PMQ Pizza Magazine—October 2019

PIZZA MAGAZINE T H E W O R L D ' S A U T H O R I T Y O N P I Z Z A | P M Q . C O M | P I Z Z AT V. C O M

A TEAM

OCTOBER 2019

THE

craft

Focused on kids and sports, Michael Androw’s E&D Pizza Co. is in a league of its own.

the

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Caputo offers award-winning Italian artisan cheeses to add delicious distinction to any menu.

Discover how we craft distinction at www.caputocheese.com

©2019. All rights reserved. Caputo.

BUFFALO-STYLE PIZZA 30

HOT SAUCE, HOT STUFF 44

MOBILE CATERING 52

the skill To reach an intended outcome, the journey there has to be flawless.

Tradition and Craftsmanship. At Caputo, we partner closely with you to understand your specific cheese needs. We then offer deliciously unique ideas and insights to build your business. Finally, backed by years of cheese-making experience, our craftsmen create the perfect customized solution to help you offer exceptional eating experiences to your customers.

Discover our distinctive difference; call 708-450-0074.

Š2019. All rights reserved.

CaputoCheese.com

PIZZA MAGAZINE T H E W O R L D ' S A U T H O R I T Y O N P I Z Z A | P M Q . C O M | P I Z Z AT V. C O M

A TEAM

OCTOBER 2019

THE

Focused on kids and sports, Michael Androw’s E&D Pizza Co. is in a league of its own.

PAGE 36

BUFFALO-STYLE PIZZA 30

HOT SAUCES 44

MOBILE CATERING 52

MY FATHER USED TO SAY MAKE IT SIMPLE. MAKE IT GREAT. MAKE IT YOURS. THAT’S HOW YOU MAKE IT.

What’s your declaration of independence?

Grande is championing operators who have an independent spirit and shared passion for excellence. By providing the finest all natural, authentic Italian cheeses, along with an unwavering commitment to quality, we’ll continue to advocate for independents and their love of the craft.

grandecheese.com 1-800-8-GRANDE © 2019 Grande Cheese Company

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FEATURED STORY FRESH BROTHERS’ IMPOSSIBLE DAY CELEBRATES MEAT SUBSTITUTE For Scott Goldberg, co-founder and executive chef of Los Angelesbased Fresh Brothers, finding a tasty meat substitute is no longer a mission impossible, thanks to Impossible Meat. Plant-based meats are becoming a staple in restaurants from quick-serve eateries to fine-dining establishments, and Goldberg says the trend “isn’t going anywhere.” In an exclusive interview with PMQ’s Callie Daniels Bryant, he called Impossible Meat “a game-changer” that’s popular with “vegans, vegetarians and especially our meat eaters.”

P M Q . C O M /IM P O S S IB L E D AY

ALSO ON PMQ.COM

DOMINO’S BUILDS RESEARCH FACILITY FOR TECH DEVELOPERS

8 EASY WAYS TO MAKE SOCIAL MEDIA WORK FOR YOU

Domino’s looks more and more like Google or Apple every day.

Its new Innovation Garage, which opened in August, is a huge research and testing space for cutting-edge technologies like self-driving vehicles and pizza-delivery robots.

With platforms like Facebook and Instagram, pizzeria owners have the opportunity to create an online personality, and no marketing degree is required to do it. Just keep these expert tips in mind.

PMQ.COM/SOCIALMEDIATIPS

PMQ.COM/INNOVATIONGARAGE

MOD PIZZA PARTNERS WITH DOORDASH FOR DELIVERY Proving the growing popularity of third-party delivery platforms, MOD Pizza, the country’s fastestgrowing restaurant chain in 2018, has chosen DoorDash as its exclusive delivery partner for 375 participating locations.

STUDY SHOWS PHONE ETIQUETTE STILL MATTERS FOR PIZZERIAS Digital ordering gets all the hype, but a recent study found nearly 1/3 of customers surveyed phone in their orders. That means pizzerias must still focus on customer service elements like phone etiquette.

PMQ.COM/MODDOORDASH PMQ.COM/PHONEETIQUETTE

6 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

NEW LOOK SAME AUTHENTIC TASTE At Bellissimo,® we know what it takes to make a menu – and a business – work.

We’ve got all the ingredients that make Italian, Italian. And all the ingredients you need to make every slice, pasta bowl and red sauce really, really good. It’s why we’re called Bellissimo. It means beautiful. And it is. Because when you get just what you need, how you need it... it’s a beautiful thing.

® Bellissimo Foods Company 2019

Look for our new packaging this fall | Bellissimo.com

IN THIS ISSUE

OCTOBER FEATURES

36

The A Team

ON COVTHE ER

E&D Pizza Company focuses on kids to win hearts, minds and stomachs in pizza-crazy Connecticut. (Cover photo by Winter Caplanson)

44

30

Hot Sauces

Buffalo-Style Pizza

58 The Heat is Off

64 Lucky Dogs 8 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

70 America’s Best-Looking Pizzas

IN THIS ISSUE A Publication of PMQ, Inc. 662-234-5481 Volume 23, Issue 8 October 2019 ISSN 1937-5263

OCTOBER DEPARTMENTS

PUBLISHER Steve Green, sg@pmq.com ext. 123 CO-PUBLISHER Linda Green, linda.pmq@gmail com ext. 121 EDITOR IN CHIEF Rick Hynum, rick@pmq.com ext. 130

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In Lehmann’s Terms: How to Keep Your Dough Balls in Tip-Top Shape

When individual dough balls grow together into one huge lump, it’s time to make better use of your thermometer.

ART DIRECTOR Eric Summers, eric@pmq.com ext. 134 SENIOR COPY EDITOR Tracy Morin, tracy@pmq.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Callie Daniels Bryant, callie@pmq.com CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Bill DeJournett FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER David Fischer, david@pmq.com

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The Think Tank: What Are the Best Offers for a Postcard Mailer?

Think Tankers swap tips for creating a discount or freebie promo that customers really want.

DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS/ SOCIAL MEDIA Heather Cray, heather@pmq.com ext. 137 DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH Blake Harris, blake@pmq.com ext. 136 CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER Shawn Brown, shawn@pmq.com TEST CHEF/USPT COORDINATOR Brian Hernandez, brian@pmq.com ext. 129 ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Linda Green, linda.pmq@gmail com ext. 121

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Tips From the Team: Around the World With Ali Haider

From the Bombay Tikki Masala to the Istanbul, there’s a story behind every pizza at 786°.

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Tom Boyles, tom@pmq.com ext. 122 ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Chris Green, chris@pmq.com ext. 125 SALES ASSISTANT Brandy Pinion, brandy@pmq.com ext. 127 PMQ INTERNATIONAL PMQ CHINA Yvonne Liu, yvonne@pmq.com PMQ RUSSIA Vladimir Davydov, vladimir@pmq.com

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Recipe of the Month: Buffalo Chicken Lasagna Jazz up your pizzeria’s menu with this flavorful, cheese-laden lasagna dish featuring mozzarella and ricotta from Grande Cheese.

IN EVERY ISSUE 6 Online @ PMQ 16 Moneymakers 20 Eyes on the Chains

PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE 605 Edison St. • Oxford, MS 38655 662.234.5481 • 662.234.0665 Fax

PMQ Pizza Magazine (ISSN #1937-5263) is published 10 times per year.

76 SmartMarket 80 Product Spotlight 82 The Pizza Exchange

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Cost of U.S. subscription is $25 per year. International $35.

Periodical postage pricing paid at Oxford, MS. Additional mailing offices at Bolingbrook, IL. Postmaster: Send address changes to: PMQ Pizza Magazine, PO Box 2015, Langhorne, PA 19047.

Opinions expressed by the editors and contributing writers are strictly their own, and are not necessarily those of the advertisers. All rights reserved. No portion of PMQ may be reproduced in whole or part without written consent.

IN LEHMANN’S TERMS

HOW TO KEEP YOUR DOUGH BALLS IN TIP-TOP SHAPE When individual dough balls grow together into one huge lump, it’s time to make better use of your thermometer.

BY TOM LEHMANN

Q A

We sometimes find our dough balls have lost their shape and grown together in the dough box. Why does this happen?

We often don’t fully appreciate the effect of temperature on yeast-leavened dough systems. Temperature truly drives fermentation. In your case, I assume great care was taken to control all other aspects of dough mixing and dough management, so there must be another problem. And that problem is temperature. In addition to measuring the temperature of our water, we should also measure the temperature of the finished (mixed) dough. After all, why are we measuring the water temperature? To make sure we achieve the desired finished dough temperature. Thus, we also need to verify that we are consistently achieving that finished dough temperature.

Variations in the actual bowl temperature can be caused by exposure to heat in the room or by the mixing of multiple doughs back-to-back. Both can and will impact the finished dough temperature. This problem often can be traced back to a period when high sales were anticipated and multiple doughs were mixed back-to-back while always using the same dough water temperature. The result: The finished dough temperature kept creeping up higher and higher with each new dough. The warmer doughs ended up fermenting faster, which causes the dough balls to grow together.

Another often-overlooked issue is the temperature of the dough balls at the time that the boxes of dough are down-

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stacked and sealed for the bulk of the cold-fermentation period. While many operators leave their dough boxes cross-stacked for a fixed period of time before downstacking, they forget that dough balls of different weights will need to be cross-stacked for different lengths of time.

Specifically, the heavier the dough ball, the longer it will need to be cross-stacked.

How do you know when your dough boxes have been cross-stacked for a sufficient amount of time? If you’re thinking it comes down to temperature, you’re thinking right. Using a stem-type thermometer, insert it into a dough ball and measure its temperature. If you plan to hold the dough balls in the cooler for no longer than 24 to 36 hours, 55°F is a good temperature to aim for. However, if you plan to hold them for 48 hours or more, it’s best to target a temperature of 50°F before down-stacking the boxes. These temperatures apply whether you are using a walk-in or a reach-in cooler.

Tom Lehmann was the longtime director of bakery assistance for the American Institute of Baking (AIB) and is now a pizza industry consultant.

T H E DOU GH DOCT OR@H OT MAIL .COM

5-year Parts & Labor Warranty

“We are most concerned about what comes out of the end of the oven�

T H E T H I N K TA N K

WHAT ARE THE BEST OFFERS FOR A POSTCARD MAILER? Think Tankers swap tips for creating a discount or freebie promo that customers really want. kjs421: I’m thinking about doing an Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) postcard as a trial. Any advice on which offers will get a customer to bite? Should the offer have an expiration date?

Mike: We did well by offering two big coupons on a single postcard: $1 off any medium pizza and $2 off any large or extra-large pizza. It’s nice and simple, and if I get one of those coupons returned a few years from now, I can still accept it.

mike450r: I got my best response by simply mailing out a menu.

