March 2013
Published: September 12, 2013
Topics
Employee Management
Loyalty Programs: In the Club
The Greek poet Euripides said: “One loyal friend is worth 10,000 relatives.” Think about the truthfulness of that statement. Friendship is a relationship we are not born into but still choose to cherish. In the hospitality industry, we form relat...
Topics
Operations
Ask Big Dave: Getting up to Speed on Accounting
Q: My brother and I own a pizzeria and deli. We have been open almost two years and business has been OK, but not terrible. We are paying bills, payroll is covered and my brother and I are making money. I don’t think we are making profit; I feel we...
Topics
People & Pizzerias
Wine & Dine
Two decades ago, America was largely intimidated by wine. Snobs drank it. Even worse, they swished it around, spit it into a bucket and then talked about it in unappealing and difficult-to-understand terms like “flinty” or “grassy.” What norm...
Topics
Employee Management
Growing the Online Component
Angelo Halakos, owner of Seasons Pizza, was skeptical about online ordering at first. He wasn’t sure it would actually work, and then there was the fee to consider, reasonable though it was. Even so, Halakos, who owns 28 locations primarily in the ...
Topics
Menu Development
Sharp As A Knife
Time to sharpen your knife skills? And by skills, we’re talking about back-of-house efficiencies and safety protocols around the most common foodservice tool. Knowing which knives work best for cutting different types of product, how to care for th...
Topics
Dough
Dough Doctor: Staging ingredients impacts dough
Q: I’ve seen any number of different ways in which the dough ingredients are staged/ added into the mixing bowl. Is there really a difference, or is it a case of just whatever you are taught to use? A: I think some ingredient staging procedures can...
Topics
Menu Development
Pan-style Pizza — Full Metal Pizza Jacket
“There may be a hundred different stances and sword positions, but you win with just one,” said undefeated Samurai Miyamoto Musashi in 1643. Mushashi would have been a great pizza guy because he described pan pizza to the letter. Every town, vill...
Topics
Operations
Give Your Interior A Spruce
When Sara Griffith, husband Joe and partners Shawn and Barb Griffith bought a Sam & Louie’s franchise location in Omaha, Nebraska, in August 2012, Sara was looking to update the pizzeria’s interior. She found inspiration from Pinterest, a vis...
Topics
Operations
Waiting for a Profit
On weekdays, the lunch crowd from the local police academy and nearby industrial park pack out Lido’s in Meriden, Connecticut. And on Friday and Saturday nights, it’s all about serving it up to the kids — soccer teams and Brownie troops alike. ...
Topics
Brand & Marketing
Bring your pizzeria web site up to speed
This is an intervention. The Internet has become well-worn territory, yet many of you are still treating your Web sites like it’s 1996. Users’ attention spans are microscopically short for Web sites, so you want there to be as few barriers as pos...
Topics
Menu Development
Perfect Pasta Prep
Many of you have contemplated adding pasta to your menu but may still be reluctant. Well it’s time to cast your worries aside. I’ve written about pasta in the past and have even lead demos at International Pizza Expo. My goal now is to bring you ...
Topics
People & Pizzerias
Did You Know / Places That Rock
International Pizza Expo 2013 was another record-breaking year — and it once again closed with a $20,000 MEGABUCKS Giveaway. According to NBC News, 10 million pounds of frozen pizza and other snacks were recalled last month over fears the products ...
Topics
Menu Development
Respecting The Craft: Dough Recipes
Q: I’m looking for a standard American-style pizza dough as well as a standard Italian-style. Can you help with recipes? A: I sure can! Here you go: Standard Classic America High gluten/ High protein flour 100 percent flour 58-60 percent hydration ...
Topics
Employee Management
2013 March: Social Media
Pizza Tweets The NY Slice Truck @TheNYslice Tonight’s Delivery Specials 5p-9p Call 721-8434 Garlic Knots & Wings $7.99 Or 3 Toppings 20 Inch Pizza Garlic Knots Wings $24.99 Why it works: This Tweet was sent out on a bitterly cold day, and the i...
Topics
Menu Development
Going Pro
Is a professional chef needed in a pizzeria’s kitchen? The performance kitchen at Cane Rosso takes center stage. Built around a wood-fired oven, the workspace is home to leading man Dino Santonicola, the Naples-born master pizzaiolo hired by ow...
Topics
People & Pizzerias
Il Pizzaiolo / Home Slice Pizza, Austin, TX
The story has been repeated time and again in cities all across America: an aspiring man or woman moves to a new locale after years in New York and is disappointed by the pizza offerings of the adopted city. This time, the city in question is Austin,...
Topics
People & Pizzerias
A Well Oiled Machine: Opening Procedures
Pizza Restaurant Opening Procedures The hours before opening — while sometimes hectic — are the few times in a busy pizzeria’s day when customers are not continually walking in and the phone is not ringing like crazy. It’s the perfect opportu...
Topics
People & Pizzerias
Craft Beer: The Must List
When Dan Richer opened his second pizzeria venture, Razza Pizza Artigianale, earlier this year, he had a clear vision in mind. All the ingredients would be locally sourced and everything that could be made in-house would be. His beverage list would g...
Topics
Employee Management
Dress Code: Spell It Out
There is something noticeable about the staff’s look at Cocco’s Pizza in Primos, Pennsylvania, — expression of individuality and brand awareness. Employees sport graphic T-shirts with the pizzeria’s name and logo. Owner Michael Cocco says his...
Topics
Operations
Clean Sweep
Customers are restaurants’ biggest allies and their harshest critics. They are not shy about expressing their joy, concern or displeasure with an eating establishment. The wilting plant in the corner, the dust on the ceiling fan or the empty paper ...
Topics
Employee Management
Moneymaking Menu Must
According to the National Restaurant Association, the most profitable menu items are soft drinks, followed closely by alcoholic drinks and then pastas and pizza. The largest pizzeria chains in the world do not sell alcohol, and until just a few years...
Topics
Employee Management
Menu Engineering
So much of what happens in a restaurant is creative. All cooks like to think of themselves as artistes. It is, after all, called the culinary arts. But when it comes to the menu, that’s where science kicks in. In fact, too much creativity on a menu...
Topics
Employee Management
Employee Termination: Hit The Door
Last year, the week before Christmas, Carmelo Lamotta needed to fire a server. He did not want to wait until after the holidays because then other workers would suffer. “If you keep someone an extra week because of the holidays, business drops beca...
Topics
Employee Management
Mobile Marketing: Legal Mobility
Eager to cultivate deeper relationships with customers, the Thiels added mobile marketing to their advertising arsenal in 2010. Today, The Capri has built a growing database of customers’ mobile numbers, all of whom stand willing to receive informa...
