PMQ Pizza - June/July 2022

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From deep-dish to thin-crust and stuffed, Chicago keeps pushing boundaries to become all things to all pizza people.

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By Rick Hynum

Pizza Hut COO: Restaurants Must Create a “Culture of Belonging”

As the labor crisis continues, restaurant employees are “looking for a pathway, not just a paycheck,” according to Chequan Lewis. PMQ.com/culture-of-belonging

Cheapism.com

Spotlights Best

Hole-in-the-Wall Pizza Joints Want to feast on a pizza and get your laundry done in a one-stop shop? Cheapism.com’s list offers that option and many others around the U.S. PMQ.com/best-hole-in-the-wall-pizzerias

Is New York Pizza About to Get Even More “Edible”?

PUBLISHER

CO-PUBLISHER

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

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rick Hynum, rick@pmq.com

ART DIRECTOR

Eric Summers, eric@pmq.com

SENIOR COPY EDITOR

Tracy Morin, tracy@pmq.com

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

Blake Harris, blake@pmq.com ext. 136

TEST CHEF/USPT COORDINATOR

Brian Hernandez, brian@pmq.com ext. 129

REPORTER

Chris Green, chris@pmq.com

FOOD PHOTOGRAPHER

David Fischer, david@pmq.com

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Shawn Brown, shawn@pmq.com

ADVERTISING

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

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

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

SALES ASSISTANT

Peter Piper Pizza Gets Creative to Retain Workers

Among other incentives, the brand will let employees receive some of their pay the day after a shift instead of waiting until the end of the pay period.

PMQ.com/peter-piper-hiring-incentives

RMDA’s Food Delivery App to Challenge DoorDash, Uber Eats

The LocalDelivery app will let hometown third-party delivery providers and independent restaurants join forces to bypass the national players.

PMQ.com/localdelivery-app

New York’s Office of Cannabis Management confirms that it’s considering letting pizzerias and other restaurants sell cannabis-infused foods. PMQ.com/weed-infused-pizza

How Mici Italian’s Co-Founder Invented His Own Pizza Press

Jeff Miceli has patented a dough press that any staffer can use to make Mici’s New York-style pizzas quickly and efficiently.

PMQ.com/mici-italian-pizza-press/

Brandy Pinion, brandy@pmq.com ext. 127

INTERNATIONAL PIZZA MARKET

Italy: Enrico Fama Fama.Enrico@gmail.com

Russia: Vladimir Davydov

Vladimir@pmq.com

China: Yvonne Liu Yvonne@pmq.com

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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.

PIZZA MEDIA ADVANCING THE PIZZA BUSINESS COMMUNITY

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EVENTS & PROMOTIONS

JUNE/JULY 2022

Industry Events

Summer Fancy Food Show

June 12-14

Hosted at the Javits Center in New York City, this Specialty Food Association event showcases thousands of specialty food and beverage products. The winter edition, held in Las Vegas, attracted about 10,000 participants, and the summer show is expected to be larger, with more exhibitors and more networking and business opportunities.

Learn more at specialtyfood.com.

Texas Restaurant Show

July 9-11

Held in Dallas, this show (formerly the Texas Restaurant Association Marketplace) features 400-plus exhibitors and state-of-the-science products and equipment. It includes an “investment boot camp” to guide attendees through the process of franchising, becoming a franchisor, or growing your brand through capital investment.

Learn more at tramarketplace.com.

National Pizza & Pasta Show

August 23-25

Packed with 300 exhibits, 30 hot-topic seminars and 10 workshops, this show, taking place in Chicago, brings together some of the industry’s biggest names. Educational topics include combating the labor shortage, craft beers and specialty wines, delivery logistics and more, plus a boot camp for deep-dish, stuffed-crust and tavern-style pizzas.

Learn more at nationalpizzashow.com.

Pizza Tomorrow Summit

November 9-10

Find out what’s next in the industry at the Pizza Tomorrow Summit in Orlando. It offers hundreds of exhibitors with a wide range of products, educational sessions, and pizza competitions and demonstrations. You’ll discover the new companies, products and initiatives that will propel our evolving industry into the future. Learn more at pizzatomorrow.com.

Promote This!

National Macaroni & Cheese Day

Thursday, July 14

You’ve seen all those pizzas out there topped with mac and cheese, so why not dream up your own version? It’s a pie that will catch the eye on Instagram, and you could score free media coverage if you invite your favorite reporter to try it.

National Salad Week

Sunday, July 24-Saturday, July 30

It’s time to add a little sizzle to your salads. Instead of iceberg or romaine, try butter lettuce, spinach, arugula, dandelion greens, Swiss chard or kale. Great salads are less about lettuces and more about what you do with them, so get creative!

Learn and Earn!

2 p.m. (CT), Friday, June 10

PMQ Live Update: Steve Dolinsky

Steve Dolinsky, the James Beard Award-winning culinary journalist, owner of Chicago-based Pizza City USA and author of The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide, talks about the Windy City’s pizza scene, his new book and the upcoming National Pizza & Pasta Show. Join us on Facebook Live!

2 p.m. (CT), Tuesday, July 12

PMQ Live Update: Jonathan Porter

Leading up to the National Pizza & Pasta Show in Chicago, Jonathan Porter, owner of Chicago Pizza Tours, explains the traits of Chicagostyle pizza, what he looks for when choosing pizzerias for his tours and why Windy City styles are so intriguing.

Join us on Facebook Live!

Tony Gemignani, 12 Time World Pizza Champion and loyal Ceresota Flour user.

CREATING A MONSTER

Many of us raise our tots to be monsters, but rarely on purpose. At Easy Pie in Revere, Massachusetts, Spiros Stogiannis knew exactly what he was doing when he created Monstah Tots, which he describes as “the size of a beer can.” The huge tater tots inspire childlike wonder with toppings like Kraft Mac and Cheese, buffalo chicken and a sour cream-ranch drizzle. His huge menu is also stacked with innovative pizzas like the Lord of the Rings (barbecue-infused sauce, steak-cut onion rings, ground beef, diced pickles and a barbecue drizzle) and The Last Dragon (a “pu pu platter pizza” featuring duck sauce, chopped egg rolls, fried chicken, teriyaki beef, Ah-So pork and fried rice). Stogiannis makes complex pies look, well, easy, dreaming up out-there applications for fried chicken and combos that fuse flavors from Greece to Bangkok. Meanwhile, his burgers, he jokes, are “bigger than a newborn baby” and also push boundaries, with offerings like the Kraft-Matic (mac and cheese, bacon and chipotle mayo) and the Sin a Burger, which is squeezed between a pair of seared cinnamon rolls. Stogiannis opened Easy Pie in 2010 and went his own way from the start. “Against the opinion of many, my original menu consisted of pizzas that I was told would not work,” he says. “When I started, we were the black sheep of the industry, but now everyone seems to be making some crazy pizza or dessert.”

BE LIKE MYKE

Time for a price hike? Be like Myke. The owner of Myke’s Pizza in Mesa, Arizona, Myke Olsen is renowned for his innovative use of fruit toppings—think cherries, peaches, golden raisins, even lemon relish. But he’s now equally known for being candid with his customers about the demands of the business. In early April, he explained on social media that he was raising his prices as food and labor expenses shot up. “The cost of doing business has increased significantly over the past couple of years,” he wrote. “This is especially true for small businesses… who don’t have the same buying power, influence and presence as big businesses. We’ve been paying more for all of our staple ingredients—flour, tomatoes, cheese, meats and paper goods like pizza boxes.” He noted he was glad to see employee wages going up, because restaurant workers have been “underpaid for far too long.” The post earned 679 likes on Instagram and 57 comments, virtually all of them positive. On Facebook, the same post garnered 147 positive reactions and 14 comments, all of which were supportive. Better yet, two TV news outlets—Fox10 Phoenix and AZFamily 3TV & CBS 5—featured interviews with Olsen, complete with B-roll showing his staff hard at work making delicious-looking pies and desserts.

