(Editor’s note: This is the 14th installment in a series about opening a mobile pizzeria by Jason Cipriani, co-owner of Sips & Pies. You can read the other articles here.)
Over the past few weeks, I’ve talked a lot about the boring parts of opening a business, tasks such as insurance, pricing your menu and selecting a point-of-sale system. What I haven’t had a chance to talk much about is the fun part: serving pizza.
Shortly after bringing our trailer home, we decided we wanted to host a private tasting as a soft opening at our house. We thought it would give us a chance to test our processes – albeit in a very controlled environment – while also getting feedback on our pizza. And so, in October 2024, we invited around 75 people, split up over two days, to come to our house and experience what we’d been working on.
Who to Invite?
Prior to our preview weekend, I’d never run a wood-fired oven on my own, managing the fire and turning pizzas. My wife had never prepped multiple pizzas to order, with a line building. My kids had never taken an order, let alone cut and boxed pizzas.
We were a bunch of rookies full of fear. And with that in mind, we decided to invite only family and close friends – people who would be patient with us should anything go wrong – to our Saturday session.
For Sunday, we opted to invite friends, acquaintances and complete strangers that followed us on Facebook and Instagram.
We made it clear in our private Facebook invites that that pizza was on us. We just wanted to test, learn and have some fun.
All told, 75 people RSVP’d: 30 on Day One and 45 on Day Two.
Deciding on a Menu
With invites sent out and RSVPs pouring in, it was time to decide on a menu. Initially, I was dead set on doing a cheese, pepperoni, sausage and a pickle pizza with white sauce. I wanted to show our full vision for the menu. But after some back and forth, my wife convinced me to keep it simple with just a cheese, pepperoni and sausage pizza.
At this point in our journey, our dough and sauce recipes were pretty much set, as was our cheese selection. We were undecided about which pepperoni and sausage we were going to use, however.
I reached out to the only food supplier we had an account with at that time and asked for samples of their best/most popular pepperoni and sausage, on top of placing an order for the rest of our ingredients and a few other small items.
We also used this time to test customer reaction and test various types of drinks we were considering selling. We bought almost every major brand of sparkling water and a few different flavors of hop water.
Talk is Cheap
We had a few weeks after sending out invites to prepare for our debut. During that time, I tried to walk my family through what to expect, our process and how to handle various situations. But the truth is, there’s no substitute for getting your hands dirty and gaining experience.
The first day went smoothly. We had set a three-hour window and told people to show up when it was convenient for them.
Attendees slowly trickled in, allowing us methodically to go through each step of our process. We served 25 pizzas that day, allowing us to confirm our workflow was valid. Perhaps more importantly, we all gained confidence.
Day Two, however, was the exact opposite experience. Instead of some people showing up right at noon and the rest slowly filtering in, not a single person showed up at opening time. Fifteen minutes after the hour, still nobody. When the clock struck 12:30, it was as if everyone we invited had waited around the corner and walked in together, as a giant group.
We were slammed.
Everything I had taught my family, along with everything we learned the previous day, was put to the test. Instead of making 25 pizzas over three hours, we made nearly 50 pizzas in 35 minutes.
It was as stressful as it was exhilarating to see the five of us work together as a team, doing something we’d never done before, and kicking butt while doing it.
After Day Two, I made sure my wife and kids knew how proud I was of us. I also felt like we were ready to open the next day. I still smile from ear to ear thinking about that day.
Feedback is Invaluable
In exchange for feeding people, we asked that they take a few minutes to fill out an anonymous survey. I created a QR code they could scan after ordering that took them directly to the Google Form.
The survey included eight questions:
- Which pizza did you order?
- What did you think of the dough/crust? (Scale of 1-5)
- What did you think of the sauce? (Scale of 1-5)
- What did you think of cheese? (Scale of 1-5)
- What did you think of toppings? (Scale of 1-5)
- How much would you pay for the pizza you had today? ($13-$16)
- Did you like our drinks selection? Why or why not?
- General feedback. It’s OK, don’t be shy
We got 28 responses, which we attribute to families filling out the survey together instead of each person individually.
The responses confirmed we were on the right track with our dough, sauce and cheese. The toppings (pepperoni and sausage) also were well received.
Forty-three percent of survey respondents said they would pay $14 for the pizza they ordered.
The most valuable feedback was on the question about drinks. Our selection was a giant miss. A handful of people said they liked sparkling water and healthier selection, but the majority asked for some sort of iced tea or soda. So, we went back to the drawing board.
The feedback section is my favorite. Multiple responses started with some variation of “I normally don’t like pizza crust, but …” while others asked for more sauce or adding basil on top of the cheese instead of under it.
All in all, it was valuable feedback that we took with us into the winter, as we finished preparing for our grand opening, also known as one of the scariest days of my life.
Check back next week to see why. …
JASON CIPRIANI is the owner of Sips & Pies, a mobile wood-fired pizzeria serving Neapolitan-inspired pizza, in Colorado.
