PMQ Pizza Magazine December 2014 by PMQ Pizza Magazine

DECEMBER 2014 | WWW.PMQ.COM

Pizza Power 2 015 I N D U S T R Y A N A LY S I S PAGE 36

THIS IS THE CROWD THAT QUALITY BUILT…

ONE PIZZA AT A TIME.

Tonight’s crowd is no coincidence. It’s our reward for focusing

on the details that make us the best pizzeria in town. Grande has helped us get there with premium Italian cheeses that distinguish our menu and the business experience that has helped build our business…every pizza, every customer, and every time.

W E S E E W H AT YOU S E E .®

For a new view on your business, visit www.grandecheese.com or call 1-800-8-GRANDE.

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DEPARTMENT ONLINE AT PMQ.COM

PMQ Blogs

Recent Videos (pmq.com/video)

ThePizzaInsider.PMQ.com Liz Barrett, PMQ’s editor at large, brings you the inside scoop on the industry’s latest business and marketing trends. Recently at The Pizza Insider: Liz shares the trick to making customers want to pay more; explains how to write a press release; and shares Chef Santo Bruno’s recipe for New York-style pizza. SliceofLife.PMQ.com PMQ’s social media director, Melanie Addington, brings you weekly posts on the latest trends and tips in social media. Recently at Slice of Life: Melanie offers tips for getting more video views; says hello to new social media platform Ello; and offers tips for encouraging use of social media in your pizzeria.

Pizza TV: The BLT Pretzel Crust Pizza Pretzel-flavored crusts add a new dimension of flavor to any pizza. Trent Groothius, owner of the Greathouse of Pizza in Casey, Illinois, recently shared his recipe for a BLT Pretzel Crust specialty pie and test chef Brian Hernandez tried it out on the PMQ staff—it was a big hit!

Top Social Media Posts Highlights of some of the best social media posts we’ve seen recently: Stevi B’s Pizza: [with National Pizza Month graphic] Buy one Stevi B’s buffet and get one free with the purchase of two drinks October 13-19. (321 likes, 323 shares, 44 comments) Goodfella’s Pizzeria: [with image describing daily special] Share for your chance to win a $20 gift certificate. Winner announced 10-27! (19 likes, 49 shares, 12 comments) Connie’s Pizza: [with image of two pizzas] In honor of Election Day, we’re holding our own poll and want to hear from you! Which is your favorite candidate—Original Pan Sausage Pizza or New Wood-Fired Salsiccia? (93 likes, 15 comments) @PizzaByTheGuy: A percentage of our sales tonight will be going to Country Heights School! Join us from 4 to close for pizza. @ LouMalnati’sPizza: Headed to Lou’s this weekend? Snap a #selfie with your #deepdish and you could win a $200 gift card! [with link to contest description] @Shakey’sPizza: A balanced diet is having a slice of pizza in each hand.

Pizza 360: A Chat with Chef Santo Bruno PMQ’s publisher Steve Green and test chef Brian Hernandez sit down for a chat with the one and only Chef Santo Bruno for a freewheeling discussion about pizza ovens, oven maintenance and more.

PMQ Pizza Magazine

This Week in Pizza (pmq.com/thisweekinpizza) PMQ’s weekly e-newsletter brings breaking industry news to your inbox every Wednesday. Receive it free by visiting pmq.com/subscribe. 6

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Join the discussion! thinktank.pmq.com

CONTENTS DECEMBER 2014 ON THE COVER

Meatballs are much more than a ball of meat. Break your meatball down to its individual parts, and you’ll discover a world of delicious recipe possibilities. By Liz Barrett

Growing Gluten-Free Adding gluten-free selections to your menu is a good idea, but it takes well-planned marketing tactics and a solid understanding of the glutenfree client base to achieve true success. By Tracy Morin

The Mobile Majority Leading operators and experts provide five awesome tips to maximize your outreach and sell more pizza using mobile marketing technologies and strategies. By Tracy Morin

PMQ Pizza Magazine

The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

| PMQ.com

Anatomy of a Meatball

Business Monthly

The Pizza Industry’s

Mozzarella still reigns supreme in most recipes, but these six versatile cheeses will inspire new signature pizzas that could boost your sales in the coming year. By Missy Green Assink

DECEMB ER 2014

| WWW.PM Q.COM

Issue 10

Seize the Cheese!

| Volume 18,

FEATURES

| December 2014

The 2015 Pizza Power Report Ready to supercharge your business in 2015? Join our heroic quest as PMQ timetravels through the past year and into the next one, seeking out the key sales figures and moneymaking trends of 2014 and exploring the challenges and moneymaking opportunities of the future! By Rick Hynum

PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE

Pizza Powe r 2 015 I N DUSTR Y ANAL YSIS PAGE 36

THE 2015 PIZZA POWER REPORT

CONTENTS DECEMBER 2014

WISCONSIN MILK MARKETING BOARD

SEIZE THE CHEESE!

ANATOMY OF A MEATBALL

PIZZERIA VIA STATO

GROWING GLUTEN-FREE

PICAZZO’S

THE MOBILE MAJORITY

MOBINITI

DEPARTMENTS 18

In Lehmann’s Terms: From Thin-Crust to Deep-Dish Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann walks you through the eight steps required to make deep-dish pizza by tweaking a standard thin-crust dough formula.

New York’s Finest: Chef Bruno’s Potato Salad Chef Bruno puts his own unique mayo-free twist on a comfort food classic.

Recipe of the Month: Gluten-Free Calzone Featuring fresh baby spinach, tomatoes and basil leaves, this calzone recipe will appeal to vegetarians and gluten-free customers alike.

Pizza Hall of Fame: Master Pizza Founded in 1955, this Clevelandarea company was a franchising pioneer and currently boasts 5,000 likes on Facebook and 2,500 Twitter followers.

Dough Mixers: Explore the key differences between planetary and spiral mixers so you can choose the right one for your pizza applications. Ice Cream and Gelato: Leading operators explain how to use frozen treats and local sourcing to turn your pizzeria into a dessert destination. Designing a Mobile App: You can engage with your customers digitally every day with a custom mobile app designed specifically for your pizzeria.

Accounting for Your Money: How to Cure the Pain of Plate Costing Not all plate-costing software programs are created equally. Mike Rasmussen explains what you really need to get the job done.

Click for featured video: Don’t miss our exclusive video coverage of the 2015 Pizza Power Report. Click for featured video: PMQ’s publisher Steve Green and test chef Brian Hernandez chat with Chef Santo Bruno about pizza ovens, oven maintenance and more. 10

Coming Next Month

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IN EVERY ISSUE 6

Online at PMQ.com

Editor’s Note

Letters to the Editor

Pizza Press

Sherlyn’s Picks

76(S4) Product Spotlight 85

Advertiser Index

Pizza Industry Resource Guide

EDITOR’S NOTE RICK HYNUM

The Pizza World Needs Justice Slice

PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | December 2014 | Volume 18, Issue 10

DECEMBER 2014 | WWW.PMQ.COM

The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly | PMQ.com

Pizza Power 2 015 I N D U S T R Y A N A LY S I S PAGE 36

On the cover: In challenging times, all the world really needs is Justice Slice, the superheroic champion of pizza and profits and living embodiment of the power of pizza. See more of Justice Slice in this year’s Pizza Power Report on page 36. Illustrations by Eric Summers

As a kid, I read a lot of comic books—too many, as far as my father was concerned. I bought them from the local Jr. Food Mart, traded them with my buddies and even drew and wrote my own comics with supposedly “original” characters who were, in fact, blatant ripoffs of the “real” ones. Never mind that I couldn’t draw; I was so impressed with my own work that I spent several weekends going door-to-door in my neighborhood, offering to sell my comics for nickels and dimes, anything I could get. To my chagrin, it turned out there wasn’t a big demand for horribly drawn comic books featuring superpowered characters with names like Doctor Danger and Lion Man. Imagine that. I never did learn to draw, but my love for great comic book art and superhero adventures lives on. Fortunately, when we hit upon the idea of putting a pizza-themed spin on the iconic Superman image—Clark Kent peeling off his shirt and tie to reveal the famous “S” on his costume—for this month’s Pizza Power Report cover, we didn’t have to rely on my unskilled hand to create the character. That happens to be a specialty of PMQ designer Eric Summers, one of the most talented artists I’ve ever known. Eric came through with an outstanding cover image that reflects the modern comic art style—a little dark and gritty, but with the square-jawed nobility of the all-American hero. Eric then went on to flesh out the character for the Pizza Power Report’s opening spread—and a new superhero, Justice Slice, was born. (Pizza Man, for the record, was already taken!) Of course, every superhero needs a bad guy to battle, but we haven’t yet come up with an arch-nemesis for Justice Slice. Who would that be? Captain Soggy Crust? The Evil Anchovy? (Yes, those are terrible names. Clearly, there was a reason why no one wanted to buy my comic books.) Your suggestions are welcome. In the meantime, check out Eric’s original Justice Slice artwork on page 36, then delve into this year’s Pizza Power Report for a detailed examination of the past year’s industry trends and the opportunities and issues that we’ll face in 2015. The coming year brings its share of challenges, but this is still a great time to be in the pizza business. Here at PMQ, we’re no superheroes, but we plan to take full advantage of every new opportunity afforded by technology so that we can better serve and inform our readers. We’re committed to helping guide you through, around and above any obstacles you may encounter. As another year winds down, we invite you to join us in our quest to promote truth, justice and the American pie in 2015!

Rick Hynum Editor-in-chief PMQ Pizza Magazine SCAN TO SUBSCRIBE Subscribe to PMQ now! Get your print, digital or mobile edition!

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR RICK HYNUM A P U B L I C AT I O N O F P M Q , I N C . Winner of 5 ASBPE Awards Winner of 4 GAMMA Awards ISSN 1937-5263

PMQ, INC. Publisher Steve Green sg@pmq.com ext. 123

A Fan of Jay Jerrier Love your story on Jay Jerrier, my fave pizzaiolo of all time. I grew up near Jay right outside Boston and am a journalist now in Dallas. I have written more stories about him than anyone—ask him! But in your story, you wrote, “Websites including The Daily Meal, Eater and Thrillist have hailed it as some of the best in the entire country.” GASP! Where is CultureMap on that list?

Co-Publisher Linda Green linda@pmq.com ext. 121 EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Rick Hynum rick@pmq.com ext. 130 Editor at Large Liz Barrett liz@pmq.com Senior Copy Editor Tracy Morin tracy@pmq.com International Correspondent Missy Green missy@pmq.com

Tracy Gubbins Senior Editor Dallas.CultureMap.com Good point, Tracy. Sorry about that. But, hey, thanks for putting CultureMap on our, um, cultural map!

DESIGN/PRODUCTION Art Director Kara Hoffman kara@pmq.com ext. 135 Designer Eric Summers eric@pmq.com Media Producer Daniel Lee Perea dperea@pmq.com ext.139 ADVERTISING Sales Director Linda Green linda@pmq.com ext. 121 Account Executive Clifton Moody clifton@pmq.com ext. 138

Remembering Dad

Account Executive Tom Boyles tom@pmq.com ext. 122

My dad, Joseph Abaté, started his first pizzeria, Luigi’s, in 1956 in the famous New Haven, Connecticut, area. With the help of my mom, Rose, and, later, his seven children, he went on to open several pizza places. When it was time to kick back, he gave the reins to my brother Luigi. Over the last 20-plus years, Luigi— with my help, of course—has opened four very busy pizzerias. Another brother, Joe, also has a pizzeria in the New Haven County area. We lost Dad about 18 years ago and also lost our youngest brother, who was, I would say, the best pizza man there ever was. But the whole family still gets together every Monday night at Mom’s house for dinner, and we always talk about my father and brother in some way that relates to their pizza stores. And we always look up and give thanks, not only to God but to our dad for starting a business that not only gave us a living but let us work at something that we really loved. Well, that’s my story—still going pizza-strong for over 58 years! Prisco Abaté Abaté Pizza & Restaurant North Branford, CT via PizzaHallofFame.com

Account Executive Anna Zemek anna@pmq.com ext 140

Thanks for sharing your family’s story with us, Prisco. We look forward to dropping by for a visit when we’re in the New Haven area!

MARKETING Social Media Director Melanie Addington melanie@pmq.com ext. 133 ADMINISTRATION Chief Financial Officer Shawn Brown shawn@pmq.com Circulation Manager Sherlyn Clark sherlyn@pmq.com ext. 120 Director of Operations/ Event Coordinator Brian Hernandez brian@pmq.com ext. 129 PMQ INTERNATIONAL PMQ China Yvonne Liu yvonne@pmq.com PMQ Australia-NZ Tom Boyles tom@pmqaustralia.com France Pizza Julien Panet jpanet@francepizza.fr Pizza e Pasta Italiana Massimo Puggina redazione@pizzaepastaitaliana.it Spain—pizzanet.es Eduard Jiménez info@pizzanet.es Brazil—Pizzas & Massas Michel Wankenne wankenne@insumos.com.br EDITORIAL ADVISORS Chef Santo Bruno Tom Feltenstein Tom Lehmann Joey Todaro Ed Zimmerman CONTRIBUTORS Chef Santo Bruno Tom Lehmann Michael J. Rasmussen

Share your passion! Have a complaint, compliment or suggestion about something you’ve read in the pages of PMQ? Send your letter via email to editor@pmq.com with “Letter to the Editor” in the subject line, or mail to PMQ, ATTN: Letters to the Editor, 612 McLarty Rd., Oxford, MS 38655. We look forward to hearing from you! Friend us on Facebook! Visit facebook.com/pmqpizzamagazine.

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

Sales Assistant Brandy Pinion brandy@pmq.com ext. 127

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

14 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Volume 18, Issue 10 PMQ Pizza Magazine 605 Edison St. • Oxford, MS 38655 662.234.5481 • 662.234.0665 Fax linda@pmq.com PMQ Pizza Magazine (ISSN #1937-5263) is published 10 times per year. Cost of U.S. subscription is $25 per year. International $35. Periodical postage pricing paid at Oxford, MS. Additional mailing offices at Bolingbrook, IL. Postmaster: Send address changes to: PMQ Pizza Magazine, PO Box 2015, Langhorne, PA 19047. Opinions expressed by the editors and contributing writers are strictly their own, and are not necessarily those of the advertisers. All rights reserved. No portion of PMQ may be reproduced in whole or part without written consent.

introducing

Collection The Cheesemaker’s Reserve™ brand, from Saputo, is a collection that is packed with an assortment of nine unique cheeses, selected specifically for operators who want to offer a variety of cheese boards on their menu. Our cheese selection makes it easy to create an endless variety of cheese boards for snacking and sharing with your own signature garnishes.

