able to continue the harassment, it will only strengthen the other employee’s claim and will lead to great damages the longer it continues,” says Tim Davis, an employment attorney with Grasch & Gudalis in Lexington, Kentucky.

How to handle harassment depends on your restaurant’s policy, points out Kiernan. It’s important to take into account the employee’s previous behavior. They might get a warning, or a written warning if it’s more serious, and by the next warning they’re terminated. Or it could warrant instant dismissal.

“You’ve got to consider terminating your employee, even if they are your best employee, because it will affect your business’s bottom line if they continue creating a hostile work environment, and it could lead to increased damages,” points out Davis.

It’s also important to remember that harassment can come in many forms. A great number of teenagers text message, so when a workforce skews young, it’s particularly important to have a handle on how those employees communicate. Then there are the popular social media Web sites. These technologies and the appropriate use of them should be incorporated into a pizza restaurant’s harassment policy, says Hyman. Technology, he explains, “makes it easier to get to someone and harass them — and it’s not just in the workplace, but someone could put something on your Facebook wall at 2 a.m., and that’s harassment.”

Toppers Pizza, a 26-unit pizza franchise headquartered in Whitewater, Wisconsin, is already on top of social media “because we’re aware that harassment can take place off site or out of hours using social media,” says Robin Gittrich, human resources assistant.

Toppers is meticulous with its harassment training. New employees are shown a 20-minute video devoted to the subject, and they also receive a hard copy of the company’s policies, which they have to sign.

The company also recently introduced an e-learning portal called Toppers U. for which it is developing content for a harassment prevention program, and hopes it will be available in the next year.

“The program would keep giving the employee feedback until it’s certain they understand it,” explains Gittrich. Should a harassment case arise at Toppers, employees are advised to report it immediately without fear of reprisal.

“We take every allegation seriously,” says Gittrich. “Toppers would look into it. And if we believe there’s been a violation of the policy, it would lead to disciplinary action up to termination.”

Metro Pizza, with five locations in Las Vegas, also has a written, zero tolerance policy that is given to all new employees. Co-owner John Arena says new hires sign off on the policy “so it’s clear they’ve seen everything.”

There’s no specific ongoing training at Metro, “but during staff meetings we are constantly reinforcing the points that are part of the orientation,” Arena explains. “We are always talking about being sensitive to the guests and to each other, and also making sure we’re providing opportunities to people.”

Fair Play

Your workplace should be an even playing field for all employees. Here are a few tips to ensure it is:

Make sure rules are consistently and evenly applied to all groups and people.
Seek input. If you are having a difficult time formulating a policy, ask the employees what they think should happen in a given circumstance. Typically, they will appreciate the amount of respect the employer is showing and will respond with workable solutions.
Have an employment attorney draft, or at a minimum review, all policies to ensure equal employment opportunity compliance.
Have more than one person that employees can make harassment complaints to in case a supervisor is the one doing the harassing.
Understanding your employees is tantamount. Talk to them and get to know their culture and community. Really listen and have an open mind.

Amanda Baltazar is a freelance writer in Anacortes, Washington.

The post 2010 August: Pizza & Delivery appeared first on Pizza Today.

Menus help establish a restaurant’s brand, reinforce its unique standing in the community and present customers with the food they prepare and serve. More than that, menus sell product. Let’s talk about a few tricks of the trade.

First, use a professional menu developer. The menu is often the first impression you make on a customer, so make it count. DIY and it looks like it. Send it to the local printer and it looks like everyone else in town. Take the time to check out menu designers at International Pizza Expo or ones listed in this magazine to see who can help you maximize the impact of your menu. Ask for samples and request referrals, look for results –– you only have one chance to make a good first impression.

When designing your menu, think marketing. Do you have any signature or high profit items? Do you have a product that is a customer favorite? Are you the official pizza of some organization? Have your recipes been passed down for generations? Has your business received awards? All of these questions need to be and can be addressed in a well-designed menu. Knowing these answers will exercise your menu muscle and build your menu into a powerful selling machine.

People are more likely to buy a product if it is placed first or last in a list of items. Let’s look at your gourmet pizzas. Place the gourmet pizza with the highest profit first on the list. Add an image of this item and we can potentially increase sales of that item by 15 percent. Vision is a primary human sense. It not only brings things to our attention, but also moves us to action. Professional images of the food you actually serve incorporated into a menu design will persuade customers to buy. Additionally, a well-conceived heading like “House Favorite” or “A Louisville Tradition” grabs attention and guarantees consumers a positive experience, thus persuading them to buy. Bold lettering or boxing of items also draws people to the items you want to sell. Beware not to overdo it or this will lose its effect. Try one item in each menu category.

Descriptions of menu items should make a guest drool. Don’t be afraid to explain what is in a dish and use ethnic names, if they fit, to add a bit of panache. “Nana’s homemade white sauce” will intrigue a hungry customer.

Hungarian novelist Arthur Koestler once wrote, “The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.” This certainly is true of the menu, a marketing muscle to be reckoned with. ?

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

The post 2010 August: Marketing Matters appeared first on Pizza Today.

Fugere watches as Executive Chef Brian Gojdics plates a Margherita pie for our cameras. It looks perfect, and Fugere proudly points out the crust’s defi ning characteristics: flame-blackened blisters on the cornicione, a credit card-thin center, a patina of crunch when you bite into it, which yields to a light, fluffy interior. It all starts with the pillowy crust — the cornicione — explains Fugere. That’s where most imposters go wrong.

“We’re storytellers here at Tutta Bella,” asserts Fugere. “Pizza is about sharing, about coming together over something simple, yet wonderful. There are so many stories to tell our customers: about the crust, about the traditions of Naples or Italian culture in general, about the ingredients that go into our pizzas.

“We want and encourage our people — our servers, our baristas, our bartenders — to understand and share with customers these great stories. They provide context and enrich the experience. They give our customers a better understanding of what they’re eating and what it is that’s so great about it.”

Gojdics is quick to chime in with a story about the essential elements of Tutta Bella’s Regina Margherita: “It’s a classic,” he says. “The ingredients are fresh, honest, simple. We’re using fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, tomatoes that are grown in the richest soils in the world.” A truly authentic Neapolitan pizza is a thing of unmistakable beauty, and Fugere instantly recognized that the first time he had one. It was a defining moment in the affable entrepreneur’s life — at the time he was an executive at Seattle-based Starbucks, a high-profile and rewarding job from which one does not easily walk away.

While the intense flavors of Neapolitan pizza made Fugere’s taste buds giddy, there was more to it than that. Above all, he was inspired by the passion and historical importance of the pizza scene in Naples, Italy. Touched by that passion, Fugere set out to fully replicate it, in earnest, with his own pizza concept in the Jet City.

For help along the way, the Tutta Bella founder turned to the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN), a group that certifies Neapolitan pizzerias throughout the world and verifies the authenticity of their products. In 2004, Tutta Bella opened its first location and became the first VPN-certified pizzeria in the Pacific Northwest. “It’s an art and a science at the same time,” Gojdics says of cooking Neapolitan pizza. At Tutta Bella, the pies are baked in a wood-burning oven at 800 F for roughly 90 seconds. “You don’t have much of a margin of error. You can turn your head, then turn back and see that you have burned three pizzas.”

Gojdics says one of his most important functions is “to stay focused on authentic Neapolitan pizza.” At Tutta Bella, “authenticity” isn’t a buzzword — it’s a mandate.

“But there’s more to Brian and his position than that,” says Fugere. “He also has the responsibility to develop people. He’s a leader, and it shows. He’s responsible for cultivating people and instilling in them our culture.”

Therein lies the mastery that epitomizes Fugere. An effective leader and deft at delegation, he is an unrivaled talent developer. He sets lofty goals for his employees, but then supports them by arming them with the tools they need to succeed. Case in point are the coveted Italian tours he sends staff members on annually. Sure, Fugere expects his baristas to be authorities on the art of the Italian espresso … so he sends them to Italy to tour coffee plants and meet with the manufacturer of the espresso machine used at Tutta Bella. He sends Gojdics and other members of the kitchen staff to see the fl our mill and the tomato harvest and taste pizza in Naples; he sends his wine program manager to the Italian vineyards where the grapes that will end up in the wines served at Tutta Bella are cultivated. These tours are immersive and educational — and they create plenty of employee loyalty.

Speaking of employees, Training Program Manager Kelli Phelan has been with Tutta Bella for nearly fi ve years. She recently led a “server summit” with the intent of “bringing all our servers together to get on the same page and make sure we have consistent service across all levels. We talked about what our expectations are and what we want each of our guests to get out of their experience here. We focused on teaching them how their service multiplies out and how they impact the business with their service in either a good or bad way. We talked about what it takes to be a great server at Tutta Bella.”

Phelan says Tutta Bella has approximately 70 servers. These individuals are the front line ambassadors for the brand, and their accessibility makes them the company’s primary storytellers. They are the people most likely to interact at length with customers, the employees best suited to take a minute to tell the story about the fi or di latte Tutta Bella uses, or the Grana Padano, or the reason all employees wear a San Marzano tomato pin on the lapels of their uniform.

Cultivating successful servers starts during the interview process, says Phelan.

“The screening is very important,” she says. “That’s where we try to find out if they are genuinely nice people. One of the questions I like to ask them is who they look up to, who they would like to emulate.” Says Fugere: “We use the interview as an opportunity to educate. We give all our applicants a free pizza card when they leave the store so that they can come in and see what the pizza is like and get a little bit of a feel for what we’re about through the product.”

Phelan says the goal is to have longevity with new hires, “so it’s more about their personality than their experience. We want it to be a good fi t, because we will train them to meet our standards.”

New hires go through an orientation in which they shadow various positions, starting with the host or a bus station. Then they put on a chef’s coat and stand alongside the pizza cutter before talking with the chef to learn more about the products used to make Tutta Bella’s menu items.

“They taste a raw tomato, taste the fresh mozzarella,” says Phelan. “Then, the next day is when they start their service training by shadowing a server. They’ll start taking tables with help on the second day, then they’ll be on their own and get four tables on the third day.”

In all, the entire orientation process lasts fi ve days. At the end of each day, the new hire sits down with a manager or trainer for a meal.

Director of Operations Joyce Morinaka is a prime example of Tutta Bella’s dedication to providing employees with growth opportunities. After living in Italy briefly, Morinaka started as a server at Tutta Bella. A little less than a year into the position, Morinaka was moved into management. Now, she oversees operations at all four Tutta Bella stores.

“I’m an example of our guiding principles,” she states. “It’s exciting that we can provide people with these types of opportunities. We’re creating something really great here, and that’s exciting.”

Fugere, in fact, has taken many of the business principles he learned at Starbucks and modified them to help mold the culture at Tutta Bella. “What we’re trying to do here,” he says, “is build a world-class company on a local level. We know we have a great product — we have Naples to thank for that. But above and beyond that, we have the opportunity to build a great company.

“We’ve adopted a lasting mentality,” Fugere continues. “We have a 100-year mentality. We haven’t built this company to sell in 10 years. We’re building a lasting business.”

Those aren’t hollow words, either, says Morinaka. Fugere is dedicated to the long-term success of his business through investing in the long-term success of his employees — and customers in the community. Since Morinaka shares Fugere’s passion for community involvement and charitable events, it has fallen on her plate to help oversee the company’s donations.

“One of the unique things about this company is that we are often given additional roles that match our interests,” Morinaka says. “So even though I’m the director of operations, I’m also the program manager for donations.”

Fugere says Tutta Bella never says no to a request from the Seattle community. It’s all part of the aforementioned 100-year mentality. And that, says Morinaka, is part of what makes the company remarkable.

“Joe’s feeling of generosity is really touching,” she says. “We don’t have an advertising budget. We get involved in the community instead. Our Columbia City store is in a true inner-city neighborhood. You don’t see many of those any more. It’s fun to get involved with the neighbors, to bring the kids in and do tours with them or to donate pizzas or $40 gift cards to schools. Every time we build a Tutta Bella, the donation program is a big part of it from the very beginning.”

As you may have noticed, the phrase “program manager” is used a lot at Tutta Bella. It goes back to Fugere’s employee development and delegation prowess. Though hands on, Fugere fully capitalizes on the strength of his key people by rewarding them with a chance to showcase their own entrepreneurial talents. Tutta Bella doesn’t simply serve espresso, for example — it has a dedicated “coffee program” with its own manager. Ditto for other areas of the operation.

Meet Jeff Perini. He’s responsible for the coffee program, which accounts for a surprisingly significant percentage of Tutta Bella’s sales. Since each Tutta Bella already has a coffee bar where professional baristas hand-pull fresh espressos, it makes sense that this portion of the business could be used to attract revenue during a day part that doesn’t traditionally find a pizzeria’s doors open to the public.

“We’ve got employees here in the morning anyway, and we have this great coffee bar, and we’re located right in the middle of neighborhoods and commuter zones, so it really seemed like a good fit to open in the morning during the breakfast shift,” says Perini. “It has worked out really well. We have quite a few people stop in for their morning coffee and maybe a biscotti before work. We’ve managed to transform what would be a dead period into another source of revenue.”

Since the coffee bar at the Columbia City store is housed in a separate room adjacent to the main dining area and has its own external entrance, Fugere hung an Attibassi espresso sign to give the appearance that a standalone coffee shop exists next to Tutta Bella.

“I think it gives it a nice feel, almost like a separate business,” he explains. “Having its own door really helps, because we can keep people from walking through a dark dining room on their way in to get an espresso in the morning.”

On the morning we visited, barista Giovanni Rogano was manning the coffee counter. Our cameras caught him pulling espresso after espresso adroitly. He explained to us that Tutta Bella takes great pains to be authentic to the experience one would find in Naples.

“In Italy, the drink matches the mug. So we put our espressos in a three ounce mug, our cappuccinos in a six-ounce mug and our lattes in a nine ounce mug,” he says.