I’m currently in a direct mail program, and my sales have probably gone up by 50% compared to last year. I should add that these results may not be typical, because my restaurant is in an out-of-the-way location, and we had never done any kind of mailer before. As for a postcard, I would give away a high-value, low-cost item. To me, a giveaway is better than discounting because you are not lowering the value of your overall product or creating expectations of future discounts. Of course, I have some discounted coupons and combo deals, but my best overall performer has been the offer of a free stromboli with any order totaling more than $25. My cost is right around $2, but the price on my menu is $9.50, and I present the offer as a $9.50 value.

bodegahwy: For years, we ran with a combination of offers that

we were happy to take anytime. These were add-ons, offers to drive multiple-pie orders, and limited-time offers trying to crack the door on new customers and drive orders to our online system. Our postcard would have four offers, such as: • • • •

Free pint of ice cream with order of 16” pie with at least one topping (long expiration time) $5 off any order with the purchase of two or more 16” pies (long expiration time) Free order of 10 chicken wings with 16” pie with at least three toppings—online only with promo code $8 off any order with two or more 16” pies—online only with promo code (short expiration time)

Get answers to your most perplexing problems and swap tips and ideas with the experts in PMQ’s Think Tank, the pizza industry’s oldest and most popular online forum. Register for free at thinktank.pmq.com. (Member posts have been edited here for clarity.)

T H I N K TAN K.P MQ .C O M

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MONEYMAKERS Attracting topranked competitive eater Joey Chestnut (left) helped make Fat Boy’s inaugural pizza eating contest a success.

FED UP AT FAT BOY’S Eating your way through New Orleans got tougher this year when former hometown hoops star Gabe Corchiani opened Fat Boy’s Pizza in Metarie, Louisiana. His shop’s massive, two-foot slices created buzz around the food-obsessed city from the start, so a Major League eating competition seemed inevitable. The inaugural Fat Boy’s Pizza Eating Championship, held in August, drew some of the sport’s best-known competitors, including top-ranked Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, No. 2 Geoffrey Esper, No. 4 Darren Breeden and No. 9 Adrian Morgan. Chestnut cemented his No. 1 status by wolfing down six and a half slices, followed in second place

by Esper, who managed six. The event netted headlines and TV coverage across the region—not too shabby for a pizza shop that only opened in late February.

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DISNEY DAYS IN DIAMONDVILLE Rosie’s Pizzeria and Bar made going back to school a little more bearable for kids in Diamondville, Wyoming, with its Disney Days promotion in September. Anyone who showed up wearing Disney-themed attire or dressed as a Disney character on Wednesday evenings received a 5% discount and a chance to win a $50 family-dinner package. The pizza shop also launched Karaoke Nights on Thursdays with another familyfriendly special: a medium or large one-topping pizza with breadsticks, wings and sodas for $31.99 or $37.99, respectively.

Kids who dressed up like Disney characters earned discounts on pies for the entire family at Rosie’s Pizzeria and Bar.

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MONEYMAKERS

A TRULY SPECIAL PIZZA SPECIAL MOD Pizza proved it’s a big chain with an even bigger heart with its seasonal pizza, the Jeffrey. One of several new menu items for fall 2019, it features an olive oil base, fresh roasted apple slices, Canadian bacon, arugula, shredded mozzarella, crumbled Gorgonzola, and a swirl of sweet balsamic fig glaze. But Jeffrey is more than a name for a pie. MOD Pizza, the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country in 2018, focuses on impact hiring and a purpose-driven culture that welcomes people who otherwise struggle to find jobs. One of those employees, a young man named Jeffrey, inspired this autumn-themed specialty pizza, according to MOD Pizza culinary manager Brian Figler.

“Jeffrey was one of our first MOD Squad members with IDD (Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities), and over his six years with us, he has become a shining example of our culture of inclusivity and an amazing contributor to the MOD experience—bringing lots of sweetness and a little spice every day,” Figler says.

Jeffrey, a beloved longtime MOD Pizza employee, inspired the chain’s latest seasonal specialty pizza.

QUICK TIP 2

TELL YOUR (INSTAGRAM) STORY Use swipe-up Instagram Story ads to promote your daily specials or new menu items. A 10- or 15-second video showing a pizza coming out of the oven—or a cheese pull from a fresh-baked pie—will get your brand’s fans in the mood for your food!

THIS PIZZA IS “PURE, HOT PAIN” Raemie Cooley uses her pizza making superpowers for evil at Goodie House Pizza in Sullivan, Indiana, home of the recent Death Wish Pizza Challenge. The seething-hot pie bristles with fiery peppers embedded in the crust, including Carolina Reaper, Chocolate Bhutlah, Morgua Scorpion, and Habanero, along with crushed red pepper. The base sauce offers no relief—it’s made with a variety of super-hot sauces like Trouble in Trinidad and Dave’s Insanity Sauce. The cheese, meanwhile, simmers with ghost pepper, a painfully spicy pepper that leaves the diner gasping. “Even the names of the ingredients make some folks cringe,” Cooley says. “It’s so tasty at first bite; then about 15 seconds later, it’s pure, hot pain!” To win the contest, customers had to scarf down the whole pizza in 15 minutes. Fifteen contenders took the challenge, but only one succeeded, Cooley says, adding, “One of them since retired from the spice food game after encountering our evil pie.”

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Customers have to sign a waiver before taking the Death Wish Pizza Challenge at Goodie House Pizza.

MONEYMAKERS

&PIZZA LANDS SICK TRICK WITH PIZZA SKATEBOARD

BY CALLIE BRYANT DANIELS Pizza comes in many shapes—the triangle slice, the square Sicilian, and the round Neapolitan—but &pizza, headquartered in Washington, D.C., takes the cake with its oblong pies. The pies are so unique that a digital media company took notice and said, “Hey, that looks like a skateboard!”

MSCHF Internet Studios (motto: “We create Internet for the Internet”) reached out to &pizza, the cutting-edge pizza chain with roller-skating brand ambassadors, to collaborate on an unforgettable September promotion: encasing an actual pizza within a transparent skateboard that would be given away in an Instagram contest. “The board took a full month to build,” says Vanessa Rodriguez, head of brand at &pizza. “We went through a lot of trial and error to dry and preserve the pie perfectly before casting it in resin.” &pizza chose its most popular pie—the OG, featuring classic tomato sauce, mozzarella, olive oil and basil—for the project. The skateboard was one of a kind, never to be replicated by &pizza.

But placing an actual pizza in the body of a skateboard proved to be a lengthy and downright gross process, Rodriguez says. Even so, it was “worth the trouble to give someone the chance to ride around on their favorite pie.”

Customers who follow &pizza on Instagram had a chance to win the skateboard in a social-media giveaway. The rules were simple: Follow &pizza on Instagram, tag three friends in the comments section, and sit tight for the announcement on Wednesday, September 12.

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

19

EYE ON THE CHAINS

The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus and a friend

Jake Johnson of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and New Girl

K.J. Apa and Cole Sprouse of Riverdale

EVERYTHING’S ARCHIE AT PIZZA HUT LOUNGE Pizza Hut wants to be cool again—as in Comic-Con cool, which in bygone days wasn’t cool at all but is now super-duper-cool (which is a really cool way of saying “cool”… we think?). Stuck at No. 2 behind Domino’s, Pizza Hut has been playing catch-up this year by inserting itself into pop-culture moments and conversations, from snatching an NFL sponsorship deal away from Papa John’s to sending free pies to Jimmy Fallon and getting a shout-out in his monologue on The Tonight Show.

The Pizza Hut Lounge at Comic-Con, held July 18 to 21 in San Diego, was certainly a step in the right direction. It attracted celebrities like K.J. Apa and Cole Sprouse (a.k.a.

Archie and Jughead) of Riverdale, New Girl’s Jake Johnson, and The Walking Dead’s Norman Reedus for slices and highly Instagrammable pics. Meanwhile, the chain announced plans to close as many as 500 of its older dine-in locations and focus more on carryout and delivery—definitely an on-trend move made with millennials in mind. “We are leaning in to accelerate the transition of our Pizza Hut U.S. asset base to truly modern delivery/carryout assets,” Yum! Brands president/CEO David Gibbs told investors in an August 1 earnings call. “This will ultimately strengthen the Pizza Hut business in the U.S. and set it up for faster long-term growth.” And maybe Archie could deliver pies in his jalopy?

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Louriza Tronco and Sarah Grey of The Order

Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith (Jay and Silent Bob)

! p a g k 0 7 4 $ a Th a t ’s

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Major national chains

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EYE ON THE CHAINS

E-BIKES: HOW DOMINO’S ROLLS When you deliver pizza in high-traffic areas with limited parking, two wheels can be better than four. That’s why Domino’s franchisees now have the option to provide custom electric bicycles, or e-bikes, to their delivery staff. After testing the bikes at corporate-owned stores in Houston, Miami and New York, the locations saw improvements in overall delivery and service.

“They also experienced labor benefits, as the stores were able to hire from a wider pool of candidates, including those who might not have a car or driver’s license,” adds Domino’s executive Tom Curtis. The company will roll out hundreds of e-bikes at corporate-owned units in Miami, Salt Lake City, Baltimore and Houston later this year.

“E-bikes make a huge difference in my stores,” reports Greg Keller, a Domino’s franchisee in Seattle. “While delivery on a traditional bike solved many of our traffic and parking issues, the hills in Seattle were tough on even our best cyclists. E-bikes were a game changer for us…we have been able to save money, provide better service, increase hiring and maintain a happy workforce.”

E-bikes could speed up delivery for Domino’s while widening the pool of job candidates to include those who don’t have a car or a driver’s license.

MARCO’S CLOSING IN ON 1,000 STORES With stores in 35 states, Marco’s Pizza launched its first nationwide advertising campaign this year and expects to open its 1,000th store by the end of 2019. Tony Libardi, the company’s president, told Nation’s Restaurant News the company will focus on both corporate stores and multiunit franchisees, and Denver, Nashville and Virginia are markets of special interest. But one of his biggest challenges is retaining employees. “Whoever figures out how to best acquire and keep talent over the next decade will win the day,” Libardi said. “You have to be laser-focused on your team, creating opportunities for them to grow their own career and keeping them satisfied.”

Marco’s Pizza president Tony Libardi (left) and area representative Carlos Budet showed up for the opening of the chain’s 900th store last year in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

22 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

TIPS FROM THE TEAM

DANIEL LEE PEREA

AROUND THE WORLD WITH ALI HAIDER From the Bombay Tikki Masala to the Istanbul, there’s a story behind every pizza at 786°. BY BRIAN HERNANDEZ U.S. Pizza Team member Ali Haider, owner of 786° in Sun Valley, California, is a natural storyteller. Coming from a multicultural background, he has also learned to embrace the culinary traditions and flavors of many countries. He has taken the time to learn about them—about their history, where they come from, and why they’ve become so widely accepted in various cultures—and incorporate them into his own pizzas, each with its own compelling story. Customers, in turn, are telling tales about Haider nationwide, especially on Yelp. 786° had the highest Yelp rating of any restaurant in California in 2016 and was No. 17 nationwide in 2018. We asked Haider to clue us in on the secret of his cosmopolitan-inspired success.

Brian Hernandez: Your recipes are very exotic, and each is accompanied by a story. How do you come up with your recipes?

Ali Haider: I try to study the market. But I am blessed to have traveled all over the world. And I truly believe the flavors are beautiful everywhere—the sky’s the limit. So why just stick to one style? Why not pick up different flavors and present your pizza like a painting? The first level of thinking is, “What kind of clientele am I attracting?” Next, you ask, “What can I do to attract them even more?” I get a lot of tourists, so I have to cater to a wide variety of palates. I’m currently getting a lot of Korean

tourists. So I try to present them something from their culinary world and get a compliment out of it.