CALL (800) 824-3373 OR VISIT SAPUTOUSAFOODSERVICE.COM ©2014 Saputo Cheese USA Inc. Cheesemaker’s Reserve™ is a trademark used by Saputo Cheese USA Inc. The brands and logos shown herein are protected trademarks used by Saputo Cheese USA Inc.

TRACY MORIN

PIZZA PRESS NEWS & VIEWS

Wine and Dine With the Blind

A packed house of attendees took advantage of eight tasting tables—including one with a steady rotation of specialty pizzas fresh from the wood-fired oven—that paired hors d'oeuvres with red and white wines sheathed in paper bags. At the end of the night, the bags were shed to reveal the labels. The business also offered up a gift card—valid for any of its three restaurants—for the silent auction, a great way to support the charity and entice attendees to return.

TRACY MORIN

Bravo! Italian Restaurant & Bar (bravobuzz.com) in Jackson, Mississippi, recently coordinated a creative fundraiser that blended blind wine tastings, food pairings, a silent auction and live music from visually impaired musicians. The sister restaurant of popular pizzeria Sal & Mookie's New York Pizza & Ice Cream Joint (salandmookies.com) hosted its Wine With the Blind event on September 29, with 100% of proceeds from each $25 ticket benefiting the MIB Foundation for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

(Clockwise from top left) Dozens of silent auction items attract bids, with all proceeds benefiting the blind; eight tasting tables serve up light bites and blind wine tastings; attendees pack into Bravo! for Wine With the Blind.

ZEPPE'S PIZZERIA

Ohio chain Zeppe’s Pizzeria (zeppes.com) partnered with Fox 8 Cleveland to help customers celebrate the 2014 football season. In a social media promo called “Just Wing it,” Zeppe’s and Fox 8 invited Northeast Ohioans to upload photos of their “home-gate” parties (tailgate parties held at home) to Twitter or Instagram for a chance to win $1,000 and a Zeppe’s pizza party. Participants used the hashtag #HomegateCLE to enter the contest. As part of the promotion, Zeppe’s also offered an online special for home-gaters: With an order of any extra-large pizza, customers could add a full pound of wings for $3.99.

16 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

PIE FIVE PIZZA CO.

Just Wing It!

Pie-ing It Forward Pie Five Pizza Co. (piefivepizza.com), with 25 locations in eight states, celebrated National Pizza Month in October by spreading the pizza love with its Pie It Forward campaign, designed to “serve up free smiles, one pizza at a time.” Every day in October, one customer was surprised with a free pizza at checkout, plus a Pie It Forward card, good for one free pizza. Recipients were encouraged to pass the gift card to a friend, co-worker or even a complete stranger, thus sparking a “domino effect of generosity.” Guests were also encouraged to share their Pie It Forward stories on social media using the hashtag #pieitforward, with Pie Five selecting random posts throughout the month and rewarding the individuals with a Pie It Forward card and branded swag. “Our Pie It Forward campaign was actually inspired by the many random acts of kindness that take place in our restaurants every day,” explains Christina Coy, director of marketing. “We wanted to do something special for National Pizza Month this year, and this seemed like the perfect way to reward our guests while brightening up their days.”

(Clockwise from top left) The annual Pizza & Prevention fundraiser is a family-friendly event designed to create a safer community; firefighters stay on hand to deliver pizzas and check smoke detectors; employees whip up Punxsy Pizza's signature pie, The Chief. PUNXSY PIZZA

Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, may be better known for its groundhog in February, but when October rolls around, the town rallies for Punxsy Pizza (punxsypizza.com) as owner Scott Anthony hosts his annual Pizza & Prevention fundraiser for the town's three fire departments. The event has been going strong since 2002, with free smoke detectors and batteries distributed to those in need, plus the pizzeria's signature pie (The Chief, a two-square-foot pepperoni pizza) on sale for only $9.11. This year, Anthony rented a trailer to help make the pizzas, while firefighters were on hand to deliver them and check customers' smoke detectors. All proceeds from the sales on October 4 were donated to the fire departments for new equipment and training, ensuring a safer (and well-fed) community.

PUNXSY PIZZA

Fire Sale

During a recent trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee, PMQ senior copy editor Tracy Morin ventured into Community Pie (communitypie.com), opened in 2013 by husband-and-wife team Mike and Taylor Monen, who own three other restaurants in the city. The pizzeria offers New Yorkand Neapolitan-style pizzas; handcrafted gelato from its sister property, Milk & Honey; and an impressive selection of craft beers and cocktails, including Community Wheat Beer (brewed for the pizzeria by Chattanooga Brewing Company). But perhaps the most unique items on the menu were the housemade drinking vinegars—a creative alternative for teetotalers and health nuts alike! Garlic knots made from Community Pie's New York-style dough are a popular starter; the Neapolitan Margherita pizza is crafted with housemade San Marzano tomato sauce and hand-torn basil.

Theo’s Hits the Road Theo's Neighborhood Pizza (theospizza.com), with three locations in New Orleans, has been (figuratively) trucking for a decade, but its recent addition of a mobile food truck proved a perfect vehicle for celebrating 10 years in business. First, the pizzeria drummed up excitement with a 10-week bonanza leading up to the event: Each week, co-owners James “Jammer” Orintas, Greg Dietz and Ted Neikirk added a new menu item to the pizzeria, introducing fizzy favorites like Mexican Coca-Cola, fresh mozzarella as a pizza topping, a barbecue chicken specialty pizza, Thai chicken wings and more. The celebration culminated with the November 1 anniversary, when Theo's parked its new food truck in front of its Magazine Street location, doling out free slices all day and serving up celebratory champagne at each location.

THEO'S PIZZA

TRACY MORIN

Editors at Large

(Top to bottom) Theo's mobile truck doles out free pizza to community supporters on its 10-year anniversary; young Theo's fans enjoy celebratory slices.

December 2014

pmq.com 17

IN LEHMANN’S TERMS TOM “THE DOUGH DOCTOR” LEHMANN

From Thin-Crust to Deep-Dish Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann explains how to create deep-dish pizza by tweaking your thin-crust dough formula. By Tom Lehmann

QUESTION: Can you offer any tips on how to convert my thin-crust pizza dough to a deep-dish dough?

ANSWER: Last month we tackled the pesky problem of tough, chewy deep-dish crusts. So it makes sense to delve a little deeper into the deep-dish dilemma: How do you add deep-dish pizza to your menu when you’ve been making thin-crust dough for all these years? Fortunately, it’s quite doable. I’ve learned a few things over the years on the subject, so I’ll share some tips with you. Here’s a step-by-step process for converting a thin-crust dough formula to a deep-dish formula: 1. Reduce the dough absorption by 3% to 5%. 2. Increase the oil content to 4% or, better yet, replace the oil with a semi-plastic fat such as Crisco, butter or margarine. 3. Increase the yeast level in the dough to 2% (for compressed yeast), 1% (for active dry yeast/ADY) or 0.75% (for instant dry yeast/IDY). 4. Limit the refrigerated shelf life of the dough to no more than 48 hours. 5. Use semi-plastic fat to grease the entire pan for a crust with a dry appearance. Alternately, you can apply the semiplastic fat only to the sides of the pan and use oil in the bottom of the pan to achieve a fried crust characteristic. 6. While your dough can be pressed into the pan, it is better to roll the dough out to a size that’s just a little larger than the pan diameter and fit the dough into the pan. 18

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7. For a flat crust, allow the dough to proof to desired thickness (⅝” to ¾”) before dressing and baking. If the dough will be refrigerated for use later in the day, allow the dough to proof to about ½ to ⅔ of this height before taking it to the cooler. 8. For a raised edge on the crust, allow the dough to proof/ rise for about 20 minutes. Then form a raised edge by using your fingers to pull the dough up the inside edge of the pan. The higher up you pull the dough, the more pronounced the raised edge will be. Then allow the dough to continue rising as described in step 7. Note: Proof times may vary to some extent, but they normally run from 60 to 75 minutes for a fully proofed dough. Be sure to keep the pans of dough covered during proofing to prevent the dough from drying. Tom Lehmann recently retired as the longtime director of bakery assistance for the American Institute of Baking (AIB). He is now an industry consultant dedicated to helping pizzeria operators make more money. Need more dough advice? Visit the Dough Information Center at PMQ.com/dough.

RockTenn Pizza Boxes are Held to the Highest Standard

• Meets FDA requirements for food contact and USDA’s Dairymen’s surface swab standard • Certified by the America Institute of Baking (AIB) • Liner, medium, and finished products routinely tested by independent certified laboratories To learn more, contact us at 816.415.7359 or PizzaBoxes@RockTenn.com.

America’s Leading Pizza Box Maker

NEW YORK’S FINEST CHEF BRUNO

Chef Bruno’s Potato Salad Virgin olive oil takes the place of mayonnaise in this comfort-food classic. By Chef Santo Bruno

SLNY PRODUCTIONS

Chef Bruno cooks up some trouble with his good friends Nick Maccarrone and Anna Aracri of Carnival Pizza in Port Jefferson Station, New York.

ello, my readers! This month’s recipe is for a delicious potato salad, one of the world’s great comfort foods. We often associate potato salad with summertime and picnics, but it’s a great holiday dish as well. Waxy potatoes are the best choice for potato salads because they hold their shape after you boil and dice them and maintain a tender, creamy texture. A lot of people make their potato salads with mayonnaise, but this recipe calls for a dressing with a virgin olive oil base. It’s best to add the dressing while the potatoes are still warm—the olive oil will be completely absorbed by the potatoes. When combined, all of these ingredients come together to make a yummy side dish. Try it at home first, and if you like it, add it to your menu! Mangia!

Chef Bruno is PMQ’s culinary advisor, with more than 40 years of international pizza experience. He is the corporate chef for Marsal & Sons and the culinary coach of the U.S. Pizza Team. 20

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You’ll Need: 2 lb. waxy potatoes 6 tbsp. virgin olive oil 1 lemon, squeezed for all of the juice 1 garlic clove, chopped ¼ tsp. thyme ¼ tsp. basil ¼ tsp. parsley Pinch of oregano, salt and pepper Directions: Wash the potatoes, then boil or steam them until tender. Once they’ve cooled down, peel and dice them. Grab a bowl and mix all of the remaining ingredients together. This will be the dressing for the potato salad. Pour the dressing over the warm potatoes and mix until fully coated. This can be served warm or cold.

Great pizza demands

great cheese.

Successful operators know that great cheese is mandatory when crafting great pizza. Vantaggio delivers the best quality and value in premium mozzarella cheese. Vantaggio cheeses are made from the freshest milk using time-honored traditions of the old world to give it superior flavor, melt, stretch, and consistency, making it the fastest-growing brand in its class. Vantaggio is delivered exclusively by Bellissimo Foods Distributors. Contact your local Bellissimo representative today to taste the multiple varieties of Vantaggio Cheese. Please visit BellissimoFoods.com to locate a distributor in your area, or call 800-813-2974 and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be happy to assist you.

SHERLYN’S PICKS MEET OUR SUBSCRIBERS Sherlyn Curry, PMQ’s circulation manager, shines the spotlight on the true leaders and innovators of the pizza industry: our subscribers.

Lost Pizza Co. lostpizza.com

With its hip, funky atmosphere and extensive selection of specialty pies, this small but growing Mississippi-based pizza chain launched in the tiny Delta town of Indianola in 2007 and quickly expanded to nine more locations, including one in Memphis. Owners Brooks Roberts and Preston Lott have garnered awards from several regional newspapers and magazines and do a masterful job of branding their company with smartly designed graphics and logoed hats, T-shirts, huggies, tumblers and pint jars.

Sugar River Pizza Company

sugarriverpizza.com The Screaming Chicken Pizza, made with a sriracha sauce base and piled with grilled chicken, pineapple, red onions and bacon, is a specialty of the house at this independent pizzeria with locations in New Glarus and Belleville, Wisconsin. The company often customizes its menu for special events, recently hosting a breakfast buffet for the Women of Grace organization and throwing a special birthday party—complete with flowers, balloons, linens and candles—for a loyal customer.

Giovanni’s Roast Beef & Pizza originalgiovannis.com With 10 locations in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Giovanni’s features a diverse menu with wide appeal. In addition to pizza and calzones, Giovanni’s offers roast beef, cheese steak, pastrami and other sandwiches, along with 10 pasta entrees and five kids meals. The company’s Facebook page boasts more than 1,800 likes, plus plenty of appetizing photos of pizzas, burgers and more. Online ordering is available at all 10 Giovanni’s stores.

George’s Cucina Italiana

georgescucina.com With its rustic Old-World design and cozy atmosphere, George’s bills itself as a “hidden treasure” in Glendale, California. Jazz guitarist Georgic sets a romantic mood for customers on Saturday nights, while an impressive wine list helps to round out the date-night experience. Specialty pizzas include the Prosciutto Pomodoro and Chicken Cilantro pizzas, plus a breakfast pie featuring two eggs and mozzarella and feta cheeses.

Subscribe to PMQ: pmq.com/subscribe 22

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Old School Pizza Toppings

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ACCOUNTING FOR YOUR MONEY MICHAEL J. RASMUSSEN, CPA

How to Cure the Pain of Plate Costing To reduce expenses, pizzeria operators need to break their food costs down to a per-ingredient basis and factor in quantities of items sold. By Michael J. Rasmussen

QUESTION: I know that plate costing is important, but it seems almost impossible. How can I do a better job of keeping track of it?

