PMQ Pizza Magazine May 2012 by PMQ Pizza Magazine

pizzamagazine.com

Online at PMQ.com May 2012 PIZZA TV: RECENT VIDEOS

Time Capsule: Coletta’s Italian Restaurant

This Week in Pizza

Jerry Coletta, owner of Coletta’s Italian Restaurant, discusses the Memphis pizzeria’s legendary past and recalls regular visits by an iconic customer that everyone wants to know about—Elvis Presley.

Catch up on the latest pizza industry news every Wednesday with Pizza TV’s weekly online broadcast, This Week in Pizza, with hosts Chris Green, Brian Hernandez and Michelle McAnally.

PMQ’s TOP SOCIAL MEDIA PICKS Social media is more than just Web-based chatter—it’s a marketing revolution! Whether running a “Big Three” franchisee or a mom-andpop operation, operators generate sales from steadfast Facebook and Twitter campaigns. PMQ editors monitor how industry professionals embrace social media and, in some ways, help write the rules for viral marketing. Here are some of our favorites this month:

Find PMQ at @pmqpizzamag.

RockitChicago Want an insider special? Text “Rockit Deals” to 46786 to receive texts about our specials during the week! TransferMKE Walker Rebate Wednesday! Get 20% off your bill when you take the bus, ride your bike or walk to Transfer today.

Find PMQ at facebook.com/ pmqpizzamagazine.

Foxspizzaoconee Fox’s 5th annual Easter Egg Hunt at Fox’s, Hwy. 78, next Saturday! RSVP so the Easter Fox can plan how many eggs to hide! Nina’s Pizza and Restaurant Ten-Dollar Tuesdays. Receive a regular size cheese pizza for only $10. You have to mention you saw it on Facebook to receive this deal. (Regular price for a regular pizza is $12.99 plus tax.) Fat Boy’s Pizza & Pasta We’ve got a double trouble deal for Thursday. Let’s take our normal THIRSTY THURSDAY’S free drinks and throw in a little dash of this: Tell the cashier you read this post, and buy any LARGE pizza for the price of a MEDIUM. Ledo Pizza Ledo Pizza Gift Card Giveaway! Reply to this post by midnight tonight and be entered to win a $100 Ledo Pizza gift card. Publicly share this post and get five extra chances to win. Good luck! One winner will be picked at midnight. All may enter, but only one shall win. 6

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Table of Contents May 2012 ON THE COVER 32 The Grandeur of Garlic Explore the history of “the stinking rose” and learn how garlic can make nearly every dish on your menu taste better. By Rick Hynum

FEATURES 26 The Al Fresco Experience Cash in on the outdoor dining boom by understanding the key elements of a well-designed patio. By Jessica Carle

40 The Pizza Kings of Flatbush The Scandiffio brothers take Brooklyn pizzeria Lenny & John’s to new heights while staying true to its founders’ old-school values. By Rick Hynum

44 Pizza On the Move

Mobile food operators nationwide are putting a new— and often profitable—spin on pizza delivery. By Katya Vlasenko

54 All Roads Lead to China

50 The Catering Connection Catering success isn’t merely possible for pizzeria operators—in some cases, it may be vital to their survival. By Erle Dardick

Pizza Inn joins other top American franchisors looking to tap into the vast and lucrative Chinese market. By Rick Hynum

56 Branding From the Inside Out Pizzeria operators can employ a wide variety of tools to create and implement a fully integrated branding program. By Howard M. Riell

IN EVERY ISSUE 6 10

Online at PMQ.com Editor’s Note

12 Letters to the Editor 14

Pizza Press

Product Spotlight

Advertiser Index

Industry Resource Guide

Resource Guide Advertiser Index

DEPARTMENTS 18 Zeak’s Tweaks: How to Solve Two Common Dough Making Problems Jeff Zeak explains how to create a lighter dough and how to salvage dough that fails to rise.

20 New York’s Finest: Pasta and Potatoes Chef Bruno shares a favorite dish from his childhood.

22 In Lehmann’s Terms: Creating Healthier Pies and Distinctive Sauces Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann shows how a few small changes can make a big difference.

24 The Marketing Maven: Mavenisms From a Restaurant Marketer, Part 1 Linda Duke shares five marketing tips to help boost sales even in a sluggish economy.

38 Pizza of the Month: White White’s just right for pizza lovers who crave alternatives to the standard tomato sauce-based pie.

82 Time Capsule: Denino’s From confectionary to pool hall to tavern, Denino’s gradually evolved into an award-winning pizzeria and a Staten Island stalwart.

Coming Next Month Pizza of the Month: Greek Olives: A popular topping and a key ingredient in numerous recipes, the olive’s rich flavor and meaty texture make it the quintessential Mediterranean food.

Marketing Beverages: A well-designed beverage program can boost sales and enhance the customer’s overall experience.

Online Ordering: More and more guests prefer

MICHAEL CASSO

to place their orders via the Internet and smartphones. Learn how online ordering can attract more customers and increase your bottom line.

May 2012 • pmq.com

Editor’s Note Liz Barrett Now That’s Delivery! If there were ever any doubt about the perseverance of the average pizza delivery driver, it was put to rest during a recent visit to Barcelona, Spain. On March 29, PMQ senior copy editor Tracy Morin and I arrived in Barcelona’s city center on the night of one of the biggest general strikes the city has seen since the 1980s. It was a bit like being dropped off in the middle of a war zone, but we traversed the streets outside our hotel, where dumpsters were burning, protestors were running from police and the firing of rubber bullets could be heard in the not-far-enough-off distance. Believe it or not, we were actually trying to walk to a pizzeria! One bystander pointed toward the direction of our destination and told us, “You’re not going over there.” Ultimately, we decided not to risk the walk, but we didn’t give up on the idea of pizza. After our hotel locked us all in for safety, we asked if any pizzerias in the area would deliver to us. We figured it was a long shot (seeing as how the streets were on fire and all), and indeed the front desk staff assured us that no one would come. We weren’t satisfied with that response. We wanted pizza. It was nearly midnight, and we were hungry. I found the number for a local Domino’s (dominospizza.es) online, and Tracy called and used her best Spanish to order a medium cheese pie for delivery. They were open for only 15 more minutes, but they were going to bring it within a half hour! Needless to say, we were surprised—but not shocked. As part of the pizza industry, we know how dedicated the men and women are who own, operate and work at pizzerias. And when our pizza arrived—directly to our hotel room door—it was hot, fresh and delivered with a smile. The perfect ending to a surreal night. Thank you to all of you out there who continue to go above and beyond for your customers, your community and the industry. You may not be delivering pizza in the midst of blazes or through clouds of tear gas, but the pizzas you serve to your guests and the smiles that accompany them really do brighten more days than you’ll ever know.

Keep up the great work!

Liz Barrett Editor-in-chief PMQ Pizza Magazine

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Letters to the Editor Rick Hynum By the Numbers Keep up the great work! I used to read PMQ Pizza Magazine on my breaks when I worked at Round Table Pizza. It was also a great source of data when I interviewed with Little Caesars. I went into the interview knowing the store’s general sales volume and food and labor costs. With this knowledge combined with the current data given during the interview, I astounded the owner by calculating how much the store was overspending on food and labor on the spot. I was offered a position with the company, thanks to that interview and, ultimately, PMQ Pizza Magazine and its website. Thank you! David Gonzales Via email We’re always glad to do our part to help solve the country’s unemployment problem! In all seriousness, though, congratulations to you, David, for putting the information we provide in these pages to such good use. We hope you’ll continue to read the magazine, visit our website and provide us with feedback. Part of what makes our job so

rewarding is to hear success stories like yours from PMQ readers!

Priceless Information Ditto on the 15th anniversary accolades from my end of the world in Illinois! We’ll celebrate our second birthday at D.G. Sullivan’s on March 1, 2012. PMQ’s Think Tank has been instrumental in paving the way. I took a ton of my business plan information from the “Industry Info” tab and linked reports from the Census issues of PMQ. I’ve also gotten priceless information from the Think Tank’s posters. And I’ve made lifelong friends—many of whom I’ll never meet, I’m sure—who have offered suggestions and helped keep me pointed in the right direction these last few years. Deacon Volker Via the PMQ Think Tank Thank you for the kind words. We hope you’ll continue to participate in our Think Tank and benefit from our annual Census reports. We are proud to offer these resources to our readers. And congratulations to you on the second anniversary of D.G. Sullivan’s. We hope to drop by and meet you if we ever get the opportunity to visit Gibson City!

— A Publication of PMQ, Inc. — Winner of 4 ASBPE Awards Winner of 4 GAMMA Awards ISSN 1937-5263 PMQ, Inc. Publisher Steve Green sg@pmq.com ext. 123

Co-Publisher Linda Green linda@pmq.com ext. 121 EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Liz Barrett liz@pmq.com ext. 126 Managing Editor Rick Hynum rick@pmq.com ext. 130 Senior Copy Editor Tracy Morin tracy@pmq.com ext. 140 Assistant Editor Michelle McAnally michelle@pmq.com ext. 124 Assistant Editor Walter Webb walter@pmq.com ext. 133 Intern Katya Vlasenko katya@pmq.com ext. 124 DESIGN/PRODUCTION Art Director Ellen Kellum ellen@pmq.com ext. 135 IT Director Bernard Rueschhoff IT@pmq.com ext. 139 Video and Web Editor Daniel Morrow daniel@pmq.com ADVERTISING Sales Director Linda Green linda@pmq.com ext. 121 Account Executive Clifton Moody clifton@pmq.com ext. 138 Account Executive Dianna Seddon dianna@pmq.com ext. 127 ADMINISTRATION Chief Financial Officer Shawn Brown shawn@pmq.com Circulation Manager Sherlyn Clark sherlyn@pmq.com ext. 120 Director of Operations/ Event Coordinator Brian Hernandez brian@pmq.com ext. 129 Telemarketer Marie Johnson marie@pmq.com ext. 144 PMQ INTERNATIONAL PMQ China Yvonne Liu yvonne@pmq.com

Think Tank 2.0 What’s the buzz? Log on to find out the latest industry buzz at PMQ.com/tt. Buying existing pizzeria with the building...

PMQ Australia-NZ Tom Boyles tom@pmqaustralia.com Pizza&Food Gabriele Ancona gabriele.ancona@pizzafood.it French Liaison Julien Panet jpanet@pizza.fr

Fast ovens...

EDITORIAL ADVISORS Chef Santo Bruno Tom Lehmann Joey Todaro Ed Zimmerman

Hobart 20 Qt. mixer... Garlic Buffalo sauce...

CONTRIBUTORS

How is Posiflex? Thank You to Our PMQ Think Tank Moderators Daddio: Member since June 2006 Tom Lehmann: Member since June 2006

Rockstar Pizza: Member since June 2006 ADpizzaguy: Member since January 2007

We want to hear from you! Have a complaint, compliment or suggestion about something you’ve read in the pages of PMQ? Send your letter via email to editor@pmq.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line, or mail to PMQ, ATTN: Letters to the Editor, 605 Edison St., Oxford, MS 38655. We look forward to hearing from you! Friend us on Facebook! Visit facebook.com/pmqpizzamagazine. Editor-in-chief Liz Barrett 12

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Chef Santo Bruno Jessica Carle Erle Dardick Linda Duke Tom Lehmann Howard M. Riell Jeff Zeak Volume 16, Issue 4 PMQ Pizza Magazine 605 Edison St. • Oxford, MS 38655 662.234.5481 • 662.234.0665 Fax • linda@pmq.com PMQ Pizza Magazine (ISSN #1937-5263) is published 10 times per year. Cost of U.S. subscription is $25 per year. International $35. Periodical postage pricing paid at Oxford, MS. Additional mailing offices at Bolingbrook, IL. Postmaster: Send address changes to: PMQ Pizza Magazine, PO Box 2015, Langhorne, PA 19047. Opinions expressed by the editors and contributing writers are strictly their own, and are not necessarily those of the advertisers. All rights reserved. No portion of PMQ may be reproduced in whole or part without written consent.

Pizza Press News and Views

Left-Handed Pizza Spoof On April 1 Lefties have rights, too—including the right to a pizza they can call their own. That’s the idea behind a new promotion launched by Tony C’s Coal Fired Pizza (tonycs.com) in Bee Caves, Texas. The pizzeria, owned by Tony Ciola, took advantage of April Fool’s Day to introduce its new “left-handed pizza” to all those lefties who feel, well, left out of other pizza promotions. Tony C’s gave its left-handed guests the option of ordering a left-handed pizza, with all condiments set at their tables in a way that was easily accessible to lefties. But what exactly is a “lefthanded pizza” anyway? “We believe that the first bite of pizza is the most important and memorable,” Ciola explains. “Currently our left-handed guests are being shortchanged on their first bite. We’ve found that, when the sauce and toppings are applied clockwise, the first bite taken by left-handers yield fewer toppings.” With that in mind, left-handed pizzas are topped counter-clockwise to ensure that lefties get more sauce and toppings on that first bite. “The southpaw community is an underserved demographic,” Ciola adds.

Pizza Pizza Gives Slices for Devices In April, Pizza Pizza (pizzapizza.ca) locations throughout Canada traded pizza slices for old cell phones and handheld devices in the company’s eighth annual Cells for Slices promotion. The campaign encourages people to recycle their handheld devices, which are often not disposed of properly. All of the proceeds from the campaign benefit Food Banks Canada, a national program supporting food banks across the country. Through the Cells for Slices program, Pizza Pizza has helped recycle more than 5,600 used mobile devices since 2004.

Incredible Pizza (incrediblepizza.com), a pizzeria and family entertainment center with nine locations in the United States and two in Mexico, is all about kids. The company even reaches out to help youngsters who may never have the opportunity to visit The Fairgrounds, Incredible Pizza’s indoor play areas featuring more than 100 games, bumper cars and other attractions. For the fifth straight year, Incredible Pizza is supporting Emmanuel Ministries, a faith-based organization serving underprivileged children in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Juárez, a city of 1.3 million located across the border from El Paso, Texas, has been called the murder capital of the world because of its out-of-control drug cartels and gang violence. For thousands of children living in the city’s dangerous and impoverished conditions, Emmanuel Ministries offers a safe haven, providing shelter, nourishment, education, medical care and spiritual guidance. Incredible Pizza founder Rick Barsness says he committed his support to the ministry after visiting Juárez and witnessing its problems firsthand. Since he couldn’t bring all of JuárIncredible Pizza officials handing out gifts to children at Emmanuel Minez’s children to Incredible Pizza’s Fairgrounds, he brought the istries are (left to right) George Ward, DFO; Amber Mattingly, foundation director; and Mark Eastin, COO. Fairgrounds to them. “It has become so dangerous that we can’t travel to Juárez often, although I make one trip a year to check on the ministry,” Barsness says. “We worked to send an 18-wheeler there with groceries, furniture and a playground. Our business is all about kids, and, for the children of Juárez, we are trying to give back and help them any way we can.” The company’s foundation also makes a monthly donation to the ministry and donates a larger sum each year to provide Christmas gifts for the children. 14

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

ASHLEY EASTIN

Kids in Mexico Get Some “Incredible” Help

RAY’S PIZZERIA AND ICE CREAM SHOPPE

Pizzeria Co-Owner Honors Dad With Shamrock Pie

Ray’s Pizzeria and Ice Cream Shoppe (rayspizzaandicecream.com) in Lexington, South Carolina, recently brought the luck of the Irish to its customers. Co-owners John Immerso and Brian Clancy were inspired by John’s dad, after whom the pizzeria was named, to develop a shamrock pizza for St. Patrick’s Day. “It was his favorite holiday, so we thought this would be a great way to honor his memory,” Clancy says. To make the festive pies, they hand-stretched the dough into a circle, par-froze it and used a template to cut the clover-shaped figure. “We freeze the shamrock so it will hold its shape through the topping process and as it goes into our deck oven,” Clancy explains. “Our customers loved the idea. We sold a bunch of them, and we will definitely do it again next year.”

