A soft opening, also known as a Friends and Family dinner or a mock training, is the event a restaurant hosts before the grand opening. It’s the practice session in which the kitchen and the front of the house staff work a shift and feed a full res...

Is your pizzeria shouting or whispering? Because the noise a restaurant makes influences a customer’s dining experience, operators need to listen. “Acceptable noise levels in a restaurant or bar will depend on the type of establishment, its c...

Few pizza chains –– or restaurant chains, for that matter –– have generated the buzz that Ann Arbor, Michigan based Domino’s Pizza has over the course of the past 12 to 18 months. With the launch of several new products, to a new president, a v...

Patty Phillips owns and operates California-based Patty’s on the Run. This take-and-bake delivery company offers a complete line of pizzas, sides, sandwiches and desserts. The company also offers a wholesale line of pizzas for the commercial market...

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 F...

Over the years, I’ve written a number of articles on using baker’s percent to express a dough formula, but it never hurts to give a refresher course for those who have recently joined our ranks. A lot of time I hear: “Why can’t you just g...

America talked and Domino’s Pizza is listened. If you’ve watched any television over of the course of the past year, you’ve probably seen several corporate faces on the company’s advertising campaign serving up healthy doses of humble pie. In...

Danny Mac’s Pizza, Pasta & More isn’t the highest grossing operation in the industry, but owner Danny McMahon accounts for every dollar as if his were a publicly traded company. While a franchisee for the now-defunct Pizza Magia chain, McMaho...

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 b...

The legalese and tax speak made Kelvin Slater’s head spin. In 2003, as Slater readied to open Blue Moon Pizza in Marietta, Georgia, he struggled to discern the best legal entity for his restaurant. Even as he poured over research and heeded profess...

“Jack of all trades, master of none” is a figure of speech used in reference to a generalist — a person that is competent, but not outstanding. Is that you? Is that your pizzeria? Recently I came across a menu/fl yer and found multiple ...

“The funny thing about eggplant is that the people who love it, really love it.” So says Tony DiSilvestro, owner of Ynot Pizza, a three-unit operation based in Virginia Beach, Virginia. From Ynot Pizza’s eggplant specialty pizza, eggpla...