PMQ Pizza Media - March 2023

THE GOLDEN RULE

Jane Grote Abell has turned agape capitalism into a labor of love at Donatos.

PAGE 22

There are no shortcuts to greatness. OK, maybe one.

See us at Pizza Expo, booth 1939.

Jolly’s Pizza Has a Funny Way of Taking Phone Orders

For dine-in customers, this 1980s-themed pizzeria in North Royalton, Ohio, offers red corded telephones at every table for placing orders. pmq.com/jollys-pizza

Nala Robotics Partners With Ovention, Hatco on New Pizza System

The system combines Nala’s technology with Ovention’s Shuttle Oven and Hatco’s Flav-R-2-Go Pizza Locker System within a 10’-by-10’ footprint. pmq.com/nala-robotics-pizza-system

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele Arrives in New York City

After conquering California, one of the world’s most famous pizzerias, headed by Michele Rubini, has opened its first outpost on the East Coast.

pmq.com/da-michele-new-york

Survey: Domino’s and Pizza Hut’s Weirdest Pizzas Worldwide

You have to travel outside the U.S. to find weird pizza toppings from the two leading chains, like Pizza Hut’s Hot Butter Cuttlefish pie in Sri Lanka.

pmq.com/weirdest-chain-pizzas

THE

linda.pmq@gmail.com ext. 121

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rick Hynum, rick@pmq.com

ART DIRECTOR

Eric Summers, eric@pmq.com

SENIOR COPY EDITOR

Tracy Morin, tracy@pmq.com

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

Blake Harris, blake@pmq.com ext. 136

TEST CHEF/USPT COORDINATOR

Brian Hernandez, brian@pmq.com ext. 129

REPORTER

Chris Green, chris@pmq.com

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER

David Fischer, david@pmq.com

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Shawn Truss, shawn@pmq.com

ADVERTISING

SALES DIRECTOR

Linda Green, linda.pmq@gmail.com ext. 121

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Tom Boyles, tom@pmq.com ext. 122

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jerry Moschella, jerry@pmq.com ext. 137

SALES ASSISTANT

Brandy Pinion, brandy@pmq.com ext. 127

INTERNATIONAL PIZZA MARKET

Italy: Enrico Fama Fama.Enrico@gmail.com

Russia: Vladimir Davydov Vladimir@pmq.com

Sal

Basile Revisits His Childhood With Sally Boy’s

Sally Boy’s, located in Red Bank, New Jersey, is named after the Cooking Channel star’s son and pays homage to his own childhood nickname.

pmq.com/sally-boys

What to Do if the Power Goes Out in Your Restaurant

Taking the right precautionary steps can prevent thousands of dollars in losses, so it pays to get your restaurant and staff ready for an outage.

pmq.com/power-outage-restaurants

China: Yvonne Liu Yvonne@pmq.com

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PIZZA MEDIA

EVENTS & PROMOTIONS

SPRING 2023

Industry Events

Bar & Restaurant Expo: March 27-29

Hospitality will be redefined and reshaped at this show, taking place in the Las Vegas Convention Center. In addition to leading suppliers, new products and networking opportunities, it explores the latest industry topics and trends through an array of expert speakers, educational workshops, offsite training sessions and nightlife events. Learn more at barandrestaurantexpo.com

World Pizza Championship: April 18-20

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, the biggest event in the world of pizza takes place at the Palaverdi of the Parma Exhibition Center in Parma, Italy. Pizza makers and dough spinning acrobats, including the U.S. Pizza Team, will come from all over the world for three days of competitions, cooking shows and seminars. Learn more at campionatomondialedellapizza.it

RMDA Conference: April 24-27

Restaurant delivery service companies from around the U.S., Mexico and Canada will descend on Salt Lake City for this event, hosted by the Restaurant Marketing Delivery Association. It’s your chance to learn about new opportunities and technologies that can increase efficiency, decrease costs, and improve your pizza delivery game.

Learn more at thermda.org

Food On Demand Conference: May 3-5

Taking place at The Mirage in Las Vegas, this event brings together key restaurant and foodservice players in mobile ordering, native and third-party delivery, ghost kitchens, virtual restaurants, catering, AI, robotics and restaurant technology. They’ll share strategies for increasing off-premise efficiency and adding incremental sales.

Learn more at foodondemand.com

National Restaurant Association Show:

May 20-23

Join your peers from across the foodservice industry at McCormick Place in Chicago. You’ll discover exciting new products and innovative new equipment, create business connections with key suppliers, access expert-led education sessions on today’s biggest topics, and make invaluable peer-to-peer networking connections. Learn more at nationalrestaurantshow.com

Promote This!

National Sauce Month

No one makes better sauces than pizzerias and Italian restaurants. From pesto and aioli to hollandaise and barbecue, promote your most savory or most unusual sauces—or both—with videos and photos on social media throughout March. Better yet, this will be a great month to introduce new sauces for your pizzas and pasta dishes.

DON’T FORGET THESE NATIONAL FOOD AND BEVERAGE DAYS IN MARCH 2023!

National Meatball Day

Thursday, March 9

National Poultry Day

Sunday, March 19

National Ravioli Day

Monday, March 20

BELLISSIMO CHICKEN WINGS

IT’S WING SEASON!

Chicken wings are back on the menu, and with wing season right around the corner, it’s time to stock up!

Deep fried and deliciously crunchy, you can count on Bellissimo wings for a tender juicy bite every time. All Bellissimo chicken wing options have been perfectly seasoned giving you the quality and consistency you can count on to deliver superb taste to your customers at a generous margin for yourself.

Add any Bellissimo fully cooked, breaded, unbreaded, or steam cooked chicken wings to your menu and you will have customers coming back for more! Serve naked or with your favorite sauce, Bellissimo Wings are guaranteed to leave a lasting impression.

Visit Bellissimo.com to find your local source of our full line of chicken wing options and more great Bellissimo Italian favorites.

USA CLAIMS TWO PIZZA WORLD RECORDS

The Italians know pizza better than anyone, but leave it to Americans to go bigger. Two international records were set by the United States in the same week in January. Andolini’s Pizzeria, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, threw the world’s largest pizza party on January 21, drawing 3,357 people to the University of Tulsa prior to a basketball game against Tulane University. That effort more than tripled the previous record of 1,046 attendees, set by a group of Italians in Rome in September 2019. A few days earlier, Pizza Hut teamed up with YouTube personality Airrack (Eric Decker) on January 18 to build the world’s largest pizza, which spanned 13,990 square feet. Spurred by Airrack, who was celebrating the achievement of reaching 10 million subscribers on YouTube, the Americans bested a group of pizzaioli from NIPfood in Rome, who set their record of 13,580 square feet in December 2012. Andolini’s record-breaking event is particularly impressive, since the chain has only five stores, proving that small pizza companies can accomplish big goals. “It was my dumb idea,” co-owner Mike Bausch told KTUL. “I think the beauty of life is doing things to do them and for the joy of accomplishment.”

ARE YOU AN INNIE OR AN OUTIE?

Lou Malnati’s, the beloved pizza institution in Chicago, started shipping its iconic thin-crust pizzas nationwide in mid-January with an attention-grabbing contest that posed a quirky question: “Are you an innie or an outie?” The chain’s owner, Marc Malnati, said customers have debated for years “whether their favorite piece of the square-cut thin-crust pizza is on the inside or the outside. We thought it’s time we invite the rest of America to choose their side as well.” It’s a tough choice: The “innie” pieces boast more toppings, while the “outies” tantalize taste buds with that buttery, flaky-edge crust. To encourage fans to weigh in, the chain gave away 3,000 free pizzas to consumers who took its “Innie vs. Outie” survey online. Whatever their preference, Lou Malnati’s fans can now order the pies through the chain’s Tastes of Chicago platform, which also offers Malnati’s deep-dish pizzas, Vienna Beef hot dog kits, desserts and more.

Lou Malnati’s is now shipping its famous tavern-style pizzas nationwide through Tastes of Chicago.

Janet Zapata of Laredo, Texas-based 550 Pizzeria journeyed up to Tulsa for the world’s largest pizza party and posed with Michael Empric of Guinness World Records.

Eric Decker, known to his YouTube fans as Airrack, partnered with Pizza Hut to break the record for the world’s largest pizza on January 18.

NO MAT TER WHERE YOU’RE FROM

Mike’s Hot Honey started out of a pizzeria in Brooklyn 12 years ago, creating a whole new category of pizza topping that has been called a gamechanger by pizza fans and spawned best-selling menu items for pizzerias nationwide. Request a sample today to see what all the buzz is about.

www.mikeshothoney.com/sample

PUTTING TRUST IN CRUST

Pizza lovers in Miami have been putting their trust in Crust since 2015. But the restaurant, owned by Klime and Anita Kovaceski and featured on PMQ’s April 2018 cover, is more than a beloved local pizzeria. It has become a national phenomenon, recently landing on Yelp’s “Top 100 Places to Eat” list for the second year in a row. That’s in addition to being named to The Daily Meal’s “101 Best Pizzas in America” list in 2020 and OpenTable’s “Top 100 Restaurants in America” roster in 2019. How do they do it? It goes without saying that the food (Klime’s specialty) and service (Anita’s purview) are top-notch, but the Kovaceskis also reach out to and work with the news media. In 2017, they even landed a feature in The Wall Street Journal. They’re prescient, too. When the pandemic hit, they launched Crust2Go, a small, laid-back café-like space just for carryout customers, in late 2020. At the time, Klime, in an interview with the Miami New Times, predicted, “Even when this is all behind us, I believe that a big portion of the restaurant business will remain based on off-site dining experiences. People will get used to the convenience.” Most importantly, the Kovaceskis love what they do. “I graduated [from college] in restaurant and hotel management,” Klime tells PMQ. “So, for me, interaction with my guests, employees and suppliers is everything.” What’s his best piece of advice for other restaurateurs? “Always break your old habits,” he says. “Never think that you know everything. Go to work with one thing on your mind: What is it that I can learn today that I didn’t know yesterday?”

RETURN TO SENDER

California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) has been turning thank-you cards into repeat business with a promotion that started in mid-January and runs through April 23. Dine-in and carryout customers receive sealed envelopes with thank-you cards that also feature a secret prize that can be redeemed on a future visit. But there’s a catch: The envelopes have to be returned, unopened, to a CPK restaurant, where a manager unseals them and reveals the prize. The prizes include discounts off a meal, free pizza for a year, a trip for two to California, and cash awards from $500 to $50,000. As a bonus, guests who sign up to join CPK’s loyalty program during the promotion receive a $5 award and a free small plate. CPK welcomed a new CEO, Jeff Warne, last December, and is gearing up for its next phase of growth, with special attention paid to building up its CPK Rewards program and opening new stores overseas.

Every thank-you card from CPK comes with a prize in a promotion running through April 23.

Klime and Anita Kovaceski celebrate Crust landing on Yelp’s “Top 100 Places to Eat” for the second year in a row.

Klime Kovaceski creates amazing pies like the Meat-Layered Pizza, featuring pepperoni, ham, bacon, ground beef and Italian sausage.

HOW TO CONQUER A TRADE SHOW

Plan ahead, bring a list of priorities, and wait until you get home to make big decisions.

BY BILLY MANZO JR.

Are you ready for trade show season? You should be. But there’s more to getting ready than just booking hotel rooms and making reservations at your favorite restaurants. Trade shows are often treated as social events where pizza makers from around the country meet and have a good time, but that ain’t gonna make you money, guys. What’s gonna make you money is 1) building relationships with manufacturers and 2) understanding where the market is going before your competitors do.