E G R A L T A S R O T I ED PMQ editor-in-chief Liz Barrett and senior copy editor Tracy Morin sampled a variety of pies en route to the recent North American Pizza & Ice Cream Show (NAPICS) in Columbus, Ohio. At Garage (garageonmarket.com), a Louisville, Kentucky, pizzeria housed in a former auto service garage that touts wood-fired pies and craft beers, Barrett and Morin ordered a Margherita, made in the traditional Neapolitan style, and the Oyster Mushroom Pie, with oyster mushrooms, fior di latte, truffle crema and crumbled potato.

While in Columbus, Barrett and Morin met with PMQ contributing writer (and speaker at the NAPICS PMQ Marketing Conference) Linda Duke for dinner at Italian restaurant Marcella’s (marcellasristorante. com) in the Short North Arts District. Shared plates included a cheese assortment, Parmesan Crusted Onions, Arancini and the Crispy Potato Pizza, with fried potato crisps, Parmesan onions, Taleggio cheese and arugula.

Passersby can’t miss the simulated car crash outside Garage in Louisville, Kentucky. May 2012 • pmq.com

Zeak’s Tweaks Jeff Zeak

How to Solve Two Common Dough Making Problems Learn how to create lighter dough and salvage dough that fails to rise. QUESTION: My pizza dough is very dense. Can you explain how to create lighter dough?

ANSWER: If what you mean is that your resulting pizza dough crusts are very dense, consider the following options: • Slightly increase the level of yeast in the dough formulation. • Increase the level of water between 1% and 2% based on the amount of flour being used (that is, four to eight ounces of water per 25 pounds of flour). This modification will help to increase the mobility of the yeast and make the dough expand more easily in the oven. • Slightly increase the level of oil or shortening in the dough formulation. This increase will make it easier for the dough to rise and expand in the oven. Be careful not to overdo the extra oil or shortening, as this will change the characteristics of the resulting crust. Too much oil or shortening will impart a biscuitlike texture to the crust and make it difficult to create a finished crust that stays crispy after coming out of the oven. However, slightly increasing the oil or shortening in the dough ensures that the resulting crust will stay tender rather than become tough and chewy. • Change the type of flour or flour blend to one with a lower protein content. The resulting crust will be tenderer and have a lighter texture; at the same time, this approach will produce a less crispy crust. You may need to experiment to find a formula that works for you, but one or a 18

combination of the aforementioned approaches should help adjust the density of your pizza dough crust, giving it a lighter and more “open” texture.

QUESTION: Is there any way to salvage a batch of dough that doesn’t rise?

ANSWER: You can salvage your nonrising dough, but you can’t salvage it all at the same time. Store the offending dough in the cooler until you are ready to use it and then incorporate portions of it into future batches of new dough at a rate

PMQ – The– Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly 00 Pizza PMQ’sMagazine Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Magazine

of between 10% and 15% of the total batch weight. Timing is important— add the nonrising dough to your new batch of dough halfway or two-thirds of the way into the mix time. As you add the older, nonrising dough, be sure that the new batch doesn’t become too large for your mixing bowl. Also make sure in advance that your mixer will be able to handle the extra mass of dough from a power perspective.

Jeff Zeak is the pilot plant manager for the American Institute of Baking (AIB). Need more dough advice? Visit the Dough Information Center at PMQ.com/dough.

PMQ’s Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Magazine

New York’s Finest Chef Santo Bruno See cooking demos by Chef Bruno on PizzaTV.com.

Pasta and Potatoes Chef Bruno shares his mother’s recipe for one of his favorite dishes from childhood. Hello, readers. Another month has gone by. Where does the time go? Today I want to tell you about a dish that I love very much—pasta and potatoes. Every Italian makes this dish in a different way. My recipe came from my mother during the war. This was the only food available—if you were lucky—in those days. We even cooked the skin of the potatoes. After the war, we were able to add more ingredients that made this dish even tastier. Since I grew up with this meal, I can’t get enough of it. It’s just too delicious to pass up.

Mangia!

You’ll Need: 2 white onions, chopped 2 tbsp. olive oil 2 tbsp. butter 1 lb. potatoes, peeled and diced 2 lb. ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped 1½ tsp. salt ½ tsp. ground pepper 1 tbsp. parsley, chopped 1 lb. lumache pasta 6 tbsp. Romano cheese

Directions:

SLNY PRODUCTIONS

In a large skillet, sauté the onions in olive oil until soft. Stir in the potatoes, then simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, salt, pepper and parsley. Continue to simmer for 25 minutes. Uncover and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring often. In a separate pot, cook the pasta according to the package directions. When cooked, drain and add the pasta to the potato-andtomato mixture. Mix well and stir in 4 tablespoons of the cheese. Serve immediately in pasta or soup bowls. Sprinkle the remaining 2 tablespoons of cheese on top of the mixture and enjoy!

Chef Bruno gets ready to enjoy a meal of pasta and potatoes with friends Joe Latino, a New York food broker, and Renata Fontana, assistant to the president of Marsal and Sons. 20

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Chef Bruno is PMQ’s culinary advisor, with more than 40 years of international pizza experience. He is the corporate chef for Marsal & Sons, and the culinary coach of the U.S. Pizza Team.

In Lehmann’s Terms Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann

Visit PizzaTV.com to see more tips from Tom Lehmann.

Creating Healthier Pies and Distinctive Sauces A few simple recipe changes can make a big difference in the healthiness and uniqueness of your product. Question: Many of our customers want to see healthier pizzas on our menu. What do you suggest?

Answer: More and more pizza lovers want healthier options these days, and many pizza restaurants have responded, changing their recipes for some pizzas to accommodate the growing demand. Some pizzerias even distinguish these healthier pies on the menu by placing, for example, an image of a red heart—to indicate that the pizza is “heart-healthy”—next to the appropriate items. If you haven’t done so already, now may be the time to add a healthy pizza or two to your menu. Here are a few easy ways to help you prepare a delicious but healthier pizza: •

Use at least 25% whole-wheat flour or a multigrain mix in your dough to replace an equal amount of white flour.

•

Use olive oil or canola oil in the dough and in the sauce.

Answer:

•

Blend a manufactured, cholesterol-free cheese product with your regular cheese. With an equal mix of regular cheese and cholesterol-free cheese product, you will reduce the cholesterol content of your cheese by 50%.

•

Create recipes that feature more vegetable toppings, including peppers, mushrooms and roma tomatoes. Less traditional veggies, such as artichoke hearts, zucchini and broccoli, can also help boost the overall healthiness of your pies and appeal to vegetarian customers.

•

For those guests who don’t want to give up meat toppings on their pizzas, consider turkey pepperoni or even bison pepperoni (it’s great!). Both are lower in total fat and cholesterol content.

•

Pay attention to the portions of toppings on your pizzas. Scale them back a little to help reduce the total calorie count.

Here at the American Institute of Baking, we have been thinking about this question for some time, and we have reached the conclusion that, for a sauce that’s a little different, less might be better. I don’t mean less sauce, but, rather, fewer added herbs and a chunkier tomato product to add texture and flavor. For example, try brushing your dough skin with garlic-infused olive oil or canola oil, and add slices of fresh tomatoes (especially if you can purchase them locally when they’re in season) or pieces of well-drained tomato filets. Add a little diced or sliced garlic, and then start building the pizza in your usual manner. To boost the herb flavor, you may want to place several fresh basil leaves on the pie as soon as it comes out of the oven. This makes for a great presentation and invests the pizza with a wonderful flavor. Getting back to the basics sometimes makes for a better product.

Question: We want to do something a little different with our pizza sauce. Do you have any ideas? 22

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Tom Lehmann is the director of bakery assistance for the American Institute of Baking (AIB). Need more dough advice? Visit the Dough Information Center at PMQ.com/dough.

The Marketing Maven Linda Duke

Mavenisms From a Restaurant Marketer, Part 1 An aggressive marketing program can keep sales strong in a tough economy. As PMQ’s resident marketing maven, I’ve developed a list of 10 “mavenisms,” key points to remember and tips to follow to create a better marketing program and boost your restaurant’s sales and profits. I will present the first five mavenisms in this issue, and five more will follow in the June/July issue.

MAVENISM #1 People Still Have to Eat! In today’s tough economic climate, it’s no secret that consumers have become increasingly cautious. They’re fearful of losing their jobs and their savings. So what can a restaurant do to attract cautious guests? Remember: People still have to eat! When choice becomes the highest currency of the day, restaurateurs should take heed. People still love going out to eat, but if they’ve got less money to spend, choice becomes imperative. So how do you become their restaurant of choice? Consumers choose brands that engage them and make them feel they’re spending their time well. They gravitate more toward experience rather than assets and goods. A restaurant marketer’s top priority should be to ensure that your restaurant brand “adds life” to the experience of dining out.

MAVENISM #2: Employ Social Marketing! Today’s restaurant operators get bombarded with new companies that provide social media management for restaurants. But operators should first understand how social media fits in with their overall marketing plan, not just how they can use social media to do what everyone else is doing. Social media needs to be part of the overall marketing plan along with other forms of traditional media and outreach methods. We call this “integrated marketing communications,” and it’s the most effective marketing method to create a successful brand. But don’t be quick to rush into social media—you wouldn’t rush into buying television advertising or writing a press release, so take your time to understand the commitment involved before engaging in social media for your restaurant brand. Social media requires an ongoing commitment to engage customers in a meaningful and authentic way. It’s about listening to your customers’ concerns and interests. 24 PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Never miss an opportunity to hand out menus to groups of potential customers.

Social media marketing tactics work best with anything that has a beginning and an end: a promotion, an event or a specific call to action or campaign. This approach, which easily incorporates limited-time offers, suits restaurant operators perfectly and builds frequency and loyalty. Email, newsletters, blogs and other social media should be parts of the overall marketing mix. When incorporating social media into a marketing plan, focus on these objectives: • Build long-lasting personal relationships with customers using email, Facebook, Twitter and other websites. • Balance promotional and informational campaigns online. • Encourage virtual word-of-mouth and create conversations with guests online.

• Create product and brand excitement—as well as a complete online experience—through video, photos and audio. • Measure success by tracking followers, click-throughs and open rates. • Keep current—be sure to update your Facebook page and blog at least daily. • Enhance your visibility by making sure your venue can be found through online searches.

Partnering With Food Councils Food Councils can serve as helpful partners in your marketing plan by providing collateral and giveaway materials as well as new recipes for their products. Learn about these organizations by visiting their websites: americanlambboard.org

MAVENISM #3

nationalpeanutboard.org

Be a Chef-Rateur and Include Your Crew Every restaurant operator who manages the food and the back of the house is what I call a “chef-rateur,” and every chef-rateur should be prepared for today’s competitive landscape. Most chefs have an understanding of the food, menus, and back-of-thehouse considerations, but what about the impact he can make with guests and the local community? To optimize their chances for success, chef-rateurs should include employees in marketing decisions. Employees have regular, direct contact with guests and can provide insight about their needs and wants. Always engage your team and solicit their ideas. This will keep them involved, informed and excited about new promotions or other marketing activities within your restaurant. It’s also important to keep your employees informed about current or upcoming promotions. Hold a meeting to make sure they know what they need to know about the promotion. Set up a bulletin board or whiteboard with details about the promotion or event and instructions about each team member’s specific responsibilities. Let employees be the first to try a new product so they can speak knowledgeably to customers about it and answer questions. And make sure your cooking staff knows how to make the new product perfectly every time to ensure consistency. To keep your team fully engaged, reward employees for a job well done after a special promotion. Give out rewards for outstanding cleanup, increased sales or other achievements. One great way to provide incentives is to track employees’ previous sales and/or achievements and establish new goals based on their past accomplishments. Reward them with a gift if they complete these goals. And let them know every day that you appreciate their good work. Other helpful hints to keep in mind:

idahopotato.com

• Set attainable goals for your employees, and make sure there is more than one winner when prizes are offered. • Clearly communicate goals and objectives, talk about them with enthusiasm and post results daily for the employees. • Properly train your staff to meet objectives.

mushroomcouncil.com beeffoodservice.org honey.com pma.com menurice.com

budget to provide promotional materials—including table tents and other point-of-sale items—as well as cooperative dollars from the manufacturer and cool giveaway items. It’s important to create good relationships with strategic partners and vendors to develop joint promotions that will increase customer loyalty and frequency. Coca-Cola, for example, has a website full of free resources for restaurant operators at cokesolutions.com, while U.S. Foods helps its customers create a mailing list and develop a direct-mail program to drive sales as part of its “Your Partner Beyond the Plate” initiative.

MAVENISM #5 Local Store Marketing Local store marketing—the practice of generating awareness and sales within a radius of three to five miles from your restaurant— is an invaluable, if underutilized, marketing strategy for restaurant operators. Most local store marketing tactics require time and effort, which, for some operators, poses a challenge. They’d rather run an advertisement or a coupon to drive traffic so they don’t have to dedicate so much time or effort. But, with the right tactics and training, any restaurant employee can assist with a local marketing plan, garnering positive results without much investment. So get moving, leave your four walls behind for a while, and start a local store marketing plan. Take menus to groups of potential customers—such as real estate agents or banks—and offer to cater their special meals or events. Talk to local reporters about your restaurant. Hand out free appetizer coupons at local sports events. Get moving, and you’ll see positive results sooner than you think!

MAVENISM #4 Use Other People’s Money Developing strategic partnerships and vendor alliances is vital to your restaurant’s success. Strategic partners may include community organizations, national councils or other food manufacturers. Vendor partners—such as soda, beer, wine, liquor and food distributors as well as other product suppliers— can provide your restaurant with opportunities to promote your brand and theirs at the same time. Typically, vendors have a

Linda Duke is the CEO of Duke Marketing and author of Recipes for Restaurateurs (marketing-cookbook.com), a “cookbook” of marketing ideas for restaurant owners. She publishes a quarterly industry resource, Restaurant Marketing Magazine, and an educational program, LSM-U, Local Store Marketing University. Find out more at dukemarketing.com. May 2012 • pmq.com

The Al Fresco

Scott Caradine, owner of Proud Larry’s in Oxford, Mississippi, serves a piping-hot pepperoni pie to customers Sarah Weatherby and Lucy Lang on the popular restaurant’s small but cozy patio.