ANSWER: It all starts with finding the right software. Unfortunately, not all plate-costing programs are created equally. Let’s say that cash flow is an urgent problem for you, so a consultant tells you to buy the latest software for $200 to $500, then asks for recipes for all of your menu items. In your gut, you know this will be a time-consuming process, but you’re desperate. Over time, you gather recipes scrawled on napkins and scratch paper from around your pizzeria and home office and bring them to the consultant in an old pizza box. Once you’ve finally gotten them organized for analysis, the consultant asks for invoices so he can get current pricing and match the ingredients and their individual costs with the multiple vendors from whom you purchase your ingredients. All of this takes time, but eventually, the consultant comes up with your exact plate costs. Unfortunately, they’re based on invoices that are now several weeks old. And many, if not all, of the prices have changed! The plate costing software you’ve been using is not designed to accommodate this real-time change, and even more work will be required to update the pricing. And you ultimately learn that knowing your ingredient costs 24 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

isn’t enough—you also need to factor in the quantities of each item sold. Meanwhile, you’re still bleeding cash! I recommend using a cost-plating system that will diagnose your food costs per ingredient category and keep up with changes in vendor prices as they occur in real time. Then you can better determine where your excessive ingredient costs are occurring and work with your suppliers to drill down further and identify the potential problems per plate. For example, if you take a mix of items sold during a certain time period and look at the total costs of one common ingredient in those items, such as cheese, during that period, you can quickly determine your cheese costs related to menu items sold that use cheese. Then you can sit down with your supplier and talk about cost-control strategies—such as brand selection, purchasing power, discounts, volume rebates, promotions and portion control—and monitor your cheese costs on a per-day basis in aggregate (not just by price). This method allows you to start performing triage on your ingredients right away rather than waiting for a theoretical plate cost that could take weeks to figure out! Have a question for Mike? Send it to editor@pmq.com.

Michael J. Rasmussen is the owner of Rasmussen Tax Group (rasmussentaxgroup.com) in Conway, Arkansas. He is also the co-owner of Eyenalyze (eyenalyze.com), a company that provides real-time profit analysis for restaurant owners.

FEATURE STORY SPECIALTY CHEESES

SAPUTO CHEESE INC

Seize the Cheese! As customers demand more artisanal options, these six versatile cheeses will boost your pizza’s flavor profile while keeping food costs down. By Missy Green Assink

here’s a cheese for every taste and every occasion. While mozzarella, with its adaptable flavor and gooey texture, reigns supreme in pizza applications, many customers crave more adventurous alternatives, and the wise pizza maker is always experimenting with a variety of cheeses in search of that perfect signature recipe. If you’re looking to offer your customers more artisanal options, these six versatile cheeses—recommended by chef Mark "The Cheese Dude" Todd from the California Milk Advisory Board—will boost your pizza’s flavor profile while keeping food costs down.

1. Aged Asiago: Keep Behind the Counter In its American version, this whole-milk cheese is a hard, grating cheese, a far cry from its fresh and supple Italian ancestor. Asiago can be compared to Parmesan as a crumbly, dry cheese perfect for finishing off a pizza, pasta or practically any Italian dish. Asiago differs from Parmesan, however, in its texture, which is creamier and similar to an aged cheddar. And, unlike Parmesan, it’s not a cheese you’d leave out on tables; Asiago’s higher fat content prevents it from ever getting hard and dry enough to stay in shakers without gumming up, and it’s not cheap. You’ll want to use Asiago sparingly behind the counter and make sure it doesn’t have to compete with other flavors. Sprinkle a little aged Asiago on a pizza just after the pie is fully cooked to add a unique aromatic and textural quality.

WISCONSIN MILK MARKETING BOARD

December 2014

pmq.com 27

WISCONSIN MILK MARKETING BOARD

2. Blue Cheese: A Little Dab’ll Do Ya Blue cheese currently ranks as the fifth most common cow-milk cheese on pizzeria menus in the United States, according to Technomic’s MenuMonitor. Its potent odor and occasional foreign spelling (bleu) reminds one of France, its country of origin. Blue is a sister cheese to Gorgonzola, whose signature blue mold originally spawned from bread yeast that transferred to the cheese through the air. In Italy, Gorgonzola developed from wheat bread yeast, while rye bread, which is much more common in France, yielded blue cheese. Blue cheese’s most distinguishing feature today is its sharp potency, as opposed to the earthier, creamier Gorgonzola. Both pair well with sweet and salty ingredients such as fruit, nuts and cured ham. Chef Mark Todd (also known as The Cheese Dude) from the California Milk Advisory Board suggests using blue cheese in a spread. “Mix it with whatever cream you have in stock,” he says. “You can even add a little extra blue cheese to your blue cheese dressing. Keep in mind, though, that you must use mozzarella on top to keep everything in place. Dressing will have a tendency to run, and you really only need a small amount to get the flavor you want.” For topping a blue cheese pizza base, Todd suggests a hearty meat, such as sausage or beef; nuts or salad greens; or seasonal fruits for an innovative dessert pizza. WISCONSIN MILK MARKETING BOARD

3. Ricotta: All About the Texture Affordable and plentiful, ricotta is a super-soft, fresh cheese historically produced from leftover whey after mozzarella cheese production. The texture can be compared to cottage cheese, with smaller curds and a sweeter, milkier taste. Ricotta is found throughout Italian cuisine and comes in three varieties: whole-milk, part-skim and fat-free. The whole-milk variety is excellent for a lasagna or cannelloni, while part-skim is used primarily for ravioli to keep the cheese from running. Fat-free, meanwhile, can be used to crumble onto salads. Unfortunately, the fat-free variety doesn’t melt, so it doesn’t look as great on a pizza. But ricotta isn’t about appearance—it’s about texture, and it carries flavors wonderfully. Mix it with chives, garlic or salt to transmit a burst of creamy flavor. There’s one caveat: Ricotta is a moist cheese, so it can make your pizza crust droopy. It typically works best on a pizza that doesn’t have a tomato sauce base. Try applying your mixture with a pastry sleeve to keep portions small and consistent. 28 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Bacon, Kale and Potato Pizza With Asiago Recipe and photo provided by Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board

1 12" prepared pizza dough/shell ¼ c. olive oil, for brushing and drizzling 2 tsp. (½ oz.) roasted garlic, minced 2 c. (2½ oz.) curly kale, chopped Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper to taste Crushed red pepper flakes to taste 4 1-oz. slices fresh mozzarella 1 c. (4 oz.) Asiago cheese, shredded and divided 1 c. (4 oz.) Yukon gold potatoes, sliced and roasted with olive oil to al dente 2 oz. thick-cut bacon, cooked and diced Shaved Asiago for garnish, if desired Directions: Preheat oven to 425°F. Brush pizza dough or shell with olive oil; top with garlic. In medium bowl, toss kale with drizzle of olive oil and season with salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Arrange mozzarella slices over crust and top with ½ c. shredded Asiago. Layer potatoes over top, followed by kale and diced bacon. Finish with remaining shredded Asiago. Bake until crust is lightly browned and bubbling and cheese is melted. Transfer flatbread to work surface, drizzle lightly with olive oil, season to taste, and if desired, finish with additional shaved Asiago. Makes 1 12" pizza.

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Bang for Your Buck Reasonably priced and loaded with flavor, feta goes a long way on pizzas and in salads. It’s most commonly known as an exotic, punWISCONSIN MILK MARKETING BOARD gent Greek cheese, but it is, in fact, the same stuff as your basic bland farmer’s cheese. The key difference is the use of an accelerant called lipase, which speeds up the aging process. Lipase gives feta its defining sharp taste. Ever faithful to its heritage, this cheese is commonly used on Greek or Mediterranean pizzas and appetizers. If you’re feeling adventurous, take stock of your Mediterranean toppings—such as roasted peppers, olives, pepperoncini and red onions—and combine them with feta. Chef Todd suggests combining feta with green olives and julienned prosciutto (which is more affordable than prosciutto in large slices). He also recommends a tossed watermelon, feta and mint salad topped with cracked black pepper for a summertime treat. The ingredients are abundant and cheap in season, Todd notes, and make a refreshing dish.

5. Aged Provolone: The Perfect Blend Aged provolone is a firm, elastic, fairly hard cheese that’s perfect for use in a cheese blend with mozzarella. It’s dry but high in fat, which makes it great for melting as a 5%, 10% or 15% blend with standard pizza cheese. Its flavor bite comes from the addition of lipase, which gets stronger as the cheese ages. One or two years of aging is standard with aged provolone—you probably don’t want to age it for more than three years. It’s also shreddable and has an extended shelf life. Best of all, it packs a flavorful punch and livens up any mozzarella dish.

Chicken Santa Fe Pizza

Recipe and photo provided by Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

3 cloves garlic, minced, divided ¼ tsp. chili powder, or to taste 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper, or to taste ½ tsp. paprika, or to taste Salt and pepper to taste 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast 1 red pepper, julienned 1 Spanish onion, julienned ½ c. olive oil ¼ c. white wine ½ c. marinara sauce ½ c. salsa 1 (16-oz.) pizza dough ball ¾ c. (3 oz.) cheddar cheese, shredded ¾ c. (3 oz.) mozzarella cheese, shredded 1 c. (4 oz.) pepper jack cheese, shredded 1 tbsp. cilantro, chopped

30 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Directions: Combine half of the garlic and all of the chili powder, cayenne and paprika. Add salt and pepper. Rub chicken with mixture and refrigerate in closed plastic bag 1 to 4 hours. Grill the chicken on stovetop or outdoor grill. Slice thinly. Preheat oven to 500°F. Sauté peppers and onions with remaining garlic in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste; add white wine. Cook 3 minutes, keeping vegetables firm. Remove from heat and set aside. In small bowl, mix marinara and salsa together for sauce. Set aside. Form dough into a 12" circle and place on pizza stone or in pizza pan. Spread sauce over dough; sprinkle with cheddar and mozzarella. Top pizza with reserved peppers and onion, then chicken, and finally pepper jack. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro.

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6. Monterey Jack: America’s Fastest-Growing Cheese Often overlooked, Monterey Jack is the fastest-growing cheese in America, finding a place on menus in quick-service and fastcasual restaurants alike. Monterey Jack doesn’t have a strong flavor of its own, but it carries other flavors beautifully in varieties such as pepper jack, rosemary jack or even habanero jack. It has a creamy, buttery, mellow flavor with no biting edge. It’s a noncontroversial little cheese that’s palatable to nearly everyone. Since the American palate is turning toward spicy flavors, according to the California Milk Advisory Board, pepper jack is a fine way to add a little heat to your pizza. Pepper jack can be used for a Mexican-style pizza or on salads. It’s great in a blend, too, because its high fat content allows the cheese to melt and flow beautifully on a pizza without browning.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Recipe and photo provided by Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board

6 oz. cooked chicken breast, sliced ½" thick 6 tbsp. hot pepper sauce for buffalo wings (such as Red Hot brand) ¾ c. sour cream 1 (12") pre-baked pizza crust ½ c. (2 oz.) shredded Monterey Jack cheese ¾ c. (3 oz.) crumbled blue cheese 1 oz. green onions, chopped 2 oz. celery, minced Directions: Toss the cooked chicken with the red pepper sauce and marinate overnight. The next day, preheat the oven to 475°F. Place the pizza crust on a pizza pan or large baking sheet. Spread the sour cream evenly over the crust. Sprinkle the Monterey Jack over the sour cream. Arrange the marinated chicken on top of the cheese. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the cheese is lightly browned and bubbly. Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the crumbled blue, green onions, and celery. Serves: 4

Missy Green Assink is PMQ's international correspondent.

PMQ Pizza Magazine

The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

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FEATURE STORY PIZZA POWER REPORT

R E W O P A ZZ

2015 IN

S I S Y L A N A Y R T S U D

From the past year’s moneymaking trends to legislative challenges coming in 2015, the Pizza Power Report offers insights for competing in a fast-changing industry. By Rick Hynum

amburgers may still be America’s No. 1 restaurant food, but make no mistake: Pizza is a whole lot cooler. When pop superstar Katy Perry got hungry in the middle of a concert in Kansas City, Missouri, this summer, she didn’t dial up the local Wendy’s. She ordered a pepperoni pie from hometown favorite Minsky’s Pizza (minskys.com) and brought a young fan onstage to share a slice. Jimmy Fallon took a similar tack in March when he surprised his Tonight Show guest Tina Fey with a cheesy onair treat—a carryout order from the legendary Pica’s Pizza (picas-restaurant.com) in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Celebrities and actors from Ellen DeGeneres to Steve Carell and Jennifer Garner have been making headlines all year by ordering pizza for their audiences and for each other. And independent pizzerias, such as the Original Barone’s Famous Italian Restaurant (baronesfamousitalian.com), and small chains like Big Mama’s and Papa’s (bigmamaspizza.com), both based in

Los Angeles, have been getting most of the love. Even former child star Macaulay Culkin has gotten into the act, touring the country with a novelty band that puts a Weird Al-style pizza twist on old Velvet Underground tunes. Eat your heart out, Whataburger! Considering that pizza has become such a cultural touchstone from coast to coast, it’s no surprise that U.S. pizza restaurant sales grew a little bit over the past year even as the economy continued to drag. All of the industry’s leading research firms—including Technomic, CHD Expert, Mintel, Euromonitor and the National Restaurant Association (NRA)—agree that key sales figures are up, although challenges await us in 2015. Once again, we’ll crunch the numbers to uncover key sales figures for independents and chains alike, and we’ll also share insights from leading operators and researchers about noteworthy trends that will impact our readers in 2015. Let’s get started!

Pizza Power Report_December14.indd 37

December 2014

pmq.com 37

11/11/14 4:27 PM

U.S. Pizza Sales - $38,524,732,336.00 Year Ending September 2014

Independents 40.89% Other Chains 20.16% Pizza Hut 14.79% Domino's 9.86% Little Caesars 7.85% Papa John's 6.45% Source: © CHD Expert and Technomic

U.S. Pizza Stores - 73,097 Year Ending September 2014

Independents 54.25% Other Chains 20.16% Pizza Hut 8.65% Domino's 6.82% Little Caesars 5.32% Papa John's 4.38%

Comparing 2014 and 2013 Sales Figures While compiling last year’s Pizza Power Report, we found our industry sources— such as CHD Expert, Euromonitor and Technomic—didn’t always agree on sales growth. For example, CHD Expert showed a decline in 2013’s total pizza restaurant sales, while Euromonitor showed some growth in North America for 2013, and Technomic’s figures indicated higher sales for the top chains for 2012. In the end, we opted to split the difference between the conflicting reports and arrived at our own estimates showing positive growth in total pizza restaurant sales of 1.16% in 2013. Since all of our sources for this year’s reports agree that the industry saw positive growth over the past year, we will stick with CHD Expert’s figures for overall pizza restaurant sales and forgo making our own estimates. However, it was necessary to compare certain figures from this year to PMQ’s estimated figures from the previous year.