BH: Is the “story” of the pie important?

AH: I think it is important. As an example, anyone can make a pepperoni pizza. There are a lot of new types out there—the cup-and-chars and so on—but if they can do it well, why would anyone want mine? I feel that putting a great story behind a pizza helps out. It gives your pie a history. Storytelling helps me connect with people and the people to connect with their food. It helps them really fall in love with it. And when they are finished dining, they have something they can take back and share with their family and friends. So, this way, even though they are not here anymore, they are still thinking about us.

BH: How hard is it to sell pies like the Bombay Tikki Masala, the Habibi and the Istanbul to the average diner?

AH: It’s not very hard. The pies are not customizable in my shop. I am giving you the flavors of this particular region as they should be presented. If you don’t like a topping, then we have other pies without that ingredient. But please trust me that this will be the flavor of the region as it should be presented. I recreate the flavors of the street foods in the various countries that inspire

24 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

For his pizzas, Haider recreates the flavors of street foods in various countries around the world.

DANIEL LEE PEREA

— ALI HAIDER, 786˚ my pies. So, if you love this pie, then move to Turkey or India, and the flavors will be the same. It’s about paying respect to the flavors of the country. Once you explain it that way, it’s not a hard sell.

BH: How do you entice those customers who are still reluctant to try something new?

AH: At my restaurant, if you are a first-time customer, we will let you try our pies first before paying. I want to get you hooked.

Your first pie is free, but once you love it, then you have to pay for them. That’s why I printed “For Pizza Addicts Only” on my shop’s walls. We truly want to hook you on our flavors. If you don’t like us, there are plenty of other shops out there, but once you walk through the doors of 786°, you’ll be a customer for life.

BH: Your store in Sun Valley is only 650 square feet. Yet you were able to get the highest rating on Yelp and were even mentioned in USA Today. How were you able to achieve that?

AH: True. Yelp just emailed me [in April 2019] and said we are the highest-rated pizzeria in the nation on Yelp right now. People ask me if I do anything special. My mission is to bring customers in to eat at my restaurant, then have them almost feel guilty about not sharing their experience. Sure, there will be a couple of

bad reviews. I do not focus on those—you cannot change their minds, for the most part. Instead, what I try to focus on is what I did right. Dissect the good reviews and see exactly what made them happy and build on that. You cannot control the negative, but you can nourish the positive. That’s how magic happens.

BH: Has the growth of your customer base been strictly organic?

AH: Early on, it was just me. I would stand out front and pull anyone in to try my pizza. I would tell them, “You will love it.”

Delivery guys, mail carriers, random passersby—I would offer them that free pie. “The first one’s on me!” From there it grew.

People would talk and tell their friends, and before you knew it, we had lines waiting for us to open.

BH: What has the U.S. Pizza Team meant to you?

AH: I am still honored to be a part of this team. I know I have so much to learn from other members, but I have a lot to give as well. We all have so much to learn from each other. Looking back at some of my winning pies a couple years ago, it’s a joke. If I only knew then what I know now!

Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s test chef and U.S. Pizza Team coordinator.

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DANIEL LEE PEREA

“At my restaurant, if you are a first-time customer, we will let you try our pies first before paying. I want to get you hooked.

Your first pie is free, but once you love it, then you have to pay for them. That’s why I printed ‘For Pizza Addicts Only’ on my shop’s walls.”

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OCTOBER RECIPE

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BUFFALO CHICKEN LASAGNA INGREDIENTS (1 SERVING):

DIRECTIONS:

1 lasagna noodle, cooked al dente, drained and chilled 1 oz. Grande Ricotta Cheese 5 oz. Buffalo Chicken (see recipe below) 2 tsp. fresh parsley, chopped 3 slices Grande Sliced Mozzarella 2 oz. Alfredo sauce, prepared ½ oz. Buffalo wing sauce, prepared

To make the Buffalo chicken, combine shredded chicken and Buffalo wing sauce in a bowl and toss to evenly coat chicken with sauce. Cover and chill to hold.

Arrange 1 lasagna noodle on flat work surface and spread 1 oz. Grande Ricotta Cheese evenly over the length of lasagna noodle. Top evenly with 5 oz. Buffalo Chicken, 1 tsp. parsley and 2 slices of Grande Sliced Mozzarella. Roll up tightly and arrange seam-side down in an oiled baking dish. Top with 2 oz. Alfredo sauce and 1 slice Grande Sliced Mozzarella.

Bake at 400˚F for 5 minutes in an impingement oven or at 500˚F for 6 minutes in a deck oven, or until cheese is bubbly and melted. Remove from oven. Drizzle ½ oz.

Buffalo wing sauce over lasagna and top with 1 tsp. parsley.

BUFFALO CHICKEN (8 SERVINGS) 2 lb. white meat chicken, cooked and shredded 10 oz. Buffalo wing sauce, prepared

Sponsored by:

ABOUT THIS RECIPE: More than half of consumers say consistent food quality is something they look for when eating out. Grande Mozzarella delivers a consistent, even melt and rich dairy flavor, making the choice clear for your customer when deciding where to eat out. * DATASSENTIAL GENERATIONAL SURVEY, 2017

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WITH SO MANY PIZZAS TO CHOOSE FROM, WHAT WILL KEEP THEM CHOOSING YOURS?

Once customers taste the authentic, rich dairy flavor of this all natural cheese, their choice couldn’t be clearer. The melt is consistent and creamy white, pie after pie. Even reheated, the pizza tastes like it is fresh from the oven.

Grande Mozzarella is what separates your pies from the pizza around the corner or up the street. It’s what keeps your customers coming back again and again.

For a free sample, visit grandecheese.com or call 1-800-8-GRANDE © 2019 Grande Cheese Company

The pies at Bocce Club Pizza have been made in the classic Buffalo style for decades.

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A

Biteof Buffalo A city best known for its spicy wings is starting to get recognition for another culinary marvel: the Buffalo-style pizza.

BY BILL DEJOURNETT | PHOTOS BY ARTHUR BOVINO

Once a bustling upstate playground for New York’s wealthy, Buffalo at one time boasted a population of more than 500,000, with a booming industrial base that attracted a large number of immigrants, many of whom hailed from Italy. But the town fell on hard times in the 1970s and has since lost half its population. Fortunately, it never surrendered its rich culinary tradition. In fact, Buffalo has become synonymous with certain foods and has influenced restaurateurs and chefs around the country.

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Carbone’s and Bocce Club Pizza are two well-known purveyors of Buffalo-style pizza in the Nickel City.

Of course, the city is best known for its deep-fried chicken wings and the varieties of cayenne pepper-based sauces that go with them. But Buffalo has made another notable contribution to American cuisine: Buffalo-style pizza. Characterized by a light, fluffy, almost focaccia-like crust, a semisweet sauce, copious amounts of mozzarella cheese and exclusive use of cup-and-char pepperoni, it’s a style that Buffalo residents swear by. And Buffalo is a city that knows its pizza. According to Arthur Bovino, a founding editor of The Daily Meal and author of Buffalo Everything: A Guide to Eating in the Nickel City, the town boasts more than 600 pizzerias, or roughly one pizzeria for every 428 people. “There are more pizzerias per capita in Buffalo than in New York City, which is kind of crazy to think about,” Bovino notes.

country, these delectable mini-grails of goodness fell out of favor nationally over time before making a comeback in recent years. Alternately known as “roni cups” or “Old World pepperoni,” they never went out of style in Buffalo. “If you want to say that Buffalo didn’t invent this pizza style, that everybody was doing it back then, that’s fine,” Bovino says.

“But no one else has been doing it like Buffalo has in the past 30 years. Buffalo is the curator of this style of pepperoni.”

“[The Buffalo-style pizza has] a Detroit amount of cheese, with a Motor City trim, a Maine undercarriage and a New York City soul.”

DEFINING BUFFALO-STYLE

According to Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of Visit Buffalo-Niagara, four key features define the Buffalo style of pizza. “First, it doesn’t have your normal outer crust,” Kaler says. “The sauce and toppings go all the way to the edge of the pizza. The sauce has a little sweeter taste to it. The pepperonis are cup-and-char. As for the cheese—you have to have that perfect cheese pull on it, so when you pull the slice off the pie, the cheese is really trying to fight you.”

In a nutshell, Bovino adds, “It’s a Detroit amount of cheese, with a Motor City trim, a Maine undercarriage, and a New York City soul.”

But cup-and-char pepperoni is perhaps the true defining feature of Buffalo-style pizza. Once ubiquitous across the

— ARTHUR BOVINO, THE DAILY MEAL A RICH HISTORY

Sources date Buffalo’s version of pizza back to 1927, when Fioravanti “Grandpa” Santora began selling pizza slices from his ice cream shop. Twenty years later, he opened the first Santora’s Napoli Pizzeria on Seneca Street in Buffalo. “The original Santora’s came two years after Frank Pepe’s opening, so in terms of context of how deep pizza goes in Buffalo, it’s right there with one of the oldest, most well-regarded places in New Haven and in the country,” Bovino points out.

Although there are numerous pizzerias in the Buffalo area

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La Nova is just as famous for its Buffalo chicken wings as it is for its Buffalo-style pies.

serving this style, a trio of stores stand out, in Bovino’s estimation. “Santora’s, Bocce and La Nova are kind of the big three when it comes to Buffalo pizza,” he says.

Bocce Club Pizza got its name from its original location, an old bocce club. According to Bovino, a bartender working there discovered a pizza oven in the basement and started making pies.

He eventually bought the club, and the pizza quickly gained popularity. “There was a church across the street,” Bovino says. “Parishioners were skipping out on Mass to go across the street to eat pizza and have drinks, and the priests weren’t very happy about that, so they had to move to another location.”

Buffalo-style pizza hasn’t ventured far from its geographical roots. “I find

it to be very unique,” Kaler says. “I’ve lived all over the country—Chicago, the West Coast, D.C.—and I have never experienced Buffalo-style pizza anywhere else. It’s not like New Yorkstyle, which is a flatter, thinner piece of pizza. Buffalo-style has more crust to it, but not like Chicago—it’s kind of in between.”

“True Buffalo style is unique and cannot be found in many cities,” adds Anthony Carbone, president and CEO of Carbone’s Pizza and Subs in Buffalo.

And it’s so tasty, Bovino says, Buffalo belongs on every pizza lover’s bucket list. Take that, New York City!

Bill DeJournett is PMQ’s contributing editor.

“I have never experienced Buffalo-style pizza anywhere else. It’s not like New York-style, which is a flatter, thinner piece of pizza. Buffalo-style has more crust to it, but not like Chicago—it’s kind of in between.”

— PATRICK KALER, VISIT BUFFALO-NIAGARA

A FOOD MECCA

Buffalo isn’t just famous for its wings and pizza. Other delectable edibles unique to Buffalo include the beef on weck sandwich and sponge candy.

Beef on weck is essentially a roast beef sandwich served on a Kummelweck roll—a type of roll topped with kosher salt and caraway seed—and smeared with either horseradish or au jus. Sponge candy, defined by Buffalo-based Fowler’s Chocolates as “a light and crunchy but delicate toffee made from sugar, corn syrup and baking soda,” is typically slathered in chocolate and is similar to the confection known as Sea Foam.