A well-designed patio creates new moneymaking possibilities for pizzerias. By Jessica Carle

mild, sunny spring afternoon, a pitcher of ice-cold beer and a hot, freshly made pizza—add patio seating to the mix, and restaurateurs can pack in more customers and boost check averages by offering the ideal outdoor environment for their guests. Outdoor dining is on the rise in cities across the nation. Washington, D.C.’s downtown area has seen a big jump in sidewalk cafés, from 95 in 2009 to 135 in 2011, according to the city’s Downtown Business Improvement District. Philadelphia’s Center City District reports the number of outdoor cafés soared from 69 in 2001 to 235 in July 2011. Even tiny Park City, Utah, has experienced a boom in al fresco restaurants, with online ski magazine First Tracks!! reporting that nine 26

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

establishments in the resort town offered seasonal outdoor dining in 2011 compared to only four in 2010. Designing a patio for a restaurant can be a complex process, but the payoff is often worth the trouble and expense. An outdoor dining area increases available seating, heightens your pizzeria’s visibility, reduces interior noise pollution and, best of all, creates new revenue-generating opportunities. According to the Philadelphia Business Journal, adding a 20-seat outdoor dining area can increase sales by 15% to 20% during the warmer months. If you’re thinking of adding a patio to your restaurant, your aim should be to create a destination site that will be comfortable and inviting to your clientele. First and foremost,

TODD NICHOLS

Experience

consider your guests’ needs and interests—it’s not necessary, for example, to design an ultrachic outdoor lounge for a familystyle pizza restaurant. Simply make it comfortable, make it attractive and make sure to allow sufficient space for both your guests and your waitstaff. To help you get started, here are some key elements of patio design to consider:

Grab a Seat When it comes to outdoor dining furniture, there is no one-sizefits-all solution. The right patio furniture depends largely on environmental factors. Be smart about the type of material that you choose—metallic chairs are not a good idea in hot, sunny Phoenix but may be just right for a terrace in Cleveland. Lightweight plastic chairs may get blown away in a windy climate—an aluminum or cast-iron chair may be preferable in those circumstances. (See the sidebar below for more information on materials.) Make sure your chairs are an appropriate size and height for your clients. They should be sturdy enough to support a heavier guest yet easily portable if you plan to put them away at the end of the business day or during the colder months. Consider chairs that can be stacked together to save space. And chairs should always be suitable for the type of flooring that you choose. In the case of brick flooring, for example, select a chair that can easily slide or roll across the floor.

A Place at the Table Tables play a huge role in the design of any patio. Size, shape and form are very important elements to consider. If the tables are too large, they can pose difficulties to waitstaff who need to move quickly around the dining area to serve their guests. If the tables are too small, however, making room for plates and beverages can be problematic. Table shape is particularly important to family-style dining: If the patio is heavily populated with small children, consider tables with rounded edges to ensure the kids’ safety. However, if the patio has a more sleek, luxurious look, sharp angles may be a better fit. Additionally, a sunny, hot environment will likely require tables outfitted with umbrellas to protect your guests from undue exposure.

The style of the table helps to clearly define a patio’s overall design and ambience.

Material Concerns Climate will play a major role in determining the right type of furniture for your patio. The weather factors that must be considered are heat, ultraviolet rays, rain and wind. The four most popular materials—teak, plastic, aluminum and steel— each react differently to these factors. Teak—Teak has a natural look and feel that makes it a popular choice, but long-term maintenance will be required to protect teak furnishings from UV damage. Overheating and rust won’t be a problem, but rain won’t dry off easily as compared to metal materials. If wind poses problems in your area, choose a teak table with a heavier base. Plastic—Lightweight and economically priced, plastic has its advantages: It dries relatively quickly, and heat is reflected, not absorbed, keeping it cooler. But it’s also vulnerable to wind and UV damage. Steel—Heavy and sturdy, steel furnishings are wind- and UV-resistant, but they heat up quickly, cool off slowly and will likely require umbrellas or another type of covering on hot days. On the other hand, steel provides a quick-dry surface in rainy weather. Steel furnishings can be purchased in stainless and powder-coated varieties. Aluminum—This material is highly resistant to rust and generally low-maintenance. Like steel, it can overheat fairly quickly in direct sunlight, but it’s also heavy enough to resist hard winds and doesn’t absorb moisture.

May 2012 • pmq.com

The style of the table helps to clearly define the patio’s design. It’s essential to balance optimal comfort for your guests with an overall look that represents your brand.

When it comes to shading options, first determine if your location would be better served with temporary coverage (umbrellas) or permanent coverage (a roof or awning). Well-designed umbrellas lend a certain elegance and visual appeal, while, on a functional level, they also help to transform the environment itself, turning a sweltering-hot patio with metal tables and chairs into a pleasant, oasislike haven. An umbrella also protects your guests from harmful UV rays. But keep in mind that the most affordable umbrellas may not provide the best value over the long term. Life expectancy can vary greatly from manufacturer to manufacturer, so do your research ahead of time. They’ll need to be sturdy enough to stand up to sudden winds, storms and boisterous kids at play. Options include square and round canopies; steel, wood or aluminum frames; and various types of bases. Look for materials and colors that won’t fade easily with exposure to the elements. At the same time, choose colors that fit with the decor style of your restaurant. Some companies offer customized umbrellas that can be tailored to include your logo or brand colors. For those patios that would be better served by a permanent roofing structure, consider the visual effect that the roof will convey—will it captivate the attention of passersby who might be in the mood for a pizza and a beer? A neon sign may scream, “Look at me!” but a more subtle and tasteful look could appeal

PMQ – The– Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly 00 Pizza PMQ’sMagazine Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Magazine

A pair of young customers enjoy the fresh air and peruse menus at Pizzeria Rustica.

PIZZERIA RUSTICA

Made in the Shade

to families or couples. In all respects, the patio area should be visually consistent with your restaurant’s brand.

Once you’ve selected a design theme, the next step is climate control. For more arid locations, think about purchasing fans with misters. For areas that experience hot, humid summers, electric fans that produce a moderate breeze can be very useful, but look for models that don’t make a lot of noise—no one wants to have to shout over a loud motor to be heard. Unless your patio is completely enclosed, it will be extremely expensive to provide air conditioning during the warmer months, so a good fan is likely the best investment for cooling purposes. As cooler weather sets in, heaters are a great way to extend the patio season. They are available in various designs that can add flair and style to your patio. But choosing outdoor heaters—which come in electric, gas or propane models—can be a daunting task. One common mistake is to use tower models that produce heat at the very top; they’ll do the job if all of your customers stand more than six feet tall, but for everyone else, it’s almost impossible to get any benefit from those models. Consider wall-mounted or ceiling-mounted heaters as well as tabletop heaters. Electric heaters generate warmth quickly but can’t be used during a power outage. Propane and gas heaters don’t require electricity but may emit strong carbon odors and emissions.

On the Floor

PIZZERIA RUSTICA

Flooring is a key component in creating an attractive restaurant patio; it’s also the biggest expense you’ll face. The most important factors to consider when choosing flooring materials are ease of maintenance and durability. Selecting the most economical flooring material may not be the smartest choice in the end. If the flooring is laid improperly or becomes damaged, the cost to replace or repair it may be quite high. The replacement/repair

A waitress serves a family of diners at Pizzeria Rustica. 30

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Beautifully lit tulip-style umbrellas lend a touch of elegance to outdoor dining.

costs will be compounded by the hassle of removing and storing all of the furnishings. Additionally, in many states, a cracked or damaged floor will cost you points on a health inspection, so be very cautious in choosing the right option for your location.

Know the Law Once you’ve decided how you would like a patio addition or renovation to look, consult your local code enforcement and permitting agencies before starting any work. Many jurisdictions impose heavy fines for adding to or renovating a commercial building’s exterior without proper approval. Make sure you have secured the correct permits, then hire a reputable contractor who will do the job right the first time. The last thing you want are protracted delays that leave the exterior of your restaurant in a shambles and cause inconvenience for people who live or work in the area. After your patio has been built, it is essential to stay on top of the maintenance. Outdoor dining areas will be exposed to harsh weather and environmental contaminants that aren’t a problem for restaurant interiors. Above all, be proactive about keeping the patio area, tables, chairs, door handles and commonly touched surfaces clean and sanitized. Pressure-wash the patio at least once yearly. An annual deep cleaning not only preserves the esthetic value of your outdoor dining area—it also extends the longevity of the patio and its furnishings. An outdoor patio packed with happy patrons is one of the best forms of advertising for a restaurant. With the right design, furnishings and climate control, your restaurant can draw in new guests, increase frequency of visits and boost your restaurant’s profitability.

Jessica Carle is the office/marketing manager of MDT-Tex, an international corporation specializing in the development, production, installation and servicing of sun protection systems for restaurants, bars and hotels around the world. Visit www.mdt-tex.com for more information.

MDT-TEX

Climate Control

The Grandeur of

Garlic

By Rick Hynum

Garlic’s rich flavor and aroma make it a gourmet’s delight and a must-have in any pizzeria’s kitchen.

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Love it or hate it—and most Americans seem to love it—you have to admire the versatility and durability of garlic. A marvel of evolution that likely originated in Asia, it’s a hardy plant that matures even through winter snows and comes in hundreds of varieties, including pinks, purples, reds and stripes. It’s usually planted in late October and harvested in July or August, enduring the worst extremes of weather that Mother Nature can dish out. A typical bulb yields between 12 and 16 cloves, which also serve as seeds to produce even more garlic. A member of the lily family and a relative of the onion, garlic has an illustrious medicinal history dating back to the

(Top to bottom) The White Shadow is a popular white-sauce pie at Slice Pizza & Brew; roasted garlic brings Slice’s Brown Butter Pasta to life; Russo’s New York Pizzeria serves up a delicious Penne Mediterranean pasta.

SLICE PIZZA & BREW

Egyptian pharaohs, the Greeks and the father of medicine himself, Hippocrates. Louis Pasteur touted its antibacterial powers in 1858, and explorer-physician Albert Schweitzer is said to have used it to treat amoebic dysentery during his travels in Africa. Medics in both world wars employed it to prevent gangrene in soldiers’ wounds. But garlic’s culinary applications are no less respectable and universal, with pizzeria chefs opting for garlic in recipes that span virtually the entire menu. Mixing granulated, minced or chopped garlic into pizza dough, for example, lends an additional dimension of flavor to the finished crust. It figures prominently in most sauce recipes and has become a trendy topping as well. All garlic, however, is not created equal, according to studies conducted by The National Food Lab (NFL), a Livermore, California-based foodservice consulting firm. Sensory evaluation tests compared domestic garlic to Chinese garlic, which began flooding the American market in the early 1990s. The NFL found that California-grown garlic, for example, boasts substantially higher levels of brix, which are the solids—such as vitamins, amino acids, proteins, fructose and sugars—contained in the plant’s juice. Imported garlic exhibited lower brix levels, the studies showed, with Chinese garlic at the bottom of the list. In other words, the Chinese garlic may be more affordable, but domestic garlic packs a more flavorful punch, says Rick Dyer, director of chain and industrial

RUSSO’S NEW YORK PIZZERIA

Buying American

SLICE PIZZA & BREW

ore than a mainstay in the pizzeria kitchen, garlic has long been the reputed superhero of the plant kingdom. It was said, in medieval times, to ward off vampires, prevent the plague, arouse a fair maiden’s passions and cure whooping cough. Modern research has tamped down expectations for garlic to an extent—rare is the would-be Lothario who would use it as an aphrodisiac today—but studies suggest that the organic compound allicin, which gives garlic its rich flavor and aroma, may be the world’s most powerful antioxidant. It may also have antibiotic properties and help reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Not bad for a humble bulb known to many by that most unappetizing nickname, “the stinking rose.” Intensely tasty and versatile, garlic also plays a pivotal role in virtually every regional cuisine in the world, from Asian and European dishes to African and Latin American fare. It’s certainly a must-have for pizzerias, according to Richard Shinault, corporate chef for Brixx Wood-Fired Pizza (brixxpizza.com), a regional chain with 16 stores in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. “I think it’s 100% necessary, a key flavoring,” Shinault says. “It’s in 80% of our menu items.” “It’s a phenomenal herb,” agrees Anthony Russo, founder of Houston-based Russo’s New York Pizzeria and Russo’s Coal-Fired Italian Kitchen (nypizzeria. com). “We use garlic in our sauces, salad dressings, chicken stock, dips, soups, bread—pretty much everything. And we always buy it fresh.”

May 2012 • pmq.com

That Ol’ Black Magic Touted by The Washington Post in 2009 as the “next ‘It’ ingredient,” black garlic has made inroads in the restaurant industry with a flavor profile that’s both subtle and complex. Black garlic, usually imported from South Korea, is fresh garlic that has been fermented for a month until it turns a rich black hue. “I would describe it as a garlic truffle,” says chef Oscar Lippe, a Washington, D.C.-based entrepreneur and former restaurateur who imports black garlic to the United States. “It has an earthy, raisinlike, chocolaty, sweet quality that is a little bit tart at the end. “What fermentation does for garlic, basically, is that it takes the positive aspects of garlic—the antioxidant benefits and nutritional benefits—and intensifies them times 10. On the culinary side, it also takes the edge off the garlic—that is, the bitterness and aftertaste—and transforms it into a much sweeter, gentler product that can be used in sauces and other gastronomic preparations.” In an article titled “Seasoning Secrets of the Elite Chefs,” the October 2011 issue of Details magazine put black garlic at the top of its list (above sea beans and juniper berries). It even features prominently on a popular pie at Toby’s Public House (tobyspublichouse.com), a pizzeria in Brooklyn, New York, where chef Alvaro Medina combines it with Italian bacon, tomato, mozzarella and crimini mushrooms to create the Smoked Pancetta pizza. Lippe says he has mixed black garlic with water to create a paste that he adds to his pizza dough mixture. “Instead of using sugar and salt for fermentation, I just let the natural sugars of the black garlic work with the yeast in the rise of the dough, and then I let the dough rise three times. It adds a sweetness and a tartness that’s hard to describe. It lends itself very well to pizza.” 34

sales for Christopher Ranch, a supplier of California heirloom garlic headquartered in Gilroy, California, the selfproclaimed “garlic capital of the world.” “A lot of our customers wanted to know the difference, and many others already knew the difference and shared it with us,” Dyer notes. “We came to learn from our own customers that California domestic garlic in general is a good 30% to 50% more pungent than Chinese varieties in terms of garlic flavor. Generally, you have to use twice the amount of Chinese garlic to get the same flavor level offered by the American kind. “Chinese garlic primarily offers heat as opposed to true garlic flavor,” Dyer continues. “Some chefs are sensitive to this heat factor, so they will blanch their garlic cloves to reduce that heat. But it’s a delicate balance—blanch it for too long, and you wash out some of the garlic flavor, too.”

Dough, Dips and Soups Whatever makes it taste so good, garlic is a fixture in restaurant and home kitchens alike. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, Americans consumed nearly 2½ pounds of garlic per capita in 2010, and no other vegetable has shown such strong sustained growth. Garlic is so popular that a trio of Seattle pizzaioli built an entire franchise concept around it: Garlic Jim’s Famous Gourmet Pizza (garlicjims.com), with more than 25 locations in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, California and Colorado. “Most people

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

love garlic, and it has a healthy connotation, which is becoming more and more important,” Ross Marzolf, Garlic Jim’s director of public relations and marketing, says. “It’s also a consistently popular topping with most people.” “We’ve used roasted garlic cloves as a topping for one of our pizzas that has been on the menu for 12 years,” Shinault says. “We soak the whole cloves in olive oil and roast them in our wood-burning oven. That one has become one of our signature pizzas.” Roasting garlic cloves has several advantages, Shinault adds. “I don’t think it’s as spicy as raw garlic. You take that spice away, and you get more flavor. You make it more elegant and easier to eat compared to raw garlic.” “My favorite preparation for garlic would probably be roasting,” agrees Terrill Brazleton, the chef at Slice Pizza & Brew (slicebirmingham.com) in Birmingham, Alabama. “It adds a nutty aroma and takes some of the pungency out of the flavor, making it milder and more suitable for consumption in larger quantities.” One of Slice’s most popular pies is the White Shadow. Along with whole roasted cloves of garlic, Brazleton adds caramelized onions, portabella mushrooms, feta and fresh Parmesan cheeses, then finishes the specialty pizza with truffle oil. In fact, roughly one-third of the pizzas on Slice’s menu are made with a white-sauce base featuring olive oil and minced garlic, Brazleton says. “We just rub it straight onto the dough as a substitute for the traditional red sauce. It’s unique—it gives people a chance to eat something besides the same old red sauce.”