Easy Pie’s Big Papi boasts a mustard-infused pizza sauce, sweet Italian sausage, sauteed onions and peppers, and a mustard drizzle.

Easy Pie plates some of the most Insta-worthy pizzas and burgers in the industry and has more than 9,000 followers on Instagram.

Myke Olsen’s use of fruits as pizza toppings landed him an interview with Jimmy Rhoades of the nationally syndicated TV show The List

WHEN TWO MINDS COME TOGETHER

Robert Guimond, owner of Public Display of Affection Pizza in Brooklyn, New York, knows his way around a pizza kitchen, but he’s happy to learn from chefs who specialize in other cuisines—and reap the benefits of media coverage in the process. Guimond recently collaborated with Alidoro, a tiny Manhattan sandwich joint with an outsize reputation, to create a pizza version of the classic Italian deli sandwich. It featured a spicy tomato sauce, hot soppressata, fresh mozzarella, pesto and arugula. “The greens, the pesto and the Italian deli meats all classically go on a more gourmet pizza and make the crossover work,” Guimond told InsideHook, a digital lifestyle magazine that featured the sandwich. “A lot of times, when you use deli meat on a pizza, it gets hidden by the cheese and the sauce. Instead of laying it on flat, we clump it up so that you get more of the texture, and we don’t kill it with the sauce or the cheese. It’s a little bit lighter so that all of the flavors come through.” Fresh culinary ideas can spring from collaborations with other chefs, Guimond noted. “It’s like two minds are coming together, and everybody’s working to bring their ‘A’ game.”

SCORING WITH PORTNOY

Andrew Miller, Cameron Whyte and Samuel Emery, the founders of Flourchild Pizza in Milwaukee, never meant to go into the frozen-pizza business. They were primed to open a brick-and-mortar location when the pandemic hit. Like many operators, they had to improvise. But they set their frozen pies apart with clever monikers and artisanal ingredients, like the Curd Your Enthusiasm (caramelized onions, pickled peppers and cheese curds) and seasonal offerings like the Butternut Touch My Squash (butternut squash, spinach and honeycrisp apple cream cheese). In May 2020, they scored a positive One Bite review from Dave Portnoy by sending him a letter and several frozen pizzas in specially designed packaging: a stylized portrait of El Presidente himself clad as a European king of old. “Putting that on there is worth, like, maybe two, two-and-a-half points,” Portnoy said in the video review. He described the pizza as “very good, very cheesy,” adding, “It doesn’t taste like it’s a frozen pizza.” Portnoy rated it a respectable 7.7, giving Flourchild a boost in national exposure. When the owners finally opened their physical location this April, their reputation had preceded them, garnering coverage by media outlets like Fox6Now and OnMilwaukee.

The Italian Sandwich Pizza features hot soppressata, fresh mozz, pesto, arugula and a spicy sauce.

Flourchild Pizza offered a popular line of artisanal frozen pizzas before opening its brick-and-mortar store in late April 2022.

Robert Guimond wanted to create an “affectionate vibe” when he opened Public Display of Affection in March 2020.

Among other ingredients, The Truffle Shuffle is loaded with roasted mushrooms, a mushroom cream, fresh and aged mozzarella, and a truffle ranch drizzle.

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PASTA CARBONARA

INGREDIENTS:

Margherita Pancetta

Water

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 large eggs

1 large egg yolk

1¼ c. finely grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

2 oz. salt and pepper, to taste

1 lb. spaghetti or linguine

Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

1. In skillet, add pancetta and ½ cup water and bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and cook until crisp. Strain and reserve 1 teaspoon of fat in pan. Return pan to heat and sauté garlic until fragrant.

2. In medium mixing bowl, add pancetta fat with garlic. Add eggs, egg yolk, Parmesan and pepper to garlic mixture and whisk.

3. Boil water in Dutch oven. Add spaghetti and salt to boiling water and cook until al dente.

4. Drain pasta into colander in bowl, reserving pasta water in bowl. Measure out 1 cup hot pasta water.

5. Slowly pour and whisk ½ cup pasta water into egg mixture, then slowly pour mixture over pasta, tossing to coat. Add pancetta and toss to combine. Season.

Sponsored by:

6. Let pasta rest, tossing frequently, for 2 to 4 minutes until sauce has thickened slightly and coats pasta. Thin with remaining ½ cup hot pasta water. Serve immediately topped with additional Parmesan and parsley.

DOING THE MATH OF MOBILE

Mobile units are sexy and cool, but there’s a lot to consider before investing your time and your money in the business.

BY BILLY MANZO JR.

Picture this: It’s a balmy summer day. The temperature is warm. The beverages are cold. People are happy. Your restaurant is full. Life is good. Then the owners of your local craft-beer house call you up and say, “Hey, I have a proposition for you! We’re having a big outdoor party Friday night. We love your pizza, and we wondered whether you could swing by with a mobile unit and cook for the event. We’re expecting hundreds of people, so you’re going to kill it! What do you say?”

Your possible answers are:

A) “Yeah, baby!” You get swept up in the excitement and decide to take all the money out of your 401(k), invest in a five-figure mobile brick oven, and score your first mobile moneymaker. Ka-ching!

B) “Um….” You think to yourself: “Does this sound too good to be true?”

C) “No way, José!” You decide to stick to what you know.

Correct answer: B (or maybe C).

The mobile pizza industry—whether on two wheels or four—is one of the most challenging ventures for pizzeria operators. Sure, mobile units are sexy and cool, and people get to see you in action, but it’s not just fun and daffodils. It’s a business—a seasonal one for many pizzerias in the country—and there’s a lot to consider before deciding it’s worth the investment of your time and money.

First, there’s the logistics. I get a lot of phone calls from people who want me to bring my mobile unit to a park, whether it’s a nonprofit event or a private party. I say no 99.9% of the time. Why? I don’t think people really understand what they’re asking of me. This kind of venture requires two days of prep before the gig; schlepping my stuff to the gig; having staff for the gig; and cleaning up for almost three hours after the gig.

Pop-up? More like pooped out.

Second, the math doesn’t always add up. For example: “How many people are you expecting Friday night?” you ask the local craft-beer house guy.

“On Friday night?” he exclaims. “We’ll have about 400 people there!”

You think, “Wow, 400 people multiplied by $20-apiece pizzas? That’s 8 Gs. I’m in!”

But hold on. It doesn’t work like that. Based on my experience, you’re more likely to get 10% of attendees to purchase your pizza (if you’re lucky). So that’s 40 people at 20 bucks a pizza, which totals $800. That’s not a lot of money, especially after two days of prepping and breaking down. In fact, you’ve probably lost money when you add up the cost of labor and supplies.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to talk you out of going mobile (or maybe I am). You just need to go into it understanding the facts. That said, if you really have an itch for this business, here are some things to keep in mind:

1You need the skill set. A good portion of people who own a pizzeria don’t know how to use a brick oven. If that’s you, take a class. Or hire a consultant to guide you or the person who will do the cooking.

BILLY MANZO

2

You need to understand the requirements. I hear all the time, “But, Billy, the food truck business is booming!” Maybe so, but the guy or woman who owns the local taco truck that’s doing $1 million a year doesn’t have the same business requirements as you. All he needs is a prep area that’s 12’ x 4’ and 1’ high, and he can have 400 corn tortilla shells ready to go. Meanwhile, in that same space, you might only fit 20 pizzas. Mathematically, you cannot hold enough dough balls in a trailer to cook hundreds of pizzas.

