EVENTS & PROMOTIONS AUGUST 2021

Industry Events

August 7-8

The Louisiana Restaurant Association Showcase

Nobody needs an excuse for a getaway to New Orleans, but here’s a good one anyway. This two-day marketplace for restaurant and foodservice professionals is the largest and most attended show of its kind in the region! Learn more at lra.org

August 17-19

International Pizza Expo

The International Pizza Expo takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center and features keynote speakers from across the industry, cooking demos, workshops and the new International Italian Sandwich Championship. Learn more at pizzaexpo.com

August 26-28

The NAFEM Show 2021

Taking place at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, NAFEM features a wide array of products for food preparation, cooking, storage and table service. This event brings the industry’s best and brightest together to spark foodservice success.

October 22-26

HostMilano International Hospitality Exposition

HostMilano returns as a live, in-person event in Milan. With more than 1,000 exhibitors from 40 countries already signed up and 800plus events for restaurant and foodservice operators, this one is a worldwide can’t-miss!

PROMOTE THIS!

August: National Sandwich Month

We have John Montagu (the 4th Earl of Sandwich) to thank for popularizing the sandwich. Like pizza, it’s the perfect blank canvas for culinary innovation, so develop a special menu and promote it with mouthwatering photos on social media.

August 3

National IPA Beer Day

Help your customers explore the possibilities of IPA brews. Consider offering a selection of craft IPAs paired with your pizzas or collaborate with a local brewery to cross-promote this beer lovers’ holiday.

August 20

National Bacon Lovers Day

Get your bacon shakin’ with pizzas featuring the popular pork that pops with salty goodness. Wow your guests with a bacon-wrapped specialty pie or pair bacon with toppings like mushrooms, olives, onions and tomatoes.

LEARN AND EARN!

2 p.m. August 10

PMQ Marketing Masters

PMQ publisher Steve Green talks to Alena Tikhova, former owner of Dodo Pizza and current chief marketing officer for XRobotics in San Francisco, to get the latest updates on robotics and the pizza industry. Join us on Facebook Live!

2 p.m., September 1

PMQ Live Update: Michael Kalanty

PMQ’s Brian Hernandez talks to sourdough master Michael Kalanty, author of How to Bake Bread and How to Bake More Bread, about making prebiotic bread for improved gut health—how to make it happen and taste great! Join us on Facebook Live!

Cuochi (Professional Chefs Association). Meanwhile, current events and future trends will be the focus of Design Talks, offering professional updates on highly topical issues in the professional hospitality and design sectors.

Top exhibitors from around the globe will be represented at HostMilano this year, including Gruppo Cimbali, Simonelli Group, Hausbrandt, Gruppo Ima, Pregel, Babbi, Imperia & Monferrina, Tagliavini, Ali Group and many others. International companies include Welbilt, Hobart, Salva, Wiesheu, Josè Julio Jordao, Valmar Global and WMF Group, to name a few.

To learn more about this global hospitality event, visit the HostMilano website at https:// host.fieramilano.it.

HELLO, I’LL BE YOUR ROBOTIC SERVER TODAY

The new server at Angelo’s Palace Pizza doesn’t smile or make small talk, but customers still find her irresistible—and so does the news media. Since starting her new job at the Cumberland, Rhode Island, pizza shop, Servi, a food-running robot from Bear Robotics, has made an impact with her efficiency and work ethic while freeing up Angelo’s human employees to spend more time with the guests. She has also become a media darling, attracting positive coverage from TV news outlets across the region. Equipped with three compartments for food and drinks, Servi has been programmed to know the layout of the restaurant and every table number. Once an employee punches the table number into her system, Servi glides over with the order and greets the customers in a female voice. “She knows the space,” Angelo’s co-owner, Alexandria Kitsilis, told one TV reporter. “She senses people, she waits, she backs up. It’s pretty cool.” Another Bear Robotics food bot, called Penny, has served customers at an Amici’s Pizza location in Mountain View, California, while a Sergio’s Restaurant location in Miami is using a bot called ASTRO. According to one news report, Servi costs Angelo’s only about $1,000 per month—not bad for an employee that never gets tired and doesn’t expect a tip.

Ghost Kitchen Tackles Child Hunger

Restaurateur Geno McWilliams, a member of the U.S. Pizza Team, partnered with the Food Network and the nonprofit No Kid Hungry to combat food insecurity at his ghost kitchen, Kitchens Unlimited, last spring. Kitchens Unlimited, which opened in the fall of 2020 in Effingham, Illinois, offered a free half cheesesteak sandwich and one slice of pizza to anyone under the age of 18, while older individuals paid for their pizza slices, cheesesteaks and Chicago-style hot dogs, with proceeds going to No Kid Hungry. Kitchens Unlimited is home to Lucia’s Italian Kitchen, Geno’s Grill and Southern Illinois Burger Company, all of which share a common space to prepare their carryout and delivery fare. “The simple fact of a child going hungry is quite disturbing to me,” McWilliams said. “No Kid Hungry is an amazing organization that is fighting to try and end kid hunger in America. These events are a ton of fun. All the kids got to see our big pizza oven and see us prepare their food. I even had some tell me, ‘Hey, I follow you on Instagram!’”