Choosing the Right Garlic Although some chefs and garlic aficionados, including Russo, use only fresh bulbs straight from local produce markets, others prefer the convenience of processed garlic purchased in bulk. In addition to jarred garlic that comes in minced, crushed and chopped varieties, some suppliers offer eco-friendly, resealable bags of individually wrapped packets that contain peeled and/or roasted cloves. These bags require constant refrigeration at 34° to 38°F, whereas jars can be stored in a cool, dry place until opened, after which

they should be refrigerated and can last for up to three months. “We are pretty traditional,” Brazleton says. “We use the standard white garlic that comes already peeled in a tub. That’s the flavor profile that suits us best. But our garlic does come from local producers.” Shinault says Brixx also buys the peeled variety, adding, “To tell you the truth, we don’t get all that picky with our garlic. There are plenty of good, quality garlics out there, but, in my experience, it’s not that important.” Dyer disagrees. “If you take apples as an example, would a chef have a preference whether it was a Red Delicious or a Fuji?” he says. “The two are very different, and I would propose that you’d find the same thing with different varieties of garlic. I think more chefs are coming to realize there are differences, especially between imports and domestics.” Food safety is another factor to consider, Dyer adds. Today’s consumers, especially younger ones, want to know where their food originated and whether pesticides were used. As for the overall popularity of garlic, Dyer points to the success of the Gilroy Garlic Festival, founded in the late 1970s. “Gilroy wasn’t known for much of anything except that it was the largest garlic

BRIXX WOOD-FIRED PIZZA

Meanwhile, in addition to creating delicious pesto sauces with fresh garlic, Russo primes patrons’ taste buds with a specialty garlic dip served with bread. “This is a nice Italian herb dip with olive oil, fresh garlic, oregano, black pepper and red pepper flakes, which we serve as a side dish,” he says. “We also have a house-made cannellini bean dip, which we serve with our coal-fired flatbread, that’s cooked with a lot of garlic; we puree it and add Parmesan cheese,” Russo says. “And we make a Chianti-based, roasted garlic soup with chicken stock, celery, carrots and onions that we sometimes serve as a special. That’s an old Italian recipe.”

Brixx Wood-Fired Pizza, a regional chain in the Southeast, boosts its hummus’ flavor with locally grown white garlic.

processing center in the country,” Dyer says. “When someone proposed a garlic festival, it somewhat polarized the town. People thought, ‘Why would you want to promote something like garlic?’ They expected 20,000 people to show up. When they got 60,000, they knew they had something. It has grown from there. “The festival took what some may have perceived as a negative and turned it around,” Dyer adds. “The truth is, everybody loves food, and most people who love food also love garlic.” Rick Hynum is PMQ’s managing editor.

A Glut of Garlic Most Americans typically see only one type of garlic in their local supermarkets: a plain-white, plump and tasty bulb called the artichoke garlic. In fact, there seem to be more types of garlic in the world than experts can count—estimates range from between 400 to more than 600 cultivated subvarieties, depending on whom you ask. But all garlics fall under the species Allium sativum and include two subspecies: Ophioscorodon (hard-neck) and Sativum (soft-neck). Here we provide a brief overview of these two subspecies: Soft-Neck Garlics: Soft-necks are recognized by their white, papery skin and an abundance of cloves, which often form several layers around the bulb’s core. The commonly found artichoke variety of soft-necks ranges in flavor from very mild— such as the Simoneti and the Red Toch—to the somewhat more potent Inchelium Red and Susanville to the highly potent Chinese Purple and Purple Cauldron. A second soft-neck variety, the Silverskin, is often used in decorative braids and usually has a strong flavor with considerable heat. Hard-Neck Garlics: More colorful than their soft-neck counterparts, hard-necks, which include the Rocambole, Purple Stripe and Porcelain varieties, generally provide the deepest flavors with the fewest cloves. Rocamboles, for example, pack a lot of heat along with a slightly earthy, musty taste. Versions of the Purple Stripes, such as Chesnok Red and Persian Star, are said to make the sweetest roasted garlic. Porcelains generally have a robust flavor and can be stored for up to 10 months or longer at room temperatures. 36

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Pizza of the Month:

Seafood

White

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Sponsored by

White Pizza Recipe and photo provided by Grande 16 oz. pizza dough ball, slacked 1½ tbsp. olive oil 1¼ oz. garlic, roasted and minced 10 oz. mozzarella, shredded or diced 10 oz. ricotta Roll out the dough ball to form a pizza crust. Spread the oil evenly over the crust. Sprinkle the garlic evenly over the crust. Top with mozzarella, and add ricotta in small dollops across the top of the pizza. Bake at 500°F for 6 to 10 minutes in a deck oven or 5 to 7 minutes in an impingement oven, until cheese is melted and crust is golden brown. Variations Instead of dolloping the ricotta on top of the pizza cheese, spread the ricotta on the crust and then top with mozzella. Sprinkle grated Parmesan and Romano on top of the olive oil and garlic for a fourcheese version. Top the pie with a signature blend of herbs, such as oregano, basil and/or parsley, for extra flavor. Add ingredients, such as sliced mushrooms or artichoke hearts, to increase the taste and texture.

A Whiter Shade of Pizza Traditional tomato sauces are a must for any pizzeria, while white-sauce pizzas feature prominently on specialty menus. But not everyone agrees on exactly what constitutes a “white pizza.” Some say a white pizza has no sauce at all. But most agree it’s a pizza that substitutes a white sauce for a red one. Popular white sauces include Alfredo, ranch dressing or simply a flavorful blend of olive oil, garlic, oregano and ricotta, mozzarella and/or Parmesan cheeses. Some recipes call for a basil-pesto mix, while vegans may prefer a sauce made with coconut milk and pureed roasted garlic. Toppings can include everything from chicken, shrimp and sliced steak to spinach, broccoli, parsley, mushrooms, zucchini, red or green peppers, roasted garlic and tomato slices. Here are a few examples of how chefs around the country experiment with white pizza recipes: Not all white pies are completely white. Austin, Texas-based Gatti’s Pizza (gattispizza.com) unveiled its Black and White Pizza for a limited time last year. The special featured Alfredo sauce, black beans, chicken, jalapeños and smoked provolone cheese.

Bright White Ideas Build a loyal clientele for your white-sauce pizzas with these marketing tips: •

Create a weekly Black Monday/White Pizza special and dish out white pies to brighten the customers’ days.

•

Pair white-sauce pizzas with white wines and red-sauce pizzas with red wines. Alternatively, serve red wine with whitesauce pizzas and vice versa, depending on the recipes.

•

Let your customers choose the name of your new white pizza. Encourage goofy puns, but be warned: Some good ones are already taken, such as the White Album and the Quentin Florentino.

Giordano’s Pizza House and Family Restaurant in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, experimented with both flavors and shapes when it developed a square white pie that earned rave reviews in local competitions. The double-crust pie is stuffed with mozzarella and provolone, seasoned with oregano, rosemary and garlic, and topped with onion, chopped garlic and grated Parmesan. Customers at Regina Pizzeria (reginapizzeria.com) in Boston’s North End enjoy the savory St. Anthony’s Pizza, prepared with Regina’s garlic sauce and mozzarella cheese and topped with sausage links, roasted red peppers, onions and mushrooms. The Vegetarian features garlic sauce, fresh basil and a bounty of veggies, including tomatoes, mushrooms, green peppers, onions, black olives and zucchini. For a taste of old Mexico, Pepicelli’s Pizza (pepicellis.com) in Ashland, Virginia, serves up a white-sauce version of a taco pizza with ground beef, onion, tomato and cheddar topped with shredded lettuce, tortilla chips and seasonings. May 2012 • pmq.com

The Pizza Kings of

Flatbush

A beloved Brooklyn pizzeria thrives on old-school marketing and very affordable prices.

s a youngster growing up in the heart of working-class Brooklyn, New York, Danny Scandiffio had a summer job he didn’t much like and responsibilities he couldn’t evade— working for his immigrant dad, John, and his uncle, Lenny Maffie, in a bustling little Flatbush Avenue pizzeria called Lenny & John’s Pizzeria (lenny andjohnspizza.com). Frequented by cops, firefighters, sanitation workers and their families, Lenny & John’s had a reputation for tasty pizzas, heros, rice balls and pastas, as well as fast service and dirt-cheap prices that

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

By Rick Hynum

seldom went up in flush times or recessions. John and Lenny ran the place with friendly smiles and a warm, personal touch that belied the drill-sergeant precision and exhausting hours required to make it thrive. And Danny and his brother Jimmy helped out, manning the cash register, taking orders, serving up pies and eyeing the clock for quitting time. Thirty years later, little has changed at Lenny & John’s, except now Danny and Jimmy own and manage the place—and they’re much happier to be there. It has also grown from a four-table to a 12-table restaurant, thanks to additions

and renovations completed last November. Otherwise, Lenny & John’s remains the sort of no-frills, down-to-earth Italian diner where customers still get greeted by name and forgetting your wallet won’t necessarily mean you go home hungry. “I tell people that I was practically born in the basement,” Danny says. “My mother was working here with me inside her belly, helping my father out. My brother and I have worked here all our lives, but it was only in the last few years that I’ve really developed a fondness for the business. I enjoy it now much more than I did when I was younger. “When you’re younger, you feel forced into it,” he adds, with a laugh. “Dad needs your help, and you’ve got to go to work or he’ll kick your butt!”

Working-Class Hero When John Scandiffio arrived in the United States from his native Italy around 1963, he had only $13 in his pocket and a strong work ethic. A cabinetmaker by trade, he ended up washing dishes in a restaurant; he soon met Anna Maffie, also an Italian immigrant, married her and, in 1969, founded his own pizzeria with Anna’s brother, Lenny. John also owned a hero shop near the World Trade Center in Manhattan, Danny says. “He’d go to work there at 5:00 in the morning, then he’d come here to Lenny & John’s at 5:00 in the afternoon and work until 2:00 in the morning,” Danny recalls. “He slept on Saturdays.” In 1980 Lenny sold his share of the pizzeria to John, who continued to operate it with his wife and sons under the Lenny &

An American flag, placed on Lenny & John’s wall after 9/11, displays the badges of emergency workers who stopped off for a quick pie there between shifts at Ground Zero.

John’s name. By then, the restaurant had built a large and fiercely loyal clientele and a reputation as a family-friendly refuge in the sometimes rough-and-tumble Flatbush community. “John sold himself. He sold who he was,” says Anthony Mentesana, a business development manager for Vesuvio Foods who has sold products to the Scandiffio family’s operation for years. “He always did business on volume, not on margin. He kept his prices low, and people realized he wasn’t looking to nickel-and-dime them. You could always afford to eat there.” Mentesana remembers when John developed a $2 special for 16” pies on Tuesday nights. “It created havoc on Flatbush Avenue,” he says. “It really got the place rocking. Cars were triple-parked from 5:00 to 11:00. That was 1977 or 1978.”

Mentesana also remembers trying to convince the tenderhearted John that his prices were too low to yield a profit during recessionary times. “I’d tell him, ‘I don’t know how you can continue with these prices. Everything’s going up, and I have to pass these increases on to you.’ He’d say, ‘How am I going to raise prices? People can’t afford to eat. Thank God we saved a lot of money years ago when times were good. Let the people eat.’” “Even our customers would yell at my father for not raising his prices,” Danny recalls, fondly. “They’d beg him to do it. They’d say, ‘What are you, nuts?’ But he always said to us, ‘There’s a pizzeria on every block here; there’s one on this block, two on the next block, three on the next block over. But there’s enough people in this community for all of us to do well.’”

MICHAEL CASSO

THE STATS: Lenny & John’s Pizzeria Website: lennyandjohnspizza.com Headquarters: Brooklyn, NY Owners: Danny Scandiffio and Jimmy Scandiffio Year started: 1969 Total units: 1 POS system: Signature Systems PDQ System Oven: Antique Morello Forni gas oven; a second oven built to resemble the Morello antique by Bari Manufacturing Dine-in, takeout, delivery Number of employees: 27 Brothers Danny Scandiffio (left) and Jimmy Scandiffio have managed Lenny & John’s since their beloved father’s retirement. May 2012 • pmq.com

Affordable Eats In the early 1980s, Lenny & John’s began catering to Flatbush Avenue’s thenbooming bar scene. John extended the restaurant’s closing time from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. “We were doing tremendous business in the nighttime,” Danny says. The neighborhood’s bar trade has since declined, but the Scandiffios still keep late hours, thanks to an endless demand for nighttime pizza deliveries. “We do an abundance of deliveries from midnight to 4 a.m., more than some places do in a whole day,” Danny says. “We typically do between 100 and 150 deliveries on a weekday and more than 200 on the weekends.” Tuesday remains the pizzeria’s busiest night of the week, with John’s everpopular pizza special now selling for $8, a $5 discount off the regular price. “If you’re unemployed, you can still afford to eat here,” Danny notes. “You can get an $8 pie on Tuesdays that will feed a family of four. Where else can you do that?” In fact, the Scandiffio brothers have held true to their beloved father’s pricing strategy across the menu. Customers won’t pay more than $12 for entrees such as veal cutlet Parmigiana, chicken cacciatore or

veal scallopine. They can enjoy baked ziti for $6.50, a chicken Parmigiana hero for $7.25 and the restaurant’s famously flavorful rice balls, prepared with seasoned pork and cheese, for just a buck.

A Family of Customers To keep business hopping, Danny and Jimmy run regular advertisements in local newspapers and offer coupons on the restaurant’s website. But the two old-school pizzaioli remain lukewarm toward social media marketing. They have a Facebook page, called “Lenny & John’s at 3 a.m.,” but they rarely update it. And they accept online ordering only through a third-party site, mypizza.com, which nets two or three orders per week, Danny says. “They tack on their extra fee and pass the orders on to us,” he says. “Personally, I don’t like online ordering. I feel like my customers are getting shortchanged. It’s impersonal. If I can’t talk to you on the phone, I can’t suggest something else you’d want to order or steer you to a different product. I’d rather give you my ideas, tell you what I prefer.” The brothers have taken advantage of the Internet, however, to market their

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

brand through online merchandising at cafepress.com/lennyandjohnspizza. Consumers can order T-shirts, mugs, steins, pajamas, boxers and even customized thongs, all bearing the red, yellow and green Lenny & John’s coat-of-arms logo. “A lot of our customers who have moved out of the neighborhood call us and ask for T-shirts, so now it’s easy for them to order them on the Internet,” Danny says. “That’s been a great marketing tool for us.” The recent expansion of Lenny & John’s is part of an overall rebranding campaign designed to boost business while maintaining the restaurant’s laidback neighborhood-eatery atmosphere. Football, baseball and other games now play on large TV screens mounted on the walls, and Danny and his brother are also working to obtain a beer and liquor license and rebuild their bar business. But some aspects of the decor remain unchanged, such as the American flag that Danny hung on the wall in the days after the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. He recalls how emergency workers would stop in at the restaurant for a quick pie before returning to their grim

“We know most of our customers by name. People come through that door, and they’re like family to us” – Danny Scandiffio, co-owner, Lenny & John’s

(Clockwise from top) Anthony Mentesana from Vesuvio Foods gets ready to enjoy a pie with his longtime friend and client Danny Scandiffio; brothers Danny and Jimmy Scandiffio pose in front of the pizzeria their father co-founded in 1969; the Lenny & John’s counter is a familiar sight to many lifelong Brooklynites; Danny, Jimmy, longtime employee Joe Loccisana and Mentesana take a quick break from their busy jobs.

MICHAEL CASSO

And that’s the way John Scandiffio, now retired and living in Florida, always liked it, Danny says. “My father used to tell us, ‘They’re not just customers. You’ve got to learn who they are. Get to know them. Then they’ll feel comfortable and come back to you.’ We’ve always done that here. We know most of our customers by name. People come through that door, and they’re like family to us.”