3 You need storage. Do not tell me that your buddy owns a restaurant and that he’s going to help you out and give you ingredients and space to prep. I’ll tell you right now: That relationship is going to go sideways quickly. His food and his restaurant will always be more important than your food for your trailer. You’re on your own. And how many people really want to put a $25,000 oven and 80-quart mixer in their garage? It’s not smart, and your local health department doesn’t like it.

4 You need a guarantee. They say nothing in life is guaranteed, but that’s not true for the mobile pizza business. There are all kinds of guarantees to help you make money:

A) Ask the client for a flat fee up front. No guessing. None of this “You’re gonna kill it!” baloney. If you cater a birthday party, a wedding or anything to do with a guaranteed number, ask to be paid in advance so you can book your staff accordingly and cover the gas, wood and dough costs in order to secure a healthy margin.

B) If the client can’t pay up front, ask for a guarantee in sales. For example, say, “If I don’t hit the $2,000 mark, will you kick in the rest?” (Note: 99.9% of people will say no. And now you know why they don’t have a mobile brick oven on the property.)

5 Charge a healthy price point. Mobile unit pricing is not bargain-basement pricing. People are paying for the experience—the outdoor brick oven, the sizzle of the cheese, the smell of the wood, watching you in action (who wouldn’t pay good money for that?). As a reference, I’d say $20 for a 12” pizza would be a decent place to start.

6

Insist on cross-promotion. Tell the client, “I need you to hang a banner that advertises that we’re providing the pizza here.” Ask to be on the venue’s website and social media channels, especially Instagram. This way, if you only make $2,500 that night, maybe you’ll at least get $3,000 worth of PR/ marketing on the event.

Other things to consider:

• Where will you store your oven in the winter?

• Where will you get your wood?

• Where will you put your wood?

• Will the town let you leave the oven in your driveway?

• Are your neighbors gonna give you grief?

• Do you have refrigeration space to store your cheese? Listen, the mobile pizza business is tough, no matter how you slice it. You need to know what you’re going to be up against. Keep in mind that I come from New England, where we get a mere 90 days of decent weather every summer (if we’re lucky) to try make some money with a mobile brick oven, so I’m a bit jaded. These days, with the way New England summer weather has been—rainy and cold—I’m better off staying inside.

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

Patrick Maggi, owner of Blues Pizza Truck in Frederick, Maryland, waits on a customer.

PATRICK MAGGI

off the

BY RICK HYNUM

Carl Sandburg famously summed up the Windy City in a poem titled “Chicago.” He wrote about the tool makers, the hog butchers, the freight handlers, even the mobsters and the “painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.” But he never said a word about the pizza makers. Then again, Sandburg wrote the poem in 1914, and pizza wasn’t a thing there yet. Today, it’s one of the city’s defining traits—and we’re talking not one, not two, but three distinctive styles of pizza that originated there. No other U.S city can lay claim to that kind of diversity. And there are some two-fisted Chicagoans who might slug you if you told them otherwise.

Chicago is more than a deep-dish kind of town. It’s also the birthplace of two other distinct styles—and it’s now a pizza mecca to rival New York.

Rocco Palese, who co-founded Nancy’s Pizzeria with his wife, “dough maker extraordinaire” Nancy Palese, based his famous stuffed pizza on an Italian Easter pie called scarciedda.

NANCY’S PIZZERIA

But Chicago’s pizza scene is still widely misunderstood. Yes, there’s the deepdish style, and that’s an experience unto itself. Not everyone loves it—comedian Jon Stewart once jokingly called it “an above-ground marinara swimming pool for rats”—and locals, frankly, don’t eat a lot of it. Yet when many non-Chicagoans think pizza, they think deep-dish and only deep-dish.

Jonathan Porter, owner of Chicago Pizza Tours, gets a lot of that. Founded in 2009, his company has 10-plus employees and operates several buses that take tourists to iconic pizzerias and off-the-beaten-path joints all over the city. “For out-of-towners, there’s that

shocked look on their face when I say, ‘Now, Chicago is known as the deep-dish capital of the world, but, for the most part, the locals only eat it on special occasions or when people from out of town are visiting us. What we grew up on is a thin-crust tavern-style pizza, a circular pizza cut into squares,’” Porter says. “Luckily, we usually have some locals on every tour who start nodding in agreement to help back me up.”

Porter’s clients still go back to their hotels happy. “Those out-of-towners are usually relieved by the end of the tour that it wasn’t all deep-dish, since we typically sample around eight slices,” he says. “It also gives them a real sense

of what the pizza culture is truly like in Chicago. It would be crazy if, every time we wanted to eat pizza, it was a deep-dish.”

Think Deeper

After all, the deep-dish variety, made famous by chains like Pizzeria Uno, Lou Malnati’s and Gino’s East, is hardly light, lunchtime fare. Baked in round steel pans, a deep-dish pie can range from between 1” and 3” thick, with the ingredients layered on in reverse order: The cheese goes first, then the meats, next the veggies, and finally a generous quantity of crushed tomatoes. The crust itself might be thin to medium, but it feels thicker because it’s loaded with ingredients. Put plainly, it’s a bellybuster.

The origin of deep-dish pizza is shrouded in controversy, although not for lack of self-proclaimed inventors. It debuted at Pizzeria Uno in 1943 under founder Ike Sewell, who also started Pizzeria Due in 1955. “The lore behind who invented it makes for a great story, and it adds to the mystique of the style,” Porter says. “But, in the end, it doesn’t really matter who, how, when or why it happened. All we know for 100%

“The lore behind who invented [deep-dish pizza] makes for a great story, and it adds to the mystique of the style. But, in the end, it doesn’t really matter who, how, when or why it happened. All we know for 100% certain is where.”

— Jonathan Porter, Chicago Pizza Tours

Jonathan Porter of Chicago Pizza Tours pays a visit to Robert Garvey, owner of Robert’s Pizza and Dough Company, which specializes in Chicago-style thin-crust pies.

JONATHAN PORTER

Beyond The Dough

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About Eric Bam:

A Boston native now living in Tulsa, OK, Eric Bam is VP of sales and marketing for Perfect Crust, with 20 years of experience in the foodservice industry. A powerful force in the workplace, Bam uses his positive attitude and tireless energy to encourage others to work hard and succeed. He has three children and loves helping the men and women of the pizza industry grow their businesses.

certain is where. The story I heard growing up is that Ike Sewell, a Texan, came to Chicago with a dough recipe and thought that pizza needed to be bigger and better—the Texas way! But that story has long been debunked, and it turns out that Ike was more of an opportunist after [other] people passed and the pizza became a hit.”

Ric Riccardo (born Richard Novaretti) was Sewell’s business partner, and the two originally planned to open a Mexican restaurant. But, the story goes, Riccardo got sick from some Mexican food and proposed a pizza joint instead. Did Riccardo invent deep-dish pizza? “That story likely checks out,” Porter says. “He purchased the [Pizzeria Uno] building, lived upstairs and was quite the chef himself. The part I get stuck on is, we really don’t know if the pizzas he first created were even deep-dish.”

And let’s not forget Rudy Malnati Sr., who worked at Pizzeria Uno and whose wife, Donna Marie, was a “dough maker extraordinaire,” according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Their son, Lou, went on to found Lou Malnati’s, while Rudy Jr. founded Pizano’s. The Malnatis were “integral to the success” of Pizzeria Uno, Porter notes, and there are “several pictures of Lou serving the deep-dish pizza to his father. But, again, no one knows for sure.”

The true story behind deep-dish pizza might ultimately be “anticlimactic,” Porter says. And there were probably some unsung heroes involved. “We think that, most likely, over time, as pans broke and they couldn’t source them again, the pans got bigger. And as those pans got bigger, the recipe was adjusted to make sure everything worked. The kitchen was largely African-American women from the South, and we do know they played an integral part in the deep-dish pizza’s success. Whether someone invented it, popularized it or altered it, it’s all tough to say. But that’s what makes the lore of the deep-dish pizza so cool!”