So there’s work to do, and you need to be prepared, especially if you’ve never been to one of these events before—or if you’ve attended them but have never really accomplished what you wanted.

Getting Prepared

Preparation begins at home. Once you’ve made your travel plans and registered for the event, get your hands on the show floor plan. Why? It will dictate what you put in your luggage and how you schedule your time and chart each day. For many shows, the last

day is the best day for conversations and meetings. Since everyone is locked and loaded on that first day, by the last day many reps are standing around and looking at each other in their booths. So plan on having those long, intricate conversations with manufacturers’ reps on that last day.

Next, sit down and make three lists: A list, B list and C list. Priorities for your business go on the A list: a new dishwasher, mixer or stove, flour, cheese or salt. Attack them first. Locate those manufacturer booths on the floor plan

and figure out a path to each that won’t wear holes in the soles of your shoes.

Then, move on to the B and C lists. The B list features important, rather than priority, contacts, and the C list covers where you want to be two years from now and all the fun but not totally necessary stuff.

Next, pack your printed sales reports and photos of your product. Notice I said “printed.” You might have charts and photos on your phone, but a hard copy—in an actual manila folder—will let manufacturers know that you’re more on your game than the guy they just sat with 10 minutes ago. And pack a good pair of sneakers or shoes, plus your “dress to impress” clothes. If all this means taking a bigger piece of luggage, so be it.

Finally, if you can afford to bring your top employee with you, do it. If you can get that employee to drink the Kool-Aid of your brand and understand what you’re trying to accomplish, you’ve got a

great ambassador. That person will have so much information to talk to your customers about: “I just went to this event. This is what we saw and did. And this is what we’re gonna do. Oh, my God, we’re so excited.” That can set your vibe and tone for the year.

During the Show

OK, so you’re at the trade show, there are hundreds of vendors in front of you, and suddenly your game plan is ready to go out the window because you saw something sexy. Stop right there! Don’t do it. Stick to the plan!

Make a note of said sexy item and add it to your C list. Then march onto the show floor and introduce yourself to all of the companies you want to meet and work with. Shake hands with everyone on your A, B and C lists. Give them

your card and say, “I’d like to make an appointment with you on the last day before the show closes, if possible, or whenever is convenient for you.”

Chat with your vendor reps about where the cheese market or flour market is going. The oven guy might say, “Before you make a commitment this year, these ovens are not what you’re looking for, but six months from now, we have another oven coming out. It may be a little more expensive, but it might fill your needs better than this one.” Feel and touch all of the products you’ve seen in publications and on TikTok prior to the show. Experience them all.

But don’t—I repeat—don’t get what I call “excited chicken syndrome.” Don’t open up your checkbook and commit to anything. Right now, you’re just evaluating and taking notes.

After the Show

Once you’re back home, take a day or two to recover. Then look over your show notes and evaluate, reevaluate and make your decisions. How long should you wait before you follow up with manufacturers? As far as I’m concerned, the clock runs. All of these reps are going to have at least a month to play catch-up with their contacts, but that doesn’t mean you can’t drop an email or a text today to say, “Thank you for meeting me. I’m looking forward to 2023 and a future relationship.”

Remember, you may have conquered the trade show, but now the real work begins.

Billy Manzo Jr. is a veteran restaurant operator and the owner/chef of Federal Hill Pizza in Warren, Rhode Island.

NIGHTCLUB & BAR LRA EXPO

Don’t get “excited chicken syndrome” at the event. Don’t open up your checkbook and commit to anything. Right now, you’re just evaluating and taking notes.

BREAKING THE RULES

Here’s one word that I find fascinating: authentic. How does one make something authentic? What goes into it that’s different from anything else? And does it even matter? I used to spend so much time reading about—and listening to—talking heads who defined what an authentic pizza was. They had created the equation and solved it. I would put other people’s opinions, practices and food on a pedestal and let this idea of what other people in the industry were doing be the “right way.”

Well, it took me a long time, but what I have realized is that there is no right way. You get to decide that. People who put locks and fences around stuff like dough practices, toppings and other cooking methods create a pretty boring

and strict world to live in. Don’t get me wrong: There are guidelines, but sometimes you have to color outside the lines to see what’s out there. For example, if using bleached, bromated flour is your thing, then I think you should shout it from the rooftops, and don’t let any artisanal sourdough baker make you feel bad for your delicious outcomes.

It took me a minute, but I’ve come to learn that the best pizza is the one I’ve developed, not the one some dude from Barstool Sports says is good. You might not agree with me, and that’s totally cool—and also the magic of being human. Anything can be whatever you want it to be.

People are just people, and, at least in my life, I let my opinion about myself

matter the most. Believe that you’re making a great pizza: That is what’s going to define the most authentic pizza out there. Because it’s authentically you.

Rules are written by people, not gods. Do whatever you want, because it doesn’t matter. Explore and try crazy stuff. Break the rules, get creative, make mistakes and build off them. That’s where great food comes from. Do weird stuff, because that’s when the magic happens.

But, as with everything in life, beware of getting caught up in comparison. Just be your authentic self, and the food will follow.

Alex Koons is an industry consultant and the owner of Hot Tongue Pizza, an all-vegan pizzeria, and Purgatory Pizza in Los Angeles.

There is no one right way to create an “authentic” slice, so ignore the experts, get creative, make mistakes and learn from them.

BY ALEX KOONS

FIRE & SMOKE PIZZA

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2 oz. onions, caramelized

3 oz. sausage, cooked and crumbled

Sriracha-Infused Pizza Sauce

4 oz. tomato sauce, prepared

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Sriracha-Infused Pizza Sauce

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You Just Know.

“Fumella brings cheese to the next level. It actually brings the overall flavor together.”

— Keith Marsiglia, Three Brothers New York Pizzeria

Jane Grote Abell, the chairwoman of the familyowned Donatos, believes that “leading with love” will lead to success in business and in life.

WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

In a PMQ.com exclusive, Jane Grote Abell talks about the challenges she’s faced as a woman running a major restaurant chain, why franchising is a good way to give back, her dad’s foodservice equipment inventions, and the innovative Grote Company. Read it at PMQ.com/jane-abell

THE GOLDEN RULE

BY RICK HYNUM | PHOTOS COURTESY DONATOS

As a young entrepreneur in the early 1960s, Jim Grote, founder of Columbus, Ohio-based Donatos, was advised to be tough in business and tender at home. He took only half of that supposedly wise counsel to heart—the second part—and still went on to build a pizza empire that’s growing to this day. Now, his daughter, Jane Grote Abell, manages the company with the same firm, steady yet gentle hand. As Donatos’ executive chairwoman, she carries another title that matters just as much to her: chief purpose officer. For Abell, running a business without making a positive social impact is like preaching from the Bible and leaving out Jesus.

For Jane Grote Abell and the family behind Donatos, doing business through the power of love—a concept called agape capitalism—is the only way to do it.

Not that she’s the preachy type: Like her dad, Abell would rather do good than proselytize about it. And Donatos’ success—the company currently has 430-plus locations in more than half of the U.S. states, with many more in the pipeline—offers lessons that other restaurant corporations would be smart to learn. Abell and the Grote family call it “agape capitalism.” Chat will her for a while, and it’s clear that’s not just some marketing buzzword for Abell. She means it. And she’s very, very good at it.

Growing Up at Donatos

A lot of pizzerias claim to treat their patrons like kin, but Grote, who opened the first Donatos store on the south side of Columbus in 1963, took that idea one step further. As the 1,800-square-foot pizzeria got busier over the next several years, the wait for Grote’s pies got longer. The restaurant had no dining room, but

Grote and his growing family lived next door. “So when customers would come for a pizza, he always sent them back to our house to wait,” Abell recalls. “And I give so much credit to my mom, looking back on it now. Every night, she opened up that front door and welcomed our customers in. Our dining room and living room were filled with customers every night waiting for their pizza. My dad would call back and let them know when their pizza was ready, but

oftentimes they just stayed and hung out with us.”

For Abell and her three siblings, their living room became a classroom in restaurant management. “You learn a lot about hospitality when you’re inviting your customers into your home, not just your restaurant,” Abell reflects.

“I also thought that was normal. I had no idea that other people didn’t live like that.”

Abell fondly remembers the light from the Donatos sign casting a reddish

“You learn a lot about hospitality when you’re inviting your customers into your home, not just your restaurant. I also thought that was normal. I had no idea that other people didn’t live like that.”

— Jane Grote Abell, Donatos

To Abell, leading with love means treating Donatos’ associates the way she wants to be treated, providing second chances and offering growth opportunities.

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glow in her bedroom every night. She also remembers that, from the start, her dad had big ambitions for Donatos, despite his humble—and homey—approach to entrepreneurship. “At nighttime, my dad would come get us, and he’d take us out in our pajamas and stand under that big sign. He would talk about growing Donatos all over. He never went into business just wanting to have one pizza shop. He was always about growth. He always said, ‘We’re going to be around the world one day.’ But he never said, ‘And we’re going to have an exit strategy’ or ‘We’re going to make this or that amount of money.’ Wherever we did business, we would bring our principles to work with us, and we were going to give back to the community.”

Before opening Donatos at 19, Grote had worked for other restaurateurs, including two partners with very different management styles. “One gentleman served the same pizza consistently every single night,” Abell says. “He took care of his customers, the community and his associates, and my dad saw at an early age that those nights were busier. But when the other gentleman was working, he took toppings off the pizza or watered down the sauce to get more pizzas out of it, and my dad saw those nights were slower.”

That wasn’t how Grote, as a customer, wanted to be treated. And he took the Golden Rule seriously. It’s the core philosophy of Donatos, a Latin word that means “to give a good thing.”

“That’s the principle he founded the business on,” Abell says. “He would talk about bringing his principles to work with him and making sure you treated others the way you wanted to be treated. His older mentors would say, ‘You can’t do that. You can’t bring those goody-two-shoes principles to work. You’re in business, and you have to get the other guy before he gets you.’ But he knew that wasn’t how he wanted to do business.”

“We came up with a promise for all of our stores and associates to live by. And our promise is really simple: It’s to serve the best pizza and make someone’s day better.”

— Jane Grote Abell, Donatos

When Jane was a child, the light from the original Donatos sign cast a reddish glow in her bedroom at night. As an extrovert, she loved hanging out with her dad’s customers at home in the evenings.

Doing the Right Thing

Over time, true to Grote’s vision, Donatos grew from that one little store into a Midwest colossus without ever sacrificing its core values. Meanwhile, more family members joined the fold, including Grote’s four children, plus their mother, grandfather, uncles and cousins. As a student at Ohio State, Abell worked in the campus location, then went full-time and became Donatos’ chief people officer (she didn’t much care for corporate jargon like “human resources”).

By 1990, Donatos had launched its franchise program, and things really took off. The family chose their franchisees carefully, always with an eye toward giving back to every community with a Donatos location. “There are a lot of people

out there with money, but that’s not who we’re looking for,” Abell says. “Yes, they need to have money. But we’re really looking for people who are aligned with our values, our purpose, our mission and what we stand for. So we’re pretty particular about who we bring on board, because franchise agreements sometimes last longer than marriages. It’s important that we’re picking the right people to grow with us.”

For Donatos, the right people are those who want to “lead with love” rather than just make a boatload of money. But do that right, Abell believes, and the money will come. The concept is even embedded in the company’s mission statement: “Our mission is to promote goodwill through our products and service, principles and people.”

“We’re pretty particular about who we bring on board, because franchise agreements sometimes last longer than marriages.”