Source: © CHD Expert and Technomic

Sales Figures and Store Counts It’s safe to say the pizza restaurant industry has entered the mature stage of its life cycle. Many towns and cities have reached the limit of pizza restaurants that their populations can support. That makes it harder for operators to open new stores and for new operators to get into the business. It also means that increasing sales-per-unit—rather than opening new stores—is a key driver of industry revenue. Having said that, pizza sales in the States still rose over the past year, reaching $38,524,732,336 by the year ending September 30, 2014, according to data from CHD Expert. That’s a 3.08% increase over PMQ’s estimated sales figure of $37,375,108,000 for the industry in 2013. (See sidebar on this page about last year’s estimated sales figures.) 38

PMQ Pizza Magazine

The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Meanwhile, total pizza store counts in the U.S. jumped by more than 2% over the past year, and the majority of that increase came from independent operators. For the year ending September 30, the total number of stores came to 73,097, a jump of 1,710 from last year’s total store count of 71,387. Additionally, CHD Expert found that more new stores opened this year, with 4,107 new units compared to 2013’s figure of 3,981 new stores. Meanwhile, far fewer pizza shops closed their doors—only 1,181 units shut down in 2014, while 2013 saw closure of 2,038 stores. Independent pizza operations now account for 54.3% of all pizzerias in the country, up 1.1% from the 2013 figure of 53.2%. About 45.7% are chains, compared to 47% in the previous year. (For the record, we always define independents as pizzerias with fewer than 10 units; any company with more

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Is Your State Independent- or Chain-Dominant? State

Independent

Chains

Total Units

% Independent

Connecticut

1114

170

1284

86.76%

Vermont

149

176

84.66%

New Jersey

2351

477

2828

83.13%

New York

4383

895

5278

83.04%

Massachusetts

1940

422

2362

82.13%

New Hampshire

418

512

81.64%

Pennsylvania

3496

1035

4531

77.16%

Rhode Island

289

378

76.46%

Maine

283

115

398

71.11%

Alaska

104

150

69.33%

120

65.83%

Delaware

208

109

317

65.62%

Nevada

353

289

642

54.98%

Ohio

2091

1719

3810

54.88%

Florida

2423

2030

4453

54.41%

Maryland

720

608

1328

54.22%

Illinois

1612

1436

3048

52.89%

California

3413

3365

6778

50.35%

South Carolina

477

480

957

49.84%

Wisconsin

625

634

1259

49.64%

Michigan

1400

1431

2831

49.45%

North Carolina

983

1008

1991

49.37%

Montana

128

133

261

49.04%

Virginia

858

893

1751

49.00%

Washington

644

702

1346

47.85%

Indiana

922

1020

1942

47.48%

West Virginia

276

315

591

46.70%

Colorado

492

570

1062

46.33%

Hawaii

147

46.26%

Oregon

407

485

892

45.63%

Utah

242

298

540

44.81%

Idaho

166

210

376

44.15%

North Dakota

175

44.00%

Arkansas

294

406

700

42.00%

Minnesota

543

792

1335

40.67%

Georgia

649

972

1621

40.04%

Arizona

453

684

1137

39.84%

New Mexico

485

822

1307

38.39%

Tennessee

297

518

815

37.11%

Oklahoma

131

36.44%

Wyoming

355

652

1007

35.88%

Kentucky

1516

2831

4347

35.25%

Texas

210

476

686

34.87%

Louisiana

461

1046

1507

30.61%

Missouri

228

525

753

30.59%

Alabama

123

296

419

30.28%

Nebraska

151

213

29.36%

310

802

1112

29.11%

123

328

451

27.88%

Mississippi

188

531

719

27.27%

Kansas

124

488

612

26.15%

TOTAL

39659

33727

73386

Chain-Dominant States

Eighty-six percent of pizzerias in Connecticut, home of New Haven pizza, are independently owned. Kansas, the birthplace of Pizza Hut, is dominated by chains; only 26% of its pizzerias are independents.

Source: CHD Expert

South Dakota Iowa

Independent-Dominant States

40 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

than 10 stores is considered a chain.) Even so, chains accounted for the majority of industry sales, with $22,768,432,380 in 2014, compared to $21,425,686,281 the previous year, CHD Expert reports. Independent restaurants accounted for $15,756,299,956 this past year, up from CHD Expert’s estimate of $14,481,887,024 for 2013. Technomic, meanwhile, reported data for the top 50 pizzeria chains in 2013 relative to 2012. Again, the numbers were up in 2013, totaling $21,546,298,000, with per-unit sales averaging $772,130 (among 27,905 units). Compare that to 2012, when the top 50 chains’ sales equaled $20,915,245,000 with per-unit averages of $721,995 (among 27,414 units). That means the top 50 experienced a total sales increase of $631,053,000 while store counts increased by a total of 491 units.

The Big Freeze Sales for frozen pizza seem to have, well, frozen, over the past five years, and no thaw is expected soon. According to Mintel, sales

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grew by only 0.2% in 2014 for a total of $5.5 billion and will likely remain flat into 2019. Mintel blames stagnant sales on a somewhat improved economy as “more customers opt for costlier restaurant/takeout/delivery pizza over more affordable frozen pizza.” Not surprisingly, two-thirds of respondents to a Mintel survey said that restaurant pizza tastes better than the store-bought variety. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 34 and those with children were more likely to eat frozen pizza, but that demographic isn’t forecast to grow as quickly as the general population over the next five years. Nestlé S.A. dominated the retail pizza business with a market share of roughly 40% and an estimated $2 billion in sales through the year ending February 13, 2014. Its top brands include DiGiorno, Tombstone and CPK (California Pizza Kitchen). Nestlé rolled out its new Digiorno’s Pizzeria! line during this period, achieving $89 million in first-year sales. Like other DiGiorno offerings, the Pizzeria! brand attempts to mimic restaurant-style pizza, demonstrating the ongoing appeal of authentic and fresh-made pies. Rounding out the big three, Schwan Food Company (makers of Red Baron, Freschetta and Tony’s) reported $877 million in sales this past year, while General Mills (Totino’s and Jeno’s) followed with $424 million in sales.

Overall Restaurant Growth For the fifth straight year, the restaurant industry in general showed modest growth, with sales expected to hit another record high in 2014, according to the NRA’s 2014 Restaurant Industry Forecast. The NRA credits a stronger economy and “historically high levels of pent-up demand among consumers” for the

(Based on 2013 sales)

SALES

UNITS

AVERAGE SALES PER UNIT

AVERAGE SALES INCREASE

Pizza Hut

5,700,000

Domino's Pizza

3,800,000

3,500,000

Little Caesars

3,025,000

2,900,000

4.3

Papa John's

2,485,317

2,384,203

4.2

Papa Murphy's Pizza

779,730

CiCi's Pizza

467,000

505,000

-7.5

Chuck E. Cheese's

384,000

388,000

-1.0

Round Table Pizza

378,000

363,000

Sbarro

370,000

405,000

Godfather's Pizza

327,600

Hungry Howie's Pizza

296,500

290,800

Jet's Pizza

267,998

236,000

Marco's Pizza

233,500

190,392

22.6

Pizza Ranch

191,145

174,952

9.3

Peter Piper Pizza

180,642

170,600

Donatos Pizza

174,000

Papa Gino's Pizzeria

145,395

Mazzio's Italian Eatery

135,000

Fox's Pizza Den

134,300

Gatti's Pizza

133,992

Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen

118,500

Pizza Pro

113,600

Rosati's Pizza

104,500

Famous Famiglia

96,900

Pizza Inn

96,219

106,889

Greek's Pizzeria

96,000

Ledo Pizza

88,300

89,000

-0.8

Mountain Mike's Pizza

87,200

85,000

2.6

Shakey's Pizza Parlor

76,000

Wolfgang Puck Express

75,100

Happy's Pizza

74,500

73,000

Imo's Pizza

69,200

68,000

1.8

Monkey Joe's

67,200

68,000

-1.2

Monical's Pizza

59,566

Me-N-Ed's Pizzeria

58,500

0.0

ZPizza

57,800

55,500

4.1

Dion's Pizza

54,500

Simple Simon's Pizza

49,500

0.0

Pizza Factory

48,700

47,500

2.5

Pizza Patron

46,900

44,000

6.6

Stevi B's The Ultimate Pizza Buffet

45,300

43,000

Sarpino's Pizzeria

42,665

Vocelli Pizza

41,100

Toppers Pizza

40,529

34,585

Bellacino's Pizza & Grinders

40,300

Extreme Pizza

39,000

Happy Joe's Pizza & Ice Cream

38,600

East of Chicago Pizza

37,400

Amato's Pizza

Johnny's Pizza House

42 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

CHAIN NAME

2013 U.S. SALES (X 1,000)

2012 U.S. SALES (X 1,000)

SALES % CHANGE 0.0 8.6

733,800

318,000

172,700

6.3

4.1 -8.6 *

3.0

13.6

2.0

5.9 *

0.8

143,500

-5.9

138,000

-2.7

114,200

3.8

114,000

-0.4

101,000

3.5

103,000

-5.9

147,844

-1.7

133,329

0.5

-10.0 0.0

76,000 75,000

0.0 *

2.1

57,748

3.1

50,000

9.0

37,257 *

42,500

0.1

5.3 14.5

-3.3

46,700

-13.7

37,500

4.0

40,000

-3.5

36,500

2.5

37,200

36,000

3.3

36,400

34,246

6.3

17.2

Source: Technomic *= Technomic Estimate

2013 U.S. UNITS

2012 U.S. UNITS

UNIT % CHANGE

2013 AVG UNIT $

2012 AVG UNIT $

AVG UNIT CHANGE

6,326

6,209

1.9

$901,043

$918,022

-1.85%

4,986

4,928

1.2

$762,134

$710,227

7.31%

5.9

$777,635

$789,545

-1.51%

2.4

$774,966

$761,483

1.77%

5.0

$558,546

$552,144

1.16%

-13.3

$979,036

$918,182

6.63%

3,890

3,673

3,207

3,131

1,396

1,329

477

550

542

535

1.3

$708,487

$725,234

-2.31%

436

439

-0.7

$866,972

$826,879

4.85%

572

602

-5.0

$646,853

$672,757

-3.85%

630

0.0

$520,000

$504,762

3.02%

544

548

-0.7

$545,037

$530,657

2.71%

301

283

6.4

$890,359

$833,922

6.77%

422

331

27.5

$553,318

$575,202

-3.80%

180

174

3.4

$1,061,917

$1,005,471

5.61%

2.2

$1,921,723

$1,854,348

3.63%

153

158

-3.2

$1,137,255

$1,093,038

4.05%

176

179

-1.7

$826,108

$825,944

0.02%

140

154

-9.1

$964,286

$931,818

3.48%

262

270

-3.0

$512,595

$511,111

0.29%

104

112

-7.1

$1,288,385

$1,190,438

8.23%

211

216

-2.3

$561,611

$528,704

6.22%

444

430

3.3

$255,856

$265,116

-3.49%

170

167

1.8

$614,706

$604,790

1.64%

112

120

-6.7

$865,179

$858,333

0.80%

182

202

-9.9

$528,676

$529,153

-0.09%

146

144

1.4

$657,534

$666,667

-1.37%

2.1

$910,309

$936,842

-2.83%

153

145

5.5

$569,935

$586,207

-2.78%

-3.5

$1,381,818

$1,333,333

3.64%

0.0

$1,597,872

$1,595,745

0.13%

-7.2

$967,532

$879,518

10.01%

0.0

$760,440

$747,253

1.76%

-7.9

$1,158,621

$1,079,365

7.34%

1.6

$916,400

$902,313

1.56%

1.8

$1,026,316

$1,044,643

-1.75%

1.1

$642,222

$623,596

2.99%

0.0

$3,027,778

$2,777,778

9.00%

220

0.0

$225,000

0.00%

113

111

1.8

$430,973

$427,928

0.71%

104

0.0

$450,962

$423,077

6.59%

4.3

$924,490

$914,894

1.05%

2.2

$927,500

$827,933

12.03%

-5.1

$441,935

$433,673

1.91%

2.0

$794,686

$691,700

14.89%

-11.4

$650,000

$667,143

-2.57%

5.0

$928,571

$937,500

-0.95%

-1.9

$742,308

$754,717

-1.64%

0.0

$505,405

$493,243

2.47%

0.0

$775,000

$750,000

3.33%

0.0

$910,000

$856,150

6.29%

Source: Technomic *= Technomic Estimate

PIZZA CUCINOVA

Sbarro jumped into the burgeoning fast-casual segment last year when it opened two Pizza Cucinova locations in Columbus, Ohio.

boost, as overall restaurant sales are projected to reach $683.4 billion in 2014, an increase of 3.6% from 2013. Even so, the NRA forecast says, “The gains remain below what would be expected during a normal post-recession period.” The restaurant industry remains the nation’s second-largest private-sector employer, with 13.5 million people working in the business. Restaurants are projected to add jobs at a national rate of 2.8% this year. Over the next 10 years, the fastest restaurant job growth is projected to occur in Arizona with a rate of 15.6%, followed by Texas with 15.3% and Florida with 15%. Nevada (14.7%) and Georgia (14.4%) round out the top five states with the fastest restaurant job growth.

Fast-Casual Speeds Up The fast-casual pizza boom—based on the Chipotle Mexican Grill/Subway service model—was the talk of the industry in 2013, and the buzz has only grown louder this year. It’s already mushroomed into a $21 billion-per-year industry, according to NPD Group. According to Technomic, 55% of pizza consumers now purchase fast-casual pizza at least once per month, and franchised eateries based on the model are multiplying across the landscape. In fact, a forecast from Telsey Advisory Group this fall predicted that as many as 2,000 fast-casual pizza stores could open over the next five years.