VISITBUFFALONIAGRA.COM

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A TEAM READ MORE AT PMQ.COM! Michael Androw shares tips for managing third-party delivery and maximizing online ordering success in a website-exclusive story at PMQ.com/michaelandrow.

THE

With his focus on kids’ sports and a family-friendly atmosphere, Michael Androw has put E&D Pizza Company in a league of its own in a fiercely competitive market.

BY RICK HYNUM | PHOTOS BY WINTER CAPLANSON

To build a successful new pizzeria in pizza-crazy Connecticut, serving good pies isn’t good enough. But as a veteran restaurateur, Michael Androw was undaunted when he launched E&D Pizza Company in Avon five years ago—he had a plan to win hearts, minds and stomachs, and it all started with local kids.

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Michael Androw (right) started E&D Pizza Company specifically so he could spend more time with his wife, Sherry, and two sons (from left), Enzo and Dario.

“As soon as you can, get off the line, get out of the kitchen and onto that floor.

Introduce yourself, ask how everything is, thank them for coming, and move on.

Now they can tell people they know you—they know the owner.”

— MICHAEL ANDROW, E&D PIZZA COMPANY “We’ve got great food—big deal,” Androw says. “So does everyone else, or they wouldn’t still be in business. So we can’t rest on that laurel. I want to get into your house and your dining room. Who do you invite to your house? Friends and family. That’s my in! As parents, who do we appreciate the most? It’s the people that do stuff for our children.”

Fortunately, as a father of two young sons, doing stuff for kids comes naturally to Androw. He has applied that skill to building one of Connecticut’s most acclaimed pizza shops in just a few short years—and at the end of the workday, he still has time to spend with his own boys, which, for Androw, was the goal from the start.

SAYING NO TO THE DISH-PIT

Androw paid his dues in the restaurant biz before starting E&D Pizza Company (named in honor of his sons, Enzo, 9, and Dario, 6). His first job as a teen was in a local pizza shop. “I walked in there the first day, and the owner said, ‘Head to the

dish-pit.’ I said, ‘Whoa, whoa, you don’t understand. I’m not a dishwasher. I’m a pizza maker!’ I begged and pleaded with him to give me a chance. He let me try saucing and cheesing. I didn’t know what I was doing, but I was hell-bent on staying away from that dish-pit.”

For the next several decades, Androw gained experience in every aspect of the food and beverage business, managing, operating and co-owning casual- and fine-dining operations as well as nightclubs and bars. “Then, one day I looked in the mirror and said, ‘What’s going on here?’ I had a wife, two small kids— one newborn—and I was working these crazy hours. I thought, ‘What is the best facet in the restaurant industry I can work in and still be able to maintain a normal life?’ That took me back to my roots in pizza—it’s family-oriented with family hours.”

Starting a new restaurant from scratch might not seem like the best way to spend more time with your family, but, like we said, Androw had a plan. With the unwavering support of his wife, Sherry, he committed to working exhaustingly long hours

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over the short term, knowing he could reclaim his life as a family man once the business took off. “When you start with a sales number of zero dollars and you open the doors on day 1, you may have all your ducks in a row, but you still need those bodies,” he says. “There were some dark days in the beginning. I worked doubles seven days a week. I opened, I closed. When I left in the mornings, the kids were still asleep.

When I got home at night, they were already in bed. But this was a means to an end. You stick with the business plan and execute, execute, execute day after day, and it works. But it’s not easy.”

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Androw is a hospitality industry veteran who has managed, operated or co-owned restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

E&D Pizza Company started out in a tiny space, with carryout as the primary focus; as demand for his pies soared, Androw moved into a larger building next door a year and a half later. As a pizza maker, he believes in slow, cold fermentation and attributes much of his pizza’s deliciousness to his 48-hour cold-rise dough. “The secret is, we take our time and don’t cheat,” he says. “We’re just retarding that yeast and slowing that maturation process down. This allows the dough to form those complex carbohydrates and create those natural sugars on their own. It can be a pain in the neck, but the dough ends up with this fantastic flavor profile.”

Androw describes his pizza as a hybrid of two famous styles, neither of which has anything to do with New Haven.

“It has the look of a New York-style pizza, but it doesn’t have that fast-rise dough they use in New York. It has the flavor profile of a Neapolitan. So it’s the best of both worlds.”

Food writers in Connecticut agree. Hartford Magazine credited E&D for having the best pizza in the area for the past three years—with Frank Pepe’s local stores coming in second place. E&D also headed up the Hartford Courant’s “best pizza” listing this August, while Connecticut Magazine ranked it as the one of the five best in the state for 2019.

“Get your name on that jersey. Get your name on the banner on the outfield wall and on the football field’s sidelines. If I sponsor your team or provide for your kid’s school event or fundraiser, I know your kids know us.”

— MICHAEL ANDROW, E&D PIZZA COMPANY And Androw doesn’t have to go far to find the ingredients that make his pizza so exceptional.

He sources many of them from a hometown farm, the Pickin’ Patch, located a mile away from his restaurant. “That stuff is out of this world, especially in the summer,” he says. “We also buy from a regional Hartford market, but when you can get it from the farm, where it’s coming out of the ground and you’re cooking with it three hours later, there is no comparison.”

Androw admits using premium ingredients sends his food costs “through the roof,” adding, “It’s less money in my pocket, but we reap the benefits of tremendous popularity and awards, so it’s worth it to me. Price-wise, I stay competitive in the market and take the hit personally. I don’t believe in making a million dollars in a day and getting out. I’d rather have longevity and make it over time.”

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The E&D Special (above) features mushrooms, onions, green peppers, bacon, Italian sausage and pepperoni; (right) Androw launched a pizzeria so he could spend more time with his kids, including younger son Dario.

“We don’t thumb our noses at customers when they bring in their kids. We embrace it. Come in, have fun. If you want to be loud, be loud.”

— MICHAEL ANDROW, E&D PIZZA COMPANY

“NOW I’M IN YOUR HEAD”

But maintaining longevity is about more than the menu. Androw has made sure to embed E&D in the local community through partnerships with the schools. A suburb of Hartford, Avon is a family-centric town, and E&D is a family-centric pizzeria.

“Pretty much everyone in our market has 2.5 kids, a white picket fence and a golden retriever,” Androw notes. “It’s family, family, family. Everyone has kids in the schools. So if the schools need something, I don’t care what it is—the answer is, ‘Yes, we will support you.’ We take the money we used to allocate for things like direct mail or advertising in local newspapers, and we give x amount of dollars in food away.”

Andrew also forks over cash to support local youth sports.

From lacrosse to baseball, hockey and football, kids all over Avon show off the E&D logo on their jerseys while their

parents, aunts and uncles cheer them on from the bleachers.

“Get your name on that jersey,” Androw says. “Get your name on the banner on the outfield wall and on the football field’s sidelines. Get in front of those families. If I sponsor your team or provide for your kid’s school event or fundraiser, I know your kids know us. You see E&D Pizza Company’s name on your kids’ jerseys twice a week in the laundry. We’re the pizzeria that’s there for your children. Now I’m in your head.

I’m gonna get you.”

“WE ARE OUR OWN BEST MARKETING”

While Androw focuses on carryout and delivery, which account for 80% of his business, his 40-seat restaurant is also a welcoming environment for customers of all ages. “My mantra is, there’s no rule against doing it right,” Androw says. “I’m not saying you have to offer a fine-dining level of service in a family-themed pizza restaurant, but there’s no rule that you can’t try.”

Still, family-friendly means kid-friendly, and things can get rowdy some nights. “We don’t thumb our noses at customers when they bring in their kids,” he says. “We embrace it. Come in, have fun. If you want to be loud, be loud. Generally, most kids are well-behaved, but they’re still kids. They’re not gonna act like Grandma and Grandpa at a white tablecloth dinner.

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E&D Pizza Company’s logo appears on sports jerseys all over town.

They’re gonna act like kids, and that’s fine. Something would be wrong if they didn’t.”

And when customers walk through his door, Androw makes sure they know who he is. “As owners, chefs and pizzaiolos, we are our own best marketing,” he says. “So many of us have spent so many years in the back of the house, and it’s difficult to go out and talk to people, but you’ve gotta cut that cord.

As soon as you can, get off the line, get out of the kitchen and onto that floor. Introduce yourself, ask how everything is, thank them for coming, and move on. Now they can tell people they know you—they know the owner. That’s your best marketing tool, and it doesn’t cost you a dollar.”

That kind of one-on-one marketing can get harder as your company grows, but opening multiple pizzerias isn’t on Androw’s bucket list. “I’ve done what I’ve done with E&D with a purpose in mind,” he says. “I wanted to create a fantastic family-friendly pizza destination that’s known locally, statewide and nationally. I’m happy with that. That’s what drives me. The idea of more money, more restaurants doesn’t drive me.”

Like his restaurant, Androw is all about family, and with those dark days of running a startup behind him, he can spend more time with Sherry and the boys. “We have created something wonderful on a small scale, but right now I want to be Dad,” he says. “I want to be involved in my sons’ lives. To have a normal life is more valuable to me than anything else in the world right now. Having built a good business and having a tremendous staff that executes on a high level every day provides me with that opportunity.”

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor-in-chief.

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This E&D specialty pizza, the Positano, is a white pie topped with black mission figs, goat cheese and red honey, finished with a drizzle of Mike’s Hot Honey.

HOT STUFF Hot sauces are becoming a must-have condiment for customers who crave fiery flavors.

BY TRACY MORIN

Some like it hot, sure, but lately it seems like everyone is ratcheting up the heat and adding a spicy kick to foods. A July article in The Wall Street Journal reported that, according to Euromonitor, retail sales of hot sauces jumped by almost one-quarter over the past five years, to about $700 million in 2018—the biggest gain among condiments—while small brands made up 41% of the hot sauce market last year.

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OATH PIZZA

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P TI

“Look for a sauce that’s meant to add depth, not set a fire in your mouth. People want the triple threat: aroma, flavor and heat. Use hot sauce as a base in salad dressing, or in marinades for steak, chicken and pork.”

— RICHARD JOYNER, OWNER, DON RICARDO SAUCE CO., OCALA, FL

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At Slice Pizza & Brew, the Wing & a Prayer pie features braised chicken soaked in a hot sauce marinade.

SLICE PIZZA & BREW

“Spicy condiments are responsible for 85% of the growth in overall condiment sales in the United States, and $26 million of the $31 million increase in the second quarter of 2019 was related to spicy sauces.”

“Spicy condiments are responsible for 85% of the growth in overall condiment sales in the United States, and $26 million of the $31 million increase in the second quarter of 2019 was related to spicy sauces,” says David O. Figueroa Jr., president and creative director of Melinda’s Foods in Irving, Texas. “The desire for spice with condiments and food is driving consumer demand.”