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s managing editor.

MICHAEL CASSO

work at Ground Zero. One day, out of the blue, many of them began ripping the badges off their uniforms and affixing them to Danny’s flag, creating a powerful visual tribute to those who died in the attacks and to those who labored to help the survivors. The Scandiffios also left untouched the rows of dollar bills stuck to Lenny & John’s walls, another customer-inspired adornment that has endured through the years. “They’re all good-luck charms from the customers,” Danny explains. “They want their names on the walls as a form of recognition that this is their store, too. They sign their names on the bills, and we tape them to the wall.” It’s the customers’ sense of ownership that makes Lenny & John’s such a special place, according to Mentesana. “You come in as a guest, and you leave as a family member,” he says.

May 2012 • pmq.com

Pizza On the Move Pizza entrepreneurs are going mobile, rolling out a profitable new business model with low start-up costs. By Katya Vlasenko Mobile pizza restaurants are an efficient microbusiness model, sprouting up in urban centers and towns across the United States. Pizzaioli now roll around American cities, providing freshly made pies that are often pulled straight from the oven. Their high-quality products have established some mobile unit operators as strong competitors to brick-and-mortar restaurants, and their mobility permits access to a broader market while also distinguishing them from fast-food joints. Best of all, most of them donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have to spend money on advertising. PMQ interviewed owners of mobile units across the country to find out what makes this concept work so well. 44

PMQ Pizza Magazine â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Pizza Industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Business Monthly

Josh Mussman and Aric Mussman Vero Amore Pizza, Tucson and Marana, AZ veroamorepizza.com It all started when our catering customers told us they love serving our pasta, panini and salads at events and parties, but they wanted our pizza, too. Since Vero Amore is certified as an authentic Neapolitan pizza maker, the only pizza that could be offered outside the restaurants would have been at private homes with wood-fired ovens. We don’t deliver pizza and discourage customers from taking it out unless it will be eaten immediately. So the answer was to design and build a mobile pizza truck, equipped with a wood-fired oven so we could bring fresh, hot, authentic Neapolitan pizza to pizza lovers everywhere. In 2009 we started bidding on fire engines around the country and eventually nabbed one, an International Harvester, in January 2010. A friend in St. Louis retrofitted the truck for catering. It’s really cool—it’s big and bright red with bold graphics and lights. It always attracts attention. We market it on our website and Facebook page. It’s popular at private events like birthdays, graduations, fundraisers and Super Bowl and holiday parties. Word-of-mouth has been great, both from our restaurant customers and from people who see us around town. People love the experience of watching us make their pizza dough and cooking it in the pizza truck’s 800˚ wood-burning oven.

Scott Thorson Bella Familia Pizza, Rocklin, CA bellafamiliapizza.com I purchased my trailer—which was designed for the sole purpose of carrying the oven—from The Fire Within in Boulder, Colorado, and the oven itself was imported from Italy. Over my four years in this business, I’ve done local TV interviews and gotten print coverage by pitching my story to newspapers and magazines, saying, “Look how unique we are.” Everything else is done through social media. We haven’t paid for any advertising yet. One day I’d like to open a brick-and-mortar unit since the No. 1 question I get from customers is, “Where is your restaurant?” But the mobile unit has helped me achieve my dream of independence without the expense of a brick-and-mortar restaurant.

Peter Owens Fire Truck Company 77, Irvine, CA company77.com We have a shoestring budget, so we use anything that’s free to promote ourselves—mom blogs, tastings, handing out cards, appearing in parades, trying to get press coverage and driving around in our truck. We get six to 10 inquiries per week and book three or so. We’ll need 13 events per month to break even, so we’re not quite there yet. We should be running at about 20 events per month. We’d like to franchise if we can get the model right, but we’re focused on getting this single unit up and profitable right now. We’re not there yet, but, hopefully, we’ll be there by the end of 2012. May 2012 • pmq.com

Joseph Pergolizzi The Fire Within, Boulder, CO mobilewoodfiredpizzaovens.com

David Perri Pizza Amore, Buffalo, NY pizzaamorewoodfire.com

We’ve been on the market for seven years now. And I personally have worked in the pizza business for 10 years. There is quite a bit of competition today, with more than 70,000 pizzerias in the United States. However, we don’t need to think much about the competition, as this market can sustain itself. Pizza is getting more and more popular, so the market isn’t full yet, and new mobile units—as well as pizza restaurants—keep emerging. Besides operating our own mobile pizza business, we also sell ovens and customized mobile units and provide training to help other operators develop their businesses and become successful. We used to import our ovens from overseas, but we decided to sell American-made ovens a couple of years ago. This improved the quality of our ovens and allowed us to help create jobs in the United States and contribute to solving the problem of unemployment. Whenever people try our pizza, they ask, “Where is your restaurant?” So I came to the conclusion that this is something we should do. We’re also considering operating a second mobile unit, but first we want to open the restaurant.

We started this business because I had the crazy idea to build a wood-fired oven in our backyard. Our pizza became popular, and everyone wanted it delivered. We are the only mobile, wood-fired pizza unit in western New York, so that’s definitely to our advantage. So far our only advertising has been word-of-mouth, business cards and brochures. To find places to park our unit, we just research local fairs and festivals in the area and talk with other vendors. This is our first year in business, and we are also in the process of opening our first restaurant and maybe adding another trailer. At this point, our primary income has been from our trailer, and I also work a full-time job.

Michael Johnson The Pizza Company, Sacramento, CA woodfiredpizzacompany.com My oven is on a trailer, so I’m more limited as far as the locations where I can set up compared to a food truck. I mostly do farmers markets—six per week—and private catering. People find me through Facebook and Yelp, or they see me at the farmers markets, so I spend almost no money on advertising. There are about six other mobile units within a 50-mile radius of me, but this is a large metropolitan area, and there is plenty of work to go around. I don’t feel that I compete with other mobile units in my region; rather, we work together to promote more awareness of the growing mobile food truck scene in our area. My business is going into its third season, and so far I’ve more than doubled the size of my business and my revenue each season. When that ceases to happen, then I’ll have to make the decision whether to expand or not. Making pizza is an art, and I’m proud of what I produce now—I would have to seriously think about whether I wanted to change for monetary gain. I’ve seen in the past that owning two restaurants doesn’t necessarily make someone more successful but may only increase their risk of failure or mediocrity. 46

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Douglas Coffin Big Green Truck, New Haven, CT, and Orlando, FL biggreentruckpizza.com We are a catering company that offers pizza parties from antique trucks outfitted as mobile pizzerias. We go directly to the clients’ homes or offices. We have four trucks, and we’re building a fifth. We are the ultimate delivery operation in that we bring the entire pizzeria to you. We did $1.5 million in sales last year. It took us eight years to get to that point, and we’ve reinvested substantially to build the business. I’m not Italian, and neither are several of my pizza makers. In New Haven some people have very strong opinions about how to make pizza and who makes good pies. At one party a guest came up to me and started speaking Italian. I told him, ‘You know I’m not Italian,’ and he said, in English, ‘I had to check.’ The guy who was making my pizzas is part German, part Irish and no part Italian. The guests began to get worried. They said other guests who’d be arriving soon owned pizzerias, and they started joking that perhaps they should order out for some pies instead. In the end, they gave us a chance, and, a few pies later, they were breaking out the homemade wine and asking us to join them.

Matthew Hans Wood Fired Pizza, Newark, DE woodfiredpizzatruck.com We started our business in May 2010, and it’s been a wild ride ever since. We were superlucky to find our truck. I searched for several months to find the perfect one and finally found it on the Internet one day. It’s a 1956 Ford F-250 in great condition. We often have people come up to us to look at the truck, and they stay for lunch or a snack. It’s a lot of fun to drive and a great marketing tool. We’re also huge fans of social media marketing. Facebook and Twitter have been a blessing to us—they’re free advertising and give us a chance to interact with our customers on a personal level. We focus on them, and they help us spread the word on where we’re going to be. We often post our daily specials to start a buzz. Our customers usually already know what they want by the time they get to the truck. Katya Vlasenko is a PMQ intern.

As the popularity of mobile restaurants continues to rise, a variety of manufacturers have emerged to fill the niche. Check out this list of companies that offer customized food trailers and trucks for mobile unit operators: AA Cater Truck, 323-235-6650, aacatertruck.com

MSM Catering Trucks, 562-272-4595, msmcateringtrucks.com

All A Cart, 800-695-2278, allacart.com

Pacific Cater Truck Mfg., 323-728-3463, pacificcater.com

Armenco, 800-345-0104, cateringtruck.com

Pizza Trucks of Canada, 204-444-4359, pizzatrucksofcanada.com

California Cart Builder, 866-347-1010, californiacartbuilder.com Creative Mobile Systems, 860-649-6272, cmssystem.com

Rocky Mountain Wood-Fire Ovens, 720-840-8056, rockymountainwoodfireovens.com

Food Cart USA, 866-274-6935, foodcartusa.com

The Fire Within, 303-652-7378, mobilewoodfiredpizzaovens.com

Hotshot Delivery Systems, 800-468-7478, hotshotdeliverysystems.com

Trailer Factory, 305-257-5191, trailerfactory.com

Mobi Munch, 213-289-9800, mobimunch.com 48

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

WYSS Catering Truck Manufacturing, 562-921-7050, wysscateringtrucks.com

potatoes The Chef: Scott Nelson, Pizza Lucé, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The Pizza: Garlic Mashed Idaho® Potato Pizza. Idaho® Baby Red Potatoes, feta cheese, garlic, heavy cream, kosher salt and a little sugar. Pizza meets potatoes to deliver true satisfaction. The Passion: True pizza passion means being able to expand your ingredient palette to deliver a great American comfort food times two.

For this and other inspired recipes featuring Idaho® Potatoes, visit us on the Web.

idahopotato.com/fspro Follow us:

/ FamousIdahoPotatoes

@idahopotato

The Catering Connection As customer expectations evolve, a profitable catering program may be essential to your pizzeria’s survival. By Erle Dardick

atering is the next substantial sales growth area for the restaurant industry worldwide, especially for the pizza segment. But some operators remain skeptical of its potential, often because they struggled in the past to implement a catering business strategy that was sound, scalable and fast-growing. According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the goal of catering is “to provide a supply of food or to supply what is required or desired.” This broad definition highlights a looming challenge for pizza operators: Catering means something different to every operator, yet many try to stuff the experience into a preconceived box of what they think it means. For the purpose of this discussion, readers should step back from their preconceived notion of what catering is and look at the bigger picture. A profitable catering program isn’t merely possible for pizzeria operators—in some cases, it may be vital to their survival. Consider the following facts:

Fact #1 Restaurant sales are at a mature point in their life cycle, and operators must find new revenue channels to survive. Today’s consumers know exactly what they want when they walk into your place of business. In the pizza restaurant segment, unit sales have grown through delivery. Pizza operators have always known that delivery constitutes a separate business with a different execution strategy, and, with that knowledge, they have excelled. These results are unique to the pizza segment because operators have taken the time to fully understand 50

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

the intricacies of the delivery business on every level. Over the next 10 years, pizzeria operators will have to dig back inside their existing infrastructure to look for more revenues. What if you could leverage your existing assets and add as much as 40% to your profit margin? “That isn’t possible or realistic,” operators may argue. “We’ve tried it. It just doesn’t work.” In fact, if you’ve “tried” catering and have not experienced success, it may be because there is a gap in your comprehension of the business at a strategic level. Certain key elements, such as strategy, leadership, sales, marketing, manufacturing and distribution, must be in place to succeed in the catering channel. Unfortunately, many executives and operators have thus far failed to fully grasp this fact. They may think they’re better off with no catering program at all. And the truth is, if you don’t do it correctly and take it seriously, that’s probably the right decision for you. However, it’s going to cost you money in the end because your customers will eventually buy from your competitors from whom they can get more variation in services and have their additional needs met faster. Simply put, catering increases volume at the unit level and provides a multitude of benefits for cross-selling into the retail channel. And, of course, more sales equal bigger profits.

Fact #2 Catering is not an add-on business. It’s a business unto its own. Run it that way! Some operators make the mistake of layering their catering sales on top of their

existing business. Granted, the execution and business strategy of catering must be layered on top of existing assets and operations, but catering requires a unique and specific business perspective with dedicated resources and strategies that are separate from existing retail operations. Catering must be intertwined with your existing operations and become part of your core business strategy. It should be given equal importance and weight compared to your existing revenue channels, such as dine-in, takeout and delivery. Today’s consumers are very loyal to their preferred brands. However, they have a different set of wants, needs and desires based on their “need to feed,” which covers all aspects of their lives. Winning their catering business requires a very different work flow and service experience. The beautiful thing about catering is that it fills the gaps in your daily operations because the timing of production and distribution is complementary to your existing dayparts.

Fact #3 A new catering business requires new menus, packaging, pricing and service. Because catering comes with its own unique logistical issues, some existing menu items may not represent your brand well at the point of consumption. That means your menus may have to be re-engineered in regards to products, portions and flavor profile. In addition, operators need to adjust to the idea that pricing for the catering experience should be different from the retail experience. A catering pricing strategy should be based on the market demand for your brand and the intensity of the transaction that you are servicing. Pizzeria operators must be ready to make an investment in the tools of the

catering trade, including the equipment necessary to ensure optimal delivery of quality food, whether it’s full catering delivery systems, hot bags or refrigeration for salads and cold offerings. That’s not what some operators want to hear. “We have to buy more stuff?” they’ll complain. “No, we’ll just use what we have for delivery and make do.” But there is an old adage in the restaurant business: “Keep cold foods cold and hot foods hot!” It sounds simple, but delivery is a vastly different business from catering; if you try to use your existing delivery tools for catering, you won’t get a positive result. And if you’re skeptical about making the investment needed to offer cold foods, keep in mind that the boxed lunch business is a large part of the catering sector. Sandwiches, salads and other creative menu ideas will allow you to offer items exclusively in the catering channel that will yield a profit and represent your brand well. These cold items also give you additional flexibility by allowing your catering business and retail business to coexist during the busiest times of the day. So, while your ovens are firing away in preparation for your in-store lunch rush and delivery business, your antipasto, sandwich, fruit, vegetable and cheese platters are all heading out the back door to another set of paying customers.

Fact #4 Catering is not a “hit and run” business. You have to work on it daily. If catering didn’t work out for you in the past, ask yourself this question: Were you just looking for a quick and easy way to boost your profits? That approach will never work. The catering business requires planning at the strategic level— and a lot of it. It has to be woven into the very fabric of your brand and requires

Use Special Savings Code:

PMQSAVE

May 2012 • pmq.com

the full participation of your entire team on every level to maximize the opportunity. You must fully commit so that your employees have a clear path to success and understand what catering success looks like for your brand.

Fact #5 Like carryout and delivery, catering is the next logical step in the pizza industry’s evolution. Again and again, market transition points in the restaurant industry have changed consumer behaviors. Think back to the development of drive-thru, delivery and takeout. At each inflection point, the industry grew and expanded. Catering is the next natural point of inflection. Even better, as a pizza restaurant operator, you already understand the execution of off-premise delivery and have a distinct advantage compared to other restaurants. But there’s still plenty to learn. You may have been running a pizza restaurant organization for decades, but, until you educate yourself on the intricacies of catering, you will not maximize the potential for better unit economics. It’s worth the added expense to seek out someone with expertise in restaurant catering to ensure long-term catering success. Guidance on what to do, what not to do and which pitfalls to avoid helps build your team’s confidence. Of course, you’ll also have to follow sound business practices by paying attention to the key elements required to scale a predictable and sustainable catering experience across your infrastructure. Just like any business venture, the catering plan must be thoughtful, controlled, organized and logical, and the entire team must buy into it.