December 2014

pmq.com 43

Pizzerias Per Capita Ranked by State Above Average State

No. of Pop. (2013 U.S. Stores Census Data)

Stores/ 10,000 People

New Hampshire

512

1,323,349

3.87

Iowa

1112

3,090,416

3.60

Rhode Island

378

1,051,511

3.59

Connecticut

1284

3,596,080

3.57

Pennsylvania

4531

12,773,801

3.55

Massachusetts

2362

6,692,824

3.53

Delaware

317

925,749

3.42

Ohio

3810

11,570,808

3.29

West Virginia

591

1,854,304

3.19

New Jersey

2828

8,899,339

3.18

Maine

398

1,328,302

3.00

Indiana

1942

6,570,902

2.96

Michigan

2831

9,895,622

2.86

Vermont

176

626,630

2.81

New York

5278

19,651,127

2.69

Montana

261

1,015,165

2.57

South Dakota

213

844,877

2.52

Average State

No. of Pop. (2013 U.S. Stores Census Data)

Stores/ 10,000 People

Missouri

1507

6,044,171

2.49

Kansas

719

2,893,957

2.48

Minnesota

1335

5,420,380

2.46

North Dakota

175

723,393

2.42

Illinois

3048

12,882,135

2.37

Arkansas

700

2,959,373

2.37

Idaho

376

1,612,136

2.33

Nevada

642

2,790,136

2.30

Kentucky

1007

4,395,295

2.29

Florida

4453

19,552,860

2.28

Oregon

892

3,930,065

2.27

Wyoming

131

582,658

2.25

Nebraska

419

1,868,516

2.24

Maryland

1328

5,928,814

2.24

Wisconsin

1259

5,742,713

2.19

Virginia

1751

8,260,405

2.12

Oklahoma

815

3,850,568

2.12

New Hampshire has the highest number of pizzerias per capita (3.87). Hawaii is the 50th state in pizza density (1.05).

Below Average State

No. of Pop. (2013 U.S. Stores Census Data)

Stores/ 10,000 People

Alaska

150

2.04

735,132

North Carolina

1991

9,848,060

2.02

Colorado

1062

5,268,367

2.02

Tennessee

1307

6,495,978

2.01

South Carolina

957

4,774,839

2.00

Washington

1346

6,971,406

1.93

Utah

540

2,900,872

1.86

120

646,449

1.86

California

6778

38,332,521

1.77

Arizona

1137

6,626,624

1.72

Texas

4347

26,448,193

1.64

1621

9,992,167

1.62

753

4,833,722

1.56

New Mexico

323

2,085,287

1.55

Mississippi

451

2,991,207

1.51

Louisiana

686

4,625,470

1.48

Hawaii

147

1,404,054

1.05

44 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Source: CHD Expert

Georgia Alabama

As we reported last year, a couple of long-established pizza giants have helped spur the growth, with Pizza Inn Holdings launching Dallas-based Pie Five Pizza (piefivepizza.com) and Sbarro opening Pizza Cucinova (pizzacucinova.com) in Columbus, Ohio. But restaurant chains with no previous pizza affiliation have also joined the movement—Buffalo Wild Wings owns a stake in PizzaRev (pizzarev.com), headquartered in Los Angeles, and Chipotle itself jumped into the category in December 2013 with Denver-based Pizzeria Locale (pizzerialocale.com). “There are a lot of companies vying for position right now,” observes John Arena, co-owner of the five-store Metro Pizza (metropizza.com) in Las Vegas. “Two years ago, everyone was saying, ‘I’m going to be the Chipotle of pizza.’ Well, now, as it turns out, Chipotle is going to be the Chipotle of pizza with Pizzeria Locale. In the end, there will be only two or three major players.” For now, though, the field is packed with competitors. Blaze Pizza (blazepizza.com) opened its 40th store in early October and has commitments to open 315 company-owned and franchised units in 33 states and Washington, D.C. Meanwhile, Pie Five Pizza has 26 franchises, while Uncle Maddio’s Pizza

Joint (unclemaddios.com) lays claim to 25 stores and PizzaRev touts 19 locations. Other leaders include Pieology (pieology. com) with 35 stores, Mod Pizza (modpizza.com) with 23, and Your Pie (yourpie.com) with 21. San Diego-based Project Pie (projectpie.com) was the first to expand overseas, opening six stores in the Philippines over the last two years in addition to its seven stores in the U.S. Buxton, a customer analytics firm, reports that Millennials are particularly captivated by fast-casual pizza because it’s relatively low-priced—typically between $8 and $10 per meal— and made to their specifications. Restaurants in this category also make smart use of social media in their marketing strategies, appealing to younger consumers who live and die by their mobile devices. Strapped for cash, tech-savvy and always in a hurry, Millennials “want what they want when they want it,” a Buxton study found. “Millennials want to be active co-creators; they want to interact with brands and interact with their food— which is the exact model of fast-casual pizza concepts.” Fast-casual is “a service style that speaks to a particular generation and a demographic that everyone wants to reach,” Arena agrees. “It’s a concept based on a system more than a particular food, and, if you can make it work with your food niche, it resonates with young people. That service style of building to order lends itself to the ‘I’m special’ mindset. It’s a phenomenon I call ‘let’s all be different together.’”

EMILY LOVING

High-quality ingredients and authentic Neapolitan pizza are hallmarks of Jay Jerrier’s Cane Rosso concept, with four stores in the Dallas area.

Still, Jay Jerrier, owner of Cane Rosso (ilcanerosso.com) and Zoli’s NY Pizza (zolispizza.com) in Dallas, believes the fastcasual bubble will burst soon enough. “I think there are 10 or 11 opening in Dallas right now,” he says. “There’s no way they can all survive.” The concept wouldn’t work for him anyway, Jerrier adds. “I have zero interest in propagating that highvolume model. I can price my pizzas at six dollars, but now I’ve got to sell a thousand of them before it gets interesting. Why would you want to do that? I’ll let someone else have that crazy lunch business and make all my money at dinner and on the weekends, when people don’t want to go to those places.”

December 2014

pmq.com 45

Only 22% of customers say they rein in their pizza cravings due to health concerns, down from 28% in 2012. Just 34% say they want pizzerias to offer healthier pizzas, a decrease from 40% in 2012. —Technomic I can make it myself. Customers want to understand the provenance of where their food comes from. You’re going to see a lot more thoughtful sourcing from pizzerias. It’s a big thing for us in the pizza business.”

The Neapolitan Evolution

DANIEL PEREA

John Arena, co-owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas, believes that pizzeria owners will have to raise their prices to offset the higher costs of doing business in 2015.

Better Pizza, Local Ingredients The proliferation of fast-casual pizza concepts proves that affordability and convenience are major factors in the consumer’s dining decision. But many customers are still quite picky about quality, and artisanal pizza with premium ingredients maintains a strong appeal. According to Technomic, more customers now opt for nontraditional pizza ingredients, such as mushroom sauce, provolone, steak and pineapple. Forty-three percent say they like their preferred pizza restaurant because it uses high-quality, fresh ingredients, and 64% say they want more pizzerias to offer premium ingredients. For many consumers, local sourcing has become synonymous with quality. “Today’s consumers are preoccupied with fresh and locally sourced foods as identifiers of both highquality and ‘better for you’ fare,” writes Technomic president and CEO Ron Paul in the August 2014 issue of his company’s Foodservice Digest newsletter. “Just as ‘fresh’ has many meanings…‘local’ is a word with a multitude of implications. It may imply freshness, quality, exclusivity, artisanal character, sustainability, and socially responsible interactions with suppliers and processors.” Paul says restaurants are moving toward “radical transparency to help diners identify and choose foods and beverages that are not only local and sustainable but also less processed, with fewer and more recognizable ingredients.” Jerrier puts it more bluntly. “People don’t necessarily want some generic commodity rabbit-turd sausage,” he says. “I can find a chef in town that makes really good sausage for me, or 46 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

With four locations in the Dallas area, Jerrier’s Cane Rosso specializes in Neapolitan pizza, one of the driving forces behind both the better-pizza movement and the fast-casual trends. Prepared according to strict rules enforced by organizations like the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN) and the Associazione Pizzaiuoli Napoletani (APN), authentic Neapolitan pizza provides a true Italian pizza experience, often using top-shelf ingredients imported from Italy. Despite the conservative traditions of Neapolitan pizza making, Arena thinks some purists have begun to “spread their wings a little bit.” They’re still sticking with the required ingredients and processes but have begun to tinker with the minimalist formula, he believes. “I think the lines are going to get blurred over time,” Arena adds. “There’s more creativity going on. I think the guys that have been in it for a while are bending the rules. After you’ve been doing something for

ALIX PASSAGE

Many consumers today care deeply about where their food comes from, and environmentally conscious pizzerias like Earth Bread + Brewery in Philadelphia make every effort to find local sources for key ingredients.

a long time, you kind of want to do your own thing. I think that’s human nature.” Jerrier notes that VPN rules deal chiefly with preparation of the dough and the cooking method. “They are focused on the foundation,” he says. “So all we are doing is taking the foundation of VPN pizza and experimenting with interesting topping combinations. VPN doesn’t care if we put smoked brisket or even ham and pineapple on a pizza. You can be VPN-certified and get as creative as you’d like with the toppings. If you switch to a gas or electric oven and start using a dough sheeter, they may have a problem with that.” But after years of steady growth and media hype, has Neapolitan pizza finally peaked? Jerrier says it’s hard to tell. “It went through such a crazy spurt over the past few years that, on the one hand, you think it can’t be sustainable,” he notes. “But what we’re seeing is the growth of Neapolitan-style offshoots, primarily in the fast-casual category. 800 Degrees (800degreespizza.com) really pioneered the concept, but now you have all of these copycats trying to replicate what they think is a ‘hot concept.’ They’re trying to make a 75-second pizza ‘better, faster and cheaper.’ There is no way they can all survive.”

Restless Palate Syndrome

Baum + Whiteman, an international food and restaurant consulting firm, recently coined the phrase “restless palate syndrome” to describe Americans’ changing tastes. Here are some of the firm’s predictions for food trends in 2015: 1. Ugly root vegetables rule. More chefs are experimenting with celery root, parsnips and kohlrabi to create unique and flavor-packed signature recipes. 2. Seaweed’s outta sight. Chefs are quietly spiking their poaching broths, seafood sauces and even risotto with seaweed for its savory background flavor and salinity. 3. Honey’s getting hotter. Sweet-and-spicy is all the rage—think habanero honey, jalapeño honey and ghost chili honey. Paulie Gee’s (pauliegee.com) in Brooklyn, for example, earned press coverage last fall for its spicy Hellboy pizza, featuring Mike’s Hot Honey. 4. Hummus on the rise. Hummus may dethrone salsa as the side of choice—Subway even tested it as a meat-free sandwich topping.

To Your Health Gluten abstinence may have already peaked, but demand for gluten-free products remains strong. According to a survey conducted in May by NPD Group, 29.4% of respondents said they are trying to avoid gluten, a slight decrease from a peak of more than 30% in late 2013, but still higher than the 25.5% figure measured in 2010. Regardless, when nearly one-third of the population shares a dietary aversion, restaurant operators must take notice. That’s

5. Bye-bye, bacon. Americans’ obsession with bacon seems to have abated, but we still love our pig meat. Customers want more guanciale, pancetta and ‘nduja, a spicy, spreadable Calabrian sausage that The New York Times once described as “the Lady Gaga of pork products.”

World Growth of Pizza Industry (Billions of USD)

150.000

139.509 129.773 118.427

120.000 90.000 60.000

76.375

Independents 84.062

80.874

30.000 0

Chains

55.447

48.889

42.052

Total

This chart shows the projected growth of the pizza industry worldwide through 2018.

2010

2014

Projected 2018

December 2014

pmq.com 47

Thirty-five percent of consumers say they would pay a delivery fee for their favorite pie, down from 38% in 2012. But 45% of Millennials say they don’t mind paying a delivery fee. —Technomic Among the top 50 chains, Toppers Pizza ranked No. 1 in average sales increase for 2013, while New Mexico chain Dion’s Pizza ranked No. 1 in average sales per unit. TOPPERS PIZZA

why many pizzerias are adding gluten-free offerings to their menus, even though only about 1% of the overall population has celiac disease. Others consider themselves gluten-sensitive, while another segment perceives gluten-free as a healthier alternative to standard crusts. The jury’s still out on the exact cause of gluten sensitivity—or whether gluten is really the culprit in some cases—but that hasn’t stopped the major chains and many smaller operators from capitalizing on the anti-gluten craze. There’s a gluten-free pizzeria in nearly every state now, and many operators offer delivery of their gluten-free pies. Accommodating pizza lovers who have gluten issues is one thing, but Arena warns against building your business model entirely around gluten-free offerings. “The people I talk to about gluten-free are doing it as a lifestyle choice, not for medical reasons,” he says. “They’re convinced they feel better. But they’re the same customers who thought they were lactoseintolerant a few years ago.” In other words, although celiac disease is a serious medical issue, those who reject gluten by choice may change their minds over time. “Lifestyle choices come and go,” Arena says. “If you’re planning on retooling your restaurant for gluten-free, you may not realize a return on your investment before it peaks and goes away. Will those

restaurants still be around 25 years from now? I don’t know. I don’t think so.” In fact, Technomic finds that fewer consumers worry about their health or their waistlines when they go out for pizza these days. Only 22% say they rein in their pizza cravings due to health concerns, down from 28% in 2012. Moreover, just 34% of today’s diners say they want pizzerias to offer healthier pizzas, a decrease from 40% in 2012. Even so, Technomic notes, “better-for-you qualities still resonate” with pizza customers. That’s why we’re still seeing innovations such as the “Skinny Slice” pies that Pizza Hut (pizzahut.com) rolled out this fall in Toledo, Ohio, and West Palm Beach, Florida. Made with less dough and fewer toppings, these pies boast a calorie count of 300 or less. Hungry Howie’s (hungryhowies.com) cracker-thin crust also keeps the calorie count down—two slices of a medium thin-crust cheese pie come in at 222 calories. And fast-casual leader PizzaRev brought back its seasonal lower-calorie PizzaRes-Olution last January. Made with a thin and crispy dough, reduced-fat buffalo-milk mozzarella and veggie toppings, it can be crafted for under 650 calories, according to the company. The takeaway? It still pays to feature some healthier, lowercalorie options, including vegetarian and vegan items. Better menu variety makes all customers feel welcome.