— Jane Grote Abell, Donatos

Jane Grote Abell learned the philosophy of agape capitalism— doing business with the power of love—from her father, Jim Grote, founder of Donatos.

Find fresh inspiration with Galbani ®

“We built that into our performance reviews,” Abell says. “We built it into all the things that we do. But we also recognized that it’s difficult to explain that to the 16-year-old working in a restaurant. So we came up with a promise for all of our stores and associates to live by. And our promise is really simple: It’s to serve the best pizza and make someone’s day better.”

Abell quotes an old Jimi Hendrix song: “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” Thus, Donatos abides by three tenets: Treat others the way you want to be treated. Always lead with love. And do the right thing.

As an example of doing the right thing, Abell points to the pandemic era and Donatos’ opportunity to receive a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan.

“Stepping into the pandemic, none of us had any idea what was going to happen,” she says. “And the first few weeks, like the rest of the world, our sales declined significantly. So we applied for the PPP loan and were approved for $8.2 million. Then, a couple of weeks into it, our sales started rebounding, like a lot of pizza places. So we called an emergency board meeting, and under agape capitalism, we looked at the spirit and the letter of the law for that loan. And we ended up turning down the loan, because the spirit of the law was about making sure it was granted to the people that were struggling and unable to make rent or pay their people. Since our sales rebounded, even though we weren’t sure what was going to happen the rest of the year…we felt like the right thing was to turn down the loan.”

That turned out to be a “great year” for Donatos, Abell says. “Of course, it’s never easy to turn down $8 million, being so unsure what the future holds, but we believed it was the right thing to do. And, to this day, I still believe it was the right thing to do.”

“We turned down the [$8.2 million PPP] loan, because the spirit of the law was about making sure it was granted to the people that were struggling and unable to make rent or pay their people.”

— Jane Grote Abell, Donatos

Lactalis American Group, Inc., Buffalo, NY 14220. Galbani is a ® of Egidio Galbani S.r.l.

When she delivered the commencement address at Ohio State University last year, Jane Grote Abell gave every graduate an agape coin, created by her family’s nonprofit organization to inspire unconditional love in business and in life.

Grate things are happening

JOIN GALBANI ® CHEESE AT THE INTERNATIONAL PIZZA EXPO ®

Pizza Expo is almost here—and we’re in it to win it like never before! Galbani cheese is proud to be the official sponsor of the International Italian Sandwich Competition, showcasing some of the most talented sandwich makers in the world. And we’re honored to sponsor the Galbani Pro Team members competing in the International Pizza Challenge.

Stop by Booth #2245 to enjoy samples of Italy’s #1 cheese brand while watching live cooking demonstrations from the best in the business. Plus, we’ll have ambassador appearances, pizza acrobatics, and t-shirt giveaways throughout the event.

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Beyond The Dough Presented By

Rest In Peace, Merrill!

I was in our Perfect Crust/Incredible Bags office when I was told that Merrill Hansen had passed away the day before.

Merrill was the designer of all of our bags. He was 84, and I would jokingly call him “Greatest Generation.”

This isn’t a plug for our bags but for Merrill. Everything he did was QUALITY. Our bags are QUALITY, and they will pay homage to him for years.

His generation built things to last. Period. It reflects in our bags.

He was a great father, husband and businessman.

I spoke with Merrill often, and it almost always turned into a chat about God, family, hockey and bags. He held all four in the highest reverence.

You will be missed, Bag Man!

To learn more about Perfect Crust’s pizza liners and other products, visit perfectcrust.com or email Eric Bam at Eric@perfectcrust.

About Eric Bam:

Eric is the VP of Sales & Marketing for Perfect Crust Pizza Liners and Incrediblebags.com. Eric is a goal driven optimist that uses his positive attitude to lift up those around him. He’s a father to Nycholas, Alayna and Ruby. He’s a public speaker and show host. You can find him on all social media @TheEricBam.

Detour at McDonald’s

As with any company, there have been bumps on the road to Donatos’ expansion. There was also a sudden, unexpected detour. When McDonald’s offered to buy the company in 1999, Grote and his family weren’t even looking to sell. “But there were a lot of pros,” Abell says. “They’re the largest restaurant company and know what they’re doing. They have done it already, and they have access to capital to grow quicker than we probably could have at the time. So we decided to sell.”

With that partnership, Grote’s dream of global growth came true, as the first Donatos opened in Germany. The company also expanded beyond the Midwest, into cities like Philadelphia and Atlanta. But it was also morphing into an entirely different sort of behemoth. “We had grown to nearly 200 restaurants, but we were building buildings faster than our people, which is a hard thing,” Abell says. “You have to keep developing your people as you develop your buildings….We started [turning] into something

“Moms, dads, aunts, uncles and grandparents can come in [to the Reeb Center] and get access to services to help them find a job while their kids are either in the Learning Center or the Boys & Girls Club.”

— Jane Grote Abell, Donatos

As part of its continued growth across the U.S., Donatos opened this store in Evansville, Indiana, on June 9, 2020.

that we weren’t [supposed to be]. We had larger restaurants, 2,800 square feet, with dining rooms. All of a sudden, we had front-of-the-house, back-of-the-house, and much more of a casual-dining feel. That was a culture shift for us, because we are much more about pickup and delivery. We have some dining rooms and party rooms, but not full service. Our sales/ investment ratio was upside-down. And we were investing way more in the buildings—we were up to $1.5 million on a buildout, and that’s an upside-down model.”

Then, one day in 2003, Abell was driving to work when she heard a news report on NPR: McDonald’s was planning to either sell or close all of its Donatos locations. She and her dad seized the chance to buy the company back and rebuild it their way. “We were losing a lot of money, so we needed to restructure and get focused on basics again,” she says. “And that’s what we did. We had to leave a couple of markets, because we didn’t have the infrastructure to continue to support them, including Germany. But we retrenched and had a great turnaround. We rebounded. We had a $10.5 million turnaround that first year and then started growing again.”

A Hub of Hope

And that new growth came in innovative ways. Today, Donatos has 431 locations in 27 states, including 248 nested in Red Robin burger restaurants. That relationship started in 2018, meaning Donatos was a ghost brand before ghost brands became the “next big thing.”

“I didn’t know a lot about Red Robin until they approached us, but everything they talked about—their purpose and

their values—aligned with us,” Abell says. “They talk about love, about the heart of the house. They take care of their people and the community. They truly are a great partner. [The Donatos locations] increased sales for them at their end—I think it was 8% the last time I heard. So the Red Robins with Donatos locations have seen a basis point improvement. It’s been a success for us and for them. I think growth through venues like that is the future, although we still are going to do traditional stores.”

Abell has other ideas for the future of business, too. Which brings us back to agape capitalism.

Abell took over her dad’s role as president of Donatos in 2007 and replaced him as chair of the board in 2010. In addition to spearheading all of that growth through Red Robin and adding more traditional stores to the lineup, Abell took on the new role of Donatos’ chief purpose officer with zeal. Columbus’ south side, where the first Donatos store opened 60 years ago, had fallen on hard times. Manufacturing businesses had abandoned the area, taking good-paying jobs with them. The mayor asked Abell and Grote for help.

“One in four houses were boarded up, and 70% of the population lived at 200% below the poverty rate,” Abell says. “Kids between the ages of 16 and 26 were not in school, not working, didn’t have their GED. There was high drug trafficking, high human trafficking, high gang activity, and a lot of violence in that neighborhood.”

Leveraging the Grote family’s reputation and connections with local officials, business leaders and nonprofits, Abell and her friend, Tanny Crane, helped found the Reeb Center in a

Jane Grote’s growing family includes Tony Capuano (Jane’s son and Donatos’ VP of franchise operations), Roman Capuano, Hannah Capuano, Auggie Capuano, Jane, Luca Capuano, Tom Krouse (Jane’s husband and Donatos’ CEO), Brie Williams (Jane’s daughter and Donatos’ manager of culture and people), Nik Williams, Tori Abell and Carson Weghorst.

former elementary school building and set about revitalizing the area. The facility houses 10 nonprofits that offer everything from adult education and workforce development programs to early childhood care, mental and behavioral healthcare, GED and hospitality courses, and statewide certification for nursing.

The latter, Abell says, is a six-week course for nursing assistants. “And then, literally down the street, they can get a job at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.” The Reeb Center’s partners have also trained locals for jobs at Grant Medical Center in Columbus. “There are three different jobs in the hospital system that have high turnover, so we focused on those and helped train people to be employed at Grant, which has been great.”

Abell has seen firsthand the difference the Reeb Center— which she calls a “hub of hope”—has made in the community. “We offer an education for infants and toddlers all the way up through high school with the Boys & Girls Club and even as adults. Moms, dads, aunts, uncles and grandparents can come in and get access to services to help them find a job while their kids are either in the Learning Center or the Boys & Girls Club….We have a café there, too. They’re walking around, they’re talking, they’re engaging with people, and you can truly see the transformation in people just being there and getting the programming that they need.”

In March 2022, Abell, Grote and their family launched the Donatos Family Foundation to focus on three pillars—housing, hunger and health—in the communities that Donatos serves. The foundation devotes a specific time period to raising funds for each pillar every year, starting this year with Habitat for Humanity. Donatos itself also hires the formerly incarcerated, giving them a chance to rebuild their lives.

For Abell and her family—most of whom have leadership roles at Donatos—doing business through the power of love is the only way to do business. It always has been. But they’re also riding a surging wave of consumer interest in companies that do real good in the world, whether through traditional business models or social entrepreneurship.

“I think we’ve all seen that…in these last couple of years, with the pandemic and so much social upheaval,” Abell says. “And it’s not just the next generation that’s looking for authentic companies, but it’s the overall consumer. They want to do business with people that they can trust and that have an authentic story. And I think people can see through [contrived] authenticity, when companies sometimes create a story because it’s important to have that story, versus it’s just authentically us at Donatos. It’s authentically who we have been for the last 60 years in doing business.”

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

Abell (left) was a driving force behind the Reeb Center, which houses 10 nonprofits dedicated to revitalizing Columbus, Ohio’s south side.

Donatos offers vegetarian pizzas like the Cauliflower Garden, featuring a cauliflower crust and toppings like plant-based sausage, smoked provolone, Romano cheese, mushrooms, bell peppers and onions.

BY TOM LEHMANN

Editor’s note: The late Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann was the dough making sage of the pizza industry and happily shared his wisdom with PMQ’s readers for more than 20 years. We believe Tom would still write for us in pizza heaven if he could, so we’re reprinting this (slightly edited) article he penned in 2008. It’s both timeless and, in light of current inflationary prices, as timely as ever.

I’msure that most of you are wondering if the price of flour will ever come back down again. For many, it can’t come down fast enough. With the high costs of cheese, meats and other ingredients, our bottom lines aren’t just hurting; they’re in serious trouble. Some pizzeria operators might be looking to sidestep flour costs by using some other type of flour. Sadly, you can’t blend other types of flour into your wheat flour to come up with a lower-cost alternative. But you can blend different types of flours into your wheat flour to make some truly unique pizza crusts with different flavor and textural properties and charge more for them.

Blending different types of flours will make for some unique pizza crusts with different flavors and textures—and you can charge more for them!

Considering the Alternatives

First, you need to have a full understanding of the flour that you presently use. Wheat flour consists of several different groups of proteins, two of which—glutenin and gliadin— are essential to pizza making. When hydrated with water and mixed, they produce the structure-forming material that we call gluten in our dough. Gluten holds dough together, allowing it to be sheeted, pressed, stretched and tossed without coming apart. It also contributes to the bite, or chewiness, of the baked pizza.