5 Keys to Catering Success Catering can be incorporated into a pizzeria’s existing overhead structure and boost the bottom line with minimal additional labor or equipment. A catering service yields higher check averages while serving as a marketing tool for your business—every time a guest tastes your product at an event or a party and loves it, you’ve earned a new customer. But catering success requires careful planning and aggressive marketing. Here are five tips to keep in mind:

1. Know Your Strengths Evaluate your staff and their abilities and take a physical inventory of your equipment. A strong familiarity with the assets you have to deploy will keep you from getting in over your head at the beginning. It’s best to start small and grow. You won’t get a second chance to impress a catering client.

2. Create a Catering Menu and Packages Catering clients want you to do all the thinking. They expect you to sell your product in packages and determine quantities for them. Don’t make them choose from a huge and varied list of specialty dishes—they’ll quickly go somewhere else. Keep it simple. Create packages of varying price points that include an entrée, salad or sides and bread. And don’t just offer pizza—pans of chicken Parmesan or lasagna squares can be easily assembled and heated in your pizza or convection oven.

3. Develop a Pricing Strategy Check out your competitors’ prices and menus to get an idea of what the market will bear. Then set at least three pricing options for your own product—low, medium and high. This approach will attract a wide range of clients with varying budgets and maximize your sales.

4. Design and Print Your Catering Menu Whether it’s a simple 8 ½”-by-11” flyer on colored paper or a glossy, four-color brochure with photographs, an attractive and readable menu is a key element of your catering plan. Remember to create a PDF version that can be emailed to potential customers. Add a catering menu section to your website, too.

5. Start Marketing and Never Stop Erle Dardick is a serial entrepreneur, 15-year catering veteran, business turnaround expert and the author of Get Catering and Grow Sales! A Strategic Perspective for the MultiUnit Restaurant Executive. He founded Monkey Media Software to provide catering solutions— including strategy, education and software—to multiunit restaurant operators. Visit his website at monkeymediasoftware.com. 52

Never miss an opportunity to promote your catering services. Consider attaching your catering menus as box toppers to all deliveries going to corporate customers. Design your website, table tents, take-home menus, signage, banners and even restroom signs to let your customers know that you offer catering. Craft a promotional message about your catering program and email it to everyone in your customer database. Reach out to local businesses and organizations—including real estate companies, banks, business associations and nonprofit groups—that host catered events and offer to let them sample from your menu. Look for every catering niche you can find and exploit it!

PMQ – The– Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly 00 Pizza PMQ’sMagazine Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Magazine

May 2012 â&#x20AC;¢ pmq.com

Chinese native Stephen Chi recently opened the first of five Pizza Inn locations planned for China. In addition to classic pizza fare, the restaurant serves steaks, pasta and other Western dishes.

All Roads Lead to China By Rick Hynum

With its new restaurant in Hangzhou, Pizza Inn follows the Big Three franchisors in exploring the vast Chinese market. 54

orn in China and raised in Holland, Stephen Chi grew up in a family of restaurateurs who melded an Asian pedigree with a deep understanding of European food culture. Now Chi has returned to his native land with a mission—to popularize Americanstyle pizza in the East and attract a new generation of increasingly Westernized Chinese diners. Chi opened China’s first Pizza Inn (pizzainn.com) franchise in Hangzhou, a major city in the province of Zhejiang, last October. It’s the first of five Pizza Inn locations planned for the country—all of them to be developed in partnership with Chi’s company, Hangzhou Restaurant Management—and has been hailed by

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Pizza Inn’s corporate management as a prototype for the China market. “This is a concept for a new generation of Chinese, the generation born around 1985 and later, into the 1990s,” Chi says. “More and more young people here eat pizza now.” Pizza Inn, headquartered in The Colony, Texas, created a new design for the Chinese pizzeria, complete with high-end decor and a wide-ranging menu that goes beyond traditional pizzeria fare. Customers can order steak, duck, pasta, salads and other Western dishes in addition to a selection of American-style pies. Unusual as they may sound for a pizzeria, these nonpizza options are essential to success; after all, pizza is still a fairly novel dish in

China, Chi notes. “Chinese people already know most of the foods we’re selling, but pizza is not as familiar to them,” he says. “It’s not a food they’re used to. “The Chinese like pizza, but they like it in an odd way,” Chi says. “For them, pizza is not only about taste, but also about how it’s presented. The colors, the freshness, the esthetics—everything matters to them.” American pizza is gaining ground in China. Yum Brands has opened more than 600 Pizza Hut (pizzahut.com) restaurants in 120 Chinese cities since 1990; in fact, Yum Brands’ CEO David Novak has called China “the biggest restaurant opportunity in the 21st century.” Papa John’s (papajohnschina.com) entered the Chinese market in 2003 and, according to the company’s website, has about 30 restaurants there. Meanwhile, Domino’s (dominos.com.cn) takeout and delivery model has struggled to catch on in China—its website lists only 15 franchises operating nationwide, 11 of them in Beijing. Homegrown Chinese pizzerias have also sprung up around the country in recent years, with mixed success. But targeting a younger, hipper clientele will be the key to bringing pizza into the mainstream,

Chi believes. “Our target demographic is probably the age group of between 17 and 35,” he says. “I think that people over 40 will not easily accept Western food.” With that in mind, the interior of Hangzhou’s Pizza Inn was designed to provide an ambience that’s both upscale and laid-back, creating a fine-dining experience that appeals to couples in particular. At the same time, price matters to Chinese diners, and, like their counterparts in the West, they love a good deal. Chi’s marketing plan focuses heavily on the use of coupons, lunch specials and lower-price meals for two. “Coupons are very popular in China, especially the ones you can download from the Internet,” he says. Many of his coupons provide discounts specifically on pizza in order to encourage reluctant customers to sample the pies, Chi adds. Chi readily admits he and his American corporate partners have plenty to learn about selling pizza in China. “The markets in the United States and in China are not the same,” he says. “It’s not that easy to build a brand in China.” Those lessons will be put to good use as Hangzhou Restaurant Management and Pizza Inn prepare to open additional stores in other Zhejiang cities, such as Ningbo and Wenzhou. In a press release issued after the opening of Chi’s restaurant, Charlie Morrison, the CEO and president of Pizza Inn Holdings, said, “We have a wonderful partner to grow the presence of Pizza Inn in China, and this new restaurant shows it. This new concept is an exciting part of the evolution of the Pizza Inn brand to capture the great potential China has to offer.” For his part, Chi believes he’s in the right place at the right time with the right partner. He just needs to hit upon the ideal mix of menu items, presentation, service and marketing to make it work. “There are 7 million people in Hangzhou, which is not even big for a Chinese city,” he says. “So there are a lot of people who are going to eat out. Chinese people eat out much more than Westerners, in fact. I think maybe only 10% or 15% of the population cook at home, and most of them are older. Young people don’t cook at home anymore because the costs for eating out and buying food to cook for yourself are almost the same. The real challenge is to get them to eat more pizza and to eat it at your restaurant.”

The best recipe to becoming a wood fired pizza cater

Rolling In The Dough A 200 page business plan Email info@firewithin.com to request a $50 rebate -valid till June 17th

firewithin.com

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s managing editor. May 2012 • pmq.com

Branding From the Inside Out Communication, repetition and social networking are keys to boosting brand awareness. By Howard M. Riell Branding a pizzeria is not a one-time project—it’s an ongoing process that, if successful, leads to a special relationship between the pizzeria and its customers. Like many relationships, it starts with a little flirting to catch the patron’s eye— specifically, advertisements, signage, packaging and logoed merchandise— followed by a concerted effort to keep the customer both satisfied and hungry for more. And, just as in any relationship, communication is key, with social media serving as the No. 1 tool. If it sounds like a lot of work, make no mistake: It is. “There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for getting the consumer’s attention these days,” says veteran restaurant consultant Arlene Spiegel, president of Arlene Spiegel & Associates in New York. But one thing is certain: It all comes down to repetition, getting your pizzeria’s name and logo in front of customers’ eyes again and again. Fortunately, operators can employ a wide variety of tools and materials to accomplish the task.

Logo On the Go To build brand awareness, your company name and logo must be seen everywhere, all the time. T.W. MacDermott, founder of the Clarion Group foodservice consultancy in Kingston, New Hampshire, recommends putting your logo on every type of communication, “including paper, email, your Facebook page, etc., with your restaurant’s physical address, phone and email address where appropriate. If the logo is simple, clear, direct and distinctive—Italian flag colors have been overdone—the repetition will create a cumulative impression in potential customers’ minds.” According to John Grantham, owner of NoteAds Advertising in Lacey, 56

Washington, pizzeria operators utilize sticky notes to great success. “They have many different purposes—as box toppers, door hangers, bag tags and box-top coupons,” Grantham says. “A lot of customers use them for windshielding in malls or at events where there are a lot of cars.” The logoed notes work due to the localized nature of pizza marketing, Grantham adds. “Most pizza parlors target a five-mile radius around their store, so they can hit it directly with sticky notes, getting repeat customers.” Papa Murphy’s (papa murphys.com), the Vancouver, Washington-based chain, has used sticky notes to promote family-size pizzas for $3, while Papa John’s (papajohns.com), headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, touted a “Post-It Note Business Lunch Special.” The Pizza Pan chain (pizzapanonline.com), based in Cleveland, Ohio, gave customers $1 off their next purchase, and Johnny B’s Pizza Pad & Watering Hole (jbspizzapad.com), with locations in Gastonia, Charlotte and Belmont, North Carolina, trumpeted a free pizza offer and discounts based on the size of the order. An eye-catching box-top design helps, too. Companies such as Star Pizza Box, headquartered in Lakeland, Florida, provide custom one-, two- or three-color pizza boxes displaying the restaurant’s logo. Akron, Ohio-based PizzaBogo’s (pizza bogo.com) boxes sport a more complex

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Nick’s Pizza & Pub creates eye-catching branded materials, such as catering and carryout menus, with the pizzeria’s logo on prominent display.

but highly utilitarian design, including a listing of the pizzeria’s website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and even a QR code that takes smartphone users directly to the specials of the day on the website. Other vendors, such as Impact Menu Systems in Carson City, Nevada, offer outdoor, indoor and digital signage to reinforce brand awareness. And Roanoke, Virginia-based Magnets USA produces logo-bearing magnetized items that include business cards, calendars, coupon keepers, sports schedules, and magnets shaped like pizza slices or whole pies. These items can refer customers to the

restaurant’s website or Facebook or Twitter pages for new promotions, healthy menu options and community events.

A Free Taste Of course, your pizza’s top selling point is its flavor, but you have to get customers to taste it first. One way to get your food in a lot of mouths quickly—and to simultaneously build your brand—is to support worthy local causes. “I believe it’s best to get involved with activities that are going on in the community,” says Nick Sarillo, owner of Nick’s Pizza & Pub (nickspizza pub.com) in Crystal Lake, Illinois. Pizza, he notes, is “a community food, a shared meal. Getting involved with local schools, kids sports teams, and events in which multiple generations of families participate is a great way to start.” Choose organizations that align with your brand and support their fundraising efforts by donating food or hosting events in your restaurant. “In today’s market, it’s more effective to take the money you have budgeted for advertising and give it back to the community through a fundraiser that gets your name out there as well,” Sarillo notes. “At Nick’s, we budget 5% of our net sales annually for this approach.” As long as you’re giving out free product, consider offering samples, suggests Reggie Daniel, principal of Daniel Design in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I would follow S. Truett Cathy’s lead and sample anywhere and everywhere I could,” says Daniel, referring to the founder of the

Chick-fil-A chain. “Second, start with localized door hangings in the neighborhood, as Domino’s (dominos.com) did so well.” Daniel also recommends advertising in secondary local papers like Creative Loafing. “From there, actively push your product into any venue or event that will garner free press or air time. These are the least expensive ways to get your name out there.”

The Social Network Love it or hate it, social media is here to stay, and pizzeria operators “must use social marketing to connect to the millennium consumer,” Spiegel says. “Creating your own pizza concoctions and submitting them via Facebook or Twitter can create conversation and community.” Daniel agrees. “Websites, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and Yelp have all shown they can move a market and create sales,” he says. “A retail operation of any type that is not into this is missing the boat. What better way to get your brand out to the mobile masses than free media?” “I used to be Mr. Negative about social media,” says David Robins, managing partner for operations and corporate chef, Las Vegas, of the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. “But what I realized is, it’s a voice for the public to offer an opinion on things instantly. It doesn’t matter if it’s a renowned food critic from out of state or a local who’s coming into your restaurant. The individuals who dine in your restaurant have the

Get started with your own mobile wood fired oven catering business Hands on workshops • Oven management • Dough handling • The best business secrets -over 250 trained caterers

Use promo code: pmqpromo to save $75 on the June 2nd & 3rd workshop Workshops held in Boulder, CO

firewithin.com

The right packaging is essential to an overall branding program, as seen here in an assortment of pizza products from Marco’s Pizza. May 2012 • pmq.com

The one thing that branding and social marketing have in common, after all, is the creation of relationships. The best brand marketing speaks to customers in a language they can understand, about things they care about. On Black Friday a few years ago, for example, Best Buy tweeted the locations of free parking spaces around its stores so harried shoppers could get inside faster. Restaurants can adopt a similar The Hot Tomato Café in Fruita, Colorado, uses an eye-catching display to showcase a variety of colorful merchandise with its tack, tweeting updates on pizzeria’s logo. wait times, parking availability and, of course, daily/nightly specials. of toppings or overcrowding. Even better, On the other hand, social media poses a just confess to making an error, apologize risk to your brand in the form of customer and invite disgruntled customers back for complaints on sites that anyone can see. a discounted meal. The solution is to get out in front of the “I have no problem with online critiproblem and communicate preemptively cism,” Robins points out. “I actually use about potential negatives. If you’ve run the social media process for negative feedout of toppings or find your restaurant back, to go back to our group and point out packed with long waiting times, post a opportunities where we can improve.” tweet about how wildly successful your newest promotion or menu addition has Howard M. Riell is a freelance writer based in been, leading to unanticipated shortages Las Vegas.

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

ANNE KELLER

opportunity—through tweeting, texting or blogging—to give an opinion. That means you’re being critiqued every day, every minute, and you’ve got to be the best you can be.” Social networking reflects a basic human longing for a sense of community, says Ryan Mathews, co-author of What’s Your Story? Storytelling to Move Markets, Audiences, People and Brands. “The thing about digital communities is that they are faux-social. You could be a woman or you could be a serial killer. All I know, when I see your Facebook page, is what you’re telling me. I have to take it on face value that the picture you’re showing me is really you, that what you’re telling me about you is true.” A restaurateur can leverage that uncertainty, Mathews says, by making a calculated bet that some portion of his online community is there because “they’re lonely, anxious, awkward or whatever it is that allows them to be more comfortable online than offline—and I’m going to try and facilitate that offline experience in my restaurant. I’m not just going to serve them a meal—I’m going to give them friends.”