How to Compete

Thin-crust pies and so-called “skinny pizzas” are often perceived as lower-calorie options by health-conscious customers.

48 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Feeling nervous about all this competition from the burgeoning fast-casual segment? Technomic’s Pizza Consumer Trend Report has a couple of suggestions for holding on to your market share, starting with delivery. Since fast-casual pizzerias typically don’t deliver, this can be a key point of differentiation for your restaurant. According to Technomic, only 23% of consumers say they never order delivery for pizza. Delivery is “a stronger driver of repeat patronage and loyalty than either fast service or low prices,” the report states. You may even be able to pass a delivery charge onto your customers. Thirty-five percent of consumers in the Technomic

Telephone orders are falling; just 55% of customers now typically order pizza by phone compared to 64% in 2012. More of them—especially Millennials and those aged 35 to 44—prefer online ordering. —Technomic report said they would be willing to pay a delivery fee for their favorite pie. That number is actually down from 38% in 2012, but the good news is that 45% of pizza-loving Millennials don’t mind paying that delivery fee—and they are the future of your business. Younger customers also prefer to place their pizza orders digitally. Telephone orders are falling, Technomic reports—just 55% of customers now typically order pizza by phone compared to 64% in 2012. Instead, more of them—especially Millennials and those aged 35 to 44—prefer to order via computer, mobile device or ordering app. “Digital ordering platforms can keep brands relevant and top-of-mind,” the Technomic report says. “In fact, 18% cite convenient ordering options as one of the top three reasons they order from their primary pizza location most often, indicating that online or mobile ordering could prompt a choice of one brand over another.” Finally, there’s social media. If your pizzeria doesn’t at least have a Facebook page—and, preferably, a Twitter account—by now, well, frankly, we’re flummoxed. Simply put, social media is a must for marketing to customers young and old alike. It has been essential to the growth of those trendy fast-casual stores that are moving into your neighborhood right now, and if you’re ignoring it, you’re probably making a big mistake. Millennials in particular use a range of social media platforms to tell the world what they’re doing every minute of the day, and

The major chains and smaller up-and-comers are taking advantage of digital app technology to market their brands to mobile device owners and make it easier to order their products.

they spend a lot of time in restaurants. In fact, NPD Group reports that Millennials made more than 14 billion visits to foodservice establishments and spent $95 billion on restaurant meals and snacks in the year ending June 2014. “Their use of social media in sharing dining experiences and their opinions of these experiences make Millennials highly influential in building—or hurting—a restaurant brand,” NPD Group states in an October 28 press release. Adds NPD Group restaurant industry analyst Bonnie Riggs, “What Millennials lack in buying power, they make up for in influence. They have expectations when they dine out and are quick to spread the word when their expectations are or aren’t met.”

Pizza Industry International Growth Rates 2014 Asia Pacific 27.00% Middle East and Africa 16.57% Eastern Europe 15.27% Latin America 13.37% North America 8.21% Australasia 8.09% Western Europe 0.14% 0

The Asia Pacific region showed the world’s largest pizza industry growth this year, while growth in Western Europe virtually stalled.

December 2014

pmq.com 49

‘We’re going to increase our prices [in 2015]. I think we’ll need our per-person check to go up about a dollar. That’s basically about a 9% or 10% increase.’ —John Arena, Metro Pizza

An Uncertain Future Whatever may happen in the pizza restaurant business in 2015, one thing’s for certain: Nothing is for certain. Big fat question marks loom over the industry, and when answers come—if they come at all—they may be fuzzy. Everyone’s talking about the fast-casual movement, local sourcing and healthier ingredients, but perhaps what they should really be talking about are the rising costs of running a pizza business in the coming year. Between soaring commodity prices, the Affordable Care Act, and proposed hikes in the minimum wage at local and state levels, serving the world’s most popular food may soon become a more expensive proposition than it’s ever been. “It’s the perfect storm,” Arena says. “I think people have been in denial, but it’s coming. With the more perceptive operators, there’s a little bit of apprehension in the air.” At present, the Affordable Care Act’s employer mandate won’t kick in until 2016 for midsize companies with between 50 and 99 full-time employees. Pizza companies with 50 or

In the November 4 elections, voters in four states, including Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Alaska, opted to raise the minimum wage over the next few years, thus likely boosting pizzerias’ labor costs.

more full-time employees will be required to provide healthcare insurance to those employees by that time. Those with 100 or more full-time employees will have to start providing health benefits to at least 70% of their employees by 2015, and to 95% of them by 2016. “Let’s say your pizzeria employs 25 people,” Arena says. “Are you going to open a second store once you know it will put you over 50 employees and that each employee will cost you $3,000 more a year? For a company like mine that has 200 employees,

World Pizza Market 2014 (Billions of USD)

Western Europe 50.412 North America 47.277 Latin America 18.891 Asia Pacific 11.627 Middle East and Africa 3.842 Australasia 2.685 This chart illustrates the current size of the international pizza market by region. Source: © Euromonitor International

50 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

that’s $600,000. I don’t have a spare $600,000 lying around at the end of the year.” Meanwhile, pork and chicken prices keep going up, and the minimum wage will also be on the rise in a number of cities and states. “Add in insurance, taxes, and the bump that your non-minimum-wage employees will expect, and it becomes imperative to start planning now,” Arena says. So how will Metro Pizza deal with the challenges of rising costs in 2015? “We’re going to increase our prices,” Arena says, flatly. “I think we’ll need our per-person check average to go up about a dollar. That’s basically about a 9% or 10% increase. We plan to do it before January. You can’t wait until you’ve already been impacted [by rising costs] and then try to play catchup. If you’re not raising your prices now, you will raise them if you’re a company with more than 49 employees. There’s no getting around it.” In turn, higher prices could scare some customers away, Arena admits. “I don’t think they’ll stop eating pizza, but there may be less frequency. If a family eats at my restaurant three times a month, maybe they cut back to twice a month. That’s a big hit for me.” But the prognosis for 2015 isn’t all doom and gloom. The one sure thing is that Americans will keep eating pizza. Even high-end pizza will remain affordable, and pizza will likely continue to be a must-have comfort food, in an era when we need

Although the cost of running a pizza business will almost certainly go up in 2015, pizza will remain the world’s most popular communal food.

all the comfort we can get. “People are, by nature, communal, and pizza is the world’s greatest communal food,” Arena says. “War in Afghanistan? Global warming? Riots in the heartland? Ebola in Dallas? Hunker down with your loved ones and share a pizza. The problems may not disappear, but at least you won’t be alone when the zombie apocalypse begins.” Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor-in-chief.

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RECIPE OF THE MONTH GLUTEN-FREE CALZONE

Sponsored by

Recipe Month:

of the

Gluten-Free Calzone

Recipe and photo provided by Bay State Milling Ingredients: For two calzone doughs: 3 c. gluten-free all-purpose flour 1 tsp. salt 1 tsp. instant dry yeast ¼ c. brown sugar 1 tbsp. olive oil 1 egg 1 c. warm water (about 90°F) Toppings (per calzone): 2 tbsp. marinara sauce ¼ c. mozzarella cheese, grated 3 tomato slices Fresh baby spinach Fresh basil leaves Olive oil Instructions: To make the dough, blend flour, salt, yeast and brown sugar in a mixing bowl. Add oil, egg and warm water to bowl and mix with dough hook on Speed 2 for five minutes, scraping bowl as necessary. Divide dough into two dough balls. On a floured or oiled surface roll each dough ball into a 12” circle. Transfer to an oiled sheet pan. 52

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In the bottom center of each rolled-out dough skin, layer marinara sauce, cheese, tomato slices, spinach and fresh basil, leaving 1” around the rim for sealing. Fold the top half of the dough over and press to seal the edges. Brush the calzone with olive oil. Cut three slits in the top of the calzone and sprinkle with extra mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350°F for 15 to 18 minutes until edges are golden-brown. Cool for three to five minutes before enjoying.

Gluten-Free Goodness

Gone are the days of hard, dense gluten-free pizza—customers with celiac disease or gluten sensitivity can now enjoy flavorful, high-quality pies at restaurants around the country. Smart pizzeria operators offer a dedicated gluten-free menu for these guests or highlight gluten-free items on the main menu. They also tend to charge a little more—up to $2 per item— for gluten-free fare. Looking for ways to appeal to this small but lucrative demographic? Check out these gluten-free menu selections from pizzerias around the United States: New York’s Pala Pizza (palapizza.com) caters to the gluten-free crowd with an extensive menu that includes the Broccolina, made with pork sausage, sautéed broccoli, braised fennel, shaved potatoes and mozzarella. A cauliflower crust forms the base of the Provencal Flatbread at Snap Kitchen (snapkitchen.com), a takeawayonly restaurant with locations in Houston, Austin and Dallas, Texas. The flatbread is made with zucchini baba ghanoush, fresh herbs, tomatoes and Parmesan cheese. Customers at Martino’s Pizzeria (martinos-pizzeria.com), with locations in Lafayette, Erie and Louisville, Colorado, can order gluten-free versions of all signature pizzas, plus glutenfree toasted cheesy bread topped with garlic, olive oil and melted cheeses.

Gluten-free that’s worry-free. ®

Going gluten-free just doesn’t get any better than this. At Bay State Milling, you get an exceptional product, plus peace of mind. It all starts with our purchasing and manufacturing processes. A dedicated production area ensures exceptional purity levels, earning us recognition from the Celiac Sprue Association. Our product Development and R&D teams are also available to assist with custom formulation. It’s a one-of-a-kind combination of quality and support that makes Bay State Milling the partner of choice for gluten-free.

• All Purpose Flour Blends • Ancient & Specialty Grains • Edible Seeds • Custom Blends

For more information on our products, call 1-800-553-5687 or visit www.baystatemilling.com

FEATURE STORY MEATBALLS

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

PIZZERIA VIA STATO

ANATOMY

of a

Meatball From meat blends to flavorful sauces, learn the ins and outs of creating a great meatball. By Liz Barrett

uch like pizza, meatballs can vary greatly from one restaurant to the next. While you may prefer to use veal, another chef swears by his allbeef meatballs, and still another will assert that a veal/pork combo is the best. Great meatball recipes are often passed down through the generations, with only small tweaks made for personal taste or preparation preferences. “I can still picture my mom rolling meatballs on a Sunday afternoon,” says David DiGregorio, partner and executive chef of Pizzeria Via Stato and Osteria Via Stato (osteriaviastato.com) in Chicago. “She was always concerned about the texture, always asking everyone, ‘How are the meatballs?’” Andrew Bellucci, who helped to reopen Lombardi’s Pizza (firstpizza.com) in 1994 and is now the group executive chef for Mikey’s Original New York Pizza in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, says he has incorporated his family’s meatball recipe into menus for the past 25 years. “It was my recipe for meatballs that we used at Lombardi’s in 1994,” Bellucci says. “This recipe was essentially the same one that my father used almost every Sunday for the afternoon/evening meals, always served with macaroni—usually rigatoni or fusilli. This same recipe was used by my grandfather when my father was growing up in Jersey

“I use a mix of ribeye, short rib and brisket and go for about 75% lean. Burgers should just be meat, but meatballs need additional ingredients.” —Andrew Bellucci, Mikey’s Original New York Pizza City in the ’40s and ’50s.” As you can see, meatballs are much more than a ball of meat. Alongside a good dose of family history and happy memories, flavors that worked 50 years ago are still exciting customers today. Break down the individual parts, starting with the meaty, tender, sometimes-herbaceous interior, and working outward toward the textural exterior and savory sauces, and you begin to see that there’s an entire meatball anatomy to consider.

Inside the Meatball First things first: Your meatballs have to start with a good base, or there’s essentially no meatball. Recipes vary widely here, allowing for any type of meat as well as vegetable substitutes— such as eggplant—if you’re trying to appeal to vegetarians. For example, the Meatball Shop (themeatballshop.com), with six locations in New York, has made meatballs its specialty,

December 2014

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UNCLE PAT’S BELLUCCI MEATBALLS Recipe and photo courtesy of Mikey’s Original New York Pizza

Ingredients

MIKEY’S ORIGINAL NEW YORK PIZZA

offering customers a choice between beef, pork, chicken or veggie meatballs. “You want the interior texture to be really tender,” DiGregorio says. “The ingredients you use make a big difference. I soak breadcrumbs in milk and add eggs, garlic, Grana Padano, a little butter and chopped herbs, and then I hand-mix a combination of veal and pork in with all of the wet ingredients to thoroughly incorporate everything.” Bellucci, meanwhile, says he prefers to use nothing but beef, “probably because that’s what my father and his family always used. I’ve tested different mixtures using beef, veal and pork, but I always come back to pure beef. The main difference between my father’s recipe and mine is that he used ground chuck, about 80/20, and I use a mix of ribeye, short rib and brisket and go for about 75% lean. Hamburgers should just be meat, but meatballs need additional ingredients to separate them from being hamburger. In fact, I use the same blend of beef for my burgers, minus everything else.” (See Bellucci’s recipe in the sidebar.)

330g fresh beef brisket 330g beef ribeye 330g beef short ribs, bone-out ½ c. fresh parsley ¼ c. fresh oregano Extra-virgin olive oil (for cooking) 50g yellow onion, finely chopped 125g garlic, minced 10g fine salt 10g ground black pepper 125g Pecorino Romano cheese, freshly grated 150g fresh breadcrumbs 2 eggs, well-beaten Your favorite marinara/tomato-based sauce

Directions

Grind together the brisket, ribeye, short ribs, parsley and oregano. Heat up a sauté pan with extra-virgin olive oil. When the oil is hot and beginning to smoke, add onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Cook over medium flame for about 5 minutes or until the mixture is translucent. Remove from the pan and pour over the meat mixture in a large mixing bowl. Add the Pecorino Romano cheese and breadcrumbs. Add the well-beaten eggs over the mixture and get ready to blend together. Get a stockpot with marinara sauce ready. For 30 meatballs, fill a four-quart stockpot halfway with marinara or your favorite tomato-based sauce. Place the pot over a low-medium flame and proceed with mixing the meatballs. The mixing method is very important. Form four-fingered "hooks" with your two hands and blend all the ingredients together as lightly as possible, keeping the meat mixture light and airy and not "packing" the meatball densely. Using the mixture, form 30 meatballs, each weighing 50g. Heat up a sauté pan and coat the bottom of the pan generously with extra-virgin olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the meatballs in as many batches as it takes, depending on the size of your pan. This step requires constant attention. You'll need to cook each meatball as if it has four sides, approximately 90 seconds per side or until a light-medium brown crust is formed. As each meatball's crust is formed, transfer the meatball into the marinarafilled stockpot, which should be bubbling by now. After all of the meatballs are in the pot, watch as the pot comes to a simmer/boil and turn down the flame so that the sauce emits a bubble every couple of seconds. The meatballs will be ready to serve and fully cooked after about one hour of braising, but you may want to cook them for two hours so that they almost fall apart under any type of pressure. Serve right away or transfer to a plastic container; let the meatballs cool to room temperature, cover and store in the refrigerator for up to one week.