Tavern-style thin-crust pizza is the style that most Chicagoans eat on a regular basis, while deep-dish is reserved for special occasions.

Think Thinner

So deep-dish is bigger, thicker and more mysterious. For some, that’s what you call sex appeal. But if you want to eat like a Chicagoan, thinner is the winner. Break away from the tourist destinations, and you’ll find a lot of tavern-style pizza. Tavern-style, Porter says, “is what I grew up on. It makes up the majority of the pizza in Chicago, and it is no doubt the pizza that Chicagoans do best.”

“Chicago is definitely a city of neighborhoods, much like how New York has its different boroughs and different generalizations with each one,” says Derrick Tung, the Chicago-born owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square. “From a pizza perspective, the South Side is really more known for its thinner and tavern-style crusts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the North Side is just deep-dish and stuffed crusts.”

In his book, The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide, journalist and food writer Steve Dolinsky writes, “Ask die-hard Chicagoans how they define ‘Chicago pizza,’ and they’ll respond with a unanimous ‘thin’ rather than thick.’” Dolinsky, who provides his own pizza tours

“The South Side is really more known for its thinner and tavernstyle crusts, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the North Side is just deep-dish and stuffed crusts.”

— Derrick Tung, Paulie Gee’s Logan Square

STEVE DOLINSKY

Steve Dolinsky, author of The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide, thinks media hype and heavy marketing have created the false impression that Chicago is strictly a deep-dish town.

of Chicago through his company, Pizza City USA, believes the media and heavy marketing from the deep-dish chains have created the impression that Chicago is strictly a deep-dish town. “But no amount of advertising or tourism hype can change the fact that most Chicagoans like their pizza thin.”

Tavern-style pizza boasts a cracker-thin crust that’s sliced into crispy squares—ideal for sharing—and often loaded with fennel sausage and maybe some pickled giardiniera, too. The style was created for hard-working immigrants as a cheap snack and a good pairing with drinking sessions after a shift. Vito & Nick’s was arguably the first to offer the style, with other South Side joints like Home Run Inn and Italian Fiesta Pizzeria jumping on board with their versions later.

In addition to the above-mentioned stalwarts, Dolinsky’s book spotlights a number of Chicago’s must-try tavern-style hot spots, including Flo & Santos, Geo’s Pizza, Pat’s Pizza and Salerno’s Pizza of Chicago.

Think Stuffier

Finally, there’s a brash younger upstart: stuffed-crust pizza. In The Ultimate Chicago Pizza Guide, Dolinsky notes that this Chicago-born variety “consists of two distinct doughs: one on the bottom that is connected to a circular wall of dough lining the deep pan…[and] the other, a thinner ‘top crust’ dough that rests over the cheese and ingredients, punctured with a few vent holes, then topped with an even amount of tomato sauce.”

THE HIDDEN GEMS

We asked Jonathan Porter of Chicago Pizza Tours to share some of his favorite lesser-known pizza spots in the Windy City:

“For me, hidden gems are the places that aren’t near the downtown areas. There really are some great places close to downtown, like Pizano’s, Robert’s and Flo & Santo’s, but it would be tough to classify them as off the beaten path. I love hanging in Chicago’s 70-plus neighborhoods. If you’re going to a Cubs game up north, try Coalfire, Spacca Napoli or Bartoli’s. Find yourself in Bucktown or Logan Square, and I love Paulie Gee’s, Piece, My Pi and Pizza Friendly Pizza, or head to John’s on Western Avenue for some tavern-style. Going to a White Sox game? Stop off before the game at Phil’s on 35th for tavernstyle or Pizza Fried Chicken Ice Cream on 31st. Did you fly into Chicago via Midway? Don’t miss Vito & Nick’s! This list could go on way too long.”

Want to know more about Chicago Pizza Tours? Read our full Q&A with Jonathan Porter at PMQ.com/chicago-pizza-tours.

The first location of Pizzeria Uno, where Chicago’s deep-dish pizza debuted, opened in 1943.

Nancy’s Pizzeria founders Rocco Palese (left) and his wife, Nancy Palese, introduced Americans to stuffed pizza in 1971.

PIZZERIA UNO

NANCY’S PIZZERIA

Lou Malnati (right) serves a deep-dish pie to his dad, Rudy Malnati Sr. Both men helped to popularize deep-dish pizza.

PIZZERIA UNO

At the Giordano’s chain, with 70 stores in nine states, stuffed pizza has dominated the menu since founding brothers Joseph and Efren Boglio opened their first location in 1974. When many Americans think of stuffedcrust pizza, they think of Giordano’s. But according to Dolinsky, the style, inspired by an Italian Easter pie called scarciedda, was actually introduced in 1971 by Italian immigrant Rocco Palese, who co-owned Guy’s Pizza with his wife, Nancy. They went on to open the first Nancy’s Pizzeria, which was lauded for serving “The Best Pizza in Chicago” by Chicago magazine in 1975.

Shortly before that, the Boglio brothers, who had worked for the Paleses at Nancy’s, opened Giordano’s on the South Side. Both restaurant companies have earned legendary status since their fledgling days, although Giordano’s opened more locations faster early on. But Nancy’s today is no slouch, either, with 28 locations in four states. When Nancy Palese died on January 20, 2022, the Chicago Tribune said her name was “synonymous with stuffed pizza in Chicago.” Still, Nancy’s and Giordano’s have challengers galore. From Suparossa and Doreen’s to Angelo’s Stuffed Pizza, there’s no shortage of Windy City restaurants with the right stuff.

All Things to All Pizza People

So one city, three original pizza styles and loads of controversy. But Chicago is all things to all pizza fans. Name any style—New York, Neapolitan, Detroit—and the city’s got it now. “Chicago, like many other cities, has had a renaissance in pizza, with multiple styles taking over throughout the city and surrounding areas,” Tung says.

At Paulie Gee’s Logan Square, for example, Tung serves both Neapolitan and Detroit styles alongside New York slices. Before he went into the pizza business, Tung, who grew up on tavern-style and deep-dish, fell in love with wood-fired Neapolitan pies at Pizzeria Neo, a now-closed eatery in nearby Naperville. “I became obsessed with

NANCY’S PIZZERIA

Pizano’s, a legendary Chicago deep-dish pizza spot, was founded by Rudy Malnati Jr., son of Rudy Sr. and brother of Lou Malnati.

JONATHAN PORTER

BLAKE HARRIS

PMQ’s Brian Hernandez created this deepdish pizza in the test kitchen.

A server at Nancy’s Pizzeria gets ready to wow a guest with a slice of stuffed pizza.

YOU DON’T NEED A BIG BREWERY TO MAKE A BIG IMPACT. Old Town Pizza’s brewery component Slice Beer Company knows a few things about making big beers in a small space. Slice and BrewBilt teamed up to customize a system that perfectly fits both their brewing style and 1,100-SF production area.

learning more about this particular style, which eventually led me to meeting Paulie Gee and deciding to work together to open in Chicago,” he recounts. In the meantime, Tung and his wife went on a cross-country journey and tried numerous acclaimed pizza shops along the way. In a visit to Buddy’s Pizza in Detroit, Tung fell in love again. “The texture of crisp to airy/light, the flavors…it was so good that, much like the Neapolitan experience, I had to learn how to make my own,” he says.

Tung embodies the egalitarian spirit of Chicago’s pizza scene. He has known a few New York pizza snobs and doesn’t think Chicagoans are nearly as elitist in that regard. With so many styles available in their city, they know all pizza, made right, is good pizza. “I may make a whole city mad, but New York is not the only mecca for pizza anymore, especially depending on the styles you’re looking for,” Tung says. “Social media and food media have created the ability to see what one pizza maker is doing on a worldwide basis almost instantaneously, and the community of pizza makers often are happy to share knowledge and techniques with each other. The growth of pizza quality and styles is at an unprecedented time. From what I see coming out of Japan and hearing about pizza in Brazil, there’s a lot of new techniques pushing the boundaries of how to continue to elevate pizza.”