BRINGING THE HEAT

At Slice Pizza & Brew, with two locations in Birmingham, Alabama, co-founder/co-owner Chris Bajalieh agrees that customer demand for hot sauces has increased. “Pizzerias can try several different options: a much spicier option for a wing sauce (for tossing); a less spicy option, to be used as a pizza base; and a third option for customers’ tableside use on individual pizzas,” Bajalieh suggests. “Due to customers’ demand for diversity and varying heat sensitivity, restaurants should have at least five on hand—hot, mild, housemade, specialty and a local option.”

But how do you choose the hot sauces that will complement your food’s flavors rather than overwhelm them? Josh Huggard, manager of operational services at Boston-based Oath Pizza, focuses on spiciness (to conform to different “tolerance levels”) and flavor (to align with a premium-quality perception). “We choose a sauce that is spicy but will not ruin a person’s meal. I’d rather have a sauce that’s mild but has more flavor than a hotter sauce

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— DAVID O. FIGUEROA JR., MELINDA’S FOODS with less flavor, to create a taste guests love,” Huggard says.

“There will always be people who think ‘the hotter, the better,’ and for them, we offer a spicier hot sauce in the dining room, so they can use as much as they can handle!”

Figueroa calls hot sauce “a liquid alternative to your dried spice rack,” with a format that blends in quickly when added as a cooking ingredient or after cooking as a condiment. Just as many pizzerias serve dried red pepper flakes alongside their slices, he believes the ideal hot sauce brings red cayenne pepper flavor to the table, blended with ingredients that boost flavor and balance the heat of the peppers. “It isn’t the hottest pepper, bringing that balance of enough heat and flavor to not overwhelm a pizza,” Figueroa says. “Some hot sauces just use vinegar and salt, but that will make all food taste acidic, with vinegar first, pepper flavor second—hence, most likely

“In a base sauce recipe, hot sauce plays well on thinner crusts with lighter ingredients or topped with prosciutto or other cured meats with a touch of creamy cheese.”

—KATIE BORGER, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF MARKETING, BOSTON’S PIZZA RESTAURANT & SPORTS BAR, DALLAS, TX

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Woodstock Pizza’s Kickin’ Carnitas (top) and Sriracha-Cha (right) pizzas both offer hot sauce-infused bases.

WOODSTOCK PIZZA

changing and overpowering the flavor of whatever you’re making.” Finally, for true heat seekers, Figueroa recommends a ghost pepper sauce or habanero hot sauce to raise the temperature a few notches.

INTO THE FIRE

Properly incorporating hot sauce into your recipes will also help ensure the ideal balance. At Slice Pizza & Brew, chefs consider hot sauce as a secondary ingredient for pizza base sauces or as pizza toppings, to avoid overwhelming other flavors. The Wing & a Prayer pie, for example, is topped with braised chicken that has been soaked in a hotsauce marinade, plus bacon, green and red onions, tomatoes, blue cheese crumbles, and ranch

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“We mix Tabasco Chipotle with our white sauce to make our Southern Chipotle Sauce, the base for our Kickin’ Carnitas Pizza. Our Creamy Sriracha Sauce is the base for our Sriracha-Cha pizza, with pineapple, bacon, green onions and a sriracha swirl. We even have a Hot Sauce Station, where customers can try a variety of hot sauces.”

—JEFF DAVIS, DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS, WOODSTOCK’S PIZZA, SAN DIEGO, CA

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“We choose a sauce that is spicy but will not ruin a person’s meal. I’d rather have a sauce that’s mild but has more flavor than a hotter sauce with less flavor, to create a taste guests love.”

— JOSH HUGGARD, OATH PIZZA dressing, plus a hot-sauce drizzle on top. “Hot sauces can even be used in certain base sauce recipes, as long as they’re used as a secondary spice and complement the sauce’s flavor profile,” Bajalieh adds. “For example, a tomato-base sauce would require a sweeter hot sauce to be added in place of a spice.”

Using the right amount of hot sauce in base sauce recipes “adds another layer of flavor and can also add a mild kick,” Huggard says. “We use hot sauce to make our housemade chili oil, and for the aioli on our popular Spicy Mother Clucker pizza, with mozzarella, pickled red onions, roasted chicken, scallions, spicy aioli, and sriracha. Many of our guests put hot sauce or chili oil on all of our pizzas. It’s even a great addition to our new cheesy breadsticks.” Huggard

loves to pair hot sauce with protein-based and cured meat pizzas—for example, the Luau pizza, with pulled pork and pineapple, melds smokiness, heat and cooling sweetness for a multilayered flavor explosion.

The bottom line: If you can stand the heat, don’t be afraid to get creative in the kitchen. Chances are, the hot sauce trend will continue to set mouths aflame for the foreseeable future. “People realize hot sauce not only adds more heat but also adds tremendous flavor,” Huggard concludes. “With so many hot sauces and different flavor profiles on the market, I recommend trying different types. Once you find one that’s the perfect blend for you, you’ll find yourself using it on almost everything!”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

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2019-09-04 15:57

Road

Rules Experienced operators detail the top 5 requirements for making mobile catering a success.

BY TRACY MORIN

Mobile catering offers many benefits—higher profit margins, marketing your brand to new audiences, and adding revenue to supplement your brick-andmortar business—but operators who have experience with serving on the go agree: It’s not for the faint of heart. Between cramped spaces, demanding hosts (and hungry customers), and potential equipment breakdowns, it’s a must to hone your organization skills and minimize errors. Here, experts share their top tips for ensuring mobile success.

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STREETZA

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BIG GREEN TRUCK PIZZA

“Do a great job, no matter what. If 100 people show up instead of 50, find a way to feed them all. Each job is an audition for 50 or more new jobs…You want to cheerfully try to do whatever you can to make the event a success.”

— LIANE PAGE, BIG GREEN TRUCK PIZZA

1

BUILD A TOP TEAM.

Liane Page, general manager of Big Green Truck Pizza in New Haven, Connecticut, notes that catering customers always have many questions, no matter how simple the package. “Make sure you have a polite, patient person to handle your bookings and that only one person is taking bookings. You can’t afford to double-book,” Page advises. “Get the address, time and date right, and repeat that information in every phone call you make with the client.”

BIG GREEN TRUCK PIZZA

Furthermore, Page adds, your staff must be ready for public work, so sloppy attire, swearing, jokes and insults (sometimes customary behind closed kitchen doors) can’t happen at an event. “People who don’t know what they’re doing will not learn it quickly under pressure at an event,” she says. “Send your best pizza makers and waitstaff.” Also make sure everyone arrives on time, knows the route (GPS signals can fail), and has gotten a full night’s sleep. At Big Green Truck, reducing the hours each person works has been the single biggest help in reducing equipment breakage and packing errors.

“Having a team you trust is extremely important,” agrees Giovanni Colavita, CEO of Colavita USA in Edison, New Jersey. “You need to hire highly organized team players to schedule events, obtain permits, etc. We coordinate via a large Google spreadsheet, organized by month, and hold weekly check-in calls while maintaining constant contact by email.”

John Arena, co-founder of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas, adds that every event is special to the client, and catering customers often have an increased level of anxiety, making staff extraimportant. “Identify and train an employee who manages catering orders specifically to give your clients a go-to contact and an extra level of confidence,” he suggests. “Having a touch of OCD helps—catering is all about attention to detail and the ability to solve problems on the fly!”

2

BRING YOUR A GAME.

Catering allows you to reach large numbers of guests who may never have been to your restaurant before, so it’s crucial to wow them.

And, of course, working on the go can lead to a slew of unexpected surprises. “Do a great job, no matter what,” Page advises. “If 100 people show up instead of 50, find a way to feed them all. Each job is an audition for 50 or more new jobs. If the caterer is running around, stressed out and swearing because there are more people than expected, would you hire that guy? You want to cheerfully try to do whatever you can to make the event a success.”

Reliability and efficiency have been key for Scott Baitinger, partner at Streetza, a mobile operation in Milwaukee, including predicting the correct amount of food to stock and serving quickly, adjusting if necessary. “If we expect a higher volume than normal, we might remove a couple of items from the menu, as people taking five extra seconds to order quickly adds up with 200 people,” he explains. “And you can never cancel an event; if you don’t show up at one wedding, you’re out of the wedding business.”

“Always show up, even if you have to tow your truck or work in a deluge,” Page agrees. “People need to know they can count on you to come through no matter what.” And, of course, if your workers are in a jam, be prepared to send someone to help or run product out to them.

STREETZA

“Equipment in general, like a topping table/ cooler unit, is designed for a 68º kitchen, not for temperatures from -10º to 110º, depending on the day. Whatever normal maintenance you would expect, triple it!”

— SCOTT BAITINGER, STREETZA

3

INVEST IN THE RIGHT EQUIPMENT.

COLAVITA

Equipment, of course, starts with your vehicle. “We knew we’d be driving long distances, so we needed a vehicle that could handle that, plus the weight of a pizza oven, commercial refrigeration, wood and other supplies,” Colavita says. “Our truck fits a pizza oven nicely and can handle the weight of all our equipment while still getting 20 miles to the gallon.” Next, he selected an insulated oven made specifically for mobile purposes—thermal insulation is important when working with fire in close proximity to a gas tank. And, with pizza, fermentation creates a volatile substance, so ample refrigeration is a must.

The worst part of mobile catering, Baitinger says, is the equipment concerns that accompany a moving vehicle. First, he advises, invest in a reliable, low-mileage truck, and be prepared for items like pizza stones to crack in transit. “Equipment in general, like a topping table/cooler unit, is designed for a 68˚ kitchen, not for temperatures from -10˚ to 110˚, depending on the day,” he says. “We are now having a new engine installed and need a new compressor every year. Whatever normal maintenance you would expect, triple it!”

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

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STREETZA

4

“Identify and train an employee who manages catering orders specifically to give your clients a go-to contact and an extra level of confidence. Having a touch of OCD helps—catering is all about attention to detail and the ability to solve problems on the fly!”

DETERMINE YOUR GOALS, BUDGET AND LIMITS.

5

— JOHN ARENA, METRO PIZZA

STREETZA

Colavita stresses that understanding your goals and bottom line are crucial for mobile catering. “Obviously, there are food costs, but there are also truck payments, insurance, maintenance, equipment, and travel costs,” he says. “Also, pizza events are time-intensive. A wood-fired oven adds more time to the prep (up to 90 minutes), and it’s physically demanding. Setup and tear-down can often take as much time as the actual event.”

Along with this, Colavita adds, you want to offer a tried-andtrue menu. At first, his company attempted complicated pizzas with multiple toppings, but the additional prep work made for difficulties. “In the beginning, start with easier recipes, and then branch out after you can execute them with ease,” he advises.

Meanwhile, Baitinger realized that allowing the host to pick five pizzas, charging a certain amount per head for all you can eat, was a better system than selling per pie. “The host knows exactly what the price will be, and there are no surprises,” he says. “And though other operators do wood-fired, we chose a propane deck oven for simplicity and to limit waiting times. We found that an electric oven took too long to get to temperature and required a huge generator, while we thought that a conveyor oven, though easier, would denote lower quality and offer less of a show.”

BUILD YOUR BUSINESS WITH SMART MARKETING.

COLAVITA

Colavita advises reaching out to your contacts and maintaining personal relationships. “We talk to them about their projects and have even offered pizza lunches at corporate headquarters to sell them on the idea,” he says. “Our mobile kitchen is a grassroots marketing tool, so we need to have direct contact with our customers and have personal conversations.”