May 2012 â&#x20AC;¢ pmq.com

PMQ’S IDEA ZONE

ADVERTORIAL

Meridian Star

Marketing’s a Snap With Meridian Star’s POS System e

If you still think of a point-of-sale system as nothing more than a fancy cash register, you’re missing out on a wide range of marketing opportunities that could drive more traffic to your restaurant and keep satisfied customers coming back again and again. Fortunately, Meridian Star Merchant Services can help you discover the vast marketing potential of a well-designed POS system with moneymaking features that include online ordering, customer loyalty programs and gift cards. Meridian Star’s POS system—now offered for free as part of a national promotion—provides a complete point-of-sale and management solution that’s ideal for independents and chains alike. Its software package enhances the speed and accuracy of the order taking process while also providing integrated tools to manage ingredients, delivery orders, drive-thru orders and employees’ work hours and schedules. The built-in reporting is flexible and generates the key figures needed to make smarter business decisions. The system also helps operators create ongoing gift card and loyalty programs that generate repeat business. With storedvalue cards, for example, your customers can make cash-free purchases at your restaurant or give the prepaid cards as gifts to family members or friends. With loyalty cards, guests can earn points toward discounts on future purchases and take ad-

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

vantage of birthday bonus programs. The cards also serve as a physical reminder of your business that’s always present in the customer’s wallet. Additionally, Meridian Star’s system empowers you to maintain detailed purchase history records, keep track of your regular customers’ preferences and develop and schedule marketing emails and paper mailers with deals that will appeal to them. “With these special offers, we’re able to help our restaurants run efficient and effective marketing strategies and programs to drive business,” says Candice Green, Meridian Star’s director of partner support. Even better, Meridian Star’s POS system comes with integrated, easy-to-use online ordering features. Since online ordering has become increasingly popular with younger pizza lovers— especially those with smartphones—restaurants that don’t provide the service are in danger of falling behind their more techsavvy competitors. Fortunately, Meridian Star makes online ordering just as easy as phone ordering. Incoming online orders appear immediately on the POS system’s screen, providing instantaneous alerts to the kitchen staff. The system makes online ordering a snap for customers as well. “Fewer clicks for your customers equals more efficient transactions,” Green notes. For details on Meridian Star’s free POS system, call the tollfree number 855-853-6485 or visit meridianstarms.com.

ADVERTORIAL

PMQ’S IDEA ZONE Chef a la Mode

Chef a la Mode: “Haute Couture for Haute Cuisine” Every chef is a celebrity in his or her own restaurant, so fashionable apparel can be as important to a chef as it is to a movie star walking the red carpet at an awards show. Chef a la Mode, headquartered in Fort Myers, Florida, specializes in “haute couture for haute cuisine,” high-quality, handcrafted chef attire for the American kitchen. As the United States’ exclusive distributor for Colombia Chef, a company with more than 15 years of experience in garment design and fabrication for chefs in Latin America, Chef a la Mode offers stylish and innovative apparel for restaurateurs looking to distinguish themselves from their competitors. According to Chef a la Mode director Judy Wenzel, much of the standard American chef apparel lacks panache. “Everything looks basically the same,” Wenzel notes. “It’s all made from a heavier fabric, and, particularly for females, it’s not cut well. All of Colombia Chef’s designs are made by hand in a design studio by approximately 30 seamstresses. They run the gamut from classic designs to a more avant-garde look for both men and women, all made with a lightweight fabric that’s water-resistant and stain-resistant and doesn’t discolor.” The company’s Damas line of chef jackets for women features nouvelle designs that draw the eye and flatter the female form

while still providing a high level of comfort. The jackets come in tasteful color combinations with unique finishing touches. The Clasico line offers jacket designs inspired by celebrity chef August Escoffier, in colors ranging from classic black-and-white to orange, red and green. Meanwhile, the Premio line of jackets combines form and functionality in styles reminiscent of the great culinary masters of Barcelona and Madrid. Innovative fabrics, stylish design, a comfortable fit and enduring quality also make Chef a la Mode’s pants and aprons the perfect choice for discriminating chefs. Fashionable and distinctive headwear—including a head wrap, a baseball cap or a classic toque—finishes off the outfit. From head to toe, the resulting uniform strikes the optimal balance between highquality material, flair and value. “No matter how grueling the work is, no matter how hot the ovens are, the chef still wants to look sharp and stylish,” Wenzel says. “Putting on one of these uniforms is like dressing up in your best outfit to go out. They’re perfectly functional, very durable and highly professional, yet they’re designed and finished so beautifully, with a lot of handmade touches.” For more information, call 888-804-3375 or visit the company’s website at chef-alamode.com.

May 2012 • pmq.com

Product Spotlight What’s On the Market BETTER DOUGH BALLS If you spend too much time rounding dough balls by hand, AM Manufacturing has the right equipment to automate the process. The nimble and compact Dough Rounder can round dough from one to 32 ounces at a blazing 7,200 pieces per hour. No adjustments are required to create dough balls of various sizes—just plug it in and switch it on. Even better, the Dough Rounder can be cleaned up in just a few minutes. 800-342-6744, ammfg.com

CRUST-ASTIC! Baker’s Quality offers a full range of premade crusts including fresh sheeted, par-baked, self-rising, raised-edge and die-cut pressed varieties. Dough balls and custom crust sizes are also available, and all items are shipped frozen. Baker’s Quality will even help you develop the right recipes for your restaurant. 800-8466153, bakersquality.com

FINE INGREDIENTS Bay State Milling’s flour pizza crust mixes reflect the consistency, performance and value found in more than 100 years of experience. The company also offers an array of healthy whole-grain options. 800-55-FLOUR, baystatemilling.com

MAGNETIC MARKETING Magnets from Off the Wall Magnetics let you create an advertising message that really sticks with your customers. Promote your pizzeria’s name, menu items, delivery and carryout services by putting your phone number and key messages on every family’s billboard—the kitchen refrigerator. The company also offers direct mail magnet postcards, magnetic vehicle signage and more. 800-337-2637, 4thefridge.com

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

LEADING FROM THE BACK With the Attention Catcher Backpack Flag, you can become a human billboard and promote your brand name and logo to anyone just by turning your back to them! The perfect marketing solution, the Backpack Flag is great for trade shows, expos and malls as well as for outdoor use at shopping centers. Lead customers in the right direction—all the way to your restaurant—with a marketing message that no one can miss. 419-586-3610, gettent.com

PMQ Pizza Magazine â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Pizza Industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Businesss Monthly

The U.S. Pizza Team Wishes to Thank Their Sponsors!

In 2011, the U.S. Pizza Team brought home the gold in Team Acrobatics from the World Pizza Championship in Salsomaggiore, Italy.

To find out about becoming a sponsor of the current World Champions, contact Linda Green at 662-234-5481, ext. 121, or linda@pmq.com.

Wish the U.S. Pizza Team luck as they travel to Salsomaggiore, Italy, this month to compete for additional awards. THANKS TO OUR U.S. PIZZA TEAM GOLD SPONSORS:

THANKS TO OUR U.S. PIZZA TEAM SILVER SPONSORS:

THANKS TO OUR U.S. PIZZA TEAM BRONZE SPONSOR: Off The Wall Magnetics

May 2012 â&#x20AC;¢ pmq.com

PMQ Pizza Magazine â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Pizza Industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Businesss Monthly

Advertiser Index May 2012 Display Advertiser

Phone

Website

Page

AM Manufacturing ............................................. 708-841-0959 ............................................ ammfg.com ...................................... 28 Bellissimo .......................................................... 800-813-2974 ...................................... bellissimofoods.com ................................ 21 Best Choice Printing ........................................... 800-783-0990 ............................................... bcms.us.......................................... 65 Burke................................................................. 800-654-1152 ..........................................burkecorps.com .................................... 17 Chef a la Mode ................................................... 888-804-3375 ....................................... chef-alamode.com .................................. 61 CrustSaver ......................................................... 877-437-4743 .......................................... crustsaver.net ..................................... 64 Daiya ..................................................................................................................................daiyafoods.com .................................... 29 Domata ............................................................. 855-366-2821 .........................................domataflour.com ................................... 53 EZ Dine .............................................................. 877-853-1263 .......................................... ezdinepos.com ..................................... 19 Fire Within .......................................................................................................................... firewithin.com .......................... 42, 55, 57 FISPAL ............................................................... 704-365-0041 .......................... btsinforma.com.br/credenciamento ..................... 67 Fontanini ........................................................... 708-485-4800 ........................................... fontanini.com ..................................... 35 Grande...............................................................800-8-GRANDE ....................................... grandecheese.com ................................... 3 HTH ................................................................... 800-321-1850 ........................................... hthsigns.com ...................................... 64 Idaho Potatoes .............................................................................................................. Idahopotato.com/fspro ............................... 49 Impact Worldwide.............................................. 800-653-8837 .................................... impactworldwide.com............................... 63 La Nova.............................................................. 716-881-3355 ............................................. lanova.com ................................ Cover 4 Le 5 Stagioni ...................................................... 800-780-2280 ........................................... le5stagioni.it ...................................... 23 Liguria ............................................................... 800-765-1452 ......................................... liguriafood.com ............................ Cover 3 Lillsun................................................................ 260-356-6514 ............................................. lillsun.com ...................................... 55 Meridian Star POS .............................................. 855-853-6485 ...........................meridianstarmerchantservices.com...................... 60 MF&B Restaurant Systems .................................. 888-480-EDGE ......................................... edgeovens.com .................................... 59 Marsal & Sons .................................................... 631-226-6688 ......................................... marsalsons.com ................................... 37 Microworks ........................................................ 800-787-2068 ......................................... microworks.com ................................... 11 Middleby Marshall ............................................. 877-34-OVENS .......................................... wowoven.com ...................................... 7 Moving Targets .................................................. 800-926-2451 ...................................... movingtargets.com ................................ 47 Must Have Menus ........................................................................................................... musthavemenus.com ................................ 51 PanSaver ........................................................... 877-PAN-SAVR ........................................... pansaver.com...................................... 59 PDQ Signature Systems, Inc. ............................... 877-968-6430 ............................................ pdqpos.com ...................................... 31 Pierce Chicken ................................................... 800-336-9876 ............................................ poultry.com ............................... Cover 2 Pizza Prints ........................................................ 800-806-2595 ..........................................pizzaprints.com .................................... 53 Stanislaus .......................................................... 800-327-7201 .......................................... stanislaus.com ...................................4, 5 Sunray Printing .................................................. 320-257-2612 .......................................sunrayprinting.com.................................. 58 System Filtration ............................................... 877-508-0777 ..................................... systemfiltration.com ................................ 66 The Menu Express............................................... 877-250-2819 ..................................... themenuexpress.com ................................ 66 Univex ............................................................... 800-258-6358 ......................................... univexcorp.com ................................... 64 XLT .................................................................... 888-443-2751 ........................................... xltovens.com ...................................... 13

PMQ provides this information as a courtesy to our readers and will not be held responsible for errors or omissions. To report an error, call 662-234-5481 x127. 68

PMQ’s Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Magazine

Industry Resource Guide Grab a direct weblink to every advertiser in this guide at PMQ.com

ADVERTISING

CHEESE

APPAREL

BAGS

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: POINT OF SALE

BAKING SCHOOLS AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF BAKING .............................................Manhattan, KS 785-537-4750 ....................................................................Fax: 785-537-1493

PMQ’s Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Magazine

May 2012 • pmq.com

PMQ Industry Resource Guide COMPUTER SYSTEMS: POINT OF SALE, CONT.

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: POINT OF SALE, CONT.

Technology choices for every taste. p p p

p Loyalty Programs Point-of-Sale Online Ordering p Automated Marketing Smartphone Ordering

WHY PAY FOR A POS SYSTEM? WHEN OURS IS

FREE! Call Now! 855.853.6485 (Toll Free)

www.MeridianStarMS.com CONSULTING

CRUSTS BAKER’S QUALITY PIZZA CRUSTS, INC. ..................................... Waukesha, WI Par-baked, Sheeted, Pressed and Self-Rising Crusts; Custom Crusts; All sizes. www.BakersQualityPizzaCrusts.com ......................................800-846-6153 MOUNTAIN HARVEST PIZZA CRUST CO.......................................... Billings, MT Contact: Eric LeCaptain ........... 800-342-6205.................... Fax: 406-248-7336 Sheeted Dough, Prebake Crusts, Dough Balls, Freezer to Oven, Self-Rising Crusts in Standard, Wheat and Nine Grain. ...eric@mountainharvestpizza.com

CUTTING BOARDS - EQUAL SLICE

DOUGH

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

PMQ Industry Resource Guide DOUGH, CONT.

DOUGH PRESSES, ROLLERS, CONT.

DOUGH DIVIDERS/ROUNDERS

DOUGH TRAYS/PROOFING TRAYS DoughMate® by Madan Plastics Inc.

DoughMate

• Dough Trays – extremely durable and airtight! • Dough Tray Covers – designed to fit! The Leaders in • Plastic Dough Knives – two ergonomic designs! Dough Handling Products • Dough Tray Dollies – heavy duty! • Excellence in Customer service since 1955! The preferred dough tray of the largest pizza companies in the world. Buy direct from the manufacturer with over 20 years experience in dough trays.

Call 800-501-2458 ........... www.doughmate.com..........fax: 908-276-9483

FLOUR, GLUTEN-FREE BAY STATE MILLING GLUTEN-FREE PIZZA MIX.............. baystatemilling.com Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour, Custom-blends and Co-Packing Dedicated production area for exceptional purity.........................800-55-FLOUR DAKOTA PRAIRIE is a dedicated manufaturer of Gluten-Free flours, 37 pre-mixes, custom-mixes and many packaging options. By far the best grinds and the highest standard of purity ..............dakota-prarie.com............ .............701-324-4330

DOUGH PRESSES, ROLLERS

FLOUR

May 2012 • pmq.com

PMQ Industry Resource Guide FLOUR, CONT.

GELATO

True Artisan Gelato

(888) 316-1545 www.stefanosgelato.com

FOOD DISTRIBUTORS GLUTEN-FREE PRODUCTS

INSURANCE

FOOD COSTING

MACHINERY/OVENS/EQUIPMENT

FRANCHISE Should You Franchise Your Restaurant? Call today to receive your free DVD on â&#x20AC;&#x153;How to Franchise Your Businessâ&#x20AC;? and learn about one of the most dynamic methods of expanding your business in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s marketplace.

t XXX JGSBODIJTFHSPVQ DPN 72

ÂŽ

FRANCHISE CONSULTANTS

PMQ Pizza Magazine â&#x20AC;&#x201C; The Pizza Industryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Business Monthly

PMQ Industry Resource Guide MACHINERY/OVENS/EQUIPMENT, CONT.

MACHINERY/OVENS/EQUIPMENT, CONT.

May 2012 â&#x20AC;¢ pmq.com

PMQ Industry Resource Guide MARKETING IDEAS, CONT.

MAGNETS

JUMBO PIZZA SLICE MAGNETS 399-2966 WE DELIVER

www.magneticadconcepts.com

977 Butternut Dr. Holland

MAILING SERVICES MARKETING, MOBILE

Eighty-Six Slow Sales Mobilize your best customers with a free mobile website and low-cost texting.

MANAGEMENT ...mobilize & connect

ruxter.com 800.763.1953

MEAT TOPPINGS KEEP MORE OF YOUR HARD EARNED DOUGH! 3 MONEY SAVING PROGRAMS:

SCHEDULING • ATTENDANCE • DAILY LOG

FAST, PAINLESS SCHEDULING • MONITOR LABOR COSTS • REDUCE TURNOVER • NOTIFY EMPLOYEES • ELIMINATE BUDDY PUNCHING • IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONS • WEB-BASED

SAVE TIME AND INCREASE PROFITS!

