HOW TO HANDLE A BUSY FRIDAY NIGHT

clownhair: We have a delivery/carryout pizzeria. Since COVID19 hit, our sales have doubled, going from $3,000 on Fridays to $6,000. I’m looking for some advice on how to handle rushes. With our setup, an order comes in and gets printed at two stations: the make line (station 1) and the cut table (station 2). At station 1, we have one person making the pizzas and a second person assisting with accessory items, like subs, salads and stuffed-crust pizzas. At station 2, we have one person pulling most of the items out of the ovens and a second person finishing the items, such as adding lettuce, tomato and mayo to the subs, while also pulling items out of the oven as needed. But we are running way behind on fulfilling orders. It’s just chaos. How can we get a handle on this?

UncleNicksPizza: When I ran a store for one of the national chains, we routinely had $5,000 to $6,000 nights, mostly between 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. During this time, we had three team members up front, two dedicated to the phones and one working counter service. We had two team members slapping out dough, one saucing the skins, and two or three working the topping station in assembly-line fashion. We had two people on the oven—one primarily handling pizza and the other assisting in packaging side items. We had one expediter/router for deliveries and one runner bringing items called for by the line. With all those people, it got pretty hectic, but it was doable. brad_randall: I just did some consulting for a new operation that had four stations—pizza maker, grill, fryer and cutter. A manager stands at the printer and expos the tickets, coordinating and timing everyone so the appetizers come out together first and the entrees come out together second. On the busier nights, they schedule a second or even a third person on the make line, with a “captain” keeping the speed rack full of pizza skins and saucing and cheesing the pies, then passing them on down to be topped. That captain makes sure every pizza/salad gets made and that different styles are properly timed. Busier nights also require an additional person to make appetizers and desserts and assist on the fryer. Also, an expo was added to the waitstaff to help the cutter make sure everything gets made, plated properly and sent out to the correct server.

Now that sales have doubled for this DELCO pizzeria, the owner seeks advice for staffing his kitchen during rush periods.

A MEAN, GREEN DELIVERY MACHINE

He’s a mean one, that Mr. Grinch, but he helped Antonino’s Ristorante, located in La Grange, Illinois, rack up huge off-premise sales—and plenty of social media buzz—when he started making pizza deliveries in December. After Antonino’s announced that a delivery driver wearing a Grinch costume would bring pies to customers’ doorsteps, the eatery’s phones started ringing off the hook and online orders exploded. The promotion kicked off on November 29 as a weekly offering, but quickly expanded to three days a week—Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays—through Christmas. Customers had to place their orders in advance and specifically request the Grinch. Almost immediately, social media platforms lit up with customers’ photos of the beloved character toting pizza boxes and posing with children. “After being stuck at home all day [with] remote learning, this was the perfect treat for my four kiddos,” one Facebook fan posted. “Thank you…for the super-fun memory!” The promo also won coverage from Chicagoarea TV stations, newspapers and news sites, making hearts grow three sizes across the Windy City.

A Slice Of Fiery Death

Mikey’s Late Night Slice, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, got away with a hate crime when it unleashed its Fiery Death w/ Hate Sausage pizza on customers this fall. Billed as the world’s hottest pizza in its 2019 debut, the pie returned to the menu for one weekend only in mid-November at the Mikey’s location in Cincinnati. In addition to the so-called “hate sausage,” the pie comes topped with Carolina Reaper peppers, Trinidad Scorpion peppers and Bhut Jolokia (ghost peppers). Customers are even required to sign a legal waiver before braving a taste. The Mikey’s Columbus stores also offered meal kits featuring the criminally hot pies and peppers and showed fans how to make it at home in a livestream on November 12.

CAMPOROSSO’S DECEMBER TO REMEMBER

In a December to remember, the owners of Camporosso, a wood-fired pizza restaurant in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, handed over the entire month’s profits to their employees as a gesture of thanks in a challenging year. In a Facebook post announcing the plan, Eric and Amy Redfield included a Bible verse, Philippians 2:4, which reads, “Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others.” It was the second time in 2020 the Redfields gave away their profits to their team members, even as the pandemic forced them to pivot to a carryout-only model. “It just seemed the natural thing to do,” Eric told Cincinnati TV station WCPO. “We have been extremely busy, almost inexplicably so. We felt it was definitely the right thing to do.” Employee Mikayla Snyder was blown away by the Redfields’ generosity. “It was really overwhelming, especially the first time, and so generous,” she said. “I want to be a teacher, and, as of right now, that’s looking kind of crazy. It’s nice to know that I always have this place and they’ll always take me back with open arms.”

The Wonderful World Of Disney Pizzas

If Donald Duck could create his own pizza, what would it taste like? You can bet it would be spicy and feisty, as reflected in a limited-time pie created by Roberta’s in Brooklyn, New York, for the Disney Mickey & Friends(giving) promotion developed by media giant Disney. In a November collaboration with chef Roy Choi (best known for restaurants like Kogi BBQ in Los Angeles and Best Friend in Las Vegas), Disney asked chefs around the country to create pizzas inspired by Disney’s most iconic characters. The pizzas, which had to be preordered for delivery on November 21, honored the famously temperamental duck along with his sweetheart, Daisy, and pals Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Pluto. Donald Duck’s pizza, from the pizzeria’s original Bushwick outpost, featured Roberta’s housemade spicy ’nduja sausage, bitter Castelfranco radicchio, Taleggio cheese and lemon zest. The Roberta’s Williamsburg location, meanwhile, dreamed up a white Daisy Duck pizza made with thinly sliced potatoes and salsa verde. Other participating restaurants included two Jon & Vinny’s locations in Los Angeles (Mickey Mouse); Home Slice Pizza in Austin, Texas (Minnie Mouse); Pizzeria Beddia

Philadelphia (Goofy); and Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix (Pluto).