Jalapeños bring heat to pizza while keeping the flavor profile of the pie firmly rooted in the Western Hemisphere. That still leaves an open ethnic range to play in — from Mexican to the broader Latin and from Southwest to Cajun. Although chipotle...

Bacon is back. In the past few months I have come across no fewer than seven food articles in which bacon played either a main role or a supporting role in various dishes. Talk about pigging out. Did you know that there was a “Bacon of the Month Cl...

Love it or hate it, spinach has the potential to be a big hit on your menu and can be utilized in appetizers, pizza, pasta and entrées. I have loved spinach since I was a kid. In sixth grade, at recess, when most kids went across the street with the...

When CiCi’s Pizza Buffet opened its doors 27 years ago, the concept of an array of pizzas offered all at once and not custom-built seemed novel and a bit risky. “It was not something that was normally done,” says CiCi’s President Craig Moore....

The appetizer section of menus has taken a beating in the many Chicago restaurants I visit every day in my role as chief restaurant critic for the Chicago Sun- Times. I see customers moving away from expensive appetizers (and, believe me, the price o...

Pizzerias across America have traditionally offered very few creative appetizers on their menus, preferring instead to focus on the pizza itself. In an effort to boost revenues and remain competitive, however, operators say that by offering more appe...

As one of the basic staples of any Italian menu, a flavorful meat sauce makes the difference between an okay dish and a top seller. That’s why most operators don’t mind the time and effort it takes to make a savory meat sauce or a richer alternat...

Herb infused doughs or crusts are one of those things that seems to keep coming and going. It gets popular for a short time — and then it disappears, only to come back again after a few years. For some of us, though, it has found a home on our menu...

From Messina on the Northeast corner of Sicily to Trapani on the west coast, Sicily has, over many centuries, felt the infl uences of Greek, Roman, and Spanish culture. That minestrone of civilizations has had quite an impact on the cuisine of this f...

Pinpointing a focus in the marketplace that will enable a pizzeria to flourish even in a stagnant economy may not be immediately obvious. Sometimes it takes a little time and consideration for a concept to evolve. That was the case for Pizza Patron, ...

There’s something to be said for an over-sized pizza: It’s big. How big? The average size for pizza these days is 14 inches in diameter. Anything around 18-inches in diameter or above is generally considered “oversized.” That said, pizza does...

“A man who stops advertising to save money is like a man who stops the clock to save time.” This quote is generally attributed to Henry Ford, defending his marketing budget during the Depression. Operators in the midst of the present recession ap...