A Matter of Perspective   John Gutekanst Avalanche Pizza Athens, Ohio It was a busy night and we were running at a 55-minute pizza delivery time. I just put four large pizzas on the rail of my conveyor oven and pulled the ticket from the make li...

Performance kitchens put staff center stage   For Brixx, a southeastern-U.S.-based chain of brick-oven restaurants, having a performance kitchen was just a natural extension of the restaurant’s branding strategy. “Making the pizza in...

Q: So, I have a great breakfast pizza that I make for people who are having breakfast meetings but don’t want the same old muffins and donuts. It’s not something I have on my regular menu and I am not open for breakfast. I only do this for groups...

Beer sales in U.S. restaurants rose by 9 percent last year. According to American Heritage, the number of American pizza parlors grew from 500 in 1934 to 20,000 in 1956. Last month’s International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas concluded with a $20,000 gi...

Q: I’ve heard of a thing called “dough factor.” Can you explain this to me? A: Dough factor –– also known as “dough loading” –– is used to calculate the amount of dough needed to increase or decrease a pizza’s size while keeping ...

Fruit pizza toppings add a whole new flavor dimension Hawaiian Pizza and its variations broke the mold years ago, combining sweet, tart pineapple with savory, salty ham to create a menu favorite across the country. While pineapple has become a mainst...

Running a janitorial service in the 1980s, I depended on good old word of mouth (WOM) to generate business for me. Pair that with a business card, and I had a good thing going. In the 1990s when I stepped into a failing pizzeria, I quickly found out ...

Optimize ingredients you have on hand   It’s certainly important to consider and sample new items to incorporate into our menu to keep our customer base excited and interested. Although I do think it’s critical to periodically introduce new ...

How protected is your staff from the competition?   It’s a small business owner’s nightmare: Discovering that the competition has “raided” your staff, leaving you with a skeletal crew to run your restaurant. Employee raids are unethical,...

Robbery preparedness and prevention training could save lives   One chilly November night, two employees working late at a suburban Milwaukee pizzeria decided to step out for a cigarette before cleaning up for the night. Within a split-second af...

When Sylvia Melendez Klinger had family visit her in Chicago from Mexico, she ordered pizza for the kids. “It’s the universal food, no matter where you’re from everyone knows it.” But she took note of one major difference. Her...

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what hangs on an operator’s walls says a lot. Whether it is comprised of pictures, artwork, awards, sports memorabilia or a little bit of everything, a restaurant’s wall décor speaks vol...