Later that night, we’d find ourselves at a different Tutta Bella bar. There, we sipped refreshing and inventive libations and talked about their origins with Beer, Wine and Spirits Program Manager R.C. Jennings.

Jennings has been with Tutta Bella since nearly the beginning. He entered the equation as a store general manager and wrote the company’s training manual. Among other things, Jennings is in charge of putting together Tutta Bella’s wine list, which changes twice a year.

“We also have a new wine special every time we have a pizza special,” Jennings says. “In Italy, wine is food, and it’s enjoyed with every meal. We want the experience here to be as authentically Italian as possible, so the one thing Joe requires is that all of our wines be Italian. What I try to do is get a good mix from every region.” When we visited Tutta Bella in May for this story, Jennings had 14 wines on the menu — 10 reds and four whites. All were priced below $40 for the bottle.

“My focus the last year or so has been ‘Italy Accessible,’ ” Jennings explains. “All the wines are $40 and under, and they’re available by the glass. And I want to make it as simple as possible [to sell the wines], so I actively promote to customers that they can taste the wines and try them if they’re interested.”

Jennings says he evaluates the lineup and makes changes every six months. Right now, he says, he’s “really focused on building value. Since wine accounts for 20 percent of our overall sales, we’re able to really have a lot of fun with it.” For wine to be such a large part of the sales mix, Jennings says it takes a knowledgeable and proactive service staff. It all goes back to Phelan’s earlier assertion that the servers have a ripple effect on the entire business.

“I encourage our servers every night to pick something about our wines to focus on that night,” says Jennings. “If the servers aren’t behind the wine, the wine won’t sell.”

That’s where Fugere’s storytelling culture comes in. It’s a simple, effective way for servers to subtly educate customers about Tutta Bella’s wine offerings. And considering that Italian wines are on the upswing in terms of current popularity, there are lots of stories about them to be told.

“I don’t like to get bored, and I don’t like the servers to get bored,” says Jennings. “One of the positives is that I’ve definitely seen a surge in the last few years. Italian wines are hot again.”

Aside from the wine, Tutta Bella is also known for its innovative spirits menu. While Fugere originally required that Italian grappa be used as the base, he has since softened his stance and allowed the use of vodka or gin as well. That’s because he realized “we were missing out on a lot of options when we weren’t offering vodka or gin,” says Jennings. Still, despite the program’s expansion, Jennings says the spirits menu that is typically engineered by co-worker Brandon Hamlett (who could not be present for our interview) remains rooted in the Italian basics.

“When we build a menu, we like to start slow and simple and let things expand from there,” he says. “Like the wines, we want our menu to be accessible and have people taste the drinks.”

While creativity runs rampant throughout the organization, the fact of the matter is that the spirits menu allows for more experimentation than any other avenue — its ingredients and combinations aren’t dictated by a third party such as the VPN. On our visit, which prefaced summer, the focus was on cool, refreshing cocktails that cleanse the palate, such as lemon and cucumber. Jennings says the inventiveness of the wine and spirits program is a result of the freedom Fugere allows Hamlett and him to have.

“Whenever we launch a new program, cost is never the first consideration,” he says. “First, it’s creativity, authenticity and simplicity.” Those were the guiding principles, as well, when Gojdics teamed with a local brewery to formulate a Tutta Bella-branded beer, which was blended specifically to match the flavors found in a traditional Neapolitan pizza.

“Tutta Bella Amber Ale is made specifically for us,” Gojdics says. “Over the course of the last couple of years, I was always on Joe about adding another beer. And then we started having all kinds of problems with the beer in terms of delivery. So we wanted to tailor a beer specifically for us.”

Gojdics found a Seattle microbrewery by accident. He explains it this way: “I picked up a (local) magazine with Kurt Cobain on the cover, and in the back I found an article about a new microbrewery. I saw many parallels between us and them. Their mission statement could have been written by us.”

So the chef approached the brewers and arranged for some pairings. What they discovered, says Gojdics, is that ambers pair well with Neapolitan pies “because they’re less hoppy and more malty. And we discovered that one thing that’s in this particular amber that may not be in others is a black malt, and that matches the roasted characteristics of the cornicione.”

Tutta Bella Amber Ale went on the menu 15 months ago, and Gojdics says, “we sell a ton of it. We’re very, very happy with it.”

Truth be told, there’s very little — if anything — going on at Tutta Bella that its founder and employees shouldn’t be happy with. Tables turn four times on a busy Friday night (average guest experience is 90 minutes), and sales will climb to an average of $2.5 million per store by the end of this year. When the dust settles, that’s really what it’s all about — building a successful business in a responsible, encouraging way.

Once again, enter Fugere. Responsibility, accountability and sustainability are as important to him as authenticity. And just like he found a donations advocate in Morinaka, he has found an environmental steward in Sustainability Program Manager Erik Cain.

“We like to lead by example and let people discover what we’re doing,” says Fugere. “Erik is a perfect example of living the message we send — he lives on a boat and rides a bike to work.”

Cain’s responsibilities include finding effective ways to lessen Tutta Bella’s waste and negative impact on the environment. Since restaurants are some of the largest consumers of energy and generators of waste, Cain says it’s relatively easy for a pizzeria to take small steps that add up to make a big difference.

“We recycle and compost all the glass, cardboard and paper we use,” he says. “We’re getting very close to having zero garbage. Another thing we noticed is that kids were going through around 100 plastic cups and lids every few days. So we got a reusable kids cup with recyclable lids.”

Those are just a couple of Cain’s initiatives, but they’re already paying dividends for Tutta Bella, says Fugere.

“The unexpected consequence and the reward to some of what we’re doing in terms of composting,” he says, “is that composting is less expensive to have picked up than garbage. But you’d be surprised the number of people who recognize and appreciate what we’re doing.”

That’s a far cry from Jamie Sprott’s ancillary appointment at Tutta Bella. While his work as a chef in one of Tutta Bella’s locations surely attracts attention, his secondary task of serving as the Facilities Program Manager is one of the more thankless gigs in the system. Let’s not confuse low profile with unimportant, however. Sprott’s skill set saves Tutta Bella thousands of dollars annually.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” Fugere jokes of Sprott’s responsibilities. “In reality, though, it’s extremely important to running a world class company.”

Think about it. What’s more damaging to a pizzeria than a major equipment failure in the middle of a dinner rush? What does it cost to get a repair company in to fix the problem after hours, on immediate notice? If there’s a Jamie Sprott in the building, life gets much easier.

“Every day I set aside a certain amount of time where I can do things around the building,” says Sprott. “Since I’m in one store, I have a contact person set up in each of the other three locations that feed me information.”

Sprott maintains a list of all the equipment Tutta Bella uses — everything from large items down to light bulbs. His database allows him to immediately see whether an item is under warranty and which repair company is best suited to quickly fi x it. And, in many cases, he can fi x it himself.

“We maintain 40 to 45 different service providers,” says Sprott, “because we have a lot of specialty equipment. But I’m a tinkerer and a do-it-yourself type of person — it’s just my nature. So I will fi x something myself if I can. If I can’t, then I make sure I’m here when the service guy comes and I stand over his shoulder and watch how he fixes it so that I can do it myself the next time.” Sprott and Fugere say that a proper maintenance schedule goes a long way as well.

“Anything on the line needs to be blown out with an air compressor regularly,” advises Sprott. “Also, we do a bimonthly cleaning of the grease traps and exhaust systems. For our woodburning ovens, they need to be cleaned every two months.

“Coming up with a maintenance schedule is important. It’s really a money-saving issue to have equipment serviced frequently. It’s much cheaper than repairing it.”

In fact, says Fugere, the Facilities Management Program has reduced maintenance costs by nearly $2,000 per month. And as is nearly always the case with Tutta Bella, there’s an additional fringe benefit to the program.

“It affects morale,” says Fugere. “You don’t want to work in a place that’s in disrepair, where the equipment looks bad and doesn’t work. Our kitchens are open, and we’re proud of what we serve and how we serve it.” ?

Jeremy White is editor-in-chief of Pizza Today.

The post 2010 August: Independent Pizzeria of the Year appeared first on Pizza Today.

It’s one that operators increasingly face. For example, a 2006 survey showed that one in four Americans between the ages of 18 and 50 had a tattoo; one in seven reported a piercing other than in the earlobe. In the 18 to 29 set, the numbers were even higher, with 48 percent indicating they had one or the other or both. Since this survey was conducted four years ago, it’s reasonable to assume these figures have risen.

In fact, says Joey Bramwell, director of operations for Austinbased DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks, a 54-site, primarily franchised company, it’s become challenging for his managers to find good employees who don’t have a tattoo or piercing, particularly since their staff ranges from 18 to 25 years old. Bramwell, at one time one of the biggest proponents against hiring people with tattoos, says that now when it comes to hiring, they take a “community standards” approach, set by their franchise owners who are expected to know their area and clientele.

“In the higher-end locations, we’ll not pick up employees with visible tattoos or body piercings,” Bramwell says. “But in the college locations, which are a little edgier and where customers also have these, (we will).” However, he continues, if the tattoos/ piercings would distract from the customer experience, they’ll pass on the hire (this rules out full sleeves, offensive tattoos and extreme piercings. Hair is less of a concern because employees wear hats). Additionally, employees with facial/ tongue piercings must remove them, per health department requirements.

According to Jill Morin, executive officer at Kahler Slater, a Milwaukee-based consulting company, by matching the employees to the customers’ expectations, DoubleDave’s takes the right approach. Morin explains that restaurant operators must consider what experience customers are anticipating and avoid jarring them by having employees who are out of sync with that expectation.

Morin, whose company focuses on creating a “total experience design” for restaurants and other businesses, says the following elements are essential to success:
? Employees
? The perception of the business in the marketplace
? Products/services
? The place itself

Of these, the employee element is the most critical, says Morin. “If you get this one right, sometimes people will be more forgiving (of mishaps/ mistakes),” she explains. “But if you get this wrong, it is very hard to recover from this.” Lisa Gambardella, owner of Gambardella’s Pasta Bella, located in Fairbanks, agrees. Her clientele is a mix of college students, professionals, tourists and family. Approximately 25 percent of the staff has tattoos and/or piercings.

Because these are not typically associated with a “clean image” or with what her customers want to see, employees are asked to keep visible tattoos covered and to remove facial piercings, says Gambardella. Hair is considered on a per-person basis. Cleanliness counts most, she says, adding that her biggest concern is staff hygiene, especially since there are many students (her employees range from 18-to-35-years old) living in “dry” cabins that lack running water.

“We had an employee with a visible neck tattoo, but he presented a professional, impeccable appearance and he was very knowledgeable, so customers could overlook this,” Gambardella recalls. “But if an employee with tattoos was performing poorly, the customers would blame the tattoos.”

But tattoos and piercings fit right in with Piper Kapin’s two Back Road Pizza restaurants, both in Santa Fe. One is located in a hip, funky part of town with a diverse clientele. The other is in a business park where the customer mix is more professional. Eighty percent of her staff has tattoos/ piercings. Kapin generally doesn’t worry about putting these under wraps.

“They suit our business,” she says. “If someone got a tattoo I was uncomfortable with, I’d talk to them and they may have to cover it, but what counts is that the employees are good with the customers, careful in the kitchen, and clean.”

Cleanliness — specifically clean uniforms — is the biggest issue for him as well, says Doug Ferriman, owner of Crazy Dough’s Pizza. Ferriman has four fast-casual locations in Boston and Cambridge, all situated near colleges. The clientele is a mix of students, young professionals and urban dwellers. Employees range in age from 20 to 26; 20 percent have tattoos and/or piercings.

Ferriman doesn’t require employees to cover tattoos (unless they’re fresh or controversial, an issue that hasn’t arisen yet). For sanitation reasons, they’re required to remove facial/tongue piercings.

“There seems to be a trend of young people getting these,” he says. “They’re becoming more mainstream, so customers don’t comment on them.” And as this mainstreaming continues, says Bramwell, it’s something the industry will have to learn to tolerate. “Otherwise,” he says, “our pool of quality employees will slowly diminish.” ?

Managing Your Vibe

Too many restaurant operators leave things to chance when it comes to creating a memorable customer experience, says consultant Jill Morin. Instead, all the essential elements (employees, marketplace perception, products/services, place) require consideration and integration in a purposeful way.

“The starting point for any restaurant is identifying their vision for their business,” says Morin. “Who are you? How do you want to be different from the competition? Why will people choose you? Why will people want to work for you?

“And, what experience is your target market expecting?” continues Morin, adding that this is where the employee element is especially key.

The next step is avoiding a mismatch between the vision and the experience and the perception in the marketplace, she explains. However, the objectivity required for this can be challenging; why Morin says some restaurants may want to consider using an outside party for assessment purposes.

Pamela Mills-Senn is a freelancer specializing in writing on topics of interest to all manner of businesses. She is based in Long Beach, California.

The post 2010 August: In Your Face appeared first on Pizza Today.

What kind of menu do you have and how do you know? Let’s slice and dice a typical pizzeria menu. Profitability should be the deciding factor on all future decisions. This exercise will lean on the logical rather than the emotional side of the brain. This may be a painful exercise, but I assure you your new menu will be a money maker.

Several years ago I made a house call to a client in downtown Detroit. After introductions and a quick tour, I picked up a carry out menu. It was a full sheet folded in half, printed off a copier. There was almost zero white space, no descriptions or photos. It was black ink on beige paper that offered four or five kinds of fish, French fries, and 25 sub sandwiches. On top of this were huge pasta and pizza selections. I watched the crew at this pizzeria root through an upright two-door freezer for the right kind of fi sh and fries for a dinner.

I dug out my trusty highlighter and asked the owner to line out any entrees that didn’t sell at least three units a day or were a pain to cook. In 10 minutes we shaved off about half of his slow movers.

I told him how my own menu crept up once. If a customer or I loved an entrée, it was in the next print. I told him how I had to eventually axe my favorite Seafood Pizza.