Baitinger makes sure to advertise his mobile catering service on all marketing materials and on the truck itself, and he taps social media to spread the word.

“With permission, we take pictures and post content from events on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter,” he says. “Through Facebook advertising, we can also target lookalike audiences, such as future brides who are still in the planning stages, through specific keywords.”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

56 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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58 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

The

HEAT

OFF

is

When it comes to making flavorful sauce, heat is not a pizza maker’s friend.

BY JOHN CORRELL

The tomato is a little red miracle. A nutritional powerhouse, it provides antioxidants and protection against cancer and strengthens the heart. It can even prevent constipation. And the best tomatoes are positively loaded with flavor. A high-quality tomato packs five tastants—sweet, sour, salty, bitter and savory—into every bite.

In short, the tomato is a superfood. And, as pizza professionals, we want to do everything in our power to capitalize on the tart and tangy deliciousness of this most glorious of fruits. So it’s important to understand how heat can affect tomato flavor when you’re preparing a sauce. Here’s a quick overview, adapted from John Correll’s book, The Encyclopizza: The Guide to Pizza Ingredient Purchasing and Preparation.

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

59

Basic Pizza Sauce Recipe by Tom Lehmann and Jeff Zeak

Ingredients: 2 #10 cans tomato paste 1 #10 can diced tomatoes 5 #10 cans tomato sauce 4 #10 cans crushed tomatoes 24 oz. olive oil 8 oz. salt 5 oz. garlic powder 5 oz. minced onion (dry) 2 oz. oregano 1½ oz. black pepper 16 oz. Parmesan cheese 6 oz. Romano cheese Water: Adjust water content as necessary to obtain desired consistency. Typically, only two or three #10 cans of water are required.

Directions: Add all ingredients together and mix until well-blended. (Do not precook sauce.)

Refrigerate and use as needed. Sauce will keep for several days under refrigeration.

For a spicy sauce, add dehydrated red pepper with seeds. Adjust the amount added to taste.

MORE HEAT EQUALS LESS FLAVOR

DECREASE IN FRESH FLAVOR

Heat is the single biggest factor affecting tomato flavor. The more heat that’s applied to a tomato product—whether in the cannery or the kitchen—the greater the loss and distortion of flavor. (Mathematically, heat is defined as cooking temperature multiplied by cooking time.) Heat affects tomato flavor in two ways. First, it decreases “fresh flavor” compounds.

Second, it increases “cooked flavor” compounds.

Fresh tomato flavor is derived from volatile compounds—specifically, C-3-Hexenal and Z-3-Hexenal. Heat increases their volatility. During heating, these compounds escape into the atmosphere, creating the wonderful tomato aroma that fills a kitchen when there’s a simmering sauce pot. Unfortunately, this also results in a corresponding flavor loss in the sauce.

Both time and temperature make a difference in your sauce, but temperature can do the most harm to the flavor. When there’s a choice of either reducing time or temperature, reducing temperature will usually produce the besttasting sauce.

60 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Both heating time and temperature affect flavor loss, but in different amounts. The relationship between heating time and flavor loss is arithmetic. For example, given the same temperature, a 10% increase in heating time will result in a 10% increase in the amount of flavor loss. However, the relationship between temperature and flavor loss is logarithmic. Specifically, for each 18°F (or 10°C) increase in cooking temperature, the rate of flavor loss doubles! So, given the same amount of time, sauce that’s cooked at 198°F will lose twice as much flavor as sauce cooked at 180°F, which will lose twice as much flavor as sauce that’s cooked at 162°.

INCREASE IN COOKED FLAVOR

Finally, continued heating turns your sauce color from bright red to brownish red. That’s why color is often used as a key indicator of sauce quality or freshness.

In the final analysis, both time and temperature make a difference in your sauce, but temperature can do the most harm to the flavor. To achieve a sauce of maximum flavor, the heating time and temperature—in both the cannery and the kitchen—should be kept to a minimum. And when there’s a choice of either reducing time or temperature, reducing temperature will usually produce the best-tasting sauce.

John Correll is a veteran pizza industry consultant, author and founder of Correll Concepts (correllconcepts.com).

So what about that aforementioned “cooked flavor”?

Prolonged heat causes tomato sugars to caramelize. In sufficiently large quantities, caramelized sugar produces a burned flavor. Heat also causes other flavor compounds to change their composition (due to what is known as the Maillard reaction). The result is an increase in compounds— specifically, acetyle pyrolle and furfurals—that produce a “cooked tomato” flavor. That typically means a burned or bitter flavor, which won’t go over too well with your guests.

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LUCKY DOGS Dallas pizza man Jay Jerrier gives abandoned canines a sporting chance at Cane Rosso Rescue.

BY CALLIE DANIELS BRYANT | PHOTOS BY JEFF AMADOR

Jay Jerrier presides over a nationally acclaimed pizzeria empire that’s beloved across Texas, and it all started with one floppy-eared, red-coated dog.

“I’ve always loved dogs,” says Jerrier, who opened the first location of Cane Rosso in Dallas’ Deep Ellum district in 2011 and graced PMQ’s cover in November 2014. “When my wife, Karen, and I first moved to Texas in 1997, we adopted Zoli, a five-year-old Vizsla—a Hungarian Pointer—because my wife claimed she was allergic, and those dogs have no dander.”

They loved Zoli so much, they named two pizzerias in her honor.

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OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

65

Dog lovers can enjoy pizza with their furry pals while raising funds for animal rescue centers at Cane Rosso's Pups on the Patio events.

“We don’t focus on purebreds.

We’ll take mixes—basically, any dogs that have spots, we’ll take.

We don’t discriminate based on age or medical need.”

— JAY JERRIER, CANE ROSSO

“Vizslas have red fur, and ‘cane rosso’ means ‘red dog’ in Italian,” Jerrier says. “Our newest restaurant brand is actually named Zoli’s NY Pizza. So our whole restaurant empire is based on my dog!”

Jerrier later found out that hundreds of sporting dogs, like Zoli, get dumped on back roads by hunters throughout the Lone Star State after unsuccessful hunts. Heartbroken that man’s best friend could be so disposable, Jerrier remembered a quote by Lily Tomlin: “I always said someone should do something about that. Then I realized I was someone.”

Jerrier is definitely a "someone" on the Dallas pizza scene; in fact, he’s practically a celebrity. D Magazine singled out Cane Rosso for offering the best pizza in Dallas five years in a row, and the Food Network hailed it as the city’s best in June 2018. Last July, Eater Dallas listed Zoli’s at the top of its “14 Essential Pizza Restaurants,” while Cane Rosso came in at No. 12.

As the accolades kept rolling in, Jerrier decided to use his VPNcertified pizzerias’ fame for a greater good—to rescue abandoned dogs—and founded Cane Rosso Rescue in 2014. “Our pizzerias have a large following on social media, and most of them are very high-volume. So we decided to leverage that to get the word out about dogs needing help,” Jerrier says. “We started off focusing on sporting breed and bird dogs, because they get dumped at a high rate in Texas. We don’t focus on purebreds. We’ll take mixes— basically, any dogs that have spots, we’ll take. We don’t discriminate based on age or medical need.”

66 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

WARM UP YOUR RESTAURANT PATIO WITH PREMIUM QUALITY

When Jay Jerrier isn't opening new Cane Rosso pizza concepts, he's lending the company's name to a center that has rescued more than 500 abandoned or neglected dogs.

RESCUE ME

Jerrier fondly recalls his first-ever rescue, a Viszla mix named Walter. He freed the dog from a high-kill shelter, made him healthy and sociable in foster care, and then found him a “forever family” up north, where stray dogs are rare. Five years later, Walter is still running free in their backyard.

Since 2014, Jerrier has grown the nonprofit’s reach to 40 foster homes throughout Texas, with at least one dog per home. And he always keeps one or two foster pups—on top of his own family pets—at his own house. “We started out with two dogs,” he says. “Now I have eight of my own dogs.

The extra six are all fosters that just never left.

My wife threatens me every day: ‘No more dogs!’ But she secretly loves them as much as I do.”

Jerrier opened a brick-andmortar rescue facility two years ago in Carrollton, where an “amazing, dedicated” staff 68 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

works year-round to raise money, recruit fosters, train volunteers and find dogs in need.

To date, the facility has rescued 524 dogs, Jerrier says. Staffers bottle-feed orphaned puppies, provide hospice care to dogs with degenerative health issues, and provide loving care to senior dogs tossed out for being too old to run with the young bird dogs. The most expensive dogs in their care are young puppies suffering from parvovirus, a highly contagious and deadly virus that kills in a matter of days.

The rescue even takes in a kitten or three “so that we can work on getting the dogs to be cat-friendly,” Jerrier explains. “We’ll keep the cats for a while and then adopt them out and get some new kittens!”

Out of the hundreds of dogs that have passed through the rescue center’s doors, the hardest to care for were 40 pups rescued last fall from a hoarder’s home that had burned to the ground, leaving more than 150 Pointers, Weimaraners and Viszlas without a caretaker.

“They were burned and had deep wounds,” Jerrier says. “But the hardest part was teaching them to trust humans after years of neglect. We still have one left waiting for a foster or an adopter almost a year later.”

Cane Rosso Rescue’s website features irresistibly cute photos of dogs available for adoption. To raise awareness about abandoned dogs and to help other rescue nonprofits raise funds, Jerrier’s pizzeria locations also periodically host Pups On the Patio, events at which customers enjoy wine and

pizza in the company of their favorite pooches. He donates a percentage of all sales from his pizzerias to the rescue nonprofit on a monthly basis, and his employees have an option to contribute a portion of their paycheck every two weeks to the rescue. “What blows me away is that [they take part],” Jerrier says. “We have a really high participation rate from our staff, and that makes me really proud of our team.”

Callie Daniels Bryant is PMQ’s associate editor.

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

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e c a l p 1 ! r e n n iL MYTH - CHELAN, WA w A C LO st

America’s Best-Looking Pizzas Reader entries for PMQ’s first pizza photo contest proved that eye appeal is half the meal.

With more than $1,000 in cash and prizes at

PMQ’s editorial staff judged the contest, and

stake, PMQ’s America’s Best-Looking Pizza

here we share the judges’ overall thoughts on

Contest drew dozens of entries from pizzeria

the top three finalists and other submissions

owners and managers across the country.

that made us salivate and hungry for more.

70 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

Judges’ thoughts 1st Place: What a beautiful pizza!

A nice balance of color and texture, along with an in-your-face angle,

nd

2 place

POSTO - BOSTON

combined to make this gorgeous pie from Chelan, Washington’s Local Myth the overall winner.

2nd Place: Beautiful classical photography and composition made this shot from Posto a close runner-up. Looks delicious!

3rd Place: Mario’s classic pie has a very nice harmony, with the tomato red and mozz white balancing each other in a symmetrically pleasing

3rd place

frame. That crust looks yum!