Other grains contain these specific gluten-forming proteins but in such a low quantity that forming and shaping dough becomes problematic. These include rye, barley and triticale, a wheat-rye cross. While rye flour can be used to make pizza, rye dough is sticky and weak, making it difficult to handle or shape.

Semolina flour has gluten-forming proteins, too, but the type of gluten derived from durum flour is extremely tight, not very elastic or stretchable. That makes for dough that’s difficult to shape well and has a lot of memory. Also, after baking, this flour can impart extreme toughness to the finished crust.

Barley flour contains gluten-forming proteins, but, again, the level of glutenforming protein is so low that the doughs are weak and sticky, plus they’re more expensive than wheat flours.

Some other nonwheat flours include buckwheat, corn flour, rice flour, quinoa and amaranth. Others that can be incorporated into the dough

formulation—providing uniquely flavored crusts or crusts with a “healthy” or exotic-sounding appeal—include flaxseed meal, soy flour, sorghum flour, oat flour and spelt flour.

Doing the Math

When making a blended flour crust, you can add any of the above-mentioned nonwheat flours at replacement levels of up to 25% of the total wheat flour. So if you use 50 pounds of wheat flour, you can replace up to 12.5 pounds of it with one or more of these other flour types to produce a uniquely flavored crust.

Something to keep in mind when working with nonwheat blends: They

When making a blended flour crust, you can add any of the nonwheat flours at replacement levels of up to 25% of the total wheat flour.

will exhibit an affinity for water in much the same way the wheat flour does; in many cases, it may actually be greater than that of flour. To determine how much water needs to be added to the dough, place a known quantity, such as 10 ounces, of the nonwheat flour material into a small bowl, then add 5 ounces of water and stir until the water is mixed into the material. If the resulting paste is too thick and/or too dry, stir in another ounce of water. Continue doing this until the material looks to be well-hydrated and allow the mix to hydrate for 60 minutes. Then check it again for consistency and add more water if necessary. If you add more water, remember to allow the material to hydrate again for another hour before checking it for correct hydration.

When the material has the consistency of very thick oatmeal, it’s properly hydrated. You can calculate the absorption percent by dividing the weight of water added by the weight of the nonwheat flour used, then multiplying by 100. For example, if you started with 10 ounces of nonwheat material and ended up adding 7 ounces of water before it was fully hydrated, you would divide 7 by 10 and multiply by 100—in this case, 70% absorption.

To use this in calculating your dough absorption, multiply the white flour weight by 0.56 to find the correct absorption for that portion of the flour blend, and then multiply the nonwheat flour weight by 0.70 to find the correct absorption for that portion of the flour blend. Add up the two weights and

you’ll have the correct amount of water to add to the dough with that flour blend.

Do Some Experimenting

When using nonwheat flours, you’ll want to experiment a little on smaller dough batches to determine what changes are needed to complement the nonwheat flour. An increase in sweetness might help. In this case, the type of sweetener used, such as honey, white sugar, brown sugar, molasses or malt syrup, could be an important consideration, as it can influence the flavor of the crust, the perceived sweetness, or the perception of “healthful” or “natural” to the consumer.

The use of butter, margarine or butter-flavored oil (instead of olive oil) can also have a significant impact on crust flavor, especially when flaxseed meal, oat flour, barley flour or soy flour is used.

With a wheat and nonwheat blend, the dough will be somewhat weaker than a normal white-flour dough, probably requiring less mixing time. Be sure to mix the dough just until a smooth dough appearance is achieved, and then take the dough directly to the bench for scaling and balling.

To use the dough on the same day, put it into plastic dough boxes and lightly oil the tops of the dough balls, then stack and nest the boxes and let them set at room temperature for 90 minutes before forming the dough balls into pizza skins.

If you refrigerate and store the dough overnight, crossstack the dough boxes in the cooler for 90 minutes, and then

With a wheat and nonwheat blend, the dough will be somewhat weaker than a normal white-flour dough, probably requiring less mixing time.

down-stack and nest the boxes to prevent drying. Allow the dough to remain in the cooler for 18 to 24 hours. To use the dough, remove a quantity sufficient for a three-hour period and place at room temperature to temper for two hours. Then begin shaping into dough skins. The dough will remain good to use over the next three hours. Any unused dough may be opened into skins, placed onto screens and held in the cooler for several hours until needed for making pizzas. Due to the weakness of these doughs, they should not be held in the cooler for more than one day.

When making a pizza with any of these crusts, you may also need to experiment with the baking time. Since these crusts will be more dense than your regular white-flour crusts, they

should be allowed to bake for a slightly longer time, ideally at a lower temperature (450° to 500°F), assuming you’re using a deck oven. But, in most cases, for practical purposes, you’ll want to keep the oven settings the same as you use for your regular pizza production. In that case, consider baking these special pizzas on a screen or a baking disk in your deck oven, which will allow for a longer baking time without burning the pizza. Then “deck” the pizza for the last 45 to 60 seconds of baking. (“Decking” involves removing the pizza from the screen or disk and placing it directly on the oven hearth to further crisp it.)

None of these approaches will reduce your flour costs, but they may help you to develop some new or different offerings that will command a better price, thus boosting your bottom line. Additionally, the right combination might appeal to a different group of customers that you didn’t previously attract, thus expanding your customer base. In these trying times, we need all the help we can get with those bottom-line numbers.

The Top Rated Pizzeria POS System for Over 35 Years

The late Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann was a longtime columnist for PMQ and served as director of bakery assistance for the American Institute of Baking (AIB).

[Nonwheat blends] will exhibit an affinity for water in much the same way the wheat flour does; in many cases, it may actually be greater than that of flour.

Geofencing: HIT YOUR TARGET

Geofencing is a handy modernday way to market to customers in specific geographic areas. Here’s how to get started—and how

BY TRACY MORIN

Have you ever used geofencing to market your pizzeria? Or is your first reaction a blank stare when you hear the word “geofencing”? If it’s the latter, don’t worry—you’re not alone. To demystify this tech-driven marketing tool, we wrangled a couple of mobile marketing experts who can explain its workings—and, if you’re already using this tactic, how to get the most out of it.

to do it right.

Step 1: Learn The Lingo

Bob Bentz, president of Purplegator, a mobile marketing agency based in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, notes that learning the definitions of the various terms that are used in mobile and digital marketing can help a pizzeria target the right audience. Here are some keywords to know:

Geolocation: This is the trading area for your pizza restaurant. Normally, it’s about a three- to seven-mile radius from your location.

Geofencing: A geofence enables you to bid more aggressively to show your ads to consumers in a particular area of the geolocation. Consider it a sub-geo of the overall geolocation. For instance, you could geofence the local college campus, since college students are more likely to purchase your products.

Geotarget: The geotarget refers to the people in the geolocation who are most likely to purchase your product. If you are marketing cheesesteaks, you might define the market as males ages 13 to 34, who are less concerned with calorie

counts. If you are advertising salads, you may wish to target moms or females ages 35 to 49.

Geo-conquesting: This is the sexiest part of mobile marketing. With geo-conquesting, you can target mobile devices down to the address level. A logical address to geoconquest would be the competing pizza shops in your trading area. Also, you might geo-conquest the hotels in your area, because you know those people don’t have the option to eat at home.

With geo-conquesting, you can either do a “lookback,” which can give you the mobile devices found at a competing location for up to six months prior, or you can define the audience in real time, known as “micro-proximity.” For example, perhaps there is a trade show in your area—you’d want to target those out-of-towners while they are in your area, but there’s no use trying to reach them once they go back home!

With geofencing, you can target the mobile devices of customers visiting your competitors’ restaurants and feed your ads to them.

Step 2: Explore How It Works

Now that you know the lingo, let’s dive deeper. Nicole Levin, director of sales at RestaurantGeofencing.com in Annapolis, Maryland, offers a quick rundown of some benefits of geofencing and how it works:

1. Target competitors, employers, points of interests, local neighborhoods and more. Imagine Jane, your ideal customer, walking into your competitor’s location with her GPS-equipped smartphone during her lunch hour. Now you’ve captured her mobile ID and can politely steal her away by showing mouthwatering pizza content across all of her devices.

2. Serve Jane mobile ads, video ads and audio ads. Now that Jane has walked into your target zone, not only is she eligible to receive mobile banner ads on the apps she uses, but as she returns home and her phone connects to the internet via her home network, she opens a portal to all of her other devices, including tablets, desktops and streaming televisions.

3. Watch your pizzeria’s walk-ins surge. Jane is out and about the next day. As her lunch hour approaches, she remembers seeing your ad last night as she caught up with her favorite reality show on streaming TV. Jane decides to try out your pizzeria, which she has never heard of before. As she walks into your physical location, her mobile ID will register her as a new customer acquired. You’ll then be able to target her with your appetizing banner ads and 15- to 30-second unskippable OTT/CTV advertisements.

PIZZERIA TESTIMONIALS

“Felix and Oscar’s has been doing geotargeting advertising for the past eight years. During that time, we’ve run many successful geotargeting campaigns to reach our sports and pizza loving audiences in and around the Des Moines metro area. Our sales continue to increase year over year.” —Tommy Morgan, owner, Felix & Oscar’s, Des

Moines, IA

“We run geolocation and geo-conquesting campaigns in our suburban Philadelphia town. We specifically target the three universities in our township and other restaurants. I know it works, because after the campaign is over, they show us a report of the foot traffic that came to our store from the people that were served the advertisements. With other advertising, I never know if it’s really working or not. This kind of advertising takes away that question.” —Robert

Saionz, owner, Main Line Pizza, Wayne, PA

One of the best facets of geofencing marketing is that you can determine how many consumers saw your ad and then showed up at your pizzeria.

Step 3: Track Customers

Bentz notes that one of the best facets of geofencing marketing is that pizzeria owners can know its success rate. “Here’s how: You can set up your own store with geo-conquesting, meaning you’ll know the mobile devices that have visited your pizzeria location,” he explains. “We then match that to the mobile devices that have been served an ad, and we can determine how many consumers saw your ad and then showed up at the pizzeria. This is known as a foot traffic report.”

Bentz adds that, while a foot traffic report is great, it doesn’t tell the entire story. For example, if somebody sees your ad and then phones in an order for delivery, he will never show up at the store for pickup—so you won’t be able to track that sale back to the ad campaign.

Levin agrees that tracking customers through geofencing is a major benefit, since it’s uniquely local—you can microtarget the right audience for your pizzeria, geofencing any location of your choice, including local restaurants (such as your competitors), office buildings, neighborhoods, and even local events. “It can be difficult to track the value of restaurant marketing, and that’s why geofencing for restaurants and pizzerias is so effective,” Levin says.

“To understand how geofencing works for tracking,” Levin adds, “we need to define a couple keywords: target zones and conversion zones.”

Target zones are virtual geofences traced around an area where your pizzeria wants to target customers visiting another physical location (e.g., a competitor restaurant, a venue, a specific part of town, etc.). When the customer enters the target zone, he will then receive your restaurant’s ads on his mobile device. And, upon arriving home, he will then be eligible to receive ads via his other connected devices as his mobile phone connects to his Wi-Fi network.

While some Americans might find geofencing a bit scary— because of all the data that marketers can capture—you’re really just taking advantage of systems that are already in place.

Conversion zones are the most powerful tool for tracking online to offline conversions in mobile restaurant advertising. By tracing a virtual conversion zone around a physical location, restaurant marketers can measure the amount of physical traffic to the location from any customers who have seen their ad. Essentially, the physical location of your restaurant serves as the ultimate conversion zone, as this marketing aims to increase walk-ins to your location.