The Big Freeze

Chef Pasquale Presa, owner of Pasquale’s Neighborhood Pizzeria in Rochester, Minnesota, knew he wanted to expand his store back in early 2020, but when the pandemic hit, the timing seemed lousy—at first. Turning a crisis into an opportunity, he cut a deal with a local grocery, Hy-Vee Crossroads, which began selling his private-label frozen pizzas—first at just one location, but eventually at seven stores. “Soon, we were keeping all of our employees busy making frozen pizzas,” Presa told the Post-Bulletin last May. “From May [2020] to May [2021], we sold 75,000 crusts.” He went on to partner with several “co-packers,” companies that produce branded products like his frozen pizzas. Next thing he knew, he had created an entire retail division “while still staying true to our authentic experience of New York-style pizza right here in Rochester,” he said. He also offers Pasquale’s-branded sauces, cheeses, tomatoes and spices—even pizza pans—all packaged for sale, both in his store and on grocery shelves around the region. Coming soon: Pasquale’s Olive Oil, made from olives harvested from his family’s ancient groves in Italy. “COVID-19 taught me to diversify,” he told the Post-Bulletin. “We came out [of the pandemic] much more secure, much more sound, much more bulletproof.”

BUFALINA’S TURNS A BUS INTO A BAR

When Melissa Pellegrino and Matt Scialabba, the owners of Bufalina, got their hands on a vintage Volkwagen bus recently, they knew they didn’t want to turn it into yet another run-of-the-mill food truck for their fans in Guilford, Connecticut. They had a better idea: They converted it into Bar Bufalina. “We came up with the idea of doing this little mobile bar out there,” Pellegrino told the New Haven Register. “And we decided to do it Italian-style, with some small plates and Italian-inspired cocktails.” Parked on their restaurant’s patio, the white and turquoise bus has marble countertops and enough space for two or three employees. Bar Bufalina’s small plates feature seasonal ingredients and have included zucchini involtini with herb salsa and a shrimp salad served in Bibb lettuce cups. Meanwhile, thirsty guests can order four Prosecco-based spritz cocktails made with a variety of liqueurs—think sour cherry gin and sweet vermouth—as well as several craft drinks, all for $10 to $12. Bufalina’s pizza menu is equally eclectic, with one spring-themed weekend special featuring a ramp salsa verde, roasted ramps with pickled mustard seeds, fresh mozz and applewood-smoked bacon. The signature Dandelion pizza is topped with wilted dandelion greens, buffalo mozz, sausage and a red onion-Calabrian chili jam.

MARCO’S PIZZA EYES NO. 4 SPOT

After opening a store every three-and-a-half days in 2020, Marco’s Pizza, with about 1,000 locations in 34 states, aims to become the No. 4 pizza chain in the country, according to Nation’s Restaurant News (NRN). Currently the sixth-largest pizza company, Marco’s, which experienced 26 straight weeks of positive sales growth last year, has 200 new units in development. The chain is also eyeing Austin, Dallas, Denver, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio and Southern California. Meanwhile, Papa Murphy’s, the No. 5 pizza chain, and the current No. 4, Papa John’s, had negative store openings in 2020. One strategy for expanding the Marco’s footprint: developing a line of ghost kitchens in Texas and Florida and working with third-party delivery companies in those areas, Steve Seyferth, Marco’s chief experience officer, told NRN “Our brand has traditionally been more on the rural outstretches of cities,” he said. “And these ghost kitchens are mostly being developed inside inner urban areas. It’s been a little more difficult during the pandemic to assess whether ghost kitchens are something that’s going to work and explode for us, or maybe it would be holding us back.”

Pizza Hut Returns To The Edge

Just as rock band U2 was ascending to legendary status in the late 1990s behind the riffs of lead guitarist The Edge, Pizza Hut debuted a tavern-style pizza by the same name. The thin-crust specialty pizza returned this spring for a limited time as Pizza Hut continued to shake up its menu in a bid for higher sales. The Edge, which debuted in 1997, was a customer favorite, but it has resurfaced only occasionally on the chain’s menu. It’s sliced into 16 squares and comes on a cracker-thin crust that’s sturdy enough to hold plenty of toppings packed all the way to the edge. Varieties of The Edge include The Ultimate (pepperoni, Italian sausage, green peppers, onions and tomatoes); the Carnivore (pepperoni, ham, Italian sausage and bacon); the Vegetarian (green peppers, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes); and the Pepperoni Lovers (lots and lots of pepperoni). Writing for Delish. com, Ni’Kesia Pannell praised The Edge as “undeniably one of the best things that [Pizza Hut] has ever dropped.” Pizza Hut general manager David Graves said The Edge, which sells for $12.99, “is a pizza our customers constantly ask us to bring back.”

Donatos Ghost Kitchen Opens In Nashville

On the heels of its partnership with burger brand Red Robin, Columbus, Ohio-based Donatos has teamed up with REEF Kitchens to grow its presence in Nashville—with expansion into other cities nationwide under consideration. REEF specializes in ghost kitchens (officially dubbed “neighborhood kitchens” by REEF) located mostly in urban markets. Donatos currently operates only one brick-and-mortar store in Nashville, so the move will give the brand’s fans a new delivery-only option in Music City. The kitchen will serve neighborhoods in East Nashville, and delivery will be provided by third-party platforms such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, Postmates and Grubhub. “REEF is a scalable way to grow our business through delivery,” said Donatos CEO Tom Krouse. Donatos already uses kitchen space in 117 Red Robin locations to offer pizza delivery, dine-in and pickup. All totaled, Donatos can now be found in 300 locations around