56 PMQ Pizza Magazine The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

Do you know what your guests are thinking?

You can count on GMA Research for a quick, accurate, and affordable way to find out what your guests really think. Our team of experts has specialized in foodservice and hospitality research since 1970. For a free consultation on how GMA Research can help you, contact Don Morgan, Senior Partner.

don@gmaresearch.com (425) 460-8800

Andrew Bellucci has incorporated his family’s famous meatball recipe into menus at Lombardi’s Pizza and, more recently, at Mikey’s Original New York Pizza in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

MIKEY’S ORIGINAL NEW YORK PIZZA

Philip Martinelli, owner of Vesuvio’s Pizza (vesuviospizzanj. com) in West Milford, New Jersey, says that Vesuvio’s has been serving the same 80/20 ground chuck blend since the pizzeria began 40 years ago. “Here in New Jersey, ground chuck is more traditional, leaner than pork, and many of our customers won’t order a meatball if we tell them it has veal in it,” Martinelli notes. “We buy our blend from a local butcher and incorporate homemade breadcrumbs, which we soak in water or milk, along with fresh parsley and basil from our on-site garden.”

The Ideal Exterior The exterior of a meatball will depend on how you cook it— baked, fried, sautéed, etc. “I like to get some color on a meatball, so I put them on a single layer on a sheet tray in the oven,” says DiGregorio. “I then use a dense tomato sauce to reheat them so they don’t lose their flavor.” Bellucci has a different approach. “I fry the meatballs to form a slight crust before braising them, and I think beef holds up better than a blend,” he says. “The beef flavor still comes through even with all of the herbs, spices, cheese and breadcrumbs.” In an effort to keep Vesuvio’s meatballs as lean as possible, Martinelli prefers the baking method. “Baking meatballs in the oven is how it’s always been done in my family,” he says. “When they need warming, I heat them up in marinara, allowing the meatballs to absorb the sauce.”

Sauces That Sizzle Since the meats contained within the meatball are customizable, the sauces that meatballs are bathed in can also vary wildly depending on the chef ’s creativity—think pork meatballs with barbecue sauce; chicken meatballs with soy sauce; or beef meatballs with cheese sauce. Several home cooks have even popularized grape jelly and chili sauce meatballs. While the choices are innumerable, most chefs still come back to a tomato-based sauce to showcase their meatballs. Marinara is traditional and the most widely accepted by the most people. If it ain’t broke, right? 58

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MIKEY’S ORIGINAL NEW YORK PIZZA

A Variety of Applications The trend over the past few years has been to serve one to three meatballs as a small plate or entrée (depending on the size). But you’ll find that meatballs are extremely versatile. You can serve them as a sandwich or a slider; top pizzas with them; fill calzones; showcase them on pasta dishes or toss sauce-free meatballs with greens to create a signature salad. The list of possibilities goes on and on. In Bellucci’s opinion, there’s no better comfort food than pasta and meatballs. “If I was going to the electric chair and had to request a last meal, it would be macaroni and meatballs,” he says. “What food marries better on a fork than a nice piece of meatball together with some al dente rigatoni coated with a thick marinara? It’s great right out of the frying pan while the meatball is still dripping with olive oil. Scooping one out of the pot after braising in marinara for two hours is pretty awesome too. [Meatballs] on a pizza with roasted peppers and sautéed onions makes me salivate just thinking about it. And, of course, my second favorite is Parmigiana-style on a fresh hero, covered with melted mozzarella and marinara.” But Bellucci draws the line at tofu. “I remember once, in the summer of 1988, my mother tried passing off tofu meatballs instead of the real deal at Sunday dinner,” he says. “I didn’t speak to her again until Thanksgiving.” Well, you can’t fault Grandma for trying something new. Versatility, after all, is what makes the meatball such a classic. Whether you choose to have your meatballs shine independently or team them up with other menu favorites, consider every part of the meatball with each application. Then, feel free to experiment until you’ve hit upon a recipe that consistently leaves your customers craving more. Liz Barrett is PMQ’s editor-at-large and author of Pizza: A Slice of American History.

MEATBALL MARKETING

THE MASTERS OF MEATBALLS

Delicious meatballs may sell themselves, but a little marketing savvy can help you sell more of them. Here are three quick tips for marketing meatballs to kids and grownups alike, plus a list of key vendors who offer top-shelf precooked meatballs and other pizza toppings:

Liguria Foods 515-332-4121 liguriafoods.com

1. Highlight meatballs on your menu. If you’ve got a great meatball recipe, make a big deal out of it. Give it a homey name, like “Mama Leone’s Italian Meatballs,” and include a mouthwatering photo to pique guests’ interest. 2. Encourage suggestive selling. For a family with kids, waitstaff should remind the young ones that you offer spaghetti and meatballs. That could lead to an add-on sale in addition to the pizza the rest of the family orders. 3. Spice up your flavors. Spicy varieties are all the rage in upscale restaurants around the country. Think BBQ, gyro, vindaloo and Thai flavors, for starters.

Fontanini Meats 800-331-6328 fontanini.com Bellissimo Foods 800-813-2974 bellissimofoods.com Restaurant Depot 718-762-8700 restaurantdepot.com Tyson 800-248-9766 tysonfoodservice.com

800-333-9133 www.amnow.com

December 2014

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FEATURE STORY GLUTEN-FREE

Offering a range of specialty pizzas, in addition to the basics, makes gluten-free customers feel more like "regular" diners at your establishment, so don't be afraid to get creative.

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

Growing Gluten-Free Follow these five marketing tips to maximize your sales among the gluten-free crowd. By Tracy Morin

o you took the leap and added gluten-free (GF) pizza to your menu. Perhaps you've already experienced some success through word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, positive buzz alone won't maximize sales. Using well-planned marketing tactics and demonstrating your understanding of the GF client base will help ensure even greater success. Sara Miranda, marketing director of The Gluten-Free Media Group in Downers Grove, Illinois, notes the main concerns of these diners: cross-contamination, knowledgeable waitstaff, clear, easy-to-find gluten-free options—and, perhaps most important, whether the restaurant treats them with respect and makes them feel “normal” despite their special diet. Here are five expert tips that will help you meet all of these needs and more—and create a very loyal new customer base!

M ind Your Menu.

Chris Disney, director of operations for Picazzo's Organic Italian Kitchen (picazzos.com), with five locations in Arizona, suggests making your GF menu items stand out with symbols or color coding to denote GF options, or even creating a separate GF menu. “If a pizzeria really wants these menu items to sell, you need to establish consumer confidence,” Disney says. “No matter how you designate the menu items, the guests need to feel safe and know that the items aren't just another profit center.” For example, Disney says, if you use well-known GF brands, mention them on the menu; you may even be able to use those brands' logos. “It also helps to explain—either on the GF menu December 2014

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“We're seeing more and more expanding menus, because it's easier to get GF products that offer great taste and quality. If you can offer other options, such as appetizers or desserts, that are gluten-free, I'd highly recommend it.” —Beckee Moreland, National Foundation for Celiac Awareness

PICAZZO'S

or next to a legend if you're using symbols or color coding— what practices and precautions you use to make sure that crosscontamination is minimized as much as possible,” he adds. For example, at Picazzo's, chefs have transformed the base menu to be almost 100% GF, including all sauces, dressings, cheeses, meats and dry goods. Beckee Moreland, director of the GREAT Kitchens Program at the Ambler, Pennsylvania-based National Foundation for Celiac Awareness, agrees that your menu should be 100% clear in its messaging. If you do offer a separate GF menu, make sure to include it on your website, she advises. Since many customers will research ahead to find GF availability, not posting your GF menu on your website can cost you a lot of customers. “Be clear about your ingredients and preparation practices,” Moreland adds. “And if you do offer a separate GF menu, mention it on your regular menu. Even diners who aren't GF often know someone who is, so it's good advertising within your pizzeria.” Miranda adds that if you're simply marking items on a regular menu, the abbreviation “GF” is universally understood. But if you offer a separate menu, “make the GF menu esthetically equivalent to your regular menu,” she recommends. “If the rest of your menus are hardcover bound and your GF customers are handed a greasy piece of copy paper, it's not a great first impression.”

Master the Possibilities.

Though Moreland believes variety is less important than executing all menu items safely, she does advocate offering more than just pizza for GF diners. “We're seeing more and more expanding menus because it's easier to get GF products that offer great taste and quality,” she notes. “If you can offer other options, such as appetizers or desserts, that are gluten-free, I'd highly recommend it.” Moreland points out that if a group is dining out and even one member is GF, the others may shy away from ordering a dessert if that one person can't share the experience. “If you have a signature dish or drink, it's great if you can adapt them

PMQ Pizza Magazine

The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

At Picazzo's, chefs have created a welcoming environment by ensuring that items such as dressings and cheeses are gluten-free.

to be GF,” she adds. “This allows them to be a part of your brand experience, and they love being accommodated like your 'regular' guests.” Using GF drink mixers or bringing in individually wrapped single-serve desserts are easy and safe ways to accommodate these guests. Miranda agrees that you shouldn't simply offer GF pizza and neglect the rest of the menu. “GF customers want to feel normal when they come to your restaurant, and just a few small additions can make a huge difference in how your GF menu is perceived,” she explains. These additions can be easy: Use your GF pizza dough to make breadsticks, toss together a salad without croutons, and purchase some GF chocolate chip cookies, Miranda suggests.

GREAT Opportu

Your Role in the

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Fast Facts

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Jehangir Mehta discuss es

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National Foundation

for Celiac Awarene

Posting gluten-free facts on social media or enrolling in a special training program shows that you're committed to creating a safe environment for gluten-free guests.

“Make your gluten-free menu esthetically equivalent to your regular menu. If the rest of your menus are hardcover bound and your GF customers are handed a greasy piece of copy paper, it's not a great first impression.” —Sara Miranda, The Gluten-Free Media Group

3 PICAZZO'S

Picazzo's offers a range of gluten-free menu items, including beverages and small bites.

“One of the biggest draws on the menu, besides entrees, are GF appetizers and desserts,” Disney concludes. “Even if it's just one item for each menu category, it allows a gluten-intolerant guest to enjoy the full dining experience, and it allows staff to upsell. GF dining is becoming more and more competitive, and those guests are demanding more options in all departments of the menu.”

G et On the Train.

Experts agree that staff training is one of the most important aspects of catering to GF diners. After all, these customers tend to be inquisitive about details such as preparation and ingredients, and if your staff isn't ready to offer knowledgeable, confident answers, potential customers are likely to go elsewhere. If you don’t feel confident in every staff member's training, train a select few staff members for each shift rather than risk having an employee flub their way through the questions or sound unsure. Miranda notes that when a customer calls ahead with questions about cross-contamination and possibly additional food allergies, having these questions answered by a manager or chef helps instill confidence that the information is accurate and that the customer will be able to eat safely at your pizzeria. For in-depth training, Moreland notes

on the cutting

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Developing a Process

GLUTEN-FREE MEDIA GROUP

Listing your pizzeria on gluten-free apps is a great (and free) way to ensure that both locals and travelers discover your business.

that her organization offers a complete online training course specifically for foodservice, which covers everything from how to prepare GF foods safely to how employees should answer phones.

Build a Social Life.

Moreland emphasizes that social media and other online outlets are “huge” among the GF community as they seek positive feedback on dining options, so it's wise to use social media to promote your GF items. “Put your GF menu front and center on Facebook, or post 'We're proud to be GF-friendly,'” she recommends. “Then reach out to local GF support groups or even those in the local medical community (try the gastroenterology department at a local medical center), plus local travel guides, GF dining apps and convention centers for travelers who are looking for GF options.” Miranda agrees that social media and newsletters are a great way to let your current customers know about your GF options. But if you haven't offered them in the past, chances are, your current customer base isn't GF. “Get your restaurant listed on the Find Me Gluten Free app if it isn't already,” she says. “With more than 2.3 million customers across the country looking for businesses that offer GF options, it's a great free way to promote yourself. You can also do some paid targeted advertising on Facebook so that you're reaching people in your area on a GF diet.” Disney sees social media as a superpowered version of wordof-mouth—and a stage where you can gain momentum on a trending topic such as GF. But Picazzo's uses social media to express a mix of content, often providing education. “This is where you can teach people about the great things your company does and give them some small bits of information they may not have been aware of,” he says. “By educating, you're selling in an informative, less invasive way.” Toward that end, Moreland recommends posting occasional GF-related tidbits—such as “Did you know...” followed by an interesting stat to share (and demonstrate) your knowledge of the issue.