“In simpler terms, the target zones are the geofences you set up to capture your ideal customers, and the conversion zone is the physical location of your pizzeria,” Levin says. “If the geofencing company you use provides a report with statistics on your geofences, you will be able to see which customers viewed your display ad, television commercial, and/or audio commercial and then visited your pizzeria.” Then there is a plethora of information to be received from capturing those customers, including:

• Trade area (insights into home and work locations by density for your pizzeria, distance in miles from where visitors live in comparison to your pizzeria, and the percentage of visitors to your pizzeria by county, DMA, state or ZIP code)

• Household characteristics (customer demographics by primary visitor, secondary visitor, and incidental visitors; marriage status, number of children, and number of persons in household; head of household’s age, ethnicity, income and education level; home type and ownership status, such as new mover or new homeowner; visitor trend graphs by week, day and hour of day)

• Visitor behaviors (frequently visited places, such as the top five places that visitors to your pizzeria visited during a specified time frame).

Step 4: Overcome the Ick Factor

Bentz admits that many people ask how marketing agencies can obtain all of this information, and many Americans find the type of mobile targeting available today to be downright scary. But hey—you’re just taking advantage of systems that are already in place. “Mostly, this tracking is from apps that are on the consumers’ smartphones—like, if you have the Waze or Accuweather app, you are providing your location data to those sponsors,” Bentz explains. “This information is then sold to third-party data companies, which competent marketing agencies subscribe to.”

Bentz points to the old flashlight app that circulated a decade ago. There was no cost to download it, and there was no advertising on it. That’s because signing off on the app’s terms and conditions meant that you gave permission to the sponsor to track your geo-data— which was then sold to third-party data providers, who in turn sold it to advertisers.

Nowadays, this method of advertising is common, and that’s because it’s successful. “Regardless of how customers may feel, as a marketer, you should love geofencing marketing,” Bentz concludes. “It’s an extremely effective tool for your pizza restaurant.”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor and the editor of PizzaVegan.com.

Main Line Pizza in Wayne, Pennsylvania, uses geofencing to target the mobile devices of potential guests at three nearby universities and other restaurants.

BONUS CONTENT:

Wagner’s Pizza Bus might be the smallest pizzeria in Alaska, but owners Michael and Diana Wagner offer 30-plus regional styles. Learn more about their unique story at PMQ.com/wagners-pizza-bus.

Street Smarts

Thinking of taking your pizza business on the road? Learn some key dos and don’ts from these thriving mobile pizzeria operators.

BY TRACY MORIN

Mobile businesses can seem to launch overnight success with less risk and commitment than a brick-and-mortar business, but they have their own complications and considerations. “Going mobile is not as easy as purchasing a portable oven and getting started—you need to consider permitting, transportation, marketing, equipment, weather and a number of other things,” warns Conor Cudahy, owner of Boston-based Lala’s Neapolitan-ish Pizza. “It should be given the same amount of thought and consideration as a brick-and-mortar restaurant.”

GETTY IMAGES

Mobile businesses pose unique challenges, such as being more susceptible to outdoor weather conditions.

Still interested? Read on for more tips from operators, in their own words, who have taken their mobile businesses to incredible heights.

Conor Cudahy, owner, Lala’s Neapolitan-ish Pizza, Boston, MA

Over the last two years, we have learned more than I could have imagined: Obtaining temporary operating permits can be a real pain in the butt (and expensive!); choosing a commissary kitchen with a large mixer will make your life infinitely easier; the weather can be your worst enemy or your greatest friend; relationship building is essential; and good cheese is worth the money.

We just hired an accountant to help keep our books up to date. We are always looking for ways to keep our dough at temperature on cold/ hot days, and we invested in a mobile refrigerator to avoid the cost of ice. It’s

also important to remember that if you don’t give your employees a living wage, proper training and a respectful workplace, they will not be working there long, and the time you spent training them will be wasted.

Opening a brick-and-mortar was always our goal, so we were constantly on the lookout for places to move into. We are now opening in Time Out Market Boston, a food hall—a great next step for Lala’s for several reasons. The kitchen was already completely outfitted with an oven and refrigeration.

They do a great job marketing and attracting new customers, and they have a steady amount of foot traffic coming in their doors all day long. The low risk/high potential of opening made it hard to pass up.

Once we have our brick-and-mortar and mobile operations running efficiently, it will be time to look for a spot of our own. Whether it’s a sitdown spot, fast casual, or something in between, we’ll always keep an eye out for a great space.

“If you don’t give your employees a living wage, proper training and a respectful workplace, they will not be working there long, and the time you spent training them will be wasted.”

— Conor Cudahy, Lala’s Neapolitan-ish Pizza

Lala’s Neapolitan-ish Pizza in Boston was able to leverage its mobile success to land in a brickand-mortar location—a move that may or may not be a mobile owner’s ultimate goal.

LALA’S NEAPOLITAN-ISH PIZZA

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Siler Chapman, owner, King of Fire, Fort Mill, SC

I had 15 brick-and-mortar pizzerias, but I wanted to have something as a side hobby and started to see the potential in mobile pizza. I got a trailer from Fire Within, started a little catering company and fell in love with the model while doing weddings and private events starting in October 2018. COVID19 helped us take off—as private events and brewery visits stopped, we set up in neighborhoods. People preordered pizzas and drove up for almost-contactless pickup. Suddenly, every neighborhood in a 30-mile radius wanted us, and we couldn’t service everyone, so we got two more trailers, then two more! Now, we have six operating, and online preorders are 98% of our business. On the weddings side, we did 36 in 2019 and are already on target for 150 in 2023.

Brick and mortar has a lot of fixed costs, so, with mobile, you can do half the sales and get more profit. But with mobile, there are a lot of moving parts—you might get a flat tire, break down, etc.—so it’s a lot of work with a lot of surprises. There’s a lot more that can go wrong, and it can happen quickly. The No. 1 thing is to have a backup: spare tire, POS system, sauce ladle, utensils, wood, 20-ton jack. Have a backup of a backup of every single thing. Something is going to go wrong, but the customer can’t know that.

At first, we didn’t do any marketing, as wedding vendors would recommend us and we had great word-of-mouth. We have a phone number but no website on our truck, because we want people to Google us. Now, we’ll post on a Facebook

or Instagram group that we have a truck available, and we’ll get 30 gigs from one post! But you have to build those relationships with people and hook them with great food. We now have someone on staff doing social media, since we’re building a brand. We believe that slow growth is permanent growth. Each truck is run like its own restaurant— we have a commissary with a kitchen manager, and each truck is accountable for its own food and labor, and each is bonused based on performance. We want to grow to eight units in the Charlotte, North Carolina, market and then to other cities, like Raleigh and Atlanta.

Get a phenomenal education on how to make a great pizza, then get a good education on how to operate a business, because today’s times are tough, and you really have to understand the dynamics of the industry. Having both of these will help you dominate, whether you’re in mobile or brick and mortar. Average is not a thing anymore—nowadays, you’ve gotta be great to survive.

“Brick and mortar has a lot of fixed costs, so, with mobile, you can do half the sales and get more profit.”

— Siler Chapman, King of Fire

Siler Chapman, owner of King of Fire, puts only his company’s name, not a website, on the vehicle—which he believes piques potential customers’ interest, sending them straight to Google to find out more.

KING OF FIRE

Alessio Lacco, owner, Atlanta Pizza Truck, Atlanta, GA

In the pandemic, I was laid off as general manager of a pizzeria, and my wife, Sofia Arango, was a server in restaurants. We had the idea to sell pizza in neighborhoods, so we posted on Facebook groups. Our pop-ups became popular, and people started asking if we could do birthdays, graduations and weddings. Now, we’re well-established, so we do only private events. Last year, we started to cater movie sets and TV shows. The main problem was finding people to work. The first year, Sofia and I did everything: making the dough, prep, cleaning, organizing—it was basically a 24-hour job. With catering, there is no fixed schedule, so I couldn’t offer a 40-hour week. But employees found they can do 30 hours and make good tips. We hired Uber or DoorDash drivers—they know their way

“We have an Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) certification—the first truck to get certified—which gives us a lot of credibility and trust.”

— Alessio Lacco, Atlanta Pizza Truck

Alessio Lacco and Sofia Arango, owners of Atlanta Pizza Truck, have used their mobile unit to cater to the stars on a slew of television and movie sets.

ATLANTA PIZZA TRUCK

around the city, and I can teach them how to be pizza makers. We give them good pay, bonuses, gift cards—and they like working on movie sets and at events, because it’s fun. We make sure they want to grow with us. Now, we have three mobile units and do three to five events a day.

It’s very important to show up on time and be reliable. We have an AAA membership in case we need help changing a tire, and we have a GPS in every vehicle. You have to be cautious with insurance, and we have a commercial kitchen to prep everything. Because people pay in advance, we know the exact labor and food costs and quantities.

When we started, we had only pizza, but as we grew, we added salads, bruschetta, meatballs, pastas—plus homemade gelato from the company that shares our commercial kitchen space. So we offer full catering, not just a pizza truck. We do Facebook, Google and newspaper ads. Venues, event planners and other mobile operators (like taco trucks or mobile bars) that we have worked with recommend us. We also have an Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (AVPN) certification— the first truck to get certified—which gives us a lot of credibility and trust. We are looking to grow into other cities through franchising, and we’re in talks with a local brewery to open an 800-square-foot location inside their business. It’s all about partnerships.

Michael Wagner, Wagner’s Pizza Bus, Fairbanks, Alaska

What’s funny about pizza in Fairbanks is that every restaurant and food truck owner thinks they need to sell pizza. So, with a population of around 33,000 people, there are over 50 different places to get pizza. We offer more than 30 regional pizza styles,

including Detroit, Chicago, Old Forge, St. Louis, Sicilian, etc. We started doing regional pizzas a few years ago, because no one up here did that and most of the people up here are from all over the country, so why not offer pizzas they remember eating while growing up?

It’s next to impossible to get brick cheese for our Detroitstyle pizza in Fairbanks, so we have to substitute another cheese to get the same result. It’s the same with Provel cheese for our St. Louis-style pizza. I’m still trying to figure out how to make the Denver Mile High pizza. I’ve made several that taste good, but it’s the twisted crust I need to work on. We picked up a wood-fired oven to add that style of pizza, plus the New Haven apizza style, too. And we just learned about the Milwaukee style this month.

This year, we ordered special pans from Lloyd Pans to offset [a price increase] for our customers. When we raised our pizza prices, we made the pizzas 1” bigger. So our 12” is now 13”, our 16” is now 17”, and our 18” is now 19”. But to stay open, we will have to raise pizza prices again, and we already feel we will lose some customers—which is another reason we started making regional pizzas. We are the only pizza shop in Alaska with that many. In just the last couple of years, others have added Chicago deep-dish, Detroit and Sicilian pizzas to their menus, and you know what happens when a gas station opens across the road from another gas station: They both lose money. Same here. Then, with inflation on top….Time will tell if it works out for us.

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor and the editor of PizzaVegan.com.

“We offer more than 30 regional pizza styles, including Detroit, Chicago, Old Forge, St. Louis, Sicilian, etc. Most of the people up here are from all over the country, so why not offer pizzas they remember eating while growing up?”

— Michael Wagner, Wagner’s Pizza Bus

Diana and Mike Wagner cater to customers who moved to Alaska from all over the U.S., so they make sure to offer a wide variety of regional pizza styles at Wagner’s Pizza Bus. WAGNER’S PIZZA BUS

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Brayton Laster, who wears pizza colors and a pizzathemed helmet on the racetrack, is looking for corporate sponsors in the pizza industry.