MARIO’S - ORLANDO

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

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honorable mentions

A M I C I ’ S | S AN M ATEO, CA

CHEESY TRAVELERS

CONTENTO PI ZZERI A | LAS V E G A S

F L A ME N T O C O ’ S T H E P L A C E | O’FALLON, IL

M ORANO’ S AUTHENTI C PI ZZERI A | LUBEC, ME

RED BOY PI ZZA | PETALUM A , C A

P IZ Z A B Y T H E S E A | S A N TA R O SA BEACH, FL

MAMA’ S PI ZZERI A | McALLEN, TX

TI KI SAM’ S WOOD-FI RED PI ZZA | HANOVE R , MI

“This was a super-close competition! Our readers went above and beyond to send us their most beautiful pies, making our job of deciding winners pretty difficult. In the end, it was a great showcase of the pizzaiolos’ artistry.”

— ERIC SUMMERS, PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE ART DIRECTOR 72 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

E THA M O R FR AME VID C DA ER OF SCH FI

PMQ READERS AND VIEWERS:

VOTE NOW! for

Cheesy and Crispy

National Pizza Month's Spokespersons Which of these national spokesperson(s) do you think should represent the pizza industry during National Pizza Month?

PMQ will provide a free art download to any

The BeerKat Triplets

Uptown Crusty Brown

registered PMQ print or digital audience member to be used for promotional purposes during National Pizza Month and beyond.

Visit SurveyMonkey.com/nationalpizzamonth to vote and register for your free download when the contest is complete!

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PMQ Pizza Magazine presents:

Solving the Pizza Equation A L I V E I N T E R V I E W F E AT U R I N G Y O U R Q U E S T I O N S

2pm CST, Wednesday, Oct. 16 at www.pmq.com/live

From delivery boy to corporate franchisee to leading independent operator, Nick Bogacz wrote the book on building a successful pizza business—literally! Join us for a live discussion with Bogacz, the owner of Caliente Pizza & Draft House and author of “The Pizza Equation: Slicing Up How to Run a Successful Pizza Enterprise.”

Topics: • Building a brand • Motivating employees • The craft beer phenomenon

• Marketing and promotions • Community engagement

Here’s your chance to learn from one of the pizza industry’s great entrepreneurs!

Register for free TODAY at pmq.com/nickbogaczlive OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

75

CAPUTO CRAFTS CUSTOMIZED DISTINCTION SMART MARKET

SPONSORED CONTENT

Every restaurant owner, chef, and line cook know that before that first bite is taken, you eat with your eyes. That is especially true in the Instagram-focused foodie climate of today. Your dish has to not only taste good on the plate but has to have that ‘gram-worthy appeal to bring customers in the door.

In addition to plate appeal and exceptional taste profiles, operators are also looking for multiple formats, innovative formulations and customized distinction in their ingredients. To fulfill their needs, operators are looking for manufacturers with the experience and passion to create authentic products that best fit their culinary visions.

Founded in 1978 by René and Pasquale Caputo, many industry-savvy clients are choosing Caputo Cheese in Melrose Park, Ilinois, as their manufacturer of choice. Offering countless and diverse types of cheese from all over the world, Caputo offers its customers authentic Italian cheeses, from its award-winning Mozzarella, Ricotta, and Burrata made at the company’s Melrose Park facility to customized blends of imported and domestic Parmesan, Pecorino Romano and Asiago. Caputo has the experience, passion and commitment to client satisfaction that enables them to create ingredients to your specifications and to work with you on new flavors and formulas.

Learn more about how Caputo crafts distinction with a visit to their website, www.caputocheese.com

POLENTA WITH CARAMELIZED ONIONS AND PANCETTA INGREDIENTS: 2 tbsp. butter or olive oil for creasing the hotel pan 2 c. polenta or stone-ground cornmeal 7 c. boiling water 2 tsp. minced garlic 1 large yellow onion, caramelized ½ lb. of pancetta, cut in a small dice and crisped in a skillet 5 oz. grated Caputo Smoked Scamorza cheese ½ c. shredded Caputo Parmesan cheese Salt and pepper to taste*

DIRECTIONS: Set oven to 300° with a low fan. Grease hotel pan with butter or olive oil and add polenta, caramelized onion and garlic. Pour in the boiling water slowly, whisking to combine. Place cling film and foil over the pan and bake for 90 minutes to 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes. Bake until polenta reaches desired doneness. To finish, toss in your diced pancetta and cheeses. Stir until the cheeses are melted and everything is incorporated. Serve on top of tomato sauce with basil to garnish.

*The pancetta and the cheeses all add a fair amount of saltiness to the dish. Don’t salt until everything has been added and you’re ready to plate; then add salt and pepper to taste.

76 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

Crafting Distinction Creating customized culinary experiences since 1978

www.caputocheese.com

IDEA ZONE

SPONSORED CONTENT

Maximize Your Online Ordering Potential When pizzeria owners design their online ordering system, they look for compatibility with their POS system, ability to work with third-party delivery services, and a reasonable cost. That’s where Revention Online Ordering Solution comes in. By integrating various ordering platforms—such as mobile apps, standard online ordering and even kiosks—into one seamless online ordering solution, Revention takes the guesswork out of this technology. “What we’re seeing in the market is everything’s converting to online ordering,” says Laura Gaudin, Revention’s director of product management. “The ‘Holy Grail,’ if you will, is the pizzeria that offers pickup, delivery, and over 75% of their orders coming from online.”

Dealing with third-party delivery services can be confusing, but in today’s market and in most cases, excluding them is just not an option.

“Restaurateurs understand the importance of being online and that offering their products through multiple channels drives business. Revention is developing a tool to enable the Revention Online Ordering service to manage these channels,” says Gaudin. “It’s the vehicle that will allow those orders from third parties to flow through the online ordering system into the point-of-sale. So you still have that one point of communication and seamless data integration versus trying to manage numerous points of communication from all the different services.”

With the big franchises pumping huge amounts of money into product development, it can be daunting for an independent operator with one to five or so stores to keep up. Revention Online Ordering Solution helps level the playing field for independent operators. “I think the other big benefit of what Revention offers is that when you look at our customer mix, 50% of those customers are independent, and the other 50% are franchises,” says Gaudin. “What makes Revention extremely successful is that we’ve been able to take this customized online package—including a customized online ordering site, mobile application branded for that brand, branded loyalty, and order tracker—and we can create that whole technology package and provide that to an independent operator where they can be competitive with their local franchises, and we can do that at an affordable price. If an independent tried to contract this out with a custom development company or third party, they’d be managing a big, complicated technology project to get them all to integrate.”

Learn how Sbarro streamlines their pizza operations with integrated online ordering and menu management by visiting revention.com/pizzatech.

78 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Sign up at ubereats.com/restaurants.

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

PORTION PADL

Simple to use and easy to clean, the Portion PadL cuts equal pizzas into equal slices. It’s custom-made for your pizza size and slice applications. Everyone on your staff will be able to cut equal slices, regardless of experience level. It reduces food costs, increases profits and ensures accurate nutritional reporting for FDA menu-labeling compliance.

330-608-5928, PORTIONPADL.COM

DUTCHESS BAKERS

The new DUT/PM-502 Dough Rounder/Kneader rounds dough balls in a range of 1 oz. to 24 oz. per piece. Ideal for pizza, bread and more, it’s compatible with the BMIH Manual Dough Divider. Divide your dough with a BMIH to your exact weight, then hand-feed it into the DUT/ PM-502 for fast, efficient, low-cost dough ball production.

800-777-4498, DUTCHESSBAKERS.COM

SUNGLO

The SUNGLO Patio Heater Model PSA265 is a natural-gas outdoor heater ideal for open restaurant patios. The in-ground post minimizes desk space and positions heaters at the ideal height for comfort and safety. Options range from a manually controlled unit needing no electrical connections to a fully automated ignition system requiring an external 24VAC source.

888-317-5255, INFRADYNE.COM

I’M HUNGRY NOW

I’m Hungry Now will automatically fax your lunch specials to businesses in your area and secure the owners’ permission to send them. Their online system includes a product library of 200-plus pizzeria items, and you can easily add your own. Use their 28-day calendar to plan your specials for the next day, week or even the entire month.

973-934-0577, DAILYSPECIALSFAXING.COM

BEAR ROBOTICS

Penny is a self-driving robot that runs food, delivers drinks and busses empty plates between the kitchen and tables, freeing up restaurateurs and servers to spend more quality time with customers. Bear Robotics delivers “CEO” values—Customers need to receive a better guest experience; Employees need to be freed from physical strain; and Operators need an easier way to run a restaurant. BEARROBOTICS.AI

BREEZE CREATIVE

Breeze Creative, an interactive experience design company, develops unique products using physical and virtual elements that amaze and intrigue. Its technologies bring life to any family entertainment center, children’s museum or digital playground. Its suite of edutainment products can be customized in content and in scale to create the experience you want.

786-650-9970, BREEZECREATIVE.COM

80 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

UPSERVE

Upserve offers cloud-based restaurant POS, analytics, transparent processing, automated inventory and ordering, mobile restaurant management, and seamless integration with leading third-party restaurant apps. More than 9,000 restaurants use Upserve to manage relationships with more than 57 million active diners and process more than $9.9 billion in annual sales.

855-664-3887, UPSERVE.COM

HARRI

Harri’s software technology platform helps pizzerias build, manage and engage their teams. It provides solutions for talent acquisition, employer branding, applicant tracking, scheduling, time and attendance, communications, compliance, and analytics. With 800,000 job seekers and 10,000 employers, Harri helps solve the labor-related challenges that plague the hospitality industry. HARRI.COM

JOLT

Jolt is mobile-device software that helps pizza restaurants achieve team accountability and food safety compliance while boosting employee performance. Jolt has helped thousands of restaurants master the seven pillars of restaurant success: hot food, fresh food, clean stores, consistent processes, fast service, friendly employees, and accurate orders.

877-396-4112, JOLT.COM

SPIFFY

Spiffy is a mobile app that educates front-line staff to deliver a consistent message across all locations. Spiffy makes training technology accessible to restaurants of all sizes through a “network” model, where costs and content creation efforts are shared by restaurants, QSR and other vendors who need to ensure their content is consumed by front-line staff.

WITHSPIFFY.COM

CONTROL PLAY

Control Play provides customized HD music videos, music playlists, and digital signage solutions for bars and restaurants. Control Play helps subscribers exceed guests’ expectations through innovative digital audio/video experiences, creating an atmosphere that fits your brand and a guest experience that makes an impact as soon as they walk through the door.

866-896-3470, CONTROLPLAY.COM

TIPZYY

Tipzyy is a mobile web-based platform that helps restaurant management run staff sales contests and incentives. It integrates with POS systems so staffers can check their position throughout contests, motivating them to sell more to win, while managers monitor progress with the Tipzyy dashboard. Staffers learn before earning an incentive and must pass a quick quiz on menu knowledge and customer recommendations. TIPZYY.COM

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

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Need a hand spicing up your crust ?

No problem, we’ve got the info you knead.

Visit the Tom Lehmann Dough Information Center for the answers to all your dough formulation questions. From baker’s percentages to water content to flavor-infused doughs, the Dough Doctor provides the info that will have you raking in the dough!

www.pmq.com/doughinformationcenter OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

83

THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

It’s time for an evolution...

