March 2020

Published: March 1, 2020Scott Wiener

2020 Pizza Expo Show Guide

Find out everything you need to know before International Pizza Expo this month. Explore trending chili peppers and ‘nduja. Get a primer on cheese prices. Learn more about emerging technologies, like SMS marketing and self-ordering kiosks. Pizza Today goes on the road to San Diego, California.

You can also check out the Digital Edition — Pizza Today March 2020.

Topics Industry News

Meet the Maker: Nicholas Franchi, Upper Crust Pizza, Akron, Ohio

A Q&A with Nicholas Franchi, Managing Partner at Upper Crust Pizza in Akron, Ohio How long you been making pizza? Approximately 11 years. Why pizza? When I was a teenager, I was looking for a job and the first opportunity given to m...

Topics Industry News

Conversation: Michele Atkins, Mater’s Pizza & Pasta Emporium, Gadsden, Alabama

Mater’s Pizza & Pasta Emporium Gadsden, Alabama The Mater’s concept was to make a truly Southern pizza — generous, hearty, tasty and filling. A working-class family could have a nutritious meal without over-spending. The name ...

Topics Operations

Mike’s Monthly Tip: The Glorious Mea Culpa

How I righted a wrong I messed up huge. I over-promoted an event. I didn’t even know that was possible. Our 15th anniversary for Andolini’s Pizzeria was on January 8th of this year. Typically, our anniversary goes off with little to no fanfare. A...

Topics Operations

Customer Service Culture: Pizza with a Smile

Building Customer Service into your Culture In food and beverage businesses, 70 percent of employees in customer-facing roles don’t receive any customer service training, according to the 2019 TalentLMS Survey. For eateries that do, however, incorp...

Topics Operations

Returning Customers: Go Where Everybody Knows Your Name

The recipe for increasing guest frequency and earning returning customers Dan Costello understands regularly returning customers remain the lifeblood of any restaurant business. “If you’re one and done with customers, then it’s not a sustaina...

Topics Menu Development

Trending Chili Peppers: Chili, Chili, Bang, Bang

Explore trending sweet and hot chili peppers on pizza “If your eyes do not water, the food is not good.” — Indonesian Proverb Historians believe that chilies were first domesticated by nomadic people who lived in a group of caves in the ...

Topics People & Pizzerias

Pizza Today on the Road: Regents Pizzeria, La Jolla, CA

Movin’ On Up La Jolla-based Regents Pizzeria skyrockets from $500,000 to over $5 million in sales Regents Pizzeria in La Jolla, California, is a powerhouse of a single-unit restaurant, generating 5.2 million in annual gross sales in 2019. Its s...

Topics People & Pizzerias

Pizza Today On the Road: Woodstock’s Pizza, San Diego, CA

San Diego-based Woodstock’s Pizza strikes balance of legendary and relevant status In November 2019, San Diego-based Woodstock’s Pizza became the highest performing independent pizzeria in the U.S., moving up to No. 1 on Pizza Today’s Hot 100 I...

Topics Menu Development

Meat Combination Pizzas: We Meat Again

Meat combination pizzas remain menu mainstays Meat and I have a funny relationship. I once took a butchery course and found it to be incredibly therapeutic. Maybe it was the connection with the animal you’re about to cook, or the focus it ta...

Topics Menu Development

‘Nduja Pizza: Covering the Spread

‘Nduja brings something different to the table The first time I had ‘Nduja, I was hesitant but curious. I was visiting a tiny independent pizzeria in the mountains of northern Arizona and spotted the kitchen staff working with the spicy, spreadab...

Topics Brand & Marketing

A Step-by-Step Guide to SMS Marketing

Get the Message Out with SMS Texts When you send current customers and potential new diners a text message, chances are high they’ll see it. After texts are received, 90 percent of the messages are read within three minutes, according to VoiceSage....

Topics Industry News

Man on the Street: What to Expect When You’re EXPOing

Pizza Expo provides an incredible opportunity to pack years of potential research into three quick days, but if you dive straight into the deep end you might drown in the options. I’ve been attending since 2006 and my strategy has improved immensel...

Topics Employee Management

Rewarding Staff: Above and Beyond

Reward Staff in a Practical, Productive Way It may seem more common to hear about customer loyalty programs but providing incentives for servers and kitchen staff can be just as important—if not more so. Among employees who leave their jobs,...

Topics People & Pizzerias

Pizzeria Destinations: Cascarino’s, NY, Gracie’s, OR, and Sonny’s, DC

A look at pizzeria destinations across the U.S. Cascarino’s Brick Oven Pizzeria & Ristorante | Montgomery, NY Cascarino’s has been serving its community for just under 20 years. “Our pizzeria is defined by the outstanding customer se...

Topics People & Pizzerias

Peer-to-peer relationships make you better

Steel & Velcro Steel sharpens steel. Being around the best makes you better. Knowing great people helps you become a part of their greatness. If you want to have a restaurant with no competition, I suggest you open a pizzeria in the middle of a d...

Topics Finance & Growth

Understanding Cheese Prices: A Case for Queso

A guide to understanding cheese prices Cheese. What’s pizza without it? Thirty-three percent less food cost for one thing. A pizzeria has two prime costs that must be controlled every day — labor cost and food cost. You probably understand the im...

Topics Operations

Self-ordering Kiosks: Help Yourself

Self-Ordering Kiosks Offer Customers Customization Options In-store self-ordering kiosks offer customers the convenience of placing their orders exactly how they want them on an easy-to-read and hopefully, easy-to-use digital interface that isn’t d...

Topics Industry News

Expo Spotlight: It’s Show Time

International Pizza Expo & International Artisan Bakery Expo March 31-April 2, 2020 – Las Vegas Convention Center If you haven’t already registered for Pizza Expo 2020, now is the time to do so by visiting PizzaExpo.com. This is your only...

Topics Dough

Knead to Know: Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann talks gum line — What causes it and what to do about it

What causes a gum line on pizza just below the sauce? A: They don’t call it the “dreaded gum line” for nothing. A gum line can be caused by a number of different things, and some of them are inter-related, but the “kicker” is that it won’...

March 2020

2020 Pizza Expo Show Guide

Meet the Maker: Nicholas Franchi, Upper Crust Pizza, Akron, Ohio

Conversation: Michele Atkins, Mater’s Pizza & Pasta Emporium, Gadsden, Alabama

Mike’s Monthly Tip: The Glorious Mea Culpa

Customer Service Culture: Pizza with a Smile

Returning Customers: Go Where Everybody Knows Your Name

Trending Chili Peppers: Chili, Chili, Bang, Bang

Pizza Today on the Road: Regents Pizzeria, La Jolla, CA

Pizza Today On the Road: Woodstock’s Pizza, San Diego, CA

Meat Combination Pizzas: We Meat Again

‘Nduja Pizza: Covering the Spread

A Step-by-Step Guide to SMS Marketing

Man on the Street: What to Expect When You’re EXPOing

Rewarding Staff: Above and Beyond

Pizzeria Destinations: Cascarino’s, NY, Gracie’s, OR, and Sonny’s, DC

Peer-to-peer relationships make you better

Understanding Cheese Prices: A Case for Queso

Self-ordering Kiosks: Help Yourself

Expo Spotlight: It’s Show Time

Knead to Know: Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann talks gum line — What causes it and what to do about it

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