For his part, Porter makes sure to give his Chicago Pizza Tours customers a taste of everything the city has to offer. “We [feature] a range of styles in different neighborhoods,” Porter says. “It is quite the tour to spend three-and-a-half hours visiting four pizzerias in four neighborhoods, trying two different deep-dishes, two different tavern-style thin-crusts and one off-the-wall style, like a coal-fired or artisanal pie. By the end of the tour, the guests really are unable to compare any of the slices because they are all so different.”

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

Chicago native Derrick Tung grew up eating deep-dish and tavernstyle pizza, but he opted for Neapolitan, Detroit and New York styles when he opened Paulie Gee’s Logan Square.

To many, the Giordano’s brand is synonymous with Chicago-style pizza.

DERRICK TUNG

Jonathan Porter runs tours that feature all three of Chicago’s famous pizza styles as well as other styles that have spread to the Windy City.

GIORDANO’S

GO DEEP AND GROW IN CHICAGO!

Pizza continues to be America’s favorite food, and the pizza industry continues to grow in size and sophistication. To aid operators in running the best possible restaurants, the National Pizza & Pasta Show comes to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in suburban Rosemont, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, from Tuesday, August 23, through Thursday, August 25. Tuesday, August 23, will be for seminars only. Wednesday and Thursday will include seminars and exhibits. Early bird attendee registration is $50 before July 1; after that date, the registration fee is $100. Complete information can be found at nationalpizzashow.com.

The event also offers unique educational programming, including topics such as building a multimillion-dollar familyrun pizzeria operation, as well as a boot camp for making the three styles of pizza for which Chicago is famous: deep-dish, stuffed-crust and tavern-style.

“We’re bringing together some of the biggest names in the business,” says Drew Axelrod, show manager at Expo Media, Inc., the show’s producer. “We want to help restaurant operators find their niche and succeed beyond their expectations. This event pulls together the right people, both operators and manufacturers, to make crucial connections that will help them innovate in their businesses. What could be more fun than to build relationships with peers who share the same passion for all styles of pizza?”

The show will feature 300 diversified exhibits, plus 30 educational seminars, live demonstrations, 10 expert workshops, a deep-dish and tavern-style pizza certification program, a new product showcase and multiple Pizza City U.S.A. guided bus tours. Encompassing three days of quality educational and networking opportunities, attendees will learn how they can “make some dough in Chicago” in this competitive arena. They will strengthen their knowledge of cutting-edge marketing and sales strategies, improvements in ingredients, and ways to build a more efficient operation.

A sampling of the educational seminar topics includes: Combating Labor Shortages; Using Call Centers for Higher Volume; Avoiding Insurance Claims; Improving Sales with Craft Beer and Specialty Wines; and Managing Multiple Styles of Pizza Crust.

The intensive workshops also will cover a lot of ground, including such topics as: Digital Advertising for Increased Recognition, Volume and Sales; Successfully Operating a Ghost Kitchen; Streamlined Delivery Logistics and Reaching New Customers; Reaching for a Multi-Million Dollar Family-Run Pizzeria Operation; and Boot Camp for Deep-Dish, Stuffed and Tavern-Style Pizzas.

Learn more about the National Pizza & Pasta Show at nationalpizzashow.com.

The National Pizza & Pasta Show, taking place August 23-25, will feature 300 exhibits, 30 seminars and a year’s worth of moneymaking ideas.

Taking Stock

Use your point-of-sale system to monitor inventory for accurate ordering forecasts, controlling food costs and minimizing waste.

BY TRACY MORIN

With inflation rates and gas prices soaring, everyone has been feeling the squeeze in the first half of 2022—making this a crucial time to keep food costs in check, for both your sake and your customers’. Luckily, your POS system can prove an important tool for ensuring profitability and counteracting rising prices. “Your food costs and your labor costs are your biggest expenses when it comes to your restaurant,” notes Chris Ciabarra, owner of Athena Security, based in Austin, Texas, and former co-founder of Revel Systems. “Get them under control by using a good inventory system on your POS.”

But what makes a good inventory system? We gathered expert opinions on key POS features to seek and utilize when it comes to keeping your inventory in check, from analyzing past sales to enabling accurate future forecasting.

Selection and Setup

Inventory control can be difficult to implement, so owners should seek a POS solution that handles all aspects of inventory fluidly, according to Dave Arnold, owner and founder of e-Coast Systems, an IT company based in Charleston, South Carolina, that specializes in working with bars and restaurants. “Many POS systems require a third-party integration to do it well, but the initial setup is crucial— you really get out what you put in,” Arnold explains. “So, when choosing a POS system for the pizza business, I recommend looking for systems that already have the inventory module

refined. If the module is too difficult to set up, or slow in action, owners and management commonly get frustrated and just go back to doing everything manually.”

Arnold has a few feature suggestions: Can you enter items, recipes, vendors, pars and food costs into the system, along with their location (walk-in, rear chest freezer, etc.)? Can you set notifications of low stocks to help trigger orders, so that purchase orders (POs) are created and received right in the system? “When purchase orders are

created from the system, users just need to make sure food costs are updated and accurate before the PO is placed to ensure reporting is accurate when it comes to profitability,” Arnold adds.

Meanwhile, Bob Vergidis, chief visionary officer for pointofsale.cloud in Cincinnati, says owners should seek a solution that allows them to take control of their technology while streamlining the way they manage all aspects of their business, from customer-facing transactions to backof-the-house operations. He notes that

“I recommend looking for systems that already have the inventory module refined. If the module is too difficult to set up, or slow in action, owners and management commonly get frustrated and just go back to doing everything manually.”

— Dave Arnold, e-Coast Systems

THE BRIGHT FUTURE OF PIZZA

After attending two recent summits on food technology—the Restaurant Marketing Delivery Association Conference and the Food On Demand Conference—PMQ Pizza Media has concluded that there’s no question: The future of the pizza industry looks more promising and profitable than ever.

Join PMQ Publisher Steve Green and a panel of restaurant experts at the upcoming National Pizza & Pasta Show to explore how the pizza industry will benefit—in both the short and long term—from innovative technologies, robotics and collaborations among independent pizzeria operators:

• How Wall Street is investing in success for independent pizzerias

• How technology can solve your biggest ordering and delivery challenges

• How delivery solutions will become more affordable for independent operators

• How independents can flourish with techdriven marketing and promotions

The

National

Pizza & Pasta Show, Aug. 23-25, Rosemont, Illinois

the industry is now moving from general-purpose clouds for online services to purpose-built clouds attuned to the needs of specific industries, including the restaurant industry.

“Aggregating everything they need—including credit card processing, point of sale, online ordering, mobile ordering, delivery, supply chain management and third-party integration—helps restaurants better compete by allowing them to bring all of these services in-house in an easy-to-use and affordable cloud-driven package,” Vergidis says. “Cloud services are provided on demand, so clients can buy what they need when they need it and focus on the things that make the biggest difference to them. For example, inventory management, as well as recipe handling features, help avoid over-ordering from suppliers, which decreases food costs, over-portioning and waste.”

Ciabarra adds that not all POS systems offer solid inventory control, so do your research. “Make sure it does ingredients and helps you with forecasting after you have entered your ingredients,” he suggests. “Also find out how it performs the forecasting. Not every POS allows you to choose which way to forecast after all of the data is in the system.”