HERE’S A SAMPLE: 14” Perforated Disk $3.92

14” Heavy Duty Pizza Screen $2.62 14” Bake Disk w/ Release Coating NSF Approved $6.38

11”x16” Heavy Duty Rectangle Pizza Screen $6.36

CALL FOR PRICE QUOTE ON OTHER SIZES - American Made -

P.A. PRODUCTS, Inc. BAKEWARE SPECIALISTS

(734) 421-1060 • tim@paprod.com

84 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

MEET US AT IAAPA

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OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM 85 4/4/14 8:23 AM

THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

ACCOUNTING

CHEESE SHAKER LIDS

BAKING STONES

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: POINT OF SALE

CHEESE

thrivepos.com

Choosing a POS: right the first time speedlinesolutions.com/PizzaPOS

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POS Integration with: Dinerware

Custom App $99 Monthly + 0% Commission imenutogo.com Online Mobile Ordering Solution (718) 554-0524 86 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

COMPUTER SYSTEMS: POINT OF SALE

DESSERTS

Be Inspired. Be Creative. Be Original.

Red, White, and Blue Pizza with Nutella®

Breakfast Pizza with Nutella®

Fried Pizza Dough with Nutella®

For more exciting recipes and tips about Nutella®, visit www.ferrerofoodservice.com or call (800) 408-1505 for more information.

DOUGH

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@DeIorios

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To locate a distributor near you, call 734-946-7878.

DOUGH DIVIDERS/ROUNDERS, PRESSES/ROLLERS

DESSERTS

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

87

THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

DOUGH TRAYS/PROOFING TRAYS

FOOD DISTRIBUTORS

The Original Dough Box

MANY IMITATE. NONE CAN DUPLICATE • Fiberglass strength & durability outlast plastic trays • Secure stacking, won't bend or sag • 3 standard sizes with snap-on lids • Optional lids and dollies available

• Dough Trays -Standard Standard && Artisan Artisan Sizes Sizes – extremely – extremely durable durable and and airtight. airtight.

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• Dough Tray Covers – engineered designed toto fit.fit.

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The preferred dough tray of pizza operators in the US and Abroad for over 30 years!

Order by phone or online.

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FLOUR

FURNITURE/FIXTURES

Exceptional pizza starts with exceptional flour.

Heat your Restaurant with SUNPAK®

Traditional Pizza Flours, Whole Grain Flours, Pizza Crust Mixes, Private Label Packaging, Proprietary Blending, Custom Development

Outdoor Patio Heaters

For more information call 1-800-553-5687 or visit www.baystatemilling.com

Wall or ceiling mounted, nothing on the floor

A revolutionary ingredient changing the way people enjoy Italian cuisine

Natural Gas or Propane Models

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Heckers & Ceresota

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88 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/

PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

MAGNETS

GLUTEN-FREE PRODUCTS Scan for Demo

Premium Flours Make Gluten-Free Tasty & Easy!

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HOTEL ROOM KEY ADVERTISING

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MAILING LISTS

DIAL #600 from your room for In-Room SPEED DIAL Papa John’s ROOM DELIVERY to Your Business

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MANAGEMENT

keep more of your hard earned dough!

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INSURANCE

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ALWAYS WITH YOU.

Come follow us, like us, and engage with us on these social media platforms!

www.pizzatv.com

OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

89

THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

MARKETING IDEAS

MEAT TOPPINGS

MIXERS

Precision HD-60 Pizza Mixer 7-Year Unconditional Parts Warranty on all gears and shafts in the planetary and transmission!

Holdsbowl! art 80-qundles a Ha . bag 50 lb our! of fl

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Heavy Duty MIXeRS

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Globe Food Equipment Co. | www.globefoodequip.com

MEAT TOPPINGS

PRESTIGE FOODS ..................... 314-567-3648.................... MEATTRADER@MSN.COM Low Closeout Pricing! Call for this week’s special. For Deals That Go To Your Bottom Line.

90 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

MOISTURE-ABSORBENT TOPPINGS CONDITIONER/SUPPLIES

ONLINE ORDERING

POS Integration with: Dinerware

ON HOLD MARKETING/PHONE SERVICES

Custom App $99 Monthly + 0% Commission imenutogo.com Online Mobile Ordering Solution (718) 554-0524

Grow Your Business with the power of online ordering More Orders. Starting Now.

SliceLife.com/JoinNow or (844) 880-2346

GET GOOGLE REVIEWS EASY AS A SLICE OF PIZZA

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ONLINE DATA REPORTS

Euromonitor International

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PINEAPPLE

Contact us at info-usa@euromonitor.com or visit www.euromonitor.com

Discover all the pizza trends in the Pizza Consumer Trend Report.

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PIZZA BOXES

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Ten case minimums. Pizza, sub, slice, kids and other boxes available.

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888.400.3455 ext.107 | wpackaging.net 2001 East Cooley Drive, Colton, CA 92324 OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

91

THE PIZZA EXCHANGE PIZZA OVENS

PIZZA BOX LINERS

CONTROL THE

BEAST PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS

marraforni.com

inquiries@marraforni.com

888.239.0575

WWW.XLTOVENS.COM TO ORDER CALL (316) 943-2751 | TOLL-FREE: (888) 443-2751 | FAX: (316) 943-2769

PIZZA OVENS

TRADITIONAL, FAST CASUAL, ARTISAN...

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Stone Deck, Pizza Dome, and Bakery

www.univexcorp.com Tel. 800-258-6358 Fax. 603-893-1249

Increase food quality score & decrease food cost 1-855-278-3385 • info@hotrocksoven.com • www.hotrocksoven.com 92 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA HOTROCKS_PUB_3.5x2_E03.indd 1

2019-04-12 14:39

PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE PIZZA SUPPLIES

PIZZA OVENS

• Pizza Preparation and Delivery Products •

WOOD STONE CORPORATION.........Stone Hearth & Specialty Commercial Cooking Equipment.................1801 W. Bakerview Rd......................Bellingham, WA 98226 TOLL Free 800-988-8103.Fax: 360-650-1166.....................woodstone-corp.com

National Marketing, Inc.

www.nminc.com 800-994-4664

734-266-2222

PIZZA PEELS

Fax: 734-266-2121

Manufacturers’ Direct Pricing • Call or order online • We export

Know a pizzeria that’s over 50 years old and a pillar of the community?

Nominate them for inclusion into the Pizza Hall of Fame!

Visit

ALWAYS WITH YOU.

www.PizzaHallofFame.com for more information.

Come follow us, like us, and engage with us on these social media platforms! pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/ OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

93

THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS

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Best Pricing in the Industry ! y t i l a u Guara or Q i r nteed e p t u a O n d Ke e p oisture u More Hea tI

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• Heavy Duty Fabric • Bag materials let moisture out • Better closure 3 Velcro® strips • Superior heat retention • Insulation all 6 sides

PV3TCB - Hot/Cold Pizza Bag • Capacity - 3 / 16 or 18” Pizzas • Top Compartment (Hot or Cold Foods) Interior size 19.5”L x 14”W x 5”H • Main Compartment (Pizza) Interior size - 19.5”L x 18.5”W x 7.5”H

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20 MODELS of Sandwich/Dinner/Catering & Restaurant Delivery Bags

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Order Manufacturer Direct Toll Free: 1-844-545-9675 or Online: www.incrediblebag.com SAUCE

Since 1915, The Neil Jones Food Company has been producing premium quality tomato and custom blend sauces. A family owned and operated corporation, we only pack from the freshest and finest vine-ripened California tomatoes. So whether you prefer classic #10 cans or new shelf-stable pouches, you will always get the very best in fresh packed tomato products from Neil Jones Food.

SCALES Commercial weighing scales for restaurants, catering, delis, and other retail markets.

Pizza@YamatoCorp.com 262-236-0000 94 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

TELEPHONE EQUIPMENT/SUPPLIES/SERVICE

PRINTING

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ALWAYS WITH YOU.

Come follow us, like us, and engage with us on these social media platforms!

pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/

Call 610-463-0508 or Visit themailshark.com/PMQ20 for FREE samples OCTOBER 2019 | PMQ.COM

95

THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

TABLECLOTHS

Updating your dining room is easy with our easy-care vinyl table covers … always made to your specs. Fabrics are also available by the roll.

You Top the Pizza, We’ll Top the Tables!

• • • •

372 colors and 65 mix-and-match patterns Covers are custom made within 2-3 weeks Available with velcro, umbrella holes or elastic for a perfect fit.

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Call 1-800-626-2350 FREE SWATCHES!

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*Through the end of 2019

601 East Barton | West Memphis, AR 72301

ALWAYS WITH YOU.

Come follow us, like us, and engage with us on these social media platforms!

96 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

PIZZA HALL OF FAME

Fonta Fafoutis (center), who once grew his pizzeria empire to four stores, cuts a ribbon at the opening of his Fort Collins location; Fafoutis spins a pie in his shop; a 10-year anniversary flyer invites patrons to celebrate with pizza.

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

FONTAS PIZZA A business-savvy Greek immigrant joined the Greeley, Colorado, town council to build a name for his new pizzeria before handing it off to a longtime employee. By Tracy Morin Following a foray into the restaurant business in Superior, Wisconsin, Fonta Fafoutis relocated to Greeley, Colorado, and jumped into the pizza game, opening Fontas Pizza in 1966. To drum up business, he doled out free samples and even joined the city council to establish his name in town, making the pizzeria a fast success. By 1979, following the community’s development, the downtown location moved south, where the business remains today, in a 3,200-square-foot building with seating for 120.

Current owner Troy Dilka started as a cook in 1985, taking the reins in 1994 when Fafoutis was ready to retire; Troy’s wife, Tracy, joined the team in 1999. However, Fafoutis remained a fixture at the business. “It was his baby, so he’d still come down every day, saying he was bored,” Troy recalls with a laugh. “Until the restaurant was paid off, he’d come down and bring our spices for the sauce, sausage and beef in paper bags.” Finally, Fafoutis sat down with the couple at a special meeting and divulged the secret spice recipe.

With Troy’s insistence on keeping everything the same at Fontas, he notes that many customers weren’t even aware the business had changed hands for years. But the Dilkas have introduced fun Facebook contests,

like voting for the best pie maker at the pizzeria, and popular specials, including the Wednesday 23-25: a large two-topping pizza and two pints of beer for $23 (or $25 with salad). They’ve also brainstormed unique specialty pies like the Hercules, with beef, green chilies, cream cheese, cashews, and pineapple. “We stick with what’s working for us,” Troy says.

“We focus on family, which was a big deal for Fonta—both his family and others’—and a good product and service.”

A painstaking approach continues to pay off for Fontas, which was voted best pizza in town this year in the Greeley Tribune. The pizzeria also spreads the word—and gives back—via events like the Taste of Weld County, which benefits local charities, and the RecFest at the local university, which introduces its pizza to hungry students. “Fonta’s drive and passion for pizza is what made him successful,” Troy concludes.

“Our consistency is key, so one of us is there at all times to make sure everything is up to par. We think it’s important to be hands-on and ensure you’re making something you’re proud of.”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

98 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

BILLIONS & BILLIONS OF WINGS SOLD!

LOVE IS A

WING!

CALL FOR A FREE SAMPLE* | 716-984-5666

*Samples must be sent to food service customers

www.LANOVA.com

-Joey LaNova Wing King