After I did my first POS report on Menu Mix, it became crystal clear that another three pizzas and half of my sandwiches needed to go as well. I gave the probationary entrees three more months to raise unit sales, then ran another Menu Mix along with a menu engineering report. Menu engineering is a computerized or manual tool that ranks all entrees based on profitability and popularity. Sure, food cost percentage is important — but you can’t take it to the bank. A much more critical number is Contribution Margin (CM). CM is defined as the money that is left over after you have paid for the food and disposables for each and every menu component. This is the stuff that all expenses are paid from as well as where the profit comes from.

Anyway, after my client in Detroit cut his menu, his average delivery time improved by nine minutes. Additionally, the morale in the kitchen soared now that they didn’t have to dig and root for ingredients.
My takeaway thoughts?
? Capture the units sold per month report data from your POS system (or manually if you are handwriting guest checks). Black and white doesn’t lie. You probably know in your gut what entrees are dogs, but it’s good to see the reports.
? Perform a menu engineering study on your menu. Make decisions with your head, not your heart.
? Have your menus and fliers designed and printed professionally.
? The most profitable menus are lean and mean.
? If you can’t sell more units, sell smarter. Position and describe your stars so they account for higher sales.
? Loosen the grip on food cost percent. It’s only half of the profitability equation. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2010 August: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

PT: You’ve developed quite a reputation in Savannah rather quickly, haven’t you?

LC: Well, there wasn’t anything like this here before we opened. We had another shop several years ago in New Jersey, so we already had the recipes and everything like that down pretty good … People like the pizza. We’ve gotten some good, loyal customers.

PT: What’s the secret?

LC: You just gotta treat people good and give ‘em good food. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. They like to see the owners. We’re here, we talk to them, we know their names. That’s important.

PT: Do you have to market and advertise aggressively when you do that?

LC: Not really. We don’t do much advertising. It’s about knowing the customers and having good relationships with them. We sit down with our customers. That’s what keeps them coming back. We’ve built this through referrals, word of mouth.

PT: How would you describe your pizza?

LC: It’s Jersey-style. We do large pies and oversized slices. We keep it simple. That’s the best way to do it.

PT: Why did you decide to get involved with the Tour de Pizza?

LC: It was a good way to get our name in front of the community and do something fun for the community. It’s been a really fun time having these guys (from the Tour de Pizza) here.

The post 2010 August: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

That said, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to our readers the 2010 Independent of the Year: Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2004 by former Starbucks executive Joe Fugere, Tutta Bella was the first pizzeria in the Pacifi c Northwest to receive certifi cation from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletanta (VPN), the watchdog that ensures its American pizzeria members live up to the traditions and standards of the original pizza crafted centuries ago in Naples, Italy. I have personally visited Tutta Bella four different times over the years, and I’ve never left any of the company’s four locations without feeling absolutely blown away by the superior food quality, service, attention to detail, ambiance … you name it. This might well be the perfect pizzeria.

Seattle residents obviously agree. Tutta Bella will top $10 million in sales this year.

To learn more about Tutta Bella and what makes it so special, see our coverage beginning on page 58. If you take nothing else away from this issue, don’t fail to absorb Fugere’s passion for his business and the way he has set it up to succeed by demanding excellence in every facet of it. By cultivating a talented staff and then empowering it, he has fostered an environment in which every employee takes ownership and works to ensure customer satisfaction remains high. Fugere doggedly pursues perfection from every angle, ranging from the wine list or the way an espresso is pulled to the way the cornizione (the pillowy rim of the finished crust) must look before the kitchen can send a pizza out to a table. But while he’s driven by excellence, he’s inspired and guided by authenticity. Essentially, he wants to re-create the quintessential Neapolitan experience in his four Seattle pizzerias each and every day. It’s a lofty bar, and Tutta Bella reaches it.

Congratulations to Fugere and the rest of his staff. You’ll meet many of them in the pages of this issue. People like executive chef Brian Gojdics; beer, wine and spirits manager R.C. Jennings; coffee program manager Jeff Perini; director of operations Joyce Morinaka; training program manager Kelli Phelan; sustainability program manager Erik Cain and facilities program manager Jamie Sprott. These people are at the forefront of one of the nation’s most successful operations, and Pizza Today is proud to cover their success stories.

Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2010 August: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

A: In reviewing your dough formula, I see that it contains whole eggs. Whole eggs contribute significantly to the browning process of the dough during baking, thus allowing the dough to color-up faster, resulting in a shorter bake time. This is all well and fine, except for the fact that the shorter bake time also means that the pizza will not be baked sufficiently to develop the maximum crispy texture possible. My recommendation is to eliminate the whole eggs from the dough formula, and then experiment with the baking time to achieve the same baked color, but with a longer baking time. This will help to develop a greater level of crispiness in the finished crust. If your oven is an older model, more than 10 years old, your pizzas may benefit from a longer baking time at a lower temperature. To begin, I would suggest starting out at 435 F with a baking time of 7½ minutes, and then adjust the time and temperature until you achieve an improvement in overall crispiness of the finished crust.

Q: We are presently making a very good quality thick-crust pizza with a tremendous flavor achieved by allowing the dough to ferment at room temperature overnight. We want to now introduce a very light and airy type of crust. Will the substitution of about 25 percent of our present pizza fl our with cake or pastry fl our give us the light, and airy characteristics that we’re looking for?

A: No, it won’t. Both cake and pastry fl our are much lower in protein content than any bread or pizza fl our, so the addition of either to your dough would only serve to weaken it, possibly to the point of collapse, in view of your long fermentation period. Depending upon your dough temperature, formulation, room temperature and yeast level, your fl our will be able to provide sufficient carbohydrate to support something between five and eight hours of fermentation. After that, the yeast will be pretty well spent, making for a thicker, more dense finished crust. Without knowing how you manage the dough when making your regular pizzas, it might be something as simple as just allowing ample time for the yeast to do its work again. After panning the dough, allow an hour or more for the dough to rise between panning it and dressing/topping it in preparation for baking.

In some cases, we find that the dough must be allowed to rise for a minimum of 45 minutes to a maximum of 90 minutes to achieve the desired finished crust textural properties. We regularly produce what is referred to as a California style deep-dish pizza. That sounds a lot like what you are looking for. To make this type of pizza, we use dough that has been managed through the cooler overnight; it is then allowed to temper at room temperature for about two hours before the dough ball is fitted to a well-oiled, dark-colored, deepdish pan. We normally use 14 ounces of dough weight for a 12-inch pizza of this type. The pan is covered with a fl at pan separator, or multiple pans are stacked one on top of another if they are stacking pans, and the dough is allowed to rise for about 70 minutes at normal room temperature (72 to 75 F). If the room is colder than this, you may need to use a proofing box set at 90 to 95 F / 70 to 75 percent. In this case, you’re looking at a proof time in the 45- to 60-minute range.

Finished crusts can be either baked on the raw dough, or the crusts can be par-baked, and then the pizzas prepared on the par-baked crusts. In either case, the finished crusts will be about a full inch thick, and they will be tender. If the yeast is too damaged to provide the needed leavening for producing this type of crust, you may need to take half of the dough and mix it with the ingredients to make a half-size dough. This is essentially a 50/50 sponge dough process. The introduction of fresh ingredients, as well as fresh yeast, will refresh the dough, allowing it to proof and bake in a more normal manner once it has been placed into the deep-dish pan, while still retaining much of the fermentation flavor achieved by the long, overnight fermentation period. ?

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

The post 2010 August: Dough Doctor appeared first on Pizza Today.

A few days later, my publisher, Pete Lachapelle, had Matt McClellan on his cell phone. Matt is sick and tired of pizza’s “junk food” reputation. As the most highly customizable dish in all of foodservice, pizza can be as healthy or suicidal as the customer wishes it to be. Matt, who owns a pizzeria in St. Petersburg, Florida, is on a mission to prove that pizza can have health benefi ts if consumed as part of a well-balanced diet. He’s illustrating his point by cycling up the East Coast. In fact, he is scheduled to end his Tour de Pizza this month. Read more about it in the August issue of Pizza Today.

But that’s another story. Back to the phone call. As Pete and I talked to Matt, he used the dreaded ‘F’ word not once, but twice. This got the two of us a bit fired up again. You see, we can handle the so-called ‘F-bomb’ all day long. We’re not exactly saints. But this particular ‘F’ word — fast food — is far worse. (Okay, ‘fast food’ is actually a two-word phrase, but let’s not get bogged down by minutiae here).

As Pete and I talked, we began to realize that the sorely misplaced fast-food designation has become pizza’s proverbial albatross.

Why shouldn’t pizza be lumped in with fast food, the uninitiated might ask? First, let’s just take the definition of “fast food.” Notice that critical first word … fast? What’s fast about pizza? Nothing.

You woke up this morning and made fresh dough. The process took time. The dough is now proofing and aging, which allows it to slowly develop spectacular flavor for use not today, but tomorrow — or maybe even the next day.
Your prep crew spent much of the morning cutting, slicing and dicing fresh vegetables.
When a customer places an order, you’ll then start the process of preparing their meal to their specific wishes. You’ll dress that dough, to order, with sauce, cheese, meats and vegetables. You’ll then place the customer’s pizza in the oven, where it will be fresh-baked. The entire process, from order origination to fulfillment, will take 15-20 minutes. Let’s compare this to an experience at a fast-food outlet.
The customer will pull up to a drive-thru speaker.
They will look at a pre-determined list of meals and choose a number.
Thirty seconds later the customer will pay at a window and be handed a bag of food that was pre-cooked and sitting under warmers. See any similarities between pizza and fast food? I sure don’t.

Unfortunately, pizza suffers from a cruel twist in identity, one in which its key strengths have worked not for the category, but against it. Think about it for a second: What is one of your biggest selling points? Pizza provides exceptional value, right? It is both inexpensive and delicious. Can’t go wrong with that equation.

Pizza is also efficient — it pleases just about everyone, and it’s designed to be eaten by families or groups. That $10 pizza feeds 2-3 people. That equates to $3.33-$5 a person. That falls within the price range of the fast-food category, which is rife with $1 items.

I’ll take that $3 slice over the $1 burger every day of the week. As will most people. So get out there and tell them about the time and care you put into preparing a fresh, made-to-order product that is wholesome and delicious. While it’s not news to you, it will be to them.

Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
jwhite@www.pizzatoday.com

The post 2010 July: Commentary appeared first on Pizza Today.

Q. Entering International Pizza Challenge can be a daunting task. Why enter a gluten-free pizza rather than a more traditional offering?

A: When I developed the gluten-free crust, we got great response immediately. People that don’t even eat gluten-free or need to eat gluten-free were trying it and loving it. I had a woman … who was coming in regularly, and she said she had a friend who had competed in a gluten-free category in Italy — and our pizza looked a lot better than that pizza. I thought to myself, ‘Well, it’s time that I competed.’

Q. How well do gluten-free pizzas sell at Willy O’s?

A: We’re selling probably in the neighborhood of 250 or 300 a week. At this point, it’s fairly new. We’re just now getting known for it with Willy O’s being as new as it is –– it’s only 17 (or) 18 months old.

Q. One of the biggest concerns of offering gluten-free products is cross contamination. How do you avoid it?

A: We do it similar to how someone would do it in their own kitchen, and that is paying close attention to what we’re doing and how we’re doing it. Every time, before we make any pizza, we think to ourselves, ‘is this gluten or gluten-free?’ So we do a lot of handwashing (and) a lot of changing of the tools we’re using to make sure we’re staying on the gluten-free side. Our goal in the near future, as fast as we’re growing, is to open a new facility. In that, we’re looking at building two kitchens to make it easier. We feel it is easier that way, but I don’t think it’s impossible the way that it is (now).

Q. Much of what you make in-house is homemade. How are you keeping costs down in such a severe economy?

A: We’re really trying to keep costs down by using all of our products so that we don’t have any that we need to throw away. … Right now, for us, we’re not in a low-dollar pizza range. Even though we have five pizzerias that we can see out our window, we are not competing with those. We’re the only one with high-quality pizza, so we can demand the price that we need for the quality that we serve.

Q. We know you work with your wife, Carla. What advice would you give to someone entering the industry about working with family?

A: I think it’s good in that family is to be trusted. That’s one thing that you have going for you. You should have the same goals. There are always pitfalls (and) problems just like with any other employee.

The post 2010 July: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

Mike Ulrey, vice president of marketing for Flyers Pizza in central Ohio, says hold systems are a no-brainer because it’s something that impacts your customers before you even get the chance to talk to them. “I did an analysis of a particular month with a couple of products that we had on our message on hold specials, and we found that we’re doing anywhere from a 30- to 45-percent increase on those particular products that we use for the special during that month,” he says. Hold systems are a unique marketing tool for up-selling products to call-in customers; you’ve already sold the customer on your restaurant whether through a promotional fl yer or television ad –– so why not sweeten the deal? “You’ve got the customer to call into the store, and once they call in you have to capitalize on that call and up-sell,” says Rick Stanbridge, president of Fidelity Communications, a phone service company that services the quick service industry.

There are two options for hold systems: a standard hold feature and a sequencer. Both can be effective, and which one you choose for your restaurant will depend on your budget and sales goals. Standard hold features are only used if your CSRs are too busy to take a new call and usually cost from $300 to $600. A live person answers the phone and tells the customer to hold. While waiting, the customer hears recorded promotions or music. “Sequencing is where an on-hold device actually answers the phone and automatically up-sells the customer with a short upfront special and then puts the customer on hold until an available CSR can take the call,” says Stanbridge.

What’s the difference? “If you’re looking at a strictly on-hold feature, the advantage obviously is that you can continually promote your restaurant and specials,” says Stanbridge. “The other thing is, particularly on a Friday night, a customer can be put on hold for an exorbitant amount of time and the time will go by faster, no matter what you put on your message –– even if you only put music on there –– the time to the customer will go by considerably faster. We have completed studies where the perception of the time on hold is about a third of the actual time when they’re listening to either a message or music.”