On-the-Fly Reporting

Live, granular and automatic reporting on food sales, costs and especially waste goes a long way in the fight against high costs and inflation, Arnold believes, and these reports should be generated at the same time of the week and day to maintain consistency. You can then analyze menu items’ sales performance to determine if it’s time to adjust the menu.

“A Countdown/86 feature (in which the POS system alerts staff when an item is out of stock) can help restaurants keep fresh ingredients that spoil at low inventory levels while keeping the POS users constantly informed with live data,” Arnold notes. “Smaller, more frequent orders will not only reduce waste but deliver the freshest possible dishes to your customers. Furthermore, online ordering and digital menu displays are also great tools that allow you to adjust menu prices on the fly. When the price of a menu item changes, it should be automatically updated on the online ordering

website.” Finally, Arnold advises, food costs should be reviewed with every order, since smaller, more frequent price changes are often more easily accepted by customers than large increases.

Ciabarra agrees that inventory control must have several key features to help you forecast what you need to order in the future. “Inventory systems must allow for ingredient control in your items—otherwise, forecasting is not accurate,” he says. “Each item you sell is made up of ingredients. If you enter all of the information into your inventory system, it should be able to tell you how much of each ingredient you will need for the week based on how much you sold last week or the same week last year. This way, you can forecast every item according to past sales.”

Vergidis believes that the most important POS feature to look for and use in inventory control is recipe management— i.e., having the ability to track the recipe of each item in enough detail so that every time an item is sold, the system is able to report what the ideal inventory cost of that sale is.

Next, look for supply line integration, which means that actual inventory costs can be automatically imported into the POS. “Once you have actual and ideal costs, then you have product variance, which is the difference between how much product the operation should be using versus how much product is actually being used,” Vergidis explains. “That’s the holy grail of inventory control for restaurants and pizzerias.”

Of course, the best inventory controls will do nothing if they’re not used, so Vergidis stresses that convenience plays

POS POINTERS

Bob Vergidis, chief visionary officer for Cincinnatibased pointofsale.cloud, shares three tips for choosing and using a POS system:

1. Take the time to build proper recipes into the POS system. That’s the biggest thing you can do to link the inventory to the POS. It all starts there.

2. Look for more than point of sale. An electronic cash register will not really change your business, so look for a POS that can do more—either to help you increase your sales or to reduce your costs.

3. Think about omnichannel. That’s a fancy word, but it basically means to service your guests using any method they prefer: online, mobile, on-premise, pickup, delivery and dine-in. Your POS should help you elevate your service—not just collect money and print a receipt.

“[Your system] should be able to tell you how much of each ingredient you will need for the week based on how much you sold last week or the same week last year.”

— Chris Ciabarra, Athena Security

a big role. “Inventory is a chore at the best of times, but using new mobile technologies available in some newer POS systems allows team members to do inventory using their phones, allowing for inventory counts to be more accurate and easier to do,” he says. “It’s important to always think about reducing friction in operations, and inventory is one of those areas where if you do things correctly, you will see the impact very clearly on the bottom line.”

The elevators of the PIZZA PLEEZER™ were scientifically designed to keep your cooked cut pizza crisp!

They are ideal for table or buffet service Side anti-moisture risers allow for moisture to escape, ensuring you and your customers of the crispiest and freshest pizza possible. Unlike wood servers, condensation and grease are trapped in the PIZZA PLEEZER’S™ valleys away from your pizza.

Unlike metal pans, the special plastic used in the PIZZA PLEEZER™ will not dent, transfer heat, or burn you while serving or eating.

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

“It’s important to always think about reducing friction in operations, and inventory is one of those areas where if you do things correctly, you will see the impact very clearly on the bottom line.”

— Bob Vergidis, pointofsale.cloud

AGAINST the GRAIN J J

Learn how different types of flour play into the making of some of the world’s most famous pizza styles.

BY TRACY MORIN

It’s tempting to shout hard-and-fast rules when it comes to making certain styles of pizza—use only 00 for Neapolitan, choose high-protein for New York pies— but dough making is a bit more complex than that. A certain flour won’t automatically produce the exact characteristics of the pizza you’re looking to create, but rather it’s the type of flour chosen throughout history that helped create the style of the pie famous in its region, from New York to Chicago to Naples, Italy. Here, our dough experts explain.

The availability of different flour types has contributed to regional styles’ telltale characteristics.

A Chicken-or-Egg Equation

When asked about how flour impacts pizza, John Arena, co-owner of Las Vegas-based Metro Pizza, responds, “What came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s a question of the pizza’s origins and what was available in that area. In New York, pizza makers used All Trumps, milled in Buffalo, while Ceresota was used in Chicago. Only in recent history have flours been universally available. So pizza makers didn’t set out to make a certain type, but instead the flour they used contributed to the characteristics of the region’s pizza.”

Stefano Velia, a retired pizza chef of 30 years now traveling and writing about the intricacies of pizza making on his blog, Pala Pizza, notes that flour type can make a world of difference in pizza making, affecting the taste, texture and structure of the dough. But it’s not the only factor. “Not only do you have to choose the correct flour for specific pizza styles, but you also have to account for your equipment,” Velia explains. “For example, tipo 00 flour is best cooked with incredibly high heat for short periods of time (about two minutes), which is why Neapolitan is typically associated with wood-fired ovens. Allpurpose (AP) and bread flours require a longer cook.”

Additionally, because flours are available to ship worldwide and globalization makes crossing cultural lines easy, there are also plenty of hybrid styles popping up around the country,

mixing and matching desired characteristics. Vincent Huynh, chef and owner at Agricole Hospitality, points to the New York-style slice sold at his company’s Houston pizzeria, Vinny’s, while its Italian concept, Coltivare, serves up something like a Neapolitan-meets-West-Coast style. Both are crafted with King Arthur, at a 13% protein content. But despite using an American flour, the approach replicates the one used in Naples hundreds of years ago. In other words: Work locally, because fresh is best.

“The freshest flour we can get is from here in the USA, versus getting a flour that comes from halfway around the world

“It’s a question of the pizza’s origins and what was available in that area. Pizza makers didn’t set out to make a certain type, but instead the flour they used contributed to the characteristics of the region’s pizza.”

— John Arena, Metro Pizza

and sits on a dock for weeks,” Huynh says. “Working with U.S. flour offers better absorption potential; it’s less oxidized, with more flavor, and not so compacted. When it comes to dough, the protein content influences the hydration and gluten development—but you also have to consider how that reacts and rises, and then how it acts in the oven.”

Dough Management Matters

As Huynh alludes to, it’s important to know the proper dough management and cooking procedures for the flour type used. Leo Spizzirri, owner of Spizzirri Media Group and corporate chef at Gia Mia in Chicago, notes that New York-style pizza is often crafted with flour that has a 14% protein content, which works best with a 48- to 72-hour fermentation time. “Some say 72 hours is just scratching the surface—some do 96 hours,” he reports. “John Arena is doing six or seven days on New York doughs. But with that, how much cooler space do you need? I’m starting to see a trend where owners are asking, ‘How do we make this quicker and more manageable?’”

On the other hand, Spizzirri notes, a Chicago-style pizza—thin, stuffed or deep-dish—would suffer from a 14% protein content flour, since it would develop too much gluten, emerging too dense, chewy and heavy for a product that’s typically lighter and crispier. “The highest protein the original Chicago pizza makers would use was 11.5% to 12%, and all-purpose (AP) flour was great because they could use it for things other than pizza,” Spizzirri says. “Also, Chicago dough is undermixed, rises three to five hours, and passes through a sheeter machine. It’s like making a biscuit.”

Velia adds that AP flour can be used for Detroit-style pan pizzas as well as Chicago deep-dish. “I feel bread flour at high hydration results in a better crust for this—though

my professional experience was with New York-style and Neapolitan, not Chicago-style, so other experts may disagree with my opinion!” he says. “Whether you use AP flour or bread flour for a Detroit pan pizza, using a high-hydration dough is important.”

