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Menu Development
Detroit Style Pizza: A Guide to Detroit Pizza
Discover Detroit-Style Pizza Detroit style pizza is a square, deep dish pizza that is known for its racing stripes sauce on top, cheese crust crown and light crust. Whether you call them red tops or square pizza, Detroit-style pizza is a unique pizza style that hast become one of the hottest pizza styles and one […]
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Menu Development
Ways to Use Garlic: Clove is in the Air
No matter what type you prefer, there are so many fun ways to use garlic at your restaurant One of my favorite compliments is when a customer comes in with a huge smile on their face and exclaims, “I can smell your pizza all the way down the block!...
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Menu Development
The Menu Price is Right
Menu Evaluation & Pricing Sales reporting is fundamental to business. Reporting is essential to making informed decisions about your restaurant. Not having a Point of Sale producing real-time reports is akin to letting a ship float without a capt...
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Menu Development
Creativity Goes into Featured Pizzas and Slices
No Country For Old Pizzas “The flow of the river is ceaseless; and its water is never the same.” – Kamo no Chomei, 1212 AD All of us in the independent restaurant world are in constant motion. We put our heads down day after ...
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Menu Development
A Good Red Pizza Sauce is Always on Trend
A Little Saucy: Secrets to a Good Red Pizza Sauce Red sauce, marinara, pomodoro, gravy. There are so many different ways to say it and even more to make it. A pizza maker’s sauce is one of their most important recipes and often times a very p...
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Menu Development
The Strategy of Menu Design
Online or digital, menus need to be visually pleasing and user friendly From a basic list of pizza toppings to a well-engineered online ordering process, the right menu design can make the difference between a customer placing an order or going elsew...
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Menu Development
Thin and Crispy Tavern Style Pizza is Sweeping the Nation
Tavern Style Pizza is having a moment When I sat down to write about Tavern style pizza, I had a hard time organizing my thoughts. I thought about all the differences between them and was trying to figure out the best way to describe them all and hit...
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Menu Development
Building Blocks: How to Keep Active in Hiring Every Day
Not that long ago in the land of pizzerias, owners and managers knew what a day off looked like. Employees were plentiful and hiring was an afterthought. Every now and then, you’d find the stack of applications behind the counter and knew you shoul...
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Menu Development
Chorizo can make a splash with your customers
Flavorful Fan Favorite There’s a reason sausage is America’s second-most favorite pizza topping. It brings lots of fatty flavor and oily goodness to a pie. In addition to holding its own as a standalone topping, it also pairs well with so many di...
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Menu Development
Pasta For Profits
Throughout the last 12 years of my career I’ve put a lot of thought into how to increase my pasta sales. Historically, pasta sales were less than 25 percent of total menu item sales (while stromboli and NYC style pizza are what our East Coast eater...
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Menu Development
Unleashing Southeast Asian Flair in your Pizzeria
Oceans of Flavor My love affair with Southeast Asian cuisine happened in 1984, when my Navy Squadron, VQ-1, were tasked with flying near Iran, but on the way to the Gulf of Oman, our spirited yet hedonistic crew suddenly found an “unexpected” war...
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Menu Development
Versatile eggplant has a spot on pizzeria menus
Menu Appeal There is more to the versatile eggplant than its most familiar restaurant menu item, Eggplant Parmesan. This meaty ingredient has a place across your menu. Its bounty is often found next to squash and zucchini in stores. But, technicall...
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Menu Development
Farm to Table from a Chef’s Perspective
Farm to Table: Risky, expensive, unpredictable, humbling, but totally rewarding. Farm to Table is not new. However, when I started my restaurant, Dante, 13 years ago, it was a daunting experience. If ever there were an ideal location to pull off a tr...