Life Fast Lane in the

Brayton Laster, the “Pizza Man” of NASCAR, hopes to find a corporate sponsor from the pizza industry as his racing career speeds up.

BY RICK HYNUM PHOTOS COURTESY BRAYTON LASTER

You don’t need a gimmick to stand out in the racing world, but it doesn’t hurt, either. Brayton “The Pizza Man” Laster, a rising NASCAR star, came by his nickname organically: Since childhood, the Greenwood, Indiana, native has loved pizza almost as much as racing.

As a middle-schooler, Brayton wore a pizza-themed jacket and backpack to school and never missed a chance to grab a slice of Papa John’s pizza while racing Junior Faskarts—basically a go-kart with a cage—at the Indianapolis Speedrome, a pastime he adopted at just eight years old. The son of retired NASCAR driver Dane “Bartman” Laster, Brayton grew up watching his dad racing Outlaw Figure 8 cars and knew early on that he wanted to be a race car driver, too.

You might say he got off to a speedy start. After the Junior Faskarts, he moved up in the Roadrunner division and was soon driving full-fledged race cars with V8 engines. In his first Roadrunner race, he finished in 8th place against adult drivers. At 15, he was named Rookie of the Year at Brownstown Speedway in 2018.

Now 20, Brayton splits his time between racing and online classes from Liberty University, with a major in business.

Behind the wheel, Brayton is known for his eye-catching pizza helmet, festooned with pepperoni slices, and his brightorange racing uniform. Off the track, he sports a similar sartorial motif in his shirts, ties, pants and shoes.

While still in his teens, Brayton made feature starts in 2021 in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, World of Outlaws Late Model Series, and the Ultimate Heart of America Super

Late Model Series, in addition to other touring series. He recorded a third-place run in points at Richmond Raceway in Richmond, Kentucky, and a third place in points in his first full touring series with the Ultimate Heart of America series.

Last year, he finished 13th at Daytona International Speedway in his national series debut with Mullins Racing and came in 26th at Talladega Superspeedway after a wreck on the 48th lap threw him out of the top 15. Brayton also made his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut at Knoxville Speedway in Knoxville, Tennessee, in June 2022.

But racing and pizza aren’t all Brayton cares about. In 2022, he and his family founded Drive for Humanity, a nonprofit focused on homelessness and hunger issues. “Indianapolis is a big homeless area,” he told Speedway Digest. “I’ve always kind of had a soft spot, especially this time of year when it gets really cold. We always go out and hand out food. We’ll give them gloves and sweatpants.”

His racing career will likely pick up momentum this year. On February 18, 2023, he was scheduled to compete in the opening race of the ARCA Menards Series season at Daytona International Speedway (that race took place after press time) and to run the third race of the year at Talladega Superspeedway on April 22.

Racing sponsorship has been a popular form of marketing for drivers since the early 20th century, so it’s no surprise that Brayton would like to attract a corporate sponsor from the pizza industry. He also employs more high-tech marketing tactics, including a website and a robust social media presence.

“The plan is to get Brayton in at least six to eight more ARCA races this year, but, honestly, a lot of that depends on funding,” Dane Laster told PMQ. “The rest of those races would be based on the preference of our marketing partners. For example, I know that a lot of the big pizza companies seem to be out of the Detroit area, so they may like to see Brayton compete at the Michigan ARCA race [taking place August 4 at the Michigan International Speedway], since it is close to them and the executives could come out to watch.”

Are you listening, Buddy’s Pizza or Little Caesars?

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

Laster has found a racing theme that nearly anyone can cheer for: the love of pizza.

Laster dons his pizzathemed helmet whenever he gets behind the wheel for a race. Brayton Laster fires up the crowd at Knoxville Speedway in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Tripping Billy The

Confronted with a diagnosis of muscular dystrophy in his late 30s, Billy Zureikat has regained his footing and made a fast pivot to pizza fame in the Windy City.

BY RICK HYNUM | PHOTOS COURTESY BILLY ZUREIKAT

When Billy Zureikat was diagnosed with limbgirdle muscular dystrophy in March 2021, his life took a sudden turn for the worse—and for the better. Getting about isn’t always easy for the Chicago native anymore, but his pizza, burger and sandwich creations have become runaway hits at restaurants all across the Windy City.

Prone to trips and falls due to muscular dystrophy, Billy Zureikat has reinvented himself through food and his specialty pizza, the Tripping Billy.

Oddly enough, Zureikat isn’t even in the restaurant business. He’s a self-taught home cook who, as it turns out, has a knack for culinary innovation. And Chicago restaurateurs like Derrick Tung, co-owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square, and Robert Garvey of Robert’s Pizza & Dough Co. are taking notice.

From Basketball to Baking Zureikat, a former ESPN Radio producer and now a logistics manager for Landstar System, Inc., has always loved playing basketball. He was hitting the court three times a week with friends when he started getting clumsy—or so he thought. He kept tripping and falling for no apparent reason. Something was wrong, but he brushed it off.

“Flash-forward a few years later,” he says, “and my legs are getting worse and worse. I can’t physically run and jump anymore, so basketball wasn’t an option. I needed something more, so I started shifting my attention to cooking and, eventually, in 2016, to baking. I started teaching myself how to do basic doughs, sweets and desserts. Then, I started teaching myself how to make bread and sourdough.”

Seeking a little professional guidance, he reached out to Tung, who has been turning Chicagoans on to Detroit-style pizza since 2016. “I went to Paulie Gee’s when they first opened,” Zureikat recalls. “I was blown away by the service and the food. I messaged them on Instagram asking for advice, specifically for Detroit-style, just because it was something that was very accessible to a home cook. I didn’t need a crazy highheat oven. I just needed a pan and could make it work.”

Tung was happy to help. “Derrick invited me in, gave me some tips and told me about the pans he had, and at that point he just became my pizza mentor,” Zureikat says. “I would make pizzas out of my apartment and post them on Instagram just for fun. I’d

always bring them to Derrick to try, and he would give me his opinions. He basically became my guinea pig, and I would bring him slices and bagels and other things I cooked and baked. We became friends.”

One day in 2020, Zureikat went shopping at a local farmer’s market. “I joke that I black out when I go to a farmer’s market because I get so excited about all these crazy ingredients and fresh stuff,” he says. “I kind of nerd out about it. So I just blacked out and bought way too many shishito peppers, like, three or four pounds. I got home, and I was like, ‘What am I gonna do with these?’ So I started thinking of different ideas.”

And that’s how the Tripping Billy pizza was born.

Holy Shishito Peppers!

Zureikat based the Tripping Billy on a hearty Mexican dish called rajas con crema, made with poblano chile peppers, onions, cream and cheese. “So I took shallots and garlic and cooked them down with the shishito peppers,”

Zureikat says. “I reduced some heavy cream into it. Then I added some Parmesan cheese and finished it with some nutmeg. The shishito peppers are roughly chopped, and the shallots and garlic are thinly sliced. It’s chunky, it’s coarse—I don’t blend it down. It’s this really flavorful sauce. It’s just different. I haven’t seen anything like it. So I had this sauce, and I’m like, alright, what do I do with it now?”

The answer: slather it on a pizza crust. Then he added some mozzarella and corn. “Very simple,” he says. “It was very good, but it was also very heavy. I bought some to Derrick, and he liked it.”

But Zureikat wasn’t finished yet. By the summer of 2021, he’d been diagnosed with muscular dystrophy and was feeling low. Basketball was definitely a no-go now. But even if he couldn’t leap to pull down a rebound or sink a three-pointer, he could still make his way around the kitchen. Cooking was a new bright spot in his life.

He decided to give his pizza with the shishito pepper sauce another try, this time in the Detroit style instead of the

“I love the Tripping Billy Pizza….The flavors and the textures of the corn, the shishito peppers, etc., really make it a great pizza, not to mention the vibrant colors.”

— Derrick Tung, Paulie Gee’s Logan Square

The Tripping Billy pizza features a shishito pepper cream sauce, pickled jalapeños, fresh corn, mozzarella, cheddar, scallions and roasted shishito peppers.

grandma variety. “I thought crispy cheese on the edge would be really good with it,” he says. “I added cheddar cheese and pickled jalapeños to cut the richness from the cream and the cheese. And the biggest difference was, I added some scallions at the end for the garnish, and then I roasted some whole shishito peppers and put one on each slice. That was the final product. It was just mind-blowing. It was so good.”

Tung agreed. He liked it so much, he wanted to feature it in his 2021 Slice of Summer event, which benefited No Kids Hungry and Feeding America. “He was picking seven home pizza makers to make a pizza of their choice…and asked me to be one of them,” Zureikat says.

Before long, Zureikat, despite some frequent stumbling, was on the road to success.

“Maybe Food Is My Voice”

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy causes weakness and wasting of the muscles, often in the hips and legs, so trips and falls come with the territory. But prior to naming his pie, Zureikat, who was just 38, had been keeping quiet about his diagnosis. Then, one day, he got a rude awakening from a total stranger.

“I was walking my dog, Einstein, in my neighborhood, and my leg gave out, and I fell,” he remembers. “That happens, unfortunately—just randomly. This time I fell with someone walking behind me. She saw me fall and didn’t offer any help. I was on the ground and pulled myself up, and she just kept walking. That just triggered me. I didn’t want her help or anything, but I got sick of myself hiding it.”

At this point, Tung had decided to feature Zureikat’s pizza— which didn’t have a name yet—as a solo monthly special throughout November 2021 to raise funds for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). “That’s when I called it the Tripping Billy,” Zureikat says. “I wanted to speak out and use that pizza as a platform and share the story of my diagnosis and how I had to reinvent myself through cooking and food. I trip a lot, so that’s why I called it the Tripping Billy.”

“I love the Tripping Billy pizza,” Tung says. Even so, he adds, “I was a little hesitant about the name at first, worried that it was too on the head. But Billy wanted to name it that and was fine with poking fun at himself, so we went forward with it.”

After all, an extraordinary pizza deserves a catchy name. “The flavors and the textures of the corn, the shishito peppers, etc., really make it a great pizza, not to mention the vibrant colors,” Tung notes.

Paulie Gee’s sold 148 Tripping Billy pizzas that month, and its success inspired Zureikat to launch his own fundraising campaign for the MDA. “I realized I was starting to find my voice, and that my voice actually had some power,” he says. “I could make a difference. I realized that maybe food is my voice.”

Going On Tour

Zureikat introduced the Tripping Billy to other Chicago restaurateurs, and a series of collaborations—called the Tripping Billy Tour—took off in 2022. He adapted the recipe for different styles, showcasing it at a total of eight pizzerias, including Pizza Friendly Pizza (Sicilian-style), Crust Fund Pizza (tavern-style) and Millie’s Pizza in the Pan (pan-style). He has also developed other Tripping Billy items, including a breakfast sandwich for Spinning J, a sub sandwich for JP Graziano’s and a burger for Goose Island Brewery.

He kicked off his 2023 tour in January at Zazas Pizzeria, lauded for its New York-style pies with a Neapolitan flair. The tour continues at Robert’s Pizza and Dough Co. in March, and plans are in the works for stops this year at Professor Pizza, Pizza Portofino, Bob’s Pizza, George’s Deep Dish and Paulie Gee’s Wicker Park. Every stop of the tour raises money for the MDA, with a tally of about $35,000 so far.

Zureikat’s restaurant partners reap the benefits, too, Tung says. “I think Billy is doing great things with his plan to focus on raising funds for charity through his culinary creations, all the while collaborating with local restaurants to help drive traffic and attention to these restaurants as well.”