Another difference is the price of a sequencer with an initial outlay between $1,500 and $2,400. However, the advantages of a sequencer quickly add up: every customer will hear the message — and once they reach a live CSR, they will not be put on hold again for the duration of the call.

At Flyers Pizza, call-in customers are presented with the option to hear the specials by a call sequencer (they can also choose to opt-out and go directly to a CSR). “Our focus is on the family; that’s our target market,” says Ulrey. “What we’ll do is package a pizza, an appetizer and a soft drink together. We like to set price points that we think families will find very appealing (such as $19.95). The only way customers hear about the dinner special is by listening to the promo hold message.”

Pizza Inn, headquartered in The Colony, Texas, also utilizes a sequencing system for call-ins. Madison Jobe, vice president of development, says that their franchisees swear by the messaging system. “It reduces your hang-ups and call backs, because at least customers know that they are waiting in a queue; so it’s not just a ring or busy signal. Our franchisees feel that their hang-ups have reduced, at a minimum, by half, and probably more than that at most stores. Early on, we tracked results more closely than now, but tickets increased anywhere from $1 to $2 per order after the system was put into place several years ago.”

There are several options for the production of your hold messages. Some pizzeria owners choose to record their own messages, while others hire a professional service to handle the production. “Message on hold providers will tell you that it’s better to use the professional greetings,” says Stanbridge. “However, depending on how savvy you are or if you have someone with a good voice working for you, you can do it yourself.” Ulrey says their hold messages are always top performers in terms of ROI. “The dinner special from message on hold is always in the top five when analyzing our different promotions.” ?

Win ’em Over While They Wait

Investing resources and time into your on-hold messaging system is a worthwhile investment. Up-sell your customers on every call with these tips:

? Keep it short and sweet. “We like to keep messages a minute or under,” says Mike Ulrey, vice president of marketing for Flyers Pizza. “It’s extremely important because people want to get off the phone. People have less time now than ever, and to have a lengthy on-hold message … people will turn it off very quickly. The most we’ve offered on one message is two specials, and we keep messages very brief so we don’t get the customer ticked off.”
? Bundle up. Always create a package deal for your on-hold promotions by combining pizzas with appetizers and/or soda combos. Ulrey advises coordinating your specials with your soda and appetizer manufacturers. “We’ll get them to help defer some of the food cost, and basically we do a package deal,” he says.
? Rotate promotions regularly. Pizza Inn likes to switch their promotional messages on their system at least once a month. “We feature offers that are only available to those on hold, and we track them with a special code,” says Madison Jobe, vice president of development.
? Shop around. Googling “on hold marketing” yielded more than 18 million results. Find the one that best suits your needs –– and your budget.

Denene Brox is a freelance writer specializing in food and business topics. She lives in Kansas City, Kansas.

The post 2010 July: Hold On appeared first on Pizza Today.

“Acceptable noise levels in a restaurant or bar will depend on the type of establishment, its concept and general positioning. Noise control is actually quite rare in restaurants, as to some extent, the greater the noise the more exciting the venue. Indeed, a high level of background noise can be self-aggravating — it makes people speak louder to be heard,” says restaurant consultant Robert Ancill, CEO and managing partner of thenextidea.net. “Of course, this is not the case of all establishments, as noisy spaces can often be off-putting and nonrelaxing.”

Phil Diegelman, president of The Diegelman Group, a restaurant consulting fi rm in Orange, California, reminds operators to “remember the “social part of dining out; more importantly, that a loud restaurant is a busy restaurant.”

When it comes to measuring the noise level in a restaurant, find the range in decibels. “There is no set acceptable noise level; rather there are typical ranges depending upon the atmosphere desired within the space. Higher noise levels from speech and music are used at trendy spaces to lend an enjoyable dynamic environment, whereas in more intimate restaurants, lower noise levels –– set by mellow music –– are more desirable. Lively restaurants can have sound levels in the range of 75 dB(A), often with music having a strong base beat; intimate fi ne dinning establishments can be in the range of 50 dB(A),” says Brian Howe with Howe Gastmeier Chapnik Limited in Canada.

According to Diegelman, “the acceptable noise level for most restaurants is usually at conversation level, 70dB, or at its loudest 80dB (a telephone ring), all at a distance of three to five feet. In restaurants that have a bar, the noise level can be much higher because of the recorded or live music (90 dB or higher), which is the beginning of the danger level to our hearing.”

Dominique J. Cheenne of C&C Consultants Acoustic and Noise Control in Nebraska says: “A pizza restaurant that wants to focus on a quiet-style motif, with lights on the table and a visible cooking area such as wood-fired oven, should aim at less than 70 dB(A) of ambient noise level, and this would mean very quiet background music (if any) in order for the patrons to have private conversation without raising their voices. On the other hand, a more relaxed restaurant catering to college students will opt for an ambient noise level that is noticeably higher [between 75 dB(A) and maybe as high as 80 dB(A)], because they value background music and even televisions as part of the experience.”

According to Brian Smith, INCE board-certified principal of Acoustical Engineering Consultants in Elk Grove, California, “most restaurant spaces should try to keep average sound levels below 75 dB(A). Many of today’s restaurant spaces easily exceed this level. One other thing to keep in mind. If you have restaurant sound levels consistently above 85 dB(A), an OSHA hearing conversation program may be necessary for staff.”

To compare levels, Diegelman says operators can listen to the phone ring — and if it can be heard, the level is perfect. “To become more technical, the operator can purchase a sound level meter online,” Diegelman advises.

According to Cheenne, “accurate measurements of noise levels must be done with sound level meters (SLM) that can provide a statistical description of the levels over time.”

Ancill suggests a non-technical way operators can measure noise levels. “A more typical measurement is controlled customer feedback in the form of surveys, mystery shopper reports, even sales performance at different day parts when noise is noticeably different,” Ancill said.

If a restaurant is determined too loud, operators can adjust the volume in a variety of ways. “The easiest thing to do is look at the customer area. Are the surfaces hard? Glass, wood, drywall and exposed brick are prime reflectors of sound. The more sound there is bouncing around the room, the lower the intelligibility of conversation. Soft surfaces — such as carpet, tapestries, curtains, partitions and padded seating — all help with reverb control. In ceilings you can have higher rated ceiling tiles for sound absorption. Treatments to walls and ceilings can range from foam products to fabric covered panels or diffusers. Most after-market solutions are higher in cost and installation,” says David Soran of Audio Consultant Services Inc. in Denver, Colorado. Smith agrees that specific surfaces can raise the volume.

“The typical problem of noise levels or loudness in restaurant spaces comes from the use of hard sound reflecting room finishes. Other factors may include the space layout, booth/table design, partitions, HVAC system, sound system and kitchen equipment. Here is where the expertise of an acoustical consultant really helps. Even if the only necessary change is adding sound absorbing material to room surfaces, an acoustical expert will determine the quantity, type, placement, and mounting method of sound absorbing materials to meet both the sound level and aesthetic goals of the owner/operator,” Smith says. “In general, carpet is not a good sound absorber. Acoustical treatment is usually recommended for both the ceiling and wall surfaces, with the ceiling typically being the most important acoustical surface in the space.”

If customers’ voices are too loud because of music, Diegelman recommends turning “the volume down incrementally, waiting a few minutes between adjustments. This will quiet them without notice. Most guests will notice the noise level has dropped and speak more quietly, as to not be heard by the table next to them.”

Operators must also be aware of minimizing the sound from machines. “Restaurants need to minimize the impact of sound from exhaust fans and other mechanical systems. A good engineering design would limit noise levels from these sources to about 40 dB(A) so as not to interfere with music and speech,” Howe said. Noise levels in restaurants can tell a lot to a potential customer like “here’s the party” or “let’s talk.” Depending on what you want your restaurant to say, operators need to adjust the volume. ?

DeAnn Owens is a freelance journalist living in Dayton, Ohio. She specializes in features and human interest stories.

The post 2010 June: Say What: appeared first on Pizza Today.

The soft opening has a few goals, says Christopher Muller, director of the Center for Multi-Unit Restaurant Management at the University of Central Florida, Rosen School of Hospitality Management in Orlando. “This is not open your door and let everyone eat for free,” he says. Instead, think of it as a way to accomplish several goals: getting good public relations, alerting the community that you’re open, training staff and building up a list of names that you may contact later for promotions or other communications.

If you send invitations, be clear about how many people are invited. Use phrases such as “You and a guest,” and ask guests to respond by phone or email so you get an accurate count of how many people to expect.

Tony Crosby, vice president of restaurant operations for the 19-unit Johnnie’s New York Pizzeria, recommends also inviting local business people and city officials. Hold the soft openings a few days before opening the restaurant to the public. “You can hold two to three shifts or days of trainings and then have one day in between training and opening to finish any last-minute preparations before you officially open,” he says. Johnnie’s New York Pizzeria is one of the restaurant companies owned by Scottsdale, Arizona based Kahala Corp.

It’s important to control other details too. “You should figure out how many customers you want to serve, how many repetitions of a recipe or station to accomplish, and the amount of practice you want for employees,” Crosby says.

Plan which food and beverages your staff will serve. Give each table a card telling them what items to order, or offer a limited selection to each table, so that all items or stations will get an equal amount of training. “If you do not do this, you might get everyone ordering the most popular items and some recipes or stations will not get practice,” Crosby says. “Be careful as your customers will want to order what they want and not what you want them to. Have a selection for each customer to choose from so you can avoid any upset customers.”

Be sure to limit the amount of food people can order, so that certain extreme value seekers don’t order multiple entrees and walk out carrying four desserts. “It’s a training night, not a free food for everyone night,” Muller says. “The guests are helping you, not the other way around.” Limit each person’s order to, for example, one appetizer, one entrée, and one dessert. Ask people to fill out a short evaluation form at the end of the meal.

Gino Palma Esposito, owner of Facci Restaurant in Laurel, Maryland, says when they held their soft opening in January, they did not offer the full menu. “We did not have the fresh gnocchi because it would take too long to prepare the gnocchi,” he says. He did have the full crew though, working all three nights of the training.

He also charged people half price for food, full price for alcoholic beverages. “We told them ahead of time,” he says. “They knew.”

Muller says you should not charge any money, or if you do, donate the money to charity. Your best bet is to give to a local charity, or a well publicized cause such as earthquake relief.

Palma Esposito says the only problem Facci had was that they expected 30 guests each night, but got 60. The extras came from walk-ins, some of the guests bringing extra guests, and probably from the fact the restaurant had announced the opening on Facebook.

Muller, who owned a restaurant in Maitland, Florida, says it’s important to strictly control the guest list. That means telling each staff member to invite four people and give them a window of when to arrive at the restaurant. “So we would say, Sally you invite four people, so she invites her mother, father, and two roommates, and they get four seats and they should arrive between 6 and 6:30 on Sunday,” he says. “You control the numbers so you don’t stress the kitchen.”

Make sure you have enough trainers on hand to help coach and monitor workers. “The goal is to be able to train in a real life scenario with actual customers for employees to be able to experience what will happen after the doors officially open,” Crosby says. “It’s an opportunity to establish a longlasting relationship, so have owners, managers and shift supervisors meeting and greeting the customers while they are coaching the employees.”

These early guests will likely be more understanding than paying customers. “Since they were friends and they had a big discount they were not looking for perfection,” says Palma Esposito.

Or, as Crosby says, “They will be your first customers once you officially open and hopefully customers for life if you make them feel special during these Friends and Family trainings.” ?

Nora Caley is a freelance writer specializing in food and business topics. She lives in Denver, Colorado.

The post 2010 June: What a Softly appeared first on Pizza Today.

The only tools we’re going to need here are a sharp pencil, a pad of paper and our trusty, hand-held calculator. Here’s a typical pizza dough formula presented in baker’s percent.

Flour: 100 percent
Salt: 1.75 percent
Sugar: 2 percent
Olive oil: 3 percent
Instant dry yeast: 0.375 percent
Water: 58 percent

The only rule you need to remember is this: Flour is always equal to 100 percent. What this means is that whatever fl our weight you elect to use will always be equal to 100 percent, so, just write down your fl our weight next to that 100 percent figure.

Let’s say you opted to use 40 pounds of fl our for making your dough. Keep in mind that the weight of each ingredient will be expressed in the same weight units that you express the fl our weight in (pounds, ounces, grams, kilograms, etc.). Tip: Look at your ingredient scale to see how the weights are shown, for example, some scales will show actual pounds and ounces to the nearest 0.2 ounces (for example: 11 pounds 3.2 ounces, or 3.4 ounces, etc.); other scales might weigh to the decimal fraction of a pound such as 11.3 pounds, or 11.4 pounds, etc.; some might even weigh to a fraction of an ounce such as 11 pounds 4.25 ounces, or 4.5 ounces, or 4.76 ounces, etc. My least favored scale is the one that only weights in single decimal fractions of a pound such as the above 11.3 pound example. The reason for this is because of its inaccuracy in weighing smaller amounts of ingredients. Each 0.1 pound is actually equal to roughly 1.5 ounces, or another way of looking at it is, this scale is capable of weighing your ingredients only to the nearest 1.5 ounce measurement. This can be a problem if you need an ingredient weight of 1 or 2 ounces. Try to show your fl our weight in the same weight units that your scale weighs in. Most of the time we can get away with showing the fl our weight in ounces without any problems.

Ladies and gentlemen, turn on your calculators!

1) 40 pounds of fl our will be expressed in ounces, so our ingredient weights will also be expressed in ounces. 40 x 16 = 640 ounces of flour.

2) Enter the fl our weight (640) in your calculator, then press “x” followed by the ingredient weight you want to find. In this case salt is 1.75 percent; so enter 1.75 and then press the “percent” key, and read the answer (weight of salt needed) in the display window: 11.2 ounces. Since we’re not making rocket fuel here, we can round this off to 11.25 ounces if desired.

3) Going through the rest of the ingredients, the math looks like this: 640 x 2 (press the “percent” key) and read 12.8 ounces of sugar in the display (round to 12.75 ounces).

4) 640 x 3 (press the “percent” key) and read 19.2 ounces of olive oil in the display (round to 19.25 ounces).

5) 640 x 0.375 (press the “percent” key) and read 2.4 ounces of IDY in the display (round to 2.5-ounces).

6) 640 x 58 (press the “percent” key) and read 371.2 ounces of water in the display (round to 372.25-ounces or divide by 16 to get the weight in pounds. 371.25 divided by 16 = 23.2-

Let’s do the math one more time. This time we’ll use 25 pounds for our fl our weight, with the same dough formula.

1) Flour: 25 pounds or 400 ounces fl our weight (25 x 16 = 400).

2) Salt: 400 x 1.75 (press the “percent” key) and read 7 ounces of salt.

3) Sugar: 400 x 2 (press the “percent” key) and read 8 ounces of sugar.

4) Olive oil: 400 x 3 (press the “percent” key) and read 12 ounces of olive oil.

5) IDY: 400 X 0.375 (press the “percent” key) and read 1.5 ounces of IDY.

6) Water: 400 x 58 (press the “percent” key) and read 232-ounces of water (or divide 232 by 16 = 14.5 pounds of water).

If you want to convert an existing dough formula into one expressed in baker’s percent, all you need to do is to divide the weight of each ingredient by the weight of the fl our and multiply by 100. Here’s an example:

Flour weight is 25 pounds or 400 ounces.

The weight of the olive oil is 14 ounces. What is the baker’s percent of the olive oil?

14 divided by 400 x 100 = 3.5 percent.

The water weight is 12 pounds. What is the baker’s percent of water? 12 divided by 25 x 100 = 48 percent.

Do this for each ingredient and you’ve got the dough formula converted into baker’s percent. Now you can manipulate the size of the dough up or down as you wish, knowing that it is always in correct balance.

Remember, you can only work in weight measures. You cannot do baker’s percent in volumetric measures such as cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, etc.

Cut this copy out, or photo copy it and save it for the next time you come across a dough formula given in baker’s percent, or when you need to convert your own formula into baker’s percent so you can adjust the size of the dough without fear of your formula getting out of balance. ?

Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

The post 2010 June: Dough Doctor appeared first on Pizza Today.

Q. How does the “Patty’s on the Run” concept work?

A. With the way the economy is heading and the high rents in California especially –– we were on a high-end boutique street in Santa Monica which is kind of like the Beverly Hills of Santa Monica –– about 30 to 40 businesses had gone out. The landlords weren’t lowering the rent. I had this idea instead of having a brick and mortar location, I’d take it virtual, since we have loyal customers. People can go to our Web site … and order online and we are delivering it to them for free. It was a way to deal with the challenging environment for businesses today. I brought everything into my wholesale facility and we carved out a niche. We deliver throughout west L.A.

Q. How did you initially start your wholesale business?

A. Like anything in life, sometimes you just kind of fall into things. I had a chef come in into my shop back in 1989 and said ‘you have the best pizza I’ve ever had. Can you make them and deliver them to me?’ … Eventually, I got (hotel contracts). It’s been one hotel at a time, one pizza at a time. We got large enough so that we could have a separate wholesale facility.

Q. What is the allure of take-and-bake pizza?

A. It takes a while for people to understand the concept of take-and-bake pizza. We explain to our customers that studies have shown that pizza deteriorates after it’s cooked within 7 minutes. It’s getting cold; it’s getting soggy. With a take-and-bake pizza, you get it fresh to your door, and when you’re ready, you put it in the oven to bake. It only takes 15 minutes to cook. It’s fresh, hot delicious pizza right out of your oven.

Q. How does the delivery aspect of take-and-bake work for you?

A. It’s getting there. It’s a brand new concept. We just started this in March. It’s getting people used to (the fact that) we’re not located in Santa Monica, but they can get the pizza and get it delivered.

Q. Have you considered baking in-house?

A. We are toying with the idea of offering cooked pizzas. We’re not sure if we’re going to go that route. When you get a fresh pizza delivered to your door, it is so much better if you can put it in your oven. You don’t have to have it there at a certain time. You can have it delivered at 5, knowing that your guests are going to be there at 7. It is more convenient for people, if they think about it.642-445

The post 2010 June: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

The result? Not only the public’s attention but also that of media watchdogs as well. Could such a public mea culpa actually have negative results? And how would the franchisees take it?

“I was a little bit nervous at what the reaction was going to be from the time they saw it until the time we launched. How were they going to react without kind of seeing the outcome?” Doyle says. “What was most interesting to me was (that) I expected a much more mixed reaction on the launch plan than what we got. Our franchisees looked at the advertising and said, ‘You know what? I get it. I’ve been a franchisee for 20, 25 years and I’ve heard this criticism before. It’s not like this was out of the blue.’ ”

Honesty, it seems, is the best policy. The commercials air the criticisms from consumers and focus groups and hold little back. After the rollout, Domino’s tracked down some of its critics and urged them to try it again. Haven’t tried it yet? The company plastered three regular Joes’ hometowns telling them to give the new pizza a try. They did,with cameras rolling.

“Minds don’t change overnight,” Doyle warns. “While I’d love to change everybody’s minds, what it really means is as we continue to build credibility for the quality and taste of all of the food that we sell at Domino’s, it’s going to continue to change people’s perceptions of the brand over time. And that improvement in percentages over time means sales growth over, hopefully, a long period of time.”

Domino’s created a separate Web site, www. pizzaturnaround.com, which features actual focus group feedback, a live Twitter stream and corporate employees looking, well, dejected as they listened and read the comments. Doyle and his corporate team then walk viewers through the new pizza process. They’ve also adopted a new tagline: “Oh Yes We Did,” which answers the question: Did we actually face our critics and reinvent our pizza from the crust up?

Russell Weiner, Domino’s chief marketing officer, says the company changed its advertising techniques to a more honest and organic approach in an effort to connect them to the brand on a personal level. “What we were doing is evolving our brand positioning,” he says, adding that consumers are connected via mobile devices and through the Internet but are connecting personally less.

“We didn’t walk away from (focusing on) delivery. We walked away from making ourselves only about delivering,” he adds. Because Domino’s Pizza arrived at the door so quickly, consumers often had a negative image about the preparation of the food. Connecting consumers with the food was critical for the advertising campaigns –– and, essentially, the rollout of new products –– to work.

“One of the things that we do as a marketing team is (that) we want to do marketing in a time machine,” Weiner says. “We want to create five to seven years of progress in one year. To do that, we wanted to do things in a break-through way. And, not just break-through for break-through’s sake. … It was more about if we’re going to put real people in our ads, and people want real connections, then you’ve got to be honest with them. And that’s what we did.”

Following the launch of Domino’s Pizza’s new Oven- Baked Sandwiches line in 2008, it conducted an independent taste test comparing it with QSR sandwich giant Subway. Domino’s claims that its sandwich line beat Subway 2 to 1 took to the airwaves in a bold advertising campaign aimed at securing the sandwich delivery segment.

Soon after, Subway issued a cease-and-desist letter that questioned the validity of the taste test. Domino’s answer? Then- CEO David Brandon stepped up Domino’s game by “oven-burning” the letter in a commercial. After all, Subway had attempted to enter the pizza market in the past and turnabout is fair play.
“We were confident in the data,” Weiner says, adding that his experience working with The Pepsi Challenge (comparing the beverage to its competitor, Coca- Cola) helped. “You can’t run a claim advertisement on national television without showing the backup to the networks.”

The company posted that ad on YouTube the weekend before the Super Bowl and it generated 1.2 million hits. “People responded, and we really started to realize that if your food is great –– which ours was –– and you’re willing to stand behind it and put your face to it, and telling the truth, it seems to work,” Weiner says.

During the launch of the American Legends line, which features all-American dishes brought to pizza, the company put its franchisees in the ad to argue for their respective locales. “What’s to make you think that that’s a great pizza more than having the guy who makes it in” a commercial, Weiner says, adding that it was a “home run” for the company.

Another winner was Domino’s Big Taste Bailout Package, which offered $5 pizzas. Its advertising again featured its own CEO, was filmed in Washington D.C. and aired as corporate leaders descended on the nation’s capital asking for their own bailout. “This was a bailout that was costing us money,” says Weiner, “so it was real, and it was true, and that’s why it worked. … That was one of our best windows last year.”

The advertising campaign for Domino’s newest dessert, its Chocolate Lava Cakes, pitted the company’s accountants (the cakes were given away free with the purchase of a Pasta Bread Bowl) against the chefs who created the dish over who should be given credit for the deal. Again, real people and real food, Weiner adds.

Internally, the company believes in “delivering the ‘Wow’,” and that doesn’t just involve its corporate office. “Whatever you’re doing, whether you’re doing an ad, you’re prepping a new product, you’re doing an interview, it needs to deliver the ‘Wow’,” Weiner says.

“You have to get people’s attention,” Doyle adds. “But at the end of the day, it’s about getting people to try the pizza. If we can get them to try the pizza with the knowledge that this is something very new and different than you’ve had from Domino’s in the past, we win.” ?

The YouTube Incident

In April 2009, Domino’s Pizza made national headlines, but it wasn’t for a new product. Instead, a viral video featured two employees at a North Carolina franchise abusing customers’ orders before they were delivered. The result was a public relations nightmare.

“We found out about the video within 45 minutes of it being posted from external sites as well as our own monitoring team,” says Tim McIntyre, vice president, communications. “This was one of those incidents that just felt different. … The people (in the video) were so brazen about what they were doing that this one felt really bad.” Security and operations teams pulled still photos from the video immediately and emailed them to franchisees within hours of the postings looking for the pair, which McIntrye likened to looking for a needle in a haystack.

By 10:30 that evening, company officials had identified employees Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer. He received an apology e-mail from Hammonds at 1:38 a.m. (which was released to the public verbatim).Police, the local health department and the franchisee were contacted, and felony charges were fi led.

“Our fi rst priority was to fi nd them,” McIntyre says, “and if the food they were tainting had actually left the store.” (McIntyre says it was a hoax and the food was never delivered, as the small-town store wasn’t busy and the manager was in the back office reading a newspaper.)

“Secondly, we began to communicate with YouTube. We communicated with some other sites like The Consumerist that had reposted the videos. … We didn’t feel compelled to issue a press release or hold a press conference. That would have been akin to putting out a candle with a fire hose.” They issued a statement the next day on the company’s Web site telling consumers they were aware of the videos as management searched for a way to handle the negativity.

Winthin 48 hours, Domino’s issued a rebuttal featuring CEO Patrick Doyle on YouTube using the same search terms as the original videos. Find those, and you’d also find the corporate video. “We let people know on YouTube, where this thing originated, that we know this video is out there, it’s a hoax and we’re sorry for what these people did and how they’re portraying our brand,” McIntyre says.

Initially, views of the original videos spiked then waned. “Social media has a short attention span. We kind of ruined it by letting people know that we knew about it. … It was only attractive when people thought it was real.” Soon after Doyle’s response hit the Internet, mainstream media picked up the story. By that time, the story was less about Domino’s food being tainted and more about the company being victimized by two rogue employees and how other companies should protect themselves. Subsequently, the franchisee was not able to sustain his business and has closed.

“What this allowed us to do was to be open and honest about our anger,” McIntyre says. “There were a lot of victims here. The brand was a victim. This independent business owner lost his pizza stores because of what they did. Fifteen or 20 people who worked for him lost their jobs. “A year later, the brand not only survived, but it thrives. … To me, it speaks to the power of the brand.” ?

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor at Pizza Today.

The post 2010 June: Delivering The Wow appeared first on Pizza Today.

“It taught me where I could save money and where others might be wasting money,” says McMahon, whose business is in Louisville, Kentucky. “I’ve been hanging around that breakeven line for about six months, so I have to watch it carefully.”

That “it” is McMahon’s balance sheet, the financial snapshot of his business’s health. The data it supplies tells him his business’s available cash, the value of his inventory, who he owes and who owes him. Humbling as it was to make a $60 profit in February, it at least told McMahon the bills were paid.

“I’m managing it, and at least I don’t have to borrow money any more,” he adds. “My biggest focus this year has been taking care of my own books.”

At his accounting seminars, people often ask Jim Laube, “Why should I even have to look at that?” says Laube, a former corporate accountant and restaurant manager. “Why? Because it tells you a lot about your business … things that a (profit and loss statement) won’t.”

A P&L or income statement details an operation’s profit or loss by comparing expenses and revenue over a specific month, quarter or year. A balance sheet, on the other hand, gives an operator a more immediate view, showing whether the business has the cash to pay its current bills (including taxes and weekly or monthly commitments to suppliers and creditors) and whether those who owe it money are paying on time.

Divided into two sides — assets on the left, liabilities on the right — the balance sheet “tells you how solvent you are by telling you how much working capital you have,” says Robert Langdon, a former CPA who now speaks to business audiences. “The more working capital you have, the better the odds are you’ll be able to pay your bills.”

To mathematical minds like Laube’s, creating a balance sheet is simple, but he knows many operators are uncomfortable with general accounting. And while there’s no shortage of small business accounting software available, none are worth the investment if an operator can’t or won’t use them.

After a well-meaning family member messed up McMahon’s books, he took them over and started using an online program he says gives him all the information he needs. Laube says McMahon’s choice is common, while other less confident operators defer to professionals.

“This is not rocket science, so anyone should be able to understand accounting if it’s explained well to them,” he says. Yet even if you do defer to a bookkeeper or accountant for advice or to wholly manage your numbers, “don’t be intimated or say you don’t need to know this or that because you’ll let the bookkeeper take care of it. That’s when they start to develop little kingdoms and convince themselves they’re invincible because the owner doesn’t know what to ask. It’s up to you to ask lots of questions so you can understand what those numbers mean.”

While a balance sheet provides an instant view of an operation’s solvency, Langdon says it also tells bankers even more when an operator seeks to borrow money. A business’s “current ratio” and its “debt-to-equity ratio,” both gleaned from the balance sheet, indicate whether loaning money to an operator is risky or smart.

“When they’re looking at loaning money to one business versus the other, they’re looking at the odds that one can repay it versus the other,” Langdon says. “What they’re really doing is betting on different businesses to be successful, and (the balance sheet) is where they get those numbers.”

Current ratio (defined as current assets divided by current liabilities) indicates the amount of working capital in the business. If, for example, a business has $75,000 in current assets and $37,500 in current liabilities, it has $37,500 in working capital and a current ratio of 2 to 1. The higher the ratio, the more liquid the business and the greater chance the owner can pay bills.

“But if that ratio is down to 1 to 1, that means you’ve got at least as many liabilities as assets and that you might not be able to meet those obligations based on the cash coming in,” Langdon says.

A business’s debt-to-equity ratio (how much of that business creditors own vs. how much the operator owns) is calculated by dividing current liabilities by current assets. Therefore, if a business has $200,000 in current assets and $37,500 in current liabilities the debt-to-equity ratio is 29 percent to 71 percent — a highly favorable spread, Langdon says.

“The better that ratio, the lower the risk for the owner and the bank,” he says. Having that information stated clearly on a balance sheet increases the chance a bank will extend credit. “Banks loan cash and expect to be repaid cash plus interest. When you’ve got a good debt-to-equity ratio, odds are you’ll be able to pay them back.”

Why do I need a Balance Sheet?

It’s the most immediate way to assess your pizzeria’s fiscal health now.
It’s what bankers will ask for first — not your P&L — when you apply for credit.
It lets you know how much cash you have, and how much you’re owed.
It lets you know how much of your business you own, and how much creditors own.
Confused and want to hire a bookkeeper or accountant? Check any prospective number cruncher with one or more tests (some are free, some come with a fee) available on the Internet. You also could test them by asking them to explain some accounting principles to you. It’ll provide insight into how well or poorly ? they’ll communicate with you in the future.

Steve Coomes is a former Pizza Today editor and a freelance writer living in Goshen, Kentucky.

The post 2010 June: Balancing Act appeared first on Pizza Today.

You are not the only one. A huge majority of operators are in the same wagon. They feel underpaid, overworked and overtaxed and are deeply concerned about the future. The current state of the economy and lack of discretionary income of our customers just adds to our anxiety. Does the possibility of failure cause you to lose sleep?

The secret to staying in this crazy business is to act like a business. If your business has survived to this point in time you probably have satisfying the customer down pat. Your customers are loyal to you because they like the positive experiences they receive when they let you cook for them. Making guests feel special is a learned trait that I call the Service Mentality. Businesses are in business to make profit and to satisfy stockholders needs.

In this month’s “Back Office” section, I’ll try to explain the critical decision-making process I made with a very small group of friends that charted the rest of my career. I’ll also explain why you may feel broke every tax time and the mystery of what profit is. Along the way I’ll ask you to analyze your operation in a methodical way to peel back the pork and get to the bone. This is the zone where you can actually sense real rewards for your hard work and dedication. Turn to page 51 for more. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2010 June: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

Although Domino’s Pizza won’t actually celebrate 50 years in the industry until this December, it has come a long way since 1960 when two brothers borrowed $900 and opened a pizza shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Today’s Domino’s encompasses 9,000 domestic and international stores with sales topping out at more than $5.6 billion. Even better, the company reports its domestic sales increased 14.3 percent in the first quarter of 2010, while international sales are up 4.2 percent.

Overall, the company saw same-store sales rise 4.8 percent in 2009. It closed 97 franchise stores and 23 company owned units, but opened 346 internationally.

Nearly 50 percent of sales come from the company’s international division, says Jenny Fouracre, director, investor relations and legislative affairs, and that number is rising. “Probably in three to five years, international will be bigger than domestic. We’re in over 60 countries, and if you think about it, those are very immature pizza markets. There’s a lot of opportunity, and a lot of store growth potential.” The company has seen 16 years of same-store sales growth at the international level, and it grew 4.3 percent last year.

“We’ve concentrated on our top markets, especially our top 10 markets,” Fouracre says. Studying growth rates in those markets is key. Outside of the U.S., the company relies on master franchise models. “What we do is we find a really well-financed local family or local business person. They are Domino’s Pizza for that country or region,” Fouracre says. The stores are either corporate-owned or sub-franchised, depending on country. Unlike domestic franchisees, international Domino’s owners are allowed to own other concepts. The company opened its 9,000th store in India last spring, the company’s largest growth market.

In all, there are 4,461 franchised stores and 466 company-owned stores. “Our franchisees are really the heart and soul of our system,” Fouracre says. “We’ve got a little over 1,100 franchisees. We’ve got a great long-term relationship with them. Many of them have been here over 30 years. … They pay royalties weekly and we’ve got a 99 percent collection rate on our royalties.” Most of the company’s franchisees own three to four stores with its largest operating 143.

Aside from Domino’s domestic and international stores, it also owns and operates its own dough manufacturing and supply chain facilities. It is in these 17 units that the company’s fresh dough is made, vegetables are processed and its thin crust is produced.

The company has undergone a number of changes in the past 18 months, from the resignation of its CEO, David Brandon, who left to serve as athletic director at the University of Michigan, to a revamp of its menu capped by a whole new pizza from the crust up. (For more on Domino’s new products, see page 62.)

“The change we made with our pizza –– I mean, it’s our core business –– is something we’re going to talk about for a long time,” says CEO Patrick Doyle. “There’s an evolution of how we’ve talked about it.” There’s a level of excitement about the brand at the corporate and local levels despite the focus group criticisms that fueled its product revamp and a viral video scandal that led to negative sales in the second quarter of last year (see page 70). This is a whole new Domino’s Pizza, figuratively and literally. “Look, it’s pizza. We can’t take ourselves too seriously,” Doyle says, “and we don’t want the consumer to. Pizza is fun. It’s a different occasion for families when they order in pizza. Rules are broken. First of all, they all gather for the pizza. There’s no forks and knives, and maybe not even a plate. It may just be a napkin. It is a fun experience, and so you see that from us –– and frankly you see it from the whole category.”

As a result of Domino’s splashy advertising campaigns and new products, competitors like Pizza Hut and Papa John’s have had to step up their ‘A’ games as well. That has resulted in a return to the competitive pizza wars of the 1980s. All three companies have slashed prices, with Domino’s offering two medium one-topping pizzas for $5.99 each. Papa John’s and Pizza Hut responded with $10 large pizzas –– including specialty offerings. Since Domino’s New and Inspired recipe is pricier, how are they able to maintain food costs in light of its product upgrade? Doyle says profitability “has to be an ongoing part of how we operate. At the same time, there is definitely a different consumer mindset out there than there was part of the equation. Our view is that the right answer is to strike a balance. Have a balance between value and premium. With the American Legends line that we’ve been selling at $12.99 for a large pizza, it did very well for us. If we can balance that with good price points for consumers who are more value-oriented, as the consumer mindset shifts back a little bit, we’re in a terrific place.”

Pizza continues to be a good value for consumers, but less so than 10 years ago, Doyle says. “I think part of that is why the category was not doing as well as it should going back (several years). We weren’t getting the growth in the (QSR) category that we once were. We think value has to be an important part of that. We think it’s why you saw the category be a little bit softer than all of us would have liked. We think us delivering value, and our competitors delivering value to the consumer, is ultimately a healthy thing for the category.”

The company has a conservative growth plan of raising domestic same-store sales between one and three percent annually, while they believe international sales could top out at 5 percent annually. Longterm goals are to open 200 to 250 new units annually with the addition of new international markets. “International has been an absolute rocket shot for us,” Doyle says. “It’s been doing incredibly well.” Balancing domestic and international operations has actually been a benefit, as new products can be shared, like the company’s newest dessert offering which originated from Turkey. “That sharing of ideas and using other markets’ successes or failures as a place to learn is part of what makes the system work,” says Doyle. “The fact that we have this booming international business is only a benefit for the U.S. business.” ?

Domino’s Pizza by the Numbers
2009 sales: $5.6 billion

Total units: 9,000 Total number of franchised units:
Domestic – 4,461
International – 4,073

Total number of corporate stores: 466
Average sales volume per unit:
Domestic – $614,000
International – 642,400
Percent delivery: 71%
Percent Carryout: 29%
Number of employees: 180,000 systemwide

Franchise fee:
$0 for existing franchisees
$25,000 for new franchisees
Royalties: 5.5%
Average cost to open a store: $175,000 – $250,000

Domino’s Top 10 International Markets

? Mexico*
? United Kingdom*
? Australia*
? South Korea
? Canada
? India*
? Japan
? France
? Taiwan
? Turkey *

These indicate publicly traded companies in their home countries.

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor at Pizza Today.

The post 2010 June: New & Improved appeared first on Pizza Today.

Fogarty and Abston had been friends for a couple of years before kicking around the idea of opening a restaurant together. Initially, they began formulating a high-end concept utilizing Abston’s gourmet background. But through a series of discussions over coffee, that evolved into a much different formula.

“I said, ‘Dude, you’re a five-star chef. You don’t think you can make some awesome pizza?” says Fogarty, likening Abston’s reaction to “dominos falling” as the initial concept took form.

To save money, they purchased used equipment –– including an antiquated deck oven –– which at the same time was intentional. “It was a good thing for us,” says Fogarty. “Joe and I, we wanted to look like we’d been around, because we’ve been around in the restaurant business. Everybody we’ve hired has been in the restaurant business. The concept hadn’t, but we wanted people to feel comfortable when they walked in the door.”

Although they could have replaced them, the scarred tables and chairs that accompanied the purchase of the restaurant remain, and they’re just getting ready to replace the well-worn carpeting. “We didn’t get in the way of our own good ideas,” Abston says. The 96-year-old building location had previously been a Mexican restaurant on one side and a jewelry store on the other (complete with safe that still remains on property). They simply busted through the wall, left the beams and headers, used the stunning jewelry cases as their bar and ripped off five layers of materials to reveal an original brick wall.

The Pensacola location has a large center counter that invites communal dining, and as the company expands, they hope new locations will lend themselves to that structural feature.

Two years later, Hopjacks seems to be on to something. The company was on DRAFT Magazine’s 150 Best Bars of 2009 list, and it has won nearly 10 local accolades as well. The Pensacola location offers 36 beers on tap and more than 150 by the bottle. The beer menu changes daily, and they even soak their own fruits for cocktail infusions.

“We’re primarily pizza, but we take my background, which is primarily snotty, high-end restaurants and turn that into pizza,” says Abston. (Pizza accounts for 37 percent of Hopjacks’ business.)

One of the restaurants’ signature offerings are its Belgian fries. Abston takes fresh-cut potatoes, fries them in duck fat and serves with ketchup and a roasted garlic herb dip. And yes, we said duck fat. “Between the two stores, we’re doing about 900 pounds of potatoes a week now,” he says.

How does Hopjacks manage to keep costs down with such a high-end ingredient? The key to a successful menu, says Abston, is to avoid menuing items that compete with one another and allow ingredients to go further. Abston says they render their own duck meat, use it elsewhere on their menu (such as the Roasted Duck Caesar Salad and the Herb Roasted Duck specialty pizza) and then use the fat for the fries. It’s economical because they’re able to stretch out the ingredient beyond one dish.

Hopjacks’ top-selling pizza is its Butcher Block, which is piled high with smoked bacon, seared filet mignon and pepperoni. It carries the tagline: “This pizza has so many compliments, it actually has an ego.” (They use 300 pounds of fi let a week, so bulk buying ingredients is crucial.) Why so gourmet? “I’d probably made 50 pizzas in my life before I opened this,” Abston says, “but I’d been cooking for 15 years and mostly in very, very high-end Ritz-Carltons, places like that. So, what we wanted to do was push the envelope a little bit, but still keep it approachable. I preach that word probably 50 times a week.”

Dough is outsourced for the company, but freshness of ingredients is still important.

Fogarty describes their hiring techniques as “tattoos and ties” in that they’re open-minded enough to realize that it takes a village to create a culture. That extends to the local and touring bands that drop in and play well into the night. Hopjacks is lucky enough to walk that fine line between restaurant and bar. During the day, Hopjacks is frequented by local medical students and construction workers alike. As dusk turns to dark, however, it’s a raucous, hopping spot where the beer flows freely and the pizzas fl y from the kitchen well into the night.

“We’re doing what we’re doing, and it’s working phenomenally well,” Fogarty says. They serve a full menu until 2 a.m., and the bar is open until 3 a.m.

Expansion plans are in the works, with Fogarty and Abston preferring downtown redevelopment districts and old buildings that lend themselves to Hopjacks’ comfortable feel and help support the local community. The company’s second store opened in Mobile, Alabama, in June 2009. “Here on the coast, we either need to go East or West,” Abston says. “East of us gets really expensive up to Panama City.” Fogarty adds that those markets are saturated. Opening in Mobile afforded them a downtown locale close to their Pensacola headquarters.

“Our expansion plan is possibly to have a charter with the business that requires a small amount of reinvestment in the local community with their net income if we ever have a licensee or franchise situation,” Fogarty says.

Part of their plan is to work with downtown city improvement groups to find the best angle for future restaurants “instead of just going in and finding private real estate,” Fogarty adds. “We converse with the city agencies, (and) we utilize the systems that they have to support new businesses, and we listen to them.”

Although there is potential for Hopjacks to grow in its immediate areas, Fogarty and Abston instead plan to expand with other concepts locally. The goal, Fogarty says, is one Hopjacks per downtown location per market.

“We want to build regional brand strength,” he says. Rather than franchise, Fogarty hopes to license, work with owner-operators or directly own any future stores. Potential partners, Fogarty says, are “progressive, community minded, engaging and seasoned,” much like the concept itself. ?

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing of Pizza Today.

The post 2010 July: Il Pizzaiolo: Hopjacks appeared first on Pizza Today.

I discussed the possibility of counter offering 10 percent less than the asking price and was out-voted by my group of advisors. Every one of them advised I agree to the asking price. They told me that if I started to haggle on price my landlord would withdraw the offer. As it turns out my arch-rival in town was ready to pounce on the purchase. He had money and hated my guts. I’m sure he would have relished the thought of being my landlord. Twenty years later I sold the place to one of my tenants and semiretired, fairly well off for the son of a school bus driver. What sage advice I got from others. Without their counsel I wouldn’t have had the nerve and expertise to pull off the purchase.

During my 30 years of restaurant ownership I have leaned on the advice of 3 accountants and a few close friends who were very successful in their businesses. What my friends lacked in college degrees they made up for in business sense. My wife and life partner has enough degrees for all of them and is my final advisor. I married up.

Back then, in the mid-eighties, I was driven to succeed. If you tried to sell pizza in my town, I was your worst nightmare. I had graduated from the school of hard knocks and had mastered pizza making, leadership and defined and refined many guerilla marketing tactics. I was learning the ways of business one bitter and expensive lesson at a time. Until I went all in and purchased the real estate, I was mediocre at best in things money and financially related. In fact, it seemed that every time I dug myself out of a debt hole, I dug a new one. I think I was a glutton for punishment. If I were one of The Donald’s apprentices, I would have fired myself. The time had come for me to stop playing restaurateur and start being one.

This is the time I created my loose group of advisors I called The Old Grizzlies. These veterans had more battle scars and business smarts than I would ever have. I called a group meeting as situations arose and traded lots of pizza for priceless advice.

Until I became a land baron, I wasn’t required to account to anyone. If I had a profitable year, life was good. If I had an unprofitable year, we just went without the spoils of success. Chuck, my accountant, was about to give me a wakeup call. He assured me that he would make the numbers work if I decided to buy the place. He failed to tell me at the time that he would start questioning my every expense. He would challenge me to run a tighter and tighter ship. If 33 percent food cost was the norm, he challenged me to shave 2 percent off. When you zero in on every controllable expense item, your numbers will get better. Since he was not biased or grounded in the day-to-day operations of a restaurant, he put everything under the spyglass. After a few months my bottom line was on an upswing. We didn’t have any problem meeting my mortgage obligation. My tenants were happy and profitable. No whining, attitude or tardiness on the rent.

I can’t stress enough how much money was wasted weekly by free throwing toppings on pies. I shudder to think that if I had been as diligent when I made the first million pies as I was the last million, my financial outcome would have been significantly better. The cheap and simple act of pre-weighing cups of cheese and placing a scale on the make line saved me over $400 a week. I’ve seen many 5-8 percent improvements in food cost when working with owners who get it once they see it with their own eyes. I also decided to buy all of my groceries from one primary supplier. In today’s jargon it’s called Prime Vendor Agreement. When I implemented it 25 years ago it was called buying at Cost Plus.

Chuck, the bean counter, now had me zoom into the next highest expense: labor. Controlling this line item is trickier than portion controlling by far. It’s harder to control people than things. The first step was to establish a baseline labor expense percentage. This percentage was calculated two ways. The down and dirty percentage I was shooting for on a weekly basis was computed by my POS system: hourly and salaried wages divided by hourly and daily sales. This amount was 22 percent. After the hidden soft costs are added in, like matching employer social security, unemployment and workers’ comp insurance — plus any employee benefits — the true labor cost averaged at 25-26 percent. My manager’s bonus was directly tied to labor cost and he monitored it like a hawk. Every hour he would print a real time labor cost report. This report was accurate to the minute and made the decision to send someone home early very easy. Prior to setting a ceiling on labor we were generally overstaffed during slow shifts and understaffed during rush hours. We also graphed daily and hourly sales versus labor for the slowest days of the week (M-T-W-Th), as well as the busy weekend days.

During the slow days, we couldn’t hit low labor because we had to minimally staff. We made up for it on the weekends when we had just enough people to take care of business with very few low-productivity hours. We often hit 15 and 16 percent hours. The only way we could do this is to have cross-trained everyone so they were proficient in what I call the “Make It, Bake It & Take It” functions. It was not uncommon to see cooks delivering and drivers answering phones and preparing orders. We were able to pay more per hour by developing high-sense of- urgency crew members. We had pretty much removed all the fat from the schedule. One lightning cook can produce two to three times the volume of a slow cook. We did a time study on everything and knew exactly how much time it took to perform a function. Our best times were legendary. We could hand toss, sauce and cheese a 14-inch pizza and get it in the oven in 23 seconds. We could chop and box a pizza in 10 seconds. We could politely and professionally answer the phone and take an order, then repeat it back for accuracy and quote a price and delivery time in 44 seconds. Everything that is measured is improved.

A well run and managed pizzeria can achieve a food and labor cost of 60 percent. Big Dave’s ran at 55 percent more than 10 months a year. When I see an operation running at 65 percent and more Prime Cost, I know they are close to being unprofitable. That’s when a serious intervention is in order, ASAP. Get your prime costs in order now. If you do, you probably won’t fail to make money. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

The post 2010 June: Finding Success appeared first on Pizza Today.

Recently I came across a menu/fl yer and found multiple USPs (Unique Selling Points): ‘When Taste Matters’, ‘When Taste and Atmosphere Matter’, ‘Convenience, Variety, Value’. Whoa! Was this the perfect pizzeria or what? Harry Truman had the answer to that one when he said, “If you can’t convince ‘em, confuse ‘em.” This inconsistent message left me drowning in information but starved for knowledge. Without the convincing evidence to see that this is the pizza for me, why should I buy from them? Putting on the “Jack of all trades” persona only tells your customer that your pizza is average at best.

A consistent, convincing message is essential to success. If the above pizzeria would choose the stance of ‘When Taste Matters,’ they easily define their market and their marketing. They know to target a more cultured market. They can screen mailings or other methods of distribution; weed out the cherry-pickers, save money on print and distribution.

Remember, in your own marketing, to always offer solid reasons why your taste is superior (‘We use freshly packed California vine ripened tomatoes that allow us to accomplish a maximum level of freshness’ is a good example). A consistent message eliminates the unnecessary garble so that the necessary USP may convincingly speak and be retained by the consumer.

Certainly as our businesses grow and we meet consumer demands, our message may alter. The above pizzeria may have added dine-in, delivery or a value menu during the recession.

A consistent message communicated frequently gets the job done. Why is the Sunday paper so popular? Coupons! This concept has sunk in. People know where and when to find the information they want. In the same sense, consumers in your market need to know where they can find out about you and when. Without a planned frequency in your marketing, you lose name recognition, awareness and response.

Examine your budget. Can you mail 1,000 pieces per month? Can you door hang on a regular basis? Can you do an e-mail blast weekly? When it comes to frequency, a general rule of thumb is to make enough impressions to get a response and then enough to keep their interest. For example, on a limited budget, try door-hanging in a certain area three times during a month. Now that people know your message, you may only have to do this monthly (or, if you did your job and gathered valuable customer information, you may e-mail twice a month).

Three is generally accepted to be the magic number of impressions needed to get a response. It behooves us to build a marketing campaign around that fact. It takes time to make three impressions and to familiarize potential consumers with your featured products. Most of us deal with employees who are just entering the work force and it is hard for them to keep on top of ever-changing specials. Having a marketing campaign that runs several months allows us to really get that message ingrained, saves on printing and allows your staff to adequately service your customers.

Be ‘Jack’ or be outstanding. ?

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

The post 2010 July: Marketing Matters appeared first on Pizza Today.

“My wife and I studied the heck out of the different (legal entities) and did our best to understand everything could,” Slater says, noting that he eventually settled Corporation based on ease and price.

For many proprietors, deciding on the proper can prove a daunting, confusing task. Yet, understanding the details and making an informed decision can break a pizzeria and its owners. Establishing a legal affords the operator legal distance and personal from business miscues, namely unnecessary legal exposure.

“Incorporating or setting up a limited liability (LLC) for a business can protect a business owner’s personal assets, since an owner’s liability is generally limited to his or her investment in the business,” says Elke Hoffman, a New York-based attorney specializes in hospitality entrepreneurship.

Most pizzeria owners select one of three pathways, each with its respective benefits and drawbacks:

Sole proprietorship. A sole proprietorship, viewed as a business of one and a frequent starting point for many, is the most basic form of business ownership with no significant costs outside of securing the necessary licenses and permits. “What is critical to understand is that the individual represents the company fully and legally,” says Atlanta-based attorney Charles Hoff, the Georgia Restaurant Association’s general counsel.

While a sole proprietor may operate under a trade name, there is no separate legal entity or formal business structure, leaving the owner personally liable for all debts and actions of the business. Although the sole proprietor gains freedom from some business bureaucracy, the lax structure can be detrimental to the business, proving it difficult to expand or attract investors.

Corporation. A corporation is a distinct legal entity with ownership divided into shares and overall management conducted by a board of directors, which can be the individual owner alone. A corporation is started by filing articles of incorporation with the state, a $250 to $450 process simplified by helpful accountants, attorneys, and Web sites.

Most incorporated restaurants pursue the S Corporation label. Issuing only one class of company stock, S Corporations offer limited personal liability, pass through tax treatment, FICA and Medicare tax savings, and a reduced number of social security recipients. However, S Corps are also hampered by a number of technical rules regarding shareholder limits, distribution, and tax benefits that can generate extra paperwork.

“The biggest advantage to a corporation…is that if the corporation is properly formed and capitalized and the corporate formalities are maintained, the liability of the shareholders is limited to their investment in the corporation,” Hoffman says, adding that about half of her clients pursue S-Corp status.

Limited liability company. The LLC offers the liability cushion of a corporation and the tax advantages of a partnership. Governed by its operating agreement, an LLC can be formed in much the same way as a corporation and for approximately the same filing fees.

Flexibility leads many pizzeria operators to follow the LLC route, which can be set up to resemble a corporation (issuing shares with a board of directors and officers) or a partnership with collective restaurant management. Easy to operate, LLCs provide simplified profit distribution and do not require corporate formalities. Most importantly, members cannot be held personally liable for debts unless they have signed a personal guarantee.

“What most owners find appealing is the ‘fl ow through taxation’ component in which all business losses, profits, and expenses fl ow through the company to the individual members,” Hoff explains. “In this manner, an owner is able to avoid double taxation of paying both corporate tax and individual tax.”

But LLCs have their limits. While a corporation may live indefinitely, an LLC is dissolved should a member undergo bankruptcy or die. Additionally, there is a greater complexity involved in running an LLC, including federal classifications that need to be investigated for tax purposes.

Closing arguments. Given the personal liability risk of sole proprietorship, the vast majority of operators commonly opt for the S Corp or LLC legal designation.

“I would advise any retail establishment that is open to the public, and especially a food service establishment, to incorporate or form a limited liability entity… (which) gives some additional protection at a very low cost compared to obtaining additional insurance,” Hoffman says, adding that multi-location operators might even set up legal entities for each location, a move that can protect the overall business should claims occur at one specific location.

In all cases, Hoffman and Hoff advise operators to consult a tax professional for more in-depth understanding of their personal situation, including plans for growth, franchising or selling the business.

“Factors such as the number of owners and employees, whether any investors have been promised distribution preferences, if employees are to be given equity, the exit strategy, whether the owner needs to offset other business gains or losses, whether the owner will be an employee and the initial costs of forming each in any particular jurisdiction will affect the choice of entity,” Hoffman says.?

Ready resources: Advice available online and locally

Seeking credible information on the legal entity right for your pizzeria?

Online resources include LegalZoom (www.legalzoom.com) and V Corp. (www. vcorpservices.com), both of which offer online fi ling and include form bylaws or single-member operating agreements in their corporate kits. Nolo (www.nolo.com) has information and publishes materials with legal forms online as well.

In addition, state restaurant associations and many localities also have offices to assist small businesses, while local colleges frequently offer entrepreneurship courses that cover setting up a legal entity.

While saving cash is tempting, Hoff urges a degree of caution. Consulting with an attorney or accountant, many of whom offer free initial consultations, can provide operators a better understanding of the legal, accounting and regulatory checklist they need to consider for their establishment. Thereafter, Hoffman says, “The operator can better determine what items he or she can comfortably do independently.”

Chicago-based writer Daniel P. Smith has covered business issues and best practices for a variety of trade publications, newspapers, and magazines.

The post 2010 July: Pizza Inc. appeared first on Pizza Today.

It’s summer, and chances are there’s a local farmer’s market going on somewhere nearby. Take the opportunity to buy local and fresh. Items such as juicy beefsteak tomatoes and melons or fresh basil and oregano plants make great additions in your kitchen. The key here is to advertise that you’re buying local. If possible, use the name of the local farm in marketing and advertising. Taking advantage of local summer offerings is a win-win for all.

So Salty

As a pizzeria operator, you’ve got a variety of spices on hand. Today’s manufacturers, however, are creating blends that take simple ingredients like salt beyond the ordinary. Sure, you can add a dash of this ho-hum mineral to dishes, but why not consider artisan salts such as black lava salt (a sea salt blended with activated charcoal) or pink Himalayan salt (a marine fossil salt). While you won’t be able to use these pricy ingredients in every dish, adding a dash or two –– and advertising it on your item’s menu description ––– lends an upscale fl air to an otherwise traditional dish.

Take a Seat

If you’ve got dine-in seating, you need to be cognizant of your seating choices. Got a heavy senior-clientele? Consider chairs with armrests on castors. Lots of families? You’re going to need chairs with easily cleanable surfaces, such as vinyl. Keep several spares on hand. Chairs wear out easily and an uncomfortable seat makes for an uncomfortable customer.

