It’s not unusual for pizzeria owners to trademark their store’s names. But some owners are taking their quest for brand originality beyond the store sign and onto the menu by registering trademarks for distinctive offerings. Does registering a me...

An epic chain reaction has seized the entire planet. This will most likely be the ugliest financial fall-out most people have ever seen. Today alone, 11 pizzerias will slam their doors shut forever. A shake-out like the one gripping the entire world ...

Nobody ever wants to have to file for bankruptcy, but in these tough economic times, more and more pizzeria owners are being forced to do so. “Pizza used to be a bulletproof business,” says attorney Marvin Wolf, the New Jersey State chair...

Just because everyone has a phone doesn’t mean they know how to answer it, especially when it comes to business. Pizzeria operators know how important the telephone is to the success of their business because a larger percentage of sales is generat...

The average customer spends less than 40 seconds looking over your menu. In that time, the brain kick-starts into overdrive and a purchasing decision is made based on emotion, comfort zone, curiosity and cost. Some of your menu choices contribute lot...

Climbing commodities, fewer diners, eroding economy: does it spell “d-o-o-m” for your pizzeria? Not if you take control of your crucial costs — those that we can control on a daily basis. The total of these controllable costs are termed...

Like other types of yeast leavened bread doughs, pizza doughs will benefit from fermenting for a period of time before using or baking. Fermentation provides dough conditioning, making the dough easier to shape. It also reduces the propensity of the ...

When Gary Cooney opened the first of his four Chicago pizzerias in 1981, local customers craved Waldo Cooney’s pie. His South Side Chicago outfi t set a delivery radius of one mile, plenty to keep the cooks, drivers and phones busy on any given eve...

The pros on ABC’s hit series “Dancing with the Stars” have nothing on managers at wellrun restaurants. Timing a meal is akin to choreographing a dance. If the moves are expertly executed, a guest will give high scores, but just one slop...

Right behind food cost is your second most expensive controllable expense: labor. Labor cost, or L/C, is usually referred to as a percentage of gross sales. I stayed on top of hourly labor like a hawk. My point of sale system served as my time clock ...

When Nancy and Jeff Roskin moved from Connecticut to Scottsdale, Arizona, they felt the pizza in their new home left something to be desired. So they made their own. “We decided to open up because the pizza here was disgusting,” says Nanc...

Expanding your hours into the earlier part of the day can bring in a whole new customer base: the breakfast crowd. Some pizzerias continue to showcase their pizza recipes with a breakfast-style version, while others stick to the basics (like omelets ...