Meanwhile, Velia believes that bread flour, with its high protein percentage, provides the backbone to an excellent New York-style pie. “The more complex structure (due to grind size and types of wheat used) results in a dough that can hold the weight of cheese when picked up,” he explains. “Bread flour requires more water than 00 and AP flours, so you will notice that a 65% hydration recipe with bread flour is a bit less workable than one made with 00.”

Let’s Talk Tipo

In times before refrigeration, dough management was even more important. Spizzirri explains that hundreds of years ago, Italian pizzaioli would mix dough in the morning because it was the coolest time of day, then let it rest on a marble slab with a damp bed sheet to keep cool. Or, on colder days, dough might sit by a sunny window. On a colder day, they might add

“Bread flour requires more water than 00 and AP flours, so you’ll notice that a 65% hydration recipe with bread flour is a bit less workable than one made with 00.”

— Vincent Huynh, Agricole Hospitality

more water to make the dough more extensible; on a hot day, less water for a stiffer result. The flour was less important than the dough management—and, in fact, modern 00 didn’t even exist hundreds of years ago. 00 is finely milled for a flour with a consistency reminiscent of talcum powder, and that level of fineness was possible only with modern machinery to grind the grain.

Nowadays, though, Velia believes that tipo 00 flour is “the shining star of Neapolitan pizza,” typically containing about 12% protein; but, more importantly, its incredibly fine milling sets it apart from other flours. “This flour is very workable, and you’ll notice it seems runnier when compared to bread flour recipes using the same hydration percentage, because of the fineness of the milling,” Velia explains. “True Neapolitan pizza has a very thin layer of crispy exterior and an incredibly light, airy and slightly chewy inside. Neapolitan is also one of the more difficult pies for customers to replicate at home, due to the requirement of an 800º to 900º oven.”

But 00 is only one type of Italian flour—there’s also 0, 1 and 2, according to Spizzirri (like with 00, the numbers refer to the fineness of milling). “With its 12-month shelf life, 00 was embraced, and Italian governments figured out that it’s special and protected the term—so only Italian flours can be called 00,” Spizzirri says. “But type 1 has been around forever, and because it has the bran and germ, the shelf life goes up from 12 to 16 months. 0 was also used forever, until technology created 00, but in the last five years I see a return to type 0. Pre-pandemic, I was even involved in a project where they experimented with 000—it’s not commercialized yet, but I think we’ll see this even finer designation at some time in the future!”

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

Jamie Culliton and McKenna Carney show off their plant-based pie, crafted for the Pizza a Due competition.

WORLD TAKING ON THE

From artfully arranged pies to thrilling acrobatics, the U.S. Pizza Team strutted its American stuff overseas at this year’s World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy.

BY TRACY MORIN | PHOTOS BY BLAKE HARRIS

Backstage at the World Pizza Championship

(WPC)—or the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza, as it’s known in Parma, Italy—is usually an electric blend of raw nerves, a madcap mix of frenetic activity and painstaking, over-the-top artistry. But at the 2022 edition, which took place April 5 to 7, an added element permeated the air: the feeling of a reunion. After the pandemic put the WPC on hold in 2020 and ’21, the event hosted plenty of long-awaited hugs, the crinkling of eyes a telltale sign of wide smiles concealed by still-masked faces.

The U.S. Pizza Team (USPT), of course, had already solidified its own reunion, having arrived in Milan on April 2 to adjust to the six-to-nine-hour time change and start the mad dash for toppings, flour, and perhaps local inspiration to fuel award-worthy pizzas. The group included team captain Michael LaMarca of Master Pizza in Cleveland; husband-and-wife duo Lars Smith and Cristina Aceves Smith of State of Mind Public House & Pizzeria in Los Altos, California; Leah Scurto of PizzaLeah in Windsor, California; Sean Dempsey and David Solum of Danger von Dempsey’s Pizza & Brewhäus in Aberdeen, South Dakota; James Terwilliger of San Diego-based The Pizza Consultant; Tore Trupiano of Mangia e Bevi in Oceanside, California; Dave Sommers of Mad Mushroom in West Lafayette, Indiana; Giovanni Labbate of Tievoli Pizza Bar in Palatine, Illinois; and the teacher-protege pair

These 12 competed in a range of categories against more than 700 pizza competitors total, in categories both culinary (Pizza Classica, Pizza in Teglia, Pizza in Pala, Gluten-Free, Pizza a Due and Pizza Napoletana STG) and actionpacked: Largest Dough Stretch, Fastest Pie Maker and Freestyle Acrobatics.

Ready, Set, Go

The USPT is used to being at somewhat of a disadvantage—unlike many Italybased competitors, overseas entrants need to work on the fly, scouring local markets and artisan purveyors for potential toppings that will help their pies stand out among hundreds of entries, only days or hours before “go time.” This year offered up added challenges, with shoebox-size shops limiting the number of customers

allowed inside due to lingering COVID concerns, requiring members to cycle in and out of local salumerias and home-goods stores, on the hunt for everything from thin-sliced prosciutto to decorative plates on which to present their pizzas to judges. (This is Italy, after all, home of high fashion, where keeping up fabulous appearances is perhaps half the battle.)

The USPT takes it all in stride, no doubt partially due to the fact they are—echoing the COVID-era solidarity cry—truly in this together. From earlymorning breakfasts until the wee hours, the team swaps an endless stream of strategies, encouragement and war stories from past years’ events.

One veteran of the WPC is LaMarca, who is so in the zone in the hours leading up to the event that he already has his ingredients pre-portioned in individual containers and passes on an impromptu interview—not out of

Jamie Culliton and McKenna Carney, both of The Nona Slice House in Safety Harbor, Florida.

(Clockwise from top left) Michael LaMarca’s Detroit-style pie won highest U.S. honors in the Pizza in Teglia category; Leah Scurto competes in the Largest Dough Stretch; Sean Dempsey checks his pie after baking; James Terwilliger hustles through the Fastest Pie Maker competition.

aloofness (few are more gregarious and good-natured than LaMarca) but pure game-face preparation. “I’m just visualizing the pizza right now,” he explains. “The judges can tell if you know what you’re doing. I come with every ingredient in a bowl so I don’t get distracted.”

Others offer up their pre-competition thoughts to PMQ’s Blake Harris, who videos the team round the clock alongside USPT coordinator Brian Hernandez, who posts frequent social media updates. They work amid hundreds of dedicated pizzaioli, who are not only brave enough to challenge themselves against some of the best in the world but who are passionate enough to consider their creations not just food but evocative of far loftier ideals: art, science, love.

The Team Temperament

Being halfway around the world at a pizza competition does not prevent pizzeria problems from popping up back home. Distracting long-distance phone calls ring in to USPT members: One loses a delivery driver. Another’s walk-in cooler breaks down on a busy Sunday. Yet another’s kegerator conks out.

The team perseveres, meanwhile harboring a variety of approaches and philosophies regarding the WPC itself. “I think I’m going to do amazing today,” predicts Trupiano, who is in Parma for the first time but has competed around the world. “I want to bring home that gold!”

Others are simply relishing the journey. Lars Smith, who would ultimately nab fifth place in the world for his Pizza in Pala entry, the Zucchine e Burrata, and receive top American competitor honors at the WPC awards ceremony on April 7, waited years for his arrival here after landing a free trip via the 2019 Galbani Cup. “It’s surreal that we’re all here three years later,” he reflects before the event. “My expectations are to have fun. I want to execute the pizzas I’ve planned well.”

One special guest with the USPT wasn’t competing at all. Nicholas Harper, owner of Peace of Pie On Hartwell in Fair Play, South Carolina, won a contest held by USPT sponsor Margherita Meats. When Harper was first contacted about the win, he ignored it, sure that it was a nefarious online scam to solicit his personal information. By April, he was beaming through his first trip to Italy, soaking up business tips from the entire team.