Can Zureikat envision launching his own restaurant one day? Although he says his disability will make that difficult, he is now developing a tavern-style pop-up, called Tripping Billy’s Pizza, with Sugar Moon Bakery in Chicago’s Logan Square.“I’m going to be involved in food,” he says. “I have a lot of ideas, and I’m growing a following here.”

For Billy, the Tripping Billy pizza has been about reinventing himself while raising awareness for muscular dystrophy. “It’s changed my life completely. I went from an unknown home baker, and now [restaurateurs] are reaching out to me….I joke about it all the time: I traded in my jersey for an apron. My story is truly unique, and I want to inspire people to know that, regardless of your health, you can see what I’m doing and say, ‘You know what? I’m going through a tough time, but I can find something that brings me joy.’”

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

After hitting nine restaurants in 2022, the Tripping Billy Tour resumed in January at Zazas Pizzeria in Chicago.

Toppers Pizza offers multiple designs for its pizza boxes and uses them in rotation at the same time so that customers get something different each time they order.

TOPPERS PIZZA

THE BOX ROCKS

Chain pizzerias are getting creative when it comes to their most-used food containers—the humble pizza box—and independents should follow suit.

BY TRACY MORIN

Pizza boxes may perform as mere cardboard carriers for a pizzaiolo’s most prized creations, but today’s enterprising brands are using them for more than just holding pies. “Pizza boxes are a customer’s No. 1 touchpoint with your brand— everyone gets one!” says Mac Malchow, director of marketing for Toppers Pizza, based in Whitewater, Wisconsin, with 70-plus locations. “So make sure the messaging you have on there is a good representation of your brand and shows what differentiates you from your competition. Don’t be afraid to get fun with them—customers love a unique pizza box!”

Others believe a standout box is crucial in today’s deliverydominated landscape, since diners may be interacting very little with your business in-person. I truly believe the pizza box is an extension of the brand, and that’s become more important in [recent] years, as the number of guests eating outside of the restaurant increased with COVID-19,” notes Matt Mongoven, CEO and co-founder of the seven-location Smokin’ Oak Wood-Fired Pizza, based in St. Petersburg, Florida. “Our third-party delivery, curbside pickup and takeout jumped by 25% to 30%. Therefore, the pizza box is our main marketing vehicle for the guest, and we want it to reflect, as much as possible, the fun experience that guest would receive in-store.”

Here’s how four brands are using pizza boxes in outside-thebox ways.

Idea No. 1: Boxes as Brand Extension

Smokin’ Oak Wood-Fired Pizza

At Smokin’ Oak, pizza boxes perform multiple duties: by adding fun to mealtimes, drawing attention to upcoming promos and the in-store experience, and engaging customers through contests and social media. For example, fun slogans and themes populate the pizza boxes, like printing on the bottom that says, “Whoops, your pizza is upside-down!” with a smiley face. The brand’s website is also printed on the boxes, which are made from recycled materials, while stickers advertise upcoming pizzeria promotions, such as Valentine’s Day meal deals.

Guests also love the annual Pizza Box Art Contest, which Smokin’ Oak hosts every year in April. “We bring in blank boxes, then ask our guests to decorate them to represent Smokin’ Oak Wood-Fired Pizza,” Mongoven says. “We give our guests a week to decorate their boxes, and then we put them on Facebook and give the public 24 hours to choose their favorite design. The winner wins free pizza for a month. The community and the teams at the restaurants always have a lot of fun with them.”

“The pizza box is our main marketing vehicle for the guest, and we want it to reflect, as much as possible, the fun experience that guest would receive in-store.”

— Matt Mongoven, Smokin’ Oak Wood-Fired Pizza

Quirky taglines are one part of the pizza box approach at the sevenlocation Smokin’ Oak Wood-Fired Pizza.

SMOKIN’ OAK WOOD-FIRED PIZZA

Idea No. 2: Sustainable COVID-Era Care Packages

Oath Pizza

During the pandemic, Oath Pizza pivoted to create new revenue streams and launched Oath Craft Pizza Care Packages, now called Pizza Party Packs and sold on Goldbelly. “We ship our premade signature craft pizzas to households and businesses all over the country—it’s like a meal kit, without the prep or the mess for a crazy-easy pizza night,” says Merissa Zaltzberg, manager, brand and production, for Boston-based Oath Pizza, with 30 locations. “We had never created something like this, but we knew it was essential to make our messaging stand out and make the design aesthetically pleasing to ignite social sharing. The other important part was to ensure the box would hold up while shipping so customers could easily reuse or recycle it.”

Thus, Oath also installed in the boxes a completely compostable liner, made by Green Cell Foam, that melts under water in the sink (versus Styrofoam, which never degrades). “It’s always a win for us if it fuels our vision to use the popularity of pizza to make a lasting, positive impact on the earth,” Zaltzberg says.

In addition, because Oath’s signature personal pizza is a unique 11”, the company sought out packaging that fit perfectly. “We created a proprietary box by taking an inch off the height, width and depth of a generic 12” pizza box, which allowed us to use less overall material and reduced our costs,” Zaltzberg adds. “And with a perforated edge, it’s easy to tear off the top and keep out the parts of the pizza box that are no longer recyclable from any pizza residue. We created a smaller pizza box in the same way, which packages other offerings, like half personal pizzas, kids pizzas and breadsticks. The product-to-packaging ratio is always purposeful, and the packaging is utilized across as many products as possible to cut down on waste.”

QR CODES CHEAT SHEET

QR codes made a big comeback in the pandemic, and they can also be used on pizza boxes to encourage customers to interact further with your business.

“Customers can scan QR codes to look at recipes, watch videos (like a message from the founder or showing how ingredients are sourced), view recycling instructions or leave reviews online,” explains Jon Stern, co-founder of Ringpin in San Diego, which has worked with Toronto-based Pizza Nova to engage with customers using QR codes.

“Then the pizzeria gets all of the customer engagement analytics as well. What’s nice is that you can print large quantities of the boxes, but the QR codes are dynamic, so you can change what people see when they scan over time, and you can test different experiences and offers.”

Stern offers these top tips for using QR codes on pizza boxes:

• Make them effective by putting a call to action next to the code. It should be at least as large as the QR and give the customer a good reason or incentive to scan.

• White-label the URL so customers know it’s going to a trusted website versus some random link shortener.

• Avoid printing codes that don’t have a strong contrast against what they are printed on—make sure they stand out!

Boston-based Oath Pizza embraces an environmentally friendly approach for boxes used for takeout as well as its nationwide-shipped Pizza Care Packages.

OATH PIZZA

Idea No. 3: Tantalizing Tie-Ins

Mountain Mike’s Pizza

Boxes at the nearly 270-location Mountain Mike’s Pizza, headquartered in Newport Beach, California, are used as vehicles to engage with guests via fun, seasonally appropriate tie-ins. For example, when Valentine’s Day approaches, the brand sends along its heart-shaped pizzas in “love-themed” boxes, while football season finds the boxes decked out with game-day designs proclaiming the brand’s status as the official pizza of the San Francisco 49ers.

“One of our most important guest-facing assets are our branded pizza boxes— they’re critical to continuing the story of our brand, no matter how the guest first connects with us (social media, website, TV, app, etc.),” notes Rosemary Doody, director of marketing at Mountain Mike’s Pizza. “Our pizza boxes carry not only our most treasured items—our pizzas—but also help create an important emotional connection with our guests. When we, as a brand, can engage with guests over events like 49ers football or our beloved heart-shaped pizza campaign, we’re able to contribute to an experience that’s memorable and meaningful.”

The brand notes an uptick in engagement across social media each time its 49ers pizza boxes are used, Doody says. “Likewise for heart-shaped pizza,” Doody adds. “Our guests share the love throughout the full month of February every time we run this campaign.” The takeaway: Comb your calendar for the most important days in your community, and design boxes around those events!

“Our pizza boxes carry not only our most treasured items—our pizzas—but also help create an important emotional connection with our guests.”

— Rosemary Doody, Mountain Mike’s Pizza

MOUNTAIN MIKE’S PIZZA

out so well that Toppers recently won Best in Show at the St. Louis Regional American Advertising Federation Awards. Furthermore, the company has designed its boxes to be more sustainable and save costs—reducing the amount of cardboard in its boxes in recent years by 20%. “They’re measured down to the centimeter on what we need to keep our products hot and fresh while being responsible to the environment and franchisees’ pocketbooks,” Malchow says.

The boxes are designed to benefit the brand in other ways, too. “We’ve incorporated QR codes for easy-access applications for hiring, URLs for our franchising website, and even shortcode SMS numbers to join our e-clubs quickly,” Malchow adds. “People are eating and reading, so why not give them easy access and exposure to other parts of the company?”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor and the editor of PizzaVegan.com.

“[Our boxes are] measured down to the centimeter on what we need to keep our products hot and fresh while being responsible to the environment and franchisees’ pocketbooks.”

— Mac Malchow, Toppers Pizza

BEST IN SHOW: Food On Demand 2023

In time for the 2023 Food On Demand Conference, PMQ publisher Steve Green reviews some impressive high-tech products from last year’s event.

BY STEVE GREEN

I went to my first Food On Demand Conference last year and quickly learned that it’s actually a pizza/restaurant technology conference and exhibition. Nearly all of the top restaurant technology companies were there. The event featured three days of well-moderated discussions and an exhibit hall with more restaurant technology than any show I’ve seen in our industry. Here are some examples of the products, services and knowledge you’ll find at the next Food On Demand event, taking place May 3 through 5 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.

ZOOMO ELECTRIC BIKES

Zoomo designs and manufactures e-bikes specifically for delivery restaurants with safety, durability and efficiency in mind. They supply large companies such as DoorDash and Uber Eats as well as full-time and part-time couriers.

RIDEZOOMO.COM

SOUNDHOUND VOICE AI

Ben Bellenttini of SoundHound explained how restaurants are using voice AI in several ways to impress and keep their customers.

SOUNDHOUND.COM

KWALI

According to CEO Emmanuel Massenez, Kwali uses a pizza cam and AI to document and score every pizza that is made in a restaurant. And that’s just the beginning.

KWALI.AI

GEORGIA PACIFIC

Jake Schmutzler demonstrated a new product that seals beverage cups and makes them unspillable!

GPPRO.COM

SEEKING A SLICE OF

Best of luck to the U.S. Pizza Team (USPT) as they battle for gold at the World Pizza Championship on April 18 to 20!

A competing squad of 14 USPT members will journey to Parma, Italy, to face off against 800 pizzaioli from over 30 countries in the home of Parmesan and prosciutto. USPT members will compete in over 30 categories from Classica to Pizza in Teglia (pan), Pizza in Pala (pizza on the peel), Pizza Senza Glutine (gluten-free), and Pizza a Due, an event that sees two pizzaioli partner to build one masterpiece for the judges.

The USPT will also vie for gold in pizza acrobatics, with members competing in Largest Dough Stretch and the visually stunning Freestyle Acrobatics.

Stay tuned to the USPT Facebook page for live updates and posts throughout the week of April 17 and cheer on your favorite U.S. Pizza Team member. #PizzaGold

The USPT’s journey to glory is made possible by the generosity of its sponsors. With their understanding of the industry and their passion for pizza and the USPT, they are integral in creating events throughout the year, like the Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup. Events like these help the USPT find the best culinary and acrobatic pizza talent to represent the team, its sponsors and the United States in international competitions.

Thank you, USPT sponsors, from the entire United States Pizza Team!