WWW.TIMEFORGE.COM 866.684.7191

MARKETING IDEAS BURKE CORPORATION .................................................. www.BurkeCorp.com Italian, Mexican-Style and Specialty Fully Cooked Meats Contact: Liz Hertz............ sales_info@burkecorp.com............. 800-654-1152 SUGAR CREEK PACKING CO., Private Label Precooked Meat Topping Specialists www.sugarcreek.com .................. 800-848-8205 ............ sales@sugarcreek.com

MIXERS

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

PMQ Industry Resource Guide MIXERS, USED

ONLINE ORDERING

USED HOBART 60 QT. MIXER FOR SALE AT US $4980.00 PLUS SHIPPING. Call Lynn at 214-552-3218........................................ or e-mail tbfm@tbfm.com

MOBILE CATERING TRUCKS/UNITS

MOISTURE ABSORBENT TOPPINGS CONDITIONER KRISP-IT LTD. .............................................800-KRISP-IT (800-574-7748) Keep it Crisp with Krisp-It! www.krisp-it.com........................................................nick@krisp-it.com

OLIVES

PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS BAG SOLUTIONS ................................................. Home of the Pizza Jacket Deliver that pie HOT and DRY! 866-Bag-To-Go (866-224-8646) ........................ www.deliverybags.com Thermal Bags by Ingrid Best Selection of Pizza Delivery Bags Keep Pizza HOT! 800-622-5560 or 847 836-4400, 24/7 ordering ..... www.ThermalBags.com

PIZZA BOXES

ON HOLD MARKETING

PIZZA BOX LINERS

May 2012 â&#x20AC;¢ pmq.com

PMQ Industry Resource Guide PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

PMQ Industry Resource Guide PIZZA OVENS, CONT.

PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS, CONT. ELECTRIC HOTBAG

DELIVER GUARANTEED OVEN PIZZA • Heats and stays at 160-175° • Dry electric heat = no moisture • Removable heating elements • Made of rugged 1000 Denier nylon • Easily cleaned

• Buy one bag or make a system • Wired with AC power • Heats all bags simultaneously • Quick release connectors, no hassle

800-927-6787

Made in the USA

www.HOTBAG.com

PIZZA SHAKER LIDS

PIZZA OVENS

PIZZA PANS

EARTHSTONE OVENS, INC. .. 6717 San Fernando Rd....Glendale, CA 91201 800-840-4915 .........Fax: 818-553-1133 ...... www.earthstoneovens.com All units UI listed. FISH OVEN & EQUIPMENT CORP. 120 W. Kent Ave........Wauconda, IL 60084 TOLL Free 877-526-8720 ....... Fax: 847-526-7447 ...... www.fishoven.com MARSAL & SONS, INC. ....................The new standard in the Pizza Industry Brick Lined Deck Ovens • Standard Deck Ovens • Prep Table Refrigeration 631-226-6688 .............. marsalsons.com ........... rich@marsalsons.com ROTO-FLEX OVEN CO. ........................................Contact Richard Dunfield 135 East Cevallos, San Antonio, TX 78204 PH 800-386-2279 ...... www.rotoflexoven.com .......... Fax 210-222-9007 Bakeware Specialists

Manufacturer & Distributor of Pizza Smallwares www.paprod.com 734-421-1060

pmq.com/tt2/recipe May 2012 • pmq.com

PMQ Industry Resource Guide PIZZA OVENS, CONT.

i feel preƩy.

PIZZA SUPPLIES

oh, so preƩy!

PLASTIC DOUGH CONTAINERS

The Marsal MB Series is designed to fit your restaurant’s specific needs. Not only is it equipped with our exclusive burner system and 2” thick brick cooking surface to ensure the most evenly baked crust, but it looks great too. You can customize the exterior decor of your MB Series oven easily either with our prebuilt finishing kits or your own brick of tile design. Attract customers with a great looking oven and a great tasting pizza.

Non Stick • Easy to Clean • FDA Approved Plastic Heavy Weight • Last 10X longer than metal! Replace your dented ones TODAY ! Manufacturers’ Direct Pricing For free* sample email us at:

SunsetPlastics@aol.com

(*Does NOT include postage & handling)

Call Vito:

718-200-1013

Seƫng the new standard. visit us online at www.marsalsons.com

(631) 226-6688 FAX (631) 226-6890

& sons, inc. Pizza Ovens and Equipment

PIZZA PEELS

PRINTING BEST CHOICE PRINT & MARKETING EXPERTS ...................... For over 25 Years Best Prices & Quality: ..........................Menus, Flyers, Door hangers, Post Cards Print & Mail, Menus or Postcards .............................. Includes postage 27.5 ea WWW.bcms.US ............................................................. or call 800-783-0990

pmq.com/tt2/recipe 78

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

PMQ Industry Resource Guide PRINTING, CONT.

PRINTING, CONT.

REFRIGERATION

SPECIALTY FOODS CASTELLA IMPORTS, INC. ............................................... www.castella.com 60 Davids Drive, Hauppauge, NY 11788 ....................................... 866-Castella

May 2012 â&#x20AC;¢ pmq.com

SPICE FORMULATION, BLENDING & PACKAGING

TOMATO PRODUCTS

CALIFORNIA BLENDING, INC. ........ Confidential Custom Blending & Packaging. Bill Mooreheart, Jr. ....................... Serving Industiral Spice needs since 1976. 2603 Seaman, El Monte, CA 91733.............................................626-448-1918 CASTELLA IMPORTS, INC. ............................................... www.castella.com 60 Davids Drive, Hauppauge, NY 11788 ....................................... 866-Castella MCCLANCY SEASONING ........................... One Spice Road, Fort Mill, SC 29707 Contact: Dominic Damore 800-843-1968 .................................................................info@mcclancy.com

SAUCE ARMANINO FOODS ..............................................................Fine Italian Sauces 30588 San Antonio Street, Haywood, CA ..................................... 866-553-5611 Email: customerservice@armaninofoods.com ......... www.armaninofoods.com

TELEPHONE EQUIPMENT/SUPPLIES/SERVICE Specializing in voice and data communications service, repair, installation, sequencers and on-hold messaging.

GUARANTEED LOWEST INDUSTRY PRICE!

STICKY NOTES

www.fidelitycom.com.........................800-683-5600

VENTILATION

TAKE AND BAKE TRAYS

WINGS

pmq.com/tt2/recipe 80

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Resource Guide Advertiser Index May 2012 Resource Advertiser

Phone

Page

411eat.com..........................................................213-622-4247 ............................. 77 AFC Insurance ......................................................800-411-4144 ............................. 74 Allied Metal Spinning ...........................................800-615-2266 ............................. 78 AM Manufacturing ..............................................800-342-6904 ............................. 71 American Institute of Baking ................................785-537-4910 ............................. 70 American Wholesale.............................................216-426-8882 ............................. 79 Armanino Foods ...................................................866-553-5611 ............................. 80 Arrow POS ............................................................888-378-3338 ............................. 69 Bacio ................................................................... 855-BACIO85 .............................. 69 Bag Solutions.......................................................866-224-8646 ........................76, 77 Baker’s Quality Pizza Crusts ..................................800-846-6153 ............................. 71 Bay State Milling ..................................................800-55-FLOUR ............................. 72 Belissimo .............................................................800-813-2974 ............................. 73 Best Choice Print & Marketing Experts ..................800-783-0990 ........................78, 79 Best Point of Sale .................................................866-285-7613 ............................. 70 Burke Corporation ................................................800-654-1152 ............................. 75 California Blending ..............................................626-448-1918 ............................. 80 Campus Collection ................................................800-289-8904 ............................. 69 Caputo .................................................................868-450-0090 ............................. 69 Castella Imports ...................................................866-CASTELLA ............................. 79 Chef a la Mode .....................................................888-804-3375 ............................. 69 Chef Santo Bruno .................................................813-230-8108 ............................. 70 Color Vision ..........................................................800-543-6299 ........................75, 78 CoverTex ..............................................................800-968-2310 ........................77, 79 Crown Custom Metal Spinning ..............................800-750-1924 ............................. 78 Crust Saver ...........................................................877-437-4903 ............................. 77 Dakota Prarie Flour ..............................................701-324-4330 ............................. 71 DeIorio’s...............................................................800-649-9212 ............................. 70 Domata Living Flour .............................................417-654-4010 ............................. 71 Dough Xpress .......................................................800-835-0606 ............................. 71 DoughMate ..........................................................800-501-2450 ............................. 71 Dutchess Bakers’ Machinery .................................800-777-4498 ............................. 71 Earthstone Ovens .................................................800-840-4915 ............................. 77 EDGE ....................................................................888-480-EDGE ............................. 77 Electric Hotbag.....................................................800-927-6787 ............................. 76 Escalon ................................................................ 888-ESCALON.............................. 80 Erica Record .........................................................973-614-8500 ............................. 72 Fidelity Communications ......................................800-683-5600 ............................. 80 Fish Oven & Equipment ........................................877-526-8720 ............................. 76 Fluid Media Group ................................................408-837-2346 ........................69, 72 Fontanini ............................................................ 800-331-MEAT ............................. 75 Forever Lids..........................................................815-494-1919 ............................. 77 FreePOSPlace.com ................................................800-856-5175 ............................. 71 GI. Metal ..............................................................630-553-9134 ............................. 76 Granbury Restaurant Solutions .............................800-910-3947 ............................. 70 Grande Cheese Company ..................................... 800-8-GRANDE ............................ 69 Hudson Refrigeration Manufacturing ...................800-924-8687 ............................ 74 iFranchise Group ..................................................708-957-2300 ............................. 72 Incredible Bags ....................................................888-254-9453 ............................. 76 Imperial Bag & Paper Co., LLC ...............................800-794-7273 ............................. 69 J & G Mills ............................................................734-469-4504 ............................. 74 Krisp-It ................................................................800-590-7908 ............................. 75 Klondike Cheese ...................................................608-325-3021 ............................. 69 La Nova............................................................... 800-6-LANOVA............................. 80 Le 5 Stagioni ........................................................800-780-2280 ............................. 71 Liguria Foods .......................................................800-925-1452 ............................. 75 Lillsun..................................................................260-356-6514 ............................. 78 Lindsay ................................................................800-252-3557 ............................. 75 Lloyd Pans............................................................800-840-8683 ............................. 78 M.Press Packaging ...............................................541-548-9889 ............................. 80

Resource Advertiser

Phone

Page

Magnetic Ad Concepts ..........................................800-365-3351 ............................. 74 Mario Camacho Foods...........................................800-881-4534 ............................. 75 Marsal & Sons ......................................................631-226-6688 .................. 74, 77, 78 Max Balloons .......................................................800-541-5961 ............................. 75 McClancy Seasoning .............................................800-843-1968 ............................. 80 Melissa Data ........................................................800-635-4772 ............................. 74 Menu Powerhouse ...............................................888-210-8189 ............................. 79 MenuPro ..............................................................800-907-3690 ............................. 71 Menu Scale ..........................................................888-786-1357 ............................. 75 Meridian Star MS..................................................855-853-6485 ............................. 70 Message On Hold..................................................800-392-4664 ............................. 77 MFG Tray ..............................................................800-458-6050 ............................. 71 Microworks POS Solutions.....................................800-787-2068 ............................. 70 Molino Caputo .....................................................201-368-9197 ............................. 72 Mountain Harvest Pizza Crust ...............................800-342-6205 ............................. 71 Moving Targets ............................................. 800-926-2451 ext. 356 ..................... 75 Mr. Peel ...............................................................888-994-4664 ............................. 78 Musco Family Olive ...............................................800-523-9828 ............................. 75 MyPizza.com ........................................................888-974-9928 ............................. 75 Neil Jones Food ....................................................800-291-3862 ............................. 80 NMI .....................................................................800-994-4664 ............................. 78 Northern Pizza Equipment....................................800-426-0323 ............................. 74 NoteAds ...............................................................800-309-9102 ............................. 80 Off the Wall Magnetics .........................................800-337-2637 ............................. 74 Pacific Coast Producers .........................................800-510-3706 ............................. 80 P.A. Products ........................................................884-421-1060 ............................. 78 PDQ Signature Systems ........................................877-968-6430 ............................. 70 Peel A Deal...........................................................877-563-5654 ............................. 75 Peerless Ovens .....................................................800-548-4514 ............................. 77 Picard ..................................................................800-668-1883 ............................. 77 Pizza Dough .........................................................718-951-3555 ............................. 70 Pizza Ovens.com...................................................877-367-6836 ............................. 77 Pizza Trucks of Canada ..........................................204-297-7667 ............................. 75 POSnet ................................................................866-976-7638 ............................. 70 Portion Padl .........................................................330-608-5928 ............................. 70 Presto Foods ........................................................800-589-8604 ............................. 72 Proxprint .............................................................888-310-7769 ............................. 79 Red Gold ....................................................... 877-908-9798 ext. 163....................... 80 Redi Heat .............................................................888-556-2024 ............................. 77 Restaurant Depot .................................................................................................... 72 Ruxter .................................................................800-923-1953 ........................75, 76 Saputo .................................................................800-824-3388 ............................. 70 Somerset .............................................................800-772-4404 ............................. 71 SpeedLine ............................................................888-400-9185 ............................. 71 Stanislaus Food Products ......................................800-327-7201 ............................. 80 Star Pizza Box ......................................................800-626-0828 ............................. 77 Stefano’s Gelato ...................................................888-316-1545 ............................. 72 Sugar Creek Packing .............................................800-848-8205 ............................. 75 Sunset Plastics .....................................................878-200-1013 ............................. 78 Superior Menu .....................................................800-464-2182 ........................74, 78 T&T Graphics .......................................................800-557-9914 ............................. 79 Tasti Grain............................................................315-624-2748 ............................. 72 Tasty Breads.........................................................888-352-7323 ............................. 70 Thermal Bags by Ingrid.........................................800-622-5560 ............................. 76 Thunderbird .........................................................800-7-MIXERS ............................. 73 Timeforge ............................................................866-684-8791 ............................. 74 Univex .................................................................800-258-6358 ............................. 75 Ventilation Direct .................................................866-433-8335 ............................. 80 Vesuvio Foods ......................................................800-997-0887 ............................. 73 Wood Stone .........................................................800-988-8103 ............................. 77 May 2012 • pmq.com

(

time capsule

Denino’s This award-winning Staten Island stalwart is finding success with expansion even in the midst of a recession. Denino’s (deninos.com) operated as a few businesses since 1923—confectionary, pool hall, tavern—but pizza is what put this now-famous operation on the map. Carlo Denino introduced pizza to the tavern in 1951 and earned immediate success, thanks to a dedicated blue-collar clientele looking to nibble while knocking back brews. “A friend of his came in and started making the pizzas, and he showed my stepfather how to make them,” recounts Michael Burke, co-owner and stepson of Carlo, who runs the business today with his mother and sister. “It became a hit after that; they never needed any advertising.” Denino, who passed away in 2000, was content with a small operation (25 to 30 seats), but Denino’s is now growing rapidly. The original location has been renovated twice and currently boasts a new 3,000-square-foot kitchen, an additional dining room (increasing capacity to 250 seats) and a full bar. A second location opened in Brick, New Jersey, in 2010—and is itself already growing, with the addition of a second dining room this year—while interested parties up and down the Eastern seaboard have approached Burke looking for franchise opportunities. “We have consistency and use the best products, and low overhead allows us to keep our prices affordable,” Burke says of his business’ success. “And the family atmosphere ensures that everyone is accommodated.” His biggest challenge has been keeping prices stable despite fluctuations of the market—prices for flour, cheese and calamari (the best-selling appetizer) have skyrocketed, he notes—but his greatest pleasure has been amaking friends through the business and seeing multiple generahe he tions enjoy his thin-crust pies. In fact, he adds, owners from the d-d top three pizzerias in Staten Island also maintain close friendree ships, helping each other out with supplies when necessary. “We’re just happy to make a living, and we’ve been very fortunate,” sayss Burke. “Especially in New York, there’s a lot of competition, butt we hope everyone does well and makes a living.” –Tracy Morin

Denino’s has evolved from confectionary and tavern to a world-famous pizzeria that’s still expanding today.

Has your pizzeria been in business for 50 or more years? If so, contact us at tracy@pmq.com. 82

PMQ Pizza Magazine – The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

)