“Who doesn’t want to go to Parma, Italy?” Solum says. “The city is gorgeous. It’s a little scary [to compete], but it’s been a whirlwind trip so far. You hardly have time to think!”

Solum’s friend and business cohort, Dempsey, was kind enough to lend Culliton, a 15-plus-year acrobatic competitor, some dough to compete after his own batch went south. It’s a common sight among the team members, even though they’re technically competing against each other: Microplanes, ladles, trays and spoons freely change hands. The veteran Culliton, who placed fifth in the Freestyle Acrobatics competition, kept a cool head throughout. When a pastry bag literally fell apart in his hands during the Pizza a Due competition—performed

Jamie Culliton is a two-time WPC acrobatic world champion who has competed at the event for more than 15 years.

Michael LaMarca poses with a WPC judge after presenting his entry in the Classica Pizza category.

TEAM SPIRIT

When members of the U.S. Pizza Team (USPT) get together, they’re usually competing against each other—and against non-USPT members—in an event like the 2022 World Pizza Championship (WPC) or regional competitions in the United States. But that doesn’t make them any less of a team. They root for each other, help each other out in a bind, swap tips and offer nonstop words of encouragement. In the end, one team member’s win is a win for everyone. Here, several members reflect on this year’s WPC event in Parma, Italy, and what it means to belong—and we do mean belong—to the U.S. Pizza Team.

Michael

LaMarca, Master Pizza, Cleveland, Ohio

This trip was very special. It was the first time we have seen our team back in Italy together since the pandemic. It felt like more of a celebration this year than a competition. We were all so glad just to see each other. Every year this team gets better and closer. We feed off each other, we learn from each other, we all grow together. It hurts when the trip comes to an end and we all have to leave each other. My goal for next year, as it is for every year, is to see one of us on the podium. We got so close this year with Lars Smith, but I have a feeling that he will use that as motivation to get there next year.

This year’s trip was a truly incredible experience. Not only did I have an outcome that I was stunned by, I also had the opportunity to spend time with and learn from all of my teammates as well as pizza makers from around the world. I love the format of the competition in Parma. I think it’s set up to truly honor the profession and art of pizza making. I can’t wait to go back again next year!

James Terwilliger, The Pizza Consultant, San Diego, California

When I started working at Dempsey’s almost five years ago, I would have never imagined being able to travel abroad to make pizzas. I discovered that I have a passion for making good pizza, so, for me, having the opportunity to travel with the U.S. Pizza Team and compete in Parma, Italy, was truly a dream come true.

I had an amazing time overall. It was great to be part of the team, even if I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped in the competition. I’m definitely looking forward to the next time around.

Tore Trupiano, Mangia e Bevi, Oceanside, California

It was a great learning experience. I have a new mindset and new goals going forward. This was definitely one of the greatest achievements in my life. Can’t wait to go back!

Dave Solum, Danger von Dempsey’s Pizza & Brewhäus, Aberdeen, South Dakota

Lars Smith, State of Mind Public House and Pizzeria, Los Altos, California

with the 18-year-old Carney working the oven—he muttered, “Well, didn’t expect that.” But Culliton registered barely an eye blink as he worked to scoop out the bag’s cashew-based ricotta. (Carney, a vegan, inspired the unique plant-based pie.)

Despite challenges, the team performed well. In addition to Smith’s honors, LaMarca achieved the highest score from the U.S. for his Detroit-style Pizza in Teglia, called The Detroit, Parma Style!, and Aceves Smith took home the highest score among competitors from Mexico for her Pizza Classica entry, the Tonno e Cipolla. Sommers received the highest scores for the U.S. in both Fastest and Largest Dough Stretches.

Still, when watching the USPT in action, you get the feeling that members come for the competition, but they keep coming back for the experience. The springtime surrounds of Parma, with its intricate architecture and local culinary delicacies, would be enough to entice, or the eye-popping artistry on display at the WPC, or the opportunity for exchanging fresh inspiration for back home. But it’s really all about the camaraderie that the USPT fosters. You come away with the conviction that when one member performs well— and even when they don’t—everyone in the team truly feels like a winner.

Lars Smith won fifth place worldwide for his Pizza in Pala entry.

US PIZZA TEAM SHOWING

Congratulations to the U.S. Pizza Team for their spectacular performance at the World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy, held in April!

Taking the highest score for the USA overall, as well as the top scores for the USA in numerous individual categories, the USPT members proved once again that pizza is a universal language that requires no translation.

Lars Smith, State of Mind Public House & Pizzeria, Los Altos, CA: Highest score for the USA overall and 5th in the world for Pizza in Pala

Cristina Aceves Smith, State of Mind Public House & Pizzeria, Los Altos, CA: Highest score for Mexico (country of origin) in Classica

SHOWING STRONG

What’s Next?

If you are interested in claiming some glory of your own, be sure to register for our next two USPT-hosted events:

• The Chicago U.S. Pizza Cup and Acrobatic Trials, at the National Pizza & Pasta Show, Aug. 23-25

• The East Coast U.S. Pizza Cup and Acrobatic Trials, at the Pizza Tomorrow Summit, Nov. 9-10

Join us at these events and compete against owners and operators from across the country while showcasing your pizza prowess in a head-to-head pizza baking bonanza, or prove you have the agility and dexterity to be the next Freestyle Pizza Acrobatic Champion. With categories like Chicago-Style Pizza, Best Pie, Largest Dough Stretch, Fastest Pie Maker, Fastest Box Folder and the visually exhilarating Freestyle Acrobatics, there is something for every competitor—and glory enough to go around!

For more information about these events or the U.S. Pizza Team, visit uspizzateam.com/22USPC or contact Brian Hernandez at brian@pmq.com.

Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza, Cleveland, OH: Highest score for the USA in Pizza in Teglia

Dave Sommers, Mad Mushroom, West Lafayette, IN: Highest scores for the USA in Largest Dough Stretch and Fastest Pie Maker

Jamie Culliton, The Nona Slice House, Safety Harbor, FL: 5th place in the world for Freestyle Acrobatics

Best in Show International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York

PMQ account representative Tom Boyles shares some of the exciting products and technologies from this event, held in New York in March.

After a two-year hiatus, the International Restaurant & Foodservice Show of New York returned to the Javits Center on March 6 to 8, bringing together hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of restaurateurs and food and beverage professionals. Highlights included the presentation of the new Humanitarian Spotlight Award to Nate Mook, CEO of World Central Kitchen, which has been providing nutritious meals to people in devastated regions of the world, including wartorn Ukraine. Additionally, Anita Lo, a MichelinStar chef, Iron Chef winner and Top Chef Masters competitor, received the Torch Award, given yearly to an outstanding chef or restaurateur, while celebrity personal chef/restaurateur Millie Peartree, founder of the nonprofit Full Heart Full Bellies, won the Beacon Award for leadership and service by a woman in the industry.

PMQ’s Tom Boyles was there to scout out all of the cutting-edge products and technologies for pizzeria professionals. Here, he shares a few of his favorites.

impulseGUIDE Digital Menus

Digital Signage is point-of-decision communication. Whether interacting with customers or employees, digital signage is an effective way to get a point across, and impulseGUIDE has a solution that lets you use any TV to connect to their hardware for digital signage. Connecting a digital screen to a computer or playback device creates up-to-date, relevant content and information that can be updated quickly. Their cloud-based software contains patent-pending tools that keep content fresh with minimal effort on your part. Their scheduling tools make planning your marketing strategy a breeze. You can access the software from any internet connection, whether you’re in the office or lying on the beach! If needed, their installation team can efficiently install the systems and are educated on the different options and styles to fit your needs and have the tools to get any job done correctly.