Largest

Lars Smith, State of Mind Public House & Pizzeria, Los Altos, CA: Classica

Pizza in Teglia Pizza in Pala

Cristina Aceves Smith, State of Mind Public House & Pizzeria, Los Altos, CA: Classica Pizza in Pala

Leah Scurto, PIZZALEAH, Windsor, CA: Classica Pizza in Pala

Drew French, Your Pie, Athens, GA: Classica

Dave Sommers, Mad Mushroom, West Lafayette, IN: Classica

Dough Stretch

Sean Dempsey, Dempsey’s Brewery Pub & Restaurant, Watertown, SD: Classica Pizza in Teglia

OF GLORY IN ITALY

For more information about the U.S. Pizza Team, its members and sponsors, visit uspizzateam.com.

Pizza

Pizza

Pizza a Due (with

Pizza in Teglia

Pizza a Due (with Rago)

Pizza

Pizza

Freestyle Acrobatics

Pizza a Due (with

Freestyle Acrobatics

Pizza a Due (with Carney)

Pizza in

Lenny Rago, Panino’s Pizzeria, Chicago, IL: Classica

in Teglia

Senza Glutine

LaMarca)

Wilhelm Rodriguez, Papa’s Pizza, Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico

a Due (with Flores)

Jose Flores, Crust Lover’s Pizza, Sanford, FL: Classica

a Due (with Rodriguez)

Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza, Cleveland, OH: Classica

McKenna Carney, The Nona Slice House, Safety Harbor, FL: Classica

Culliton)

Jamie Culliton, The Nona Slice House, Safety Harbor, FL: Pizza in Teglia

Vitangelo Recchia, Bella Napoli Pizzeria & Restaurant, Port Charlotte, FL: Classica

Teglia

Janet Vivian Zapata, 550 Pizzeria, Laredo, TX: Classica

Grow Your Pizza Shop With Slice’s Advanced Marketing Services and Online Brand Management

Slice empowers 19,000-plus independent pizzerias across all 50 states, forming the nation’s largest pizza network—more than double the U.S. footprint of Domino’s.

What are the three biggest advantages pizzeria operators get by joining Slice? Slice believes local pizzerias deserve all the advantages of big chains without compromising their independence.

1. More regulars: Grow a loyal customer base without lifting a finger through Slice’s Advanced Marketing Services, pizzeria marketplace and Online Brand Management.

2. Easier days: Simplify operations and gain efficiency with Slice’s customized websites, online ordering and pizzeria POS system.

3. Lower costs: As a member of the nation’s largest network of independent pizzerias, you will get access to discounted supplies and printers as well as industry-low payment rates.

Do pizza orders through Slice tend to average higher? And is this a way to attract repeat customers? Slice’s online ordering system drives orders two times larger than the phone and saves your staff time. Plus, unlike other ordering platforms, Slice’s targeted marketing and built-in rewards program are designed to send customers back to their go-to pizza shop. Slice’s platform results in 50% more repeat orders.

To get PMQ’s readers started, Slice offers 30 days with no fees on orders for new pizza shops. Use the code PMQ to redeem this offer, which is valid through March 2023.

What’s new at Slice? Slice is constantly innovating to give independent shops access to the same tools that power the big pizza chains. Their latest solutions include Advanced Marketing Services and Online Brand Management. Here’s what you need to know:

Advanced Marketing Services

The best marketing isn’t just cost-effective, it’s time-effective. With Advanced Marketing Services, Slice’s team handles everything. Their custom offerings include:

• Digital advertising

• Direct mail campaigns

• Promotional flyers

• Box stickers

Online Brand Management

Slice’s expert team helps pizzerias build trust, engage customers and drive orders through their search listings. By partnering with the experts at Slice, you can:

• Ensure accurate and consistent information across your online listings

• Rank higher on Google and Bing search results

• Enable ordering right from your Google listing

• Relax knowing that customer reviews are responded to professionally and promptly

For more information about Slice and its services, visit slicelife.com/owners/get-started.

THE INDUSTRY’S MOST INFLUENTIAL EVENT

With thousands of operators and equipment dealers under one roof, the 2023 National Restaurant Association Show offers a competitive edge no other industry event can match.

Don’t miss this opportunity to develop or strengthen strategic partnerships while gaining an unrivaled perspective on the next generation of pizza products and hot trends to hit the marketplace.

If it’s next in foodservice, it’s here.

REGISTER NOW

nationalrestaurantshow.com

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT SPONSORED CONTENT

GRANDE FUMELLA

Grande Fumella is a lightly smoked, part-skim mozzarella that complements and enhances the flavor of other ingredients and offers excellent melt, stretch and reheat. Pre-shredded to save time and labor, it’s all-natural, with no preservatives, fillers or artificial ingredients, and naturally smoked with cherry and hickory wood. Four in five diners prefer a lighter smoke intensity, making Fumella a surefire hit for new menu ideas.

GRANDECHEESE.COM

Precision Impingement technology uses hot air for a fast, consistent cook. Cook up to eighty 12” pizzas per hour! The Ovention Conveyor Oven is the most technologically elegant and operator-friendly conveyor on the market today. The C1600HD is the simple, smart and right fit for operators looking for a high-throughput and reliable conveyor oven.

OVENTIONOVENS.COM

PIZZACLOUD

LLOYDPANS

Customers love Detroit-style pizza, and LloydPans has the tools. Their Detroit Pizza Pans are metal utensilsafe, durable for commercial baking, need no seasoning, will not rust, and are stick-resistant. Smart pizza makers choose LloydPans’ pans because they consistently bake as expected, are easy to maintain and easy to clean. They’re the proven commercial standard in the pizza industry and made in the USA.

800-748-6251, LLOYDPANS.COM

MIKE’S HOT HONEY

YOU HAVE AN INTERESTING PRODUCT OR SERVICE AND WANT TO REACH

IF

PIZZA

Simple, fortified version of our conveyor line for reliable operation.

 WATERPROOF

 ANTIMICROBIAL TECHNOLOGY

 AVAILABLE IN A VARIETY OF SHAPES & SIZES

VISIT US AT Booth 917

BOOSTLY

Boostly puts text message marketing and feedback on autopilot for pizzerias. They work seamlessly with every POS provider and generate thousands of dollars in extra revenue per month without you lifting a finger. Additionally, Boostly tracks your returns so you know exactly how much revenue is generated for every dollar you spend. There are no contracts, setup fees or monthly fees.

FOR A FREE DEMO, VISIT BOOSTLY.COM. Watch the video at pmq.com/boostly.

MENUVATIVE

The challenges of menu management during the pandemic era erased any doubts about the inadequacies of paper menus. Sanitation, supply chain disruptions and constant price changes forced many restaurateurs to abandon them entirely and opt for a digital solution. Having pioneered the digital menu movement more than 10 years ago, Menuvative claims the title of “Best Menu Solution” for most full-service restaurants.

IMENUTECH.COM

Watch the video at pmq.com/menuvative.

NEW! MINI DOUGH BOXES

cramped workspaces with unmatched strength and durability.

» Fiberglass strength and durability outlasts plastic

» Optimal dough protection and safe storage

» Ideal for storing, proofing and cooling

» Secure stacking on standard MFG dough boxes

» Won’t bend, dent or sag Be

DOUGH

DOUGH DIVIDERS/ROUNDERS, PRESSES/ROLLERS

• Dough Trays Standard & Artisan Sizes – extremely durable and airtight. Outlasts all other Plastic & Fiberglass Dough Trays!

• Dough Tray Covers – designed to fit.

-- Standard & Artisan Sizes – extremely durable and airtight. engineered to fit.

• Dough Scrapers – two ergonomic designs.

• Dough Tray Dollies – heavy duty. The preferred dough tray of pizza operators in the US and Abroad for over 30 years! Order by phone or online.

DOUGH DIVIDERS/ROUNDERS, PRESSES/ROLLERS

OPTIMAL DOUGH PROTECTION

» Outlasts plastic trays

» Won’t bend or dent

Call 908-276-8484 www.doughmate.com

908-276-8484.............. www.doughmate.com

FOOD DISTRIBUTORS

BUCCILLI’S PIZZA

BY TRACY MORIN

In 1973, husband and wife Pat and Mary Lee Buccilli opened Buccilli’s Pizza in a rented building at the south end of Clare, Michigan. The family had been active with pizza restaurants in the Detroit area, but Pat decided to give up his factory job, head north and create his own. “They sold their house and moved up here with almost nothing but the $1,500 they started with,” recounts Shari Buccilli, who now owns the Clare location with her husband, Marc, son of Pat and Mary Lee. “There was already an established pizzeria here, and in a tiny town at that time, how often do people go out to eat? There were some days when they sold one pizza. But with a lot of perseverance, it started catching on.”

Eventually, the pizzeria grew, taking many twists and turns through family ties: In the late ’70s, Marc’s uncle Lou started a Buccilli’s that’s now relocated and thriving in Houghton Lake, and Aunt Nancy added the West Branch outpost. In 2008, Marc and Shari purchased the Clare original—which had moved from the south to north end of town in the early ’80s and expanded further in 1997—from Mary Lee. (In 1988, Pat had sold the Clare and Farwell locations to Mary Lee and opened another Buccilli’s Pizza in Grayling, where he worked until passing away in 1996.) Also in 1988, Andrea Buccilli purchased the Farwell pizzeria. “It’s truly a family

business,” Shari says. “All of the kids helped out before they got to high school, even if they were just making boxes on a busy Friday night. Mary used to pay them a penny a box.”

Offering carryout, delivery and dine-in to a town of just over 3,000, Buccilli’s celebrates 50 years in 2023 with a legacy of giving back to the community, a hands-on approach to business ownership, and food that remains top-quality despite rising costs. “We’re blessed with the staff we have right now—staff is really important—and the customers are very much like family, too,” Shari says. “We’ve had one guy coming in for 40 years. That means a lot. With the quality of food we offer, how involved we stay in the community, great service to every customer who comes in, and a well-maintained facility, people come back. It’s hard work, but I’m proud of the family and the family name. People may grow up here and move away, but when they visit again, this is the first place they come.”

Their first store sometimes sold just one pizza a day. Fifty years later, the Buccilli family tree has branched out around northern Michigan through five thriving locations.

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor and the editor of PizzaVegan.com.

(Clockwise from top left) Buccilli’s moved its location to the north end of Clare, Michigan, in the early ’80s; Mary Lee and her niece hang out at the pizzeria in 1983; Buccilli’s advertises to passersby; Mike, son of Pat and Mary Lee, hangs at the original south-end location in the 1970s; Pat and Mary Lee founded the first Buccilli’s; the pizzeria’s dine-in area has expanded over the years.

SAVE the DATE!

demonstrations.

while celebrating

pizza community in easy-to-reach Orlando, Florida!

“The Pizza Tomorrow Summit was a blast. It was a perfect show to learn from, grow at and develop ideas and friendships through….[It was] an enlightening experience all around. I can’t wait for next year.”

Alex Koons, owner of Hot Tongue Pizza

“This was the most direct conversational show with vendors that I have seen in a long time.”

Billy Manzo, owner of Federal Hill Pizza

72%

of Attendees come to

THE GOLDEN RULE

HERE’S HOW YOUR MENU LOOKS BETTER WITH PEARLS

Jane Grote Abell has turned agape capitalism into a labor of love at Donatos. PAGE

YOUR MENU LOOKS GOOD IN PEARLS

Another Reason To Know Caputo® Cheese

We o er a variety of cheeses for restaurants across the country, but we think almost any menu looks good in pearls. Our fresh mozzarella pearls upscale any item from pizza to pasta, sandwiches to salads. Available in a variety of sizes, there’s a pearl awaiting your next great menu creation.