PMQ Pizza Magazine

The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly

The more your servers and other staff members know about your GF menu, the better they can explain it to customers—and put gluten-intolerant guests at ease, says Chris Disney, director of operations for Arizona-based Picazzo's Organic Italian Kitchen. “Training is monumental in the success of offering GF menu items, so, for training, Picazzo's has taken a dual approach,” he says. “The first is based on the processes, and the other is based on staff awareness of the effects of gluten reactions.” The process portion identifies four critical stages, from when a guest orders food to when they receive it. Make sure the process has checkpoints to ensure higher order accuracy. Step 1: During communication (on the phone or face-to-face) between the guest and the staff member, write down orders and repeat the order back to the guest to confirm. Step 2: At the POS terminal, where the order is entered into the computer and sent to the kitchen, scroll through the order for accuracy and make sure any special requests are entered. Step 3: If any confusion arises when the kitchen receives the ticket, get confirmation from the order taker. Kitchen staff must change gloves, then use color-coded utensils and proper ingredients. Step 4: Once the food is prepared and ready to be brought to the guest, the server should double-check with the kitchen to confirm the item is GF. In fact, the server should read the ticket again and make sure that the dish fulfills all special requests. The second portion of training focuses on staff awareness. “We put a lot of focus on overall menu knowledge, but, more importantly, we want the staff to be aware of what celiac disease and gluten intolerance are,” Disney says. “We want them to know what the guests have to worry about, what they go through when they consume gluten, how fragile this piece of business is, and that serving the wrong item can lead to serious illness.” Disney believes that if the staff understands the severity of cross-contamination or miscommunication, they'll be more compassionate toward the guest's dietary restrictions.

Adapting a favorite signature dish for gluten-free customers allows them to better participate in your overall brand experience and feel like any other guest.

Finally, as a nonvirtual reminder, mention that you offer GF options in all recorded phone messages, such as onhold messages or the message callers hear when your store is closed. PICAZZO'S

Proudly made in the

Engage in Event Planning.

Events and in-store sampling show that you genuinely care about this community and its thoughts on your GF menu items. “Offer samples during your slower times if you want to stay on-site,” advises Disney. “Off-site, seek out GF expos, support groups or community groups.” Picazzo's has participated in GF expos with local celiac groups—and, says Disney, because GF customers are a tightly connected group, sampling product at their events is a great way to earn new business and trust. If you're just introducing new GF menu options, host a GF sampling event at your restaurant to let the community know about your offerings, Miranda says, and exhibit at gluten- and allergenfree expos to reach thousands of potential customers, have them try your pizza and educate them on what your restaurant has to offer (visit gfafexpo.com to find an expo near you). If you're thinking of offering a new GF item or aren't sure about the GF crust you've developed, use sampling events to get priceless feedback in exchange for a few freebies. Finally, advises Moreland, bring in a speaker to talk about GF topics while catering the event with pizza. You can also host a fundraiser for celiac awareness and research (Celiac Awareness Month is in May) or invite your local celiac support group to have a meeting at your pizzeria. By reaching out to those influential GF customers, the word will spread—and you'll establish yourself as not only a provider, but a true advocate, in the GF community.

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor. December 2014

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ATS MOBILE

FEATURE STORY MOBILE MARKETING

Some pizzerias create apps as part of a successful mobile marketing program to offer customers information on locations, streamline online ordering, sync up with loyalty programs and more.

THE MOBILE

MAJORITY Mobile marketing is a must to connect with today’s consumers. Follow these five tips to maximize your outreach, boost traffic and sell more pizza. By Tracy Morin

here might have been a time when mobile marketing targeted only the young—always plugged-in and clutching the latest high-tech gear—but the times, they are a-changin’. Today, customers of every age use mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, to stay connected. “Our clients are surprised when they hear that baby boomers are actually the largestgrowing demographic of mobile users,” notes Bryan Hunsinger, co-founder of Mobiniti in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. “People ages 55 to 64 send and receive an average of 80 texts per month, and senior citizens (65-plus) average 32 texts per month. Text messaging is the most effective way to reach everyone, regardless of age, race or income level.” Going mobile supercharges your marketing efforts, allowing you to reach customers through

apps, texts, push notifications and more. The possibilities today seem truly endless, allowing for geographical targeting and high levels of personalization that can put you in front of customers when (and where) they’re most receptive. “We see right now that 60% to 65% of our customers are already opening our emails on mobile devices,” says Kirk Mauriello, chief operating officer at Aurelio’s Pizza (aureliospizza.com), a 40-store chain based in Homewood, Illinois. “And even though use is dominated by the younger generation, more people 65 and older use mobile devices than we thought. Most importantly, our core demographic—women who are 25 to 54 years old, with children—predominantly use mobile devices.” In other words, many—if not most—of your customers have embraced mobile technology. To better reach them, you need to follow suit. December 2014

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“Any text message you send can be sent only to a user who explicitly opted in to your message service. Buying lists or automatically enrolling loyalty club members into your text message database is a big no-no.”—Greg Hoy, Hipcricket

MOBINITI

Texting customers with special offers is just one way to connect with those who opt in to your mobile alerts.

Use these five tips from experts to get the most bang for your mobile marketing buck:

Score the opt-in. To send out mobile alerts, you’ll first need to create an opt-in database. “Text message marketing is opt-in marketing, meaning that you must have the consumer’s permission before texting, as opposed to email marketing, which is opt-out marketing—meaning you have

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Personalize—and track—your efforts. According to Bentz, no medium in history has been able to pinpointtarget your market better than mobile. “With geo-location mobile advertising on apps and mobile websites, you can target just the ZIP codes that you want,” he says. “Or you can

MOBINITI

Make your site mobile-friendly. If you do nothing else, make sure your website is easily viewed on mobile devices—a must for pizzerias, for which orders are often placed on the fly. “A mobile website with online ordering is the single most valuable thing you’ll do in mobile marketing,” says Bob Bentz, president of ATS Mobile in Philadelphia. “According to Google, 61% of those visiting a website that is not optimized for mobile will simply leave for your competitor’s site, and you can’t afford to lose those customers.” Hunsinger agrees that a mobile-optimized website is a modern necessity. “If you’re looking to have a new website designed, make sure it will be mobile-friendly and test it on your mobile phone to make sure it looks as you expect before finalizing the project,” he advises. Meanwhile, an older website can be converted to a mobile-friendly design, but it will take some work, Hunsinger notes. “A conversion is often expensive (depending on the size of your current site), so find a local high-school or college student in the design/development field who is looking for a project he can include in his portfolio.” Make sure to work with the designer on plans for a new or redesigned site, emphasizing you want it to be “responsive” (meaning mobilefriendly), he adds.

to give the consumer an easy method to opt out of your messages,” Bentz explains. “The opt-in, however, is precisely why text message marketing is so darn effective: These customers have said that they want your promotional messages.” Greg Hoy, vice president of mobile solutions at Hipcricket in Bellevue, Washington, agrees. “The most important guideline to follow is the opt-in regulation for text messages, because any text message you send can be sent only to a user who explicitly opted in to your message service,” Hoy says. “Buying lists or automatically enrolling loyalty club members into your text message database is a big no-no.” But first you need to make people aware that your mobile channel exists. Pizzerias should leverage existing marketing channels (including e-newsletters, print, video and social media) to spread the word. Also advertise your mobile campaign on the bottom of receipts, table tents, bag stuffers and fliers, on your website and on your social media accounts. “We’ve learned that providing an incentive can increase opt-ins by more than 500%—anything from a free sample to a buyone-get-one-free, a percentage discount, or even simply telling them they will receive weekly/monthly deals,” Hunsinger says.

Offering customers an incentive, like a small freebie, can increase opt-ins to your mobile marketing by more than 500% .

MELLOW MUSHROOM NATIONAL PIZZA TRIALS Coming to Chattanooga, TN

December 11, 2014

U.S. Pizza Team has joined with Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers in Downtown Chattanooga, TN to host the inaugural National Pizza Trials.

Events include: • Traditional culinary pizza competition • Fastest dough stretch • Largest dough stretch • Box folding * Flour Provided by Grain Craft First place in each event will earn the winner a spot on the United States Pizza Team. The grand prize for the first place winner from the traditional culinary pizza competition will be a trip to Italy with the team to compete in the World Pizza Championships in Parma, Italy in May 2015.

Visit www.pmq.com/mellow-register/ or contact L.J. Knight at levoyknight@gmail.com, call 423-266-5564 or email U.S. Pizza Team Coordinator Brian Hernandez at Brian@pmq.com.

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AURELIO’S PIZZA

Aurelio’s Pizza’s new app is designed to sync with its loyalty program so that customers can track their rewards, and the pizzeria can track customers’ buying habits.

Learning the Lingo As mobile marketing evolves, it’s a challenge to keep up with the lingo. Here are definitions for some common words you may come across in your search for mobile marketing solutions. Mobile-Friendly or Responsive—Both words describe the same thing: websites designed for optimal viewing on mobile devices. Opt-in—This means that customers have given you explicit permission to send them messages on their mobile devices. Customers must opt in before you can target them in a mobile campaign. Geo-Fencing—This is a location-based service that lets you send messages to mobile customers who have entered a defined geographic area. Beacon—A beacon is a piece of hardware that uses Bluetooth to transmit messages or prompts directly to a smart device. When an opt-in customer enters your pizzeria, a beacon can be used to instantly send him information on specials, new menu items and more. Push Notification—This tool notifies smart device users about new app content even when they’re not actively using the app.

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“Even though use is dominated by the younger generation, more people 65 and older use mobile devices than we thought. Most importantly, our core demographic—women who are 25 to 54 years old, with children—predominantly use mobile devices.” —Kirk Mauriello, Aurelio’s Pizza geo-fence the local college campus so that the only people who will see your mobile ad are those people on that campus.” Running a targeted campaign drives higher engagement and revenue with mobile consumers, Hunsinger points out. “Businesses can send unique, personalized, targeted and relevant content to their mobile subscribers that is truly meant for them,” he says. “Maybe you want to send a targeted campaign to males or females, or to consumers in a certain neighborhood or ZIP code. Or you can allow personalization, using their name or location in the message.” When someone downloads the new Aurelio’s app, he opts in to push notifications, and he can be geo-targeted according to region and buying habits. “This allows for fencing, so we can send him a notification when he’s in the area of an Aurelio’s store or send push notifications to everyone at a nearby sports stadium, for example,” Mauriello says. “We can even reach him around other dining places—if he’s at a local chain for lunch, we can send a message: ‘Come to Aurelio’s for dinner.’” The Aurelio’s system has other targeting abilities—locations can put a beacon in-store to greet any customer when he walks in or send a reminder to usual Friday customers to say, “We haven’t seen you today!” It can also track the habits of rewards members and even ask customers to review the restaurant after a visit. “We’ll ask for feedback and ask if it’s OK to post on social media, so we control those reviews,” Mauriello says. “And we can offer points for filling out info about themselves—what store they visit, when they come in, what types of offers they’re interested in receiving, and what their experience was like that day. We offer a little extra, like free breadsticks, for providing this information.” Targeting customers with specialized offers will also increase loyalty. “The goal of any program should be to provide consumers with incentives that are not mainstream and will make them feel a sense of exclusivity,” Hoy notes. “Brands that do the best job with these types of programs take the opportunity to learn about their customer and tailor their programs to each— for example, Bob is not a candidate for a coupon that provides 50% off a salad if he’s never bought one.” Finally, don’t forget to analyze your results. Hunsinger tells his clients to get as many subscribers as possible initially, but after a few months, data analysis can determine who has shown real interest in the program (including information about their age, sex, location, etc.). “Then you can segment

the subscribers when sending a campaign, modify the incentive or modify the target audience if necessary,” he notes. “Do not allow assumptions to make marketing decisions; the data should speak for itself.”

Perfect your timing. You don’t want to ignore or annoy your best customers, so give careful thought to your frequency of contact, as well as your timing, to

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Create app-tastic rewards. When you offer an app, you get your logo on someone’s phone, where they see it every day—and, like with any mobile marketing, you must offer value in exchange, such as rewards that are exclusive to mobile users. But apps should also be fun to use. Aurelio’s offers a game that customers can play to earn points for its loyalty program. “It’s all about creating a user experience that interacts with customers,” says Mauriello. “We already know that our most loyal customers spend three times more with us than other customers, and our app helps differentiate us as a relevant brand with a quality product.” There’s even a social media aspect; when Aurelio’s customers sign up for its app on Facebook, they receive 50 points, plus an additional 20 points when one of their Facebook friends downloads the app. This allows Aurelio’s to find out which customers are active on social media—and which ones are true brand advocates.

Incorporating fun elements such as games into your mobile marketing efforts engages customers of all ages and reinforces your brand.

maximize response. “Generally speaking, daily messages are way too much,” Hoy notes. “Only a small segment of your loyal customers would appreciate this type of communication. If the brand is trying to drive lunch traffic, send it an hour before that time so the brand and offer are top-of-mind. Typically, five to 10 messages per month is tolerable by the consumer; otherwise, brands risk an opt-out.” Hunsinger suggests sending no more than a couple of messages per week. “We do not have any clients that send daily messages, nor would we suggest doing so,” he says. As far as

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“A mobile website with online ordering is the single most valuable thing you’ll do in mobile marketing. According to Google, 61% of those visiting a website that is not optimized for mobile will simply leave for your competitor’s site, and you can’t afford to lose those customers.” —Bob Bentz, ATS Mobile timing, Hunsinger notes that opt-out rates can double on messages sent over the weekend vs. during the week. In fact, text messaging is most effective during business hours (10 a.m to 8 p.m.), and campaigns in mid-to-late afternoon typically help drive traffic best for pizzerias. As Bentz points out, there is a fine line between your best customer and your worst customer—if you try to sell them too much, they may simply opt out of your database. “We recommend doing two to four broadcast text messages per month, and they shouldn’t all be mobile coupons, or customers will wait for them,” he says. “Use text messaging to announce a new menu item or to promote your pizza for the big game, and hold a sweepstakes to give away tickets to a local event. The bottom line is this: if you don’t have anything of value to send, hold off on the text messages.” Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

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Can’t Afford an App? Mobile apps may be unaffordable for some pizzeria operators, but they can still use mobile marketing effectively, thanks to programs like Google Wallet and Apple’s Passbook. “When sending a mobile coupon (a trackable link at the end of the text message to a mobile-optimized Web page), you can include links to add the coupon to both Google Wallet and Passbook,” notes Bryan Hunsinger, co-founder of Mobiniti in WilkesBarre, Pennsylvania. This offers convenience for the customer (he simply opens the Passbook app, for example, to easily find the coupon) and provides reminders and/or location triggers. “So, once the consumer adds the coupon to Passbook, a beacon can be put inside the location of the business that will automatically pop up the coupon on the screen of a mobile device—no app required,” Hunsinger continues. “Or you can add the latitude/longitude coordinates of your location, and the screen notification would pop up when the customer is near your location.”

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