In the last month, I’ve presented workshops and seminars to several thousand owner-operators in eight cities. The overriding theme of the seminars is getting back to restaurant business basics. In every single seminar, I’ve asked the attendees to answer the following...
On a typical consulting assignment, I rise and shine early in the morning. I hook up with my client and we usually travel to their location. I can get a lot of work done before the phones start ringing and the lunch shift arrives. Imagine my awe when I arrived at a...
Approximately 50 years ago, Tom and James Monaghan bought a struggling pizzeria named DomiNick’s and made a splash on the Ypsilanti, Michigan, restaurant scene by delivering pizza — for free. Or so customers thought. The Monaghans merely built the...
How your staff performs during the rush is tightly tied to how well prepped they are. And while having dough made, cheese grated and toppings portioned are all essential, I’m talking about a deeper layer of prep: that of being physically efficient and fast. NASCAR pit...
I heat my home with wood. I have a boiler backup system, but firewood is a natural byproduct of living in the middle of 40 acres in the forest. Wood fires need attention; nature abhors a vacuum. When the fire burns down to coals, I either watch the flames go out or...
October has been officially recognized as National Pizza Month. Since its inception in 1984, it has been briefly featured from time to time in the national media. Every year, Pizza Today gives it some ink. This year, I propose that our industry start a celebration and...
Beauty lies in the bottom line. Simply put, beautiful menus are money-making menus. All the rest are money losers. 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...
How many times have you asked yourself the question, "I wonder how the (you fill in the blank) national chains’ mega promotions are working out?" Sometimes, it seems like the big four national chains have an exclusivity on creativity. They constantly toss new ideas...
Long before Cuba Gooding Jr. laid that line on Tom Cruise in the movie Jerry McGuire, I heard it from my wife every April 15th. My CPA heard the same such words from me. Did you ever ask yourself the question, "What am I doing this for? Did I buy myself a low paying...
When I was a young pup 25 years ago, my landlord approached me. I had been renting my restaurant from him for five years or so. Ray was retired from the phone company and wanted to sell his local real estate properties and buy a retirement place in Florida. I was the...
I’m a volunteer firefighter. My department consists of 28 men and two women. We make around 150 runs a year. We’re on duty 24/7/365 through central dispatch via a belt pager. I’ve done this a long time, and my experience has taught me that there is no typical run....
Q: We make our dough fresh every day and get a fairly consistent result. However, every once in a while our dough will have a smooth/firm bottom crust instead of a “soft/dimpled” bottom crust — and I like the smooth result better. The smooth result happens very...