Trial and Error

When it comes to formulating your dough, getting it just right takes more than a little luck. As our Dough Doctor, Tom Lehmann, points out, science and trial and error work hand-in-hand to get it just right. Does the protein content have an effect on a finished crust’s flavor? Lehmann says yes, but it takes a significant difference to change the flavor, such as going from a 10-percent protein fl our to a 14-percent protein fl our. The differences of going from a 12-percent protein fl our to a 14-percent protein fl our are insignificant, he notes. Keep trying different fl ours until you get exactly what you’re looking for.

The post 2010 July: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

Problems in the kitchen? Don’t let your customers bear the brunt of it. Have your manager be up front at the table. Admit to the problem and offer to make it right. A simple order of garlic knots while the customer is waiting helps foster good will. And don’t forget your delivery customers. Sending out a low-cost item (such as an order of cheesy bread or cinnamon sticks) and an apology at the door by the driver goes a long way to righting a wrong.

Cold Calling

At International Pizza Expo in March, an operator at the yearly Beer & Bull Idea Exchange offered a great tip: When a pizzeria in his local town goes out of business, he buys the store’s old phone number and has their calls redirected to his own pizzeria. The result? New — and hopefully repeat — business. If a customer is calling, they’re wanting pizza anyway, so luring them in with a new business special gets the order out the door and increases the pizzeria’s profile in town. It’s a win for all!

Proper Programming

If you’ve got a pizzeria, you’ve probably got a television or two in house. And with your focus on the food, it’s easy to forget about programming, and that might turn off some folks. News stations can turn ugly fast, so keep an eye on what’s playing. And honor patrons’ requests to switch channels if appropriate. If there’s a game on, you might just pad checks with extra beer, wings or breadsticks!

Promo Pairing

Want some new marketing materials? Check with some of your distributors. Soda companies, liquor distributors and cheese companies often offer table tents, banners and even branded stickers that can affix a menu to a pizza box — all available at little to no charge to the operator. Ask around … most companies are more than willing to partner with your pizzeria.

The post 2010 May: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

It’s summer, and it’s hot! Cool down your wine menu by offering an affordable prosecco. This sparkling wine is all Italian and made from the grape that bears the same name. It is a dry sparkling wine, so you’re going to want to have flutes on hand to serve it. And, it needs to be served cold, so invest in a couple of good champagne buckets. Allow your staff to sample a few and menu one or two of the most loved.

Leave it at Home

We all know that sick workers should stay at home, but what about those who suffer from seasonal allergies? If you’ve got an employee who does, its best to keep him or her off the telephone bank. Customers seek upbeat, attentive personnel when ordering over the phone, not continuous sniffles and coughing. Keep them behind the scenes and put your best foot forward.

Make it Warm

Do you serve breadsticks? Cheese bread? You’re going to want to serve it with a flavorful marinara sauce on the side. But customers won’t appreciate these must-have appetizers if they’re accompanied by a boring plastic container of sauce straight out of the cooler. A quick zap of the microwave will make all the difference, and dress it up! Top the warm bowl of marinara with a sprinkle of grated Pecorino-Romano and serve.

Yeast Longevity

Pizzeria operators often purchase in bulk, when yeast is a live organism and has a limited shelf life. According to The Dough Doctor, Tom Lehmann, the shelf life for active dry yeast, if it is packaged in under MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) conditions, is typically considered to be six months. If it is packaged using vacuum packaging, the shelf life is considered to be one full year. Inactive dried yeast, on the other hand, will always be packaged in a vacuum pack, and it has a shelf life of one full year; however, independent tests have indicated that it might be good for as long as two years (all of this is assumed to be at room temperature storage).

The post 2010 June: Simple Ideas appeared first on Pizza Today.

I was having a water cooler conversation with some non-foodie friends recently, and the subject was how they were bored to death when they dined out. It seems that a restaurant in my town is having a 10-year anniversary. It’s said that the menu is exactly the same as it was the day they opened. Right down to the soup du jour. The food is fantastic, but the menu is predictable. Once you have eaten your way through it several times, you get bored. I don’t look for a change in this place. It’s obviously working for them, especially in a town with a shrinking population and 22- percent unemployment.

On the other side of the spectrum, I just about fell off my La-Z-Boy when I watched the television commercial in which a huge pizza chain announced that they had re-engineered their pizza from the bottom up for the first time in 50 years. Their customer focus groups stated cruel things about the quality of the old product, so they did what every company would do: gamble hundreds of millions of dollars –– literally their entire future –– on new and improved. They didn’t even give themselves a safety net like Coca-Cola did with the New Coke fiasco.

When is the last time you gave them something to talk about? Your competition is. Your customers may be bored enough to try another place in town.

You would be wise to research, steal, modify, rip-off, reverse engineer, enhance or create some brand new menu items. Break your menu down into small pieces. Do a food cost and menu engineering report. Kill off the duds. Add brand new, delicious, exciting offerings in their place. Get creative. Keep on breaking it until you make it. I’m your customer … astound me. Please. ?

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.642-523

The post 2010 May: A Pizza My Mind appeared first on Pizza Today.

Q. Your position doesn’t just cover the average pizzeria operations. How do you incorporate that experience into Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza?

A. We’re always on the move. In fine dining or pizzeria operations, the basics — as far as using ingredients and toppings — are the same. We’re always trying to innovate. (With catering,) the volume is a lot larger, but the means behind the concept remains the same, and that is to put out the best possible product that you can and please as many people as you can.

Q. This isn’t just your average pizzeria. You offer some non-traditional menu items such as a Kobe beef chili dish and a white tuna and spinach salad. How well do those work in a pizzeria atmosphere?

A. They’re received very well. We always try to move forward, innovate new items and put new items on the menu to keep our regular customers interested and wanting to come back. And, those first timers will always have a large variety to choose from.

Q. Is it difficult for Sammy’s to compete in markets that are know for culinary diversity and excellence, such as Las Vegas?

A. We do quite well in Las Vegas. We’ve won many awards as far as (having) the best salad in town voted by all of the residents, the best pizza in town, even though we’re not on the strip. We’re in the outlying markets.

Q. You’ve added a line of Neapolitan pizzas to your menu. How well are they selling?

A. Those are doing great! It’s a traditional style with basic ingredients, all fresh ingredients, and they’re selling well.

Q. As the company grows, how difficult is it to maintain consistency across the brand?

A. Before we roll any new item out on the menu, or before we open up a new restaurant, we have an extensive training (process) and guidelines in quality control to really, really keep the consistency where it needs to be. That’s the biggest challenge of any multi-unit restaurant. That’s something that we face every day. We try to keep the focus on it every day.

The post 2010 May: Five Questions appeared first on Pizza Today.

Like it or not, the pizza industry is coupon driven, and our uncertain economy coerces people to endeavor to save a buck. The consumer’s view of a coupon is that it entitles him to certain benefits, such as cash or a gift. Operator Michael Shepherd of Ohio based Michael Angelo’s Pizza presents a differing view of coupons: “I think they are often a crutch that our industry leans on rather than using our image, brand or quality to bring people in.” Murray concurs. How do pizzaioli aspiring for quality product and excellent service come to terms with consumers who have been conditioned by the Big 3 to expect a deal or coupon and never pay menu price?

Junior Freitas, owner of Stuft Pizza in Santa Clara, California, comments: “A coupon to me is a means to get somebody into my store or back to my store. I try to educate my customers of the benefits of value over price.” Steve Cocca, President of the four-unit Cocca’s Pizza in Youngstown, Ohio, says: “Coupons raise ticket sales and help us get new customers. Most people stick them on their refrigerator so the third purpose is that it can act as a billboard.”

Savvy operators realize the power of coupons, but also know they can be a double-edged sword. Shepherd adamantly states that “deeply discounted coupons by the Big 3 have done tremendous damage to the industry that will take many years to repair. They are reducing our industry to little more than fast food status.” Murray confronts this daily: “We try very hard to instill the idea that we simply give them more for the dollars they choose to spend,” she says.

Murray, Shepherd, Freitas and Cocca all offer specials and featured items. Murray learned that she had to present the special to the customer in the way they wanted to see it. She simply put a box or dashed line around featured menu items, and suddenly the response to these items soared and customers quit asking for coupons. She spoke the language of the consumer. Cocca places the boxed items like his “Family Pack” right on his menu. “I really think people are more cautious about spending and go right to the coupons,” he says. “It does not need to be a big discount. They’re only saving 97 cents, but this works great for us.” Combos or a free item of high perceived value is a great way to pull off this coupon-balancing act.

Meanwhile, Shepherd asserts that “my best coupon is no coupon.” He still uses means of high ROI like Facebook, e-mail and door hanging to meet the expectations of a thrifty consumer with multiple item offerings. Freitas sees similar results offering printable coupons on his Web site. His free cheesy bread with a large pizza purchase has a perceived value of $6.95, while the actual food cost is merely $1.10.

Successful operators understand the industry and their target market, and they adapt to it. The semantics of “coupon” need not be a challenge. ?

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

The post 2010 May: Marketing Matters appeared first on Pizza Today.

“A frequent diner program gives you a share of the customer’s wallet space,” he says. “It also helps build a habit. Those who experience a brand three or four times have a revisit intent that is up to 15 percent higher compared to that of one-time visitors.”

These programs enable restaurants to add value without discounting, Sen continues. They also offer an effective tool for shifting buying behavior, for example, encouraging greater frequency of use or visits during off-peak times.

But the programs can fall short. For one thing, Sen explains, today’s society prefers its gratification instant. Consequently, the delayed rewards that characterize many programs appeals to a smaller group of consumers. The remedy? Bump up the rewards frequency and set a low threshold to get them started, he says.

This is what they did, says Nancy Reineking, director of operations at Willow Street Wood Fired Pizza in Los Gatos and San Jose, California. When they first launched their program, customers had to spend $200 to get $20 off (they use a stamp card with each stamp worth $10). Five years ago, they decided to lower the rewards level. Now, after spending $100 customers can get a free appetizer; after 25 stamps a free entrée; and after 30 stamps a free dessert. Customers can redeem as earned or all at once.

Reineking says the program is popular, adding that in one week at their Los Gatos location, 45 stamp cards were turned in.

Steve Rubino, founder/president of Rubino’s Pizzeria, with a location in Herndon and in Ashburn, Virginia, keeps rewards obtainable as well. Customers in his program receive a $10 gift card for every $100 they spend.

“Our customers who use this religiously are a great value to me,” he says. “It’s hard for me to put a finger on how much this has bumped up sales; just say that the card users are a significant part of sales.”

Sen believes in creating levels of usage/rewards. He suggests owners evaluate their traffic and break the thresholds into light, medium, heavy and super-heavy users, based on frequency.

“Then the idea becomes moving people from one threshold to another and keeping them at the heavy end of the spectrum,” he explains. “At the lower ends, the rewards should be frequent and small, becoming more personal and privileged as you move towards the heavy end.”

This strategy also helps restaurants differentiate their program, making it less “me too,” a real issue thanks to the proliferation of these programs, says Sen.

“To make the program really stand out you need to offer something more than ‘buy six get one free’,” he says. “Start by looking at the non-financial rewards, things that will really wow the customer.”

This could include perks like immediate seating, or moving to the top of the wait list, or personal attention from the manager. Other possibilities might be special gifts, such as a free birthday pizza or an invitation to be the first to try a new menu item or to attend a special in-restaurant, invitation-only event. The point is to make the program member feel well-treated and valued (he suggests looking to other industries that really connect with their customers for additional ideas).

But restaurant owners also must think of these programs differently, says James Sinclair, principal of Onsite Consulting, a Los Angeles based restaurant consulting firm. Rather than simply rewarding repeat business, the primary objective should be the collecting and retention of data, not appealing to bargain hunters.

“If you have a customer that always comes in Thursdays, don’t offer him a deal that gives him a discount on Thursday, because he was already coming in at that time. Now, you’ve lost revenue on that customer,” says Sinclair. “Don’t turn a dollar into fifty cents.”

You must outreach to customers and drive traffic and promotions without taking away from the existing traffic you’re getting, he emphasizes. The entire value of these programs lies in their marketing ability, getting the customer’s attention in order to push them towards what you want to accomplish.

“The point of the rewards program isn’t for the customer,” says Sinclair. “It’s for the restauran — disguised.”

This is the strategy behind her program, says Candace Roseo, co-owner of Bella Vista Trattoria & Pizzeria in Wilmington, Delaware. She collects names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, anniversaries and birth dates via the POS system, creating a database of 1,000 customers so far that she regularly markets to.

Reward levels range from $100 to $500, with a free appetizer or dessert at the first level and 15 percent off the total bill at the highest. The program generates good word of mouth; about 25 names are added each week, an indication she’s bringing in new business. But that’s not the biggest value.

“Information is power,” she says. “If you’re not in control of how you touch your customers and how frequently you touch them, well, let’s just say that’s not a position I’d want to be in.”

Increasing Effectiveness

The following tips will help you wring the most from your program:

• Make signup easy and convenient. Offer both in-restaurant and Web site signup.
• Educate staff, says consultant Arjun Sen. When these programs fail, it’s often because the staff doesn’t support it. Train them on program details. Reward them for signing up customers. Promote it through staff, with in-store signage, on menus and your Web site.
• Keep it active. Regularly market it to members, for example, via email blasts announcing a new menu item (mentioning that program members heard this first), reminding them of program benefits
• Make changes so the program doesn’t get stale. (Example: restaurant owner Steve Rubino is offering double points nights to promote certain categories.)
• Keep it consistent with your brand in terms of name and the materials used in the program (such as swipe/stamp cards). All should enhance your image.

Pamela Mills-Senn is a freelancer specializing in writing on topics of interest to all manner of businesses. She is based in Long Beach, California

The post 2010 May: Reward Your Customer appeared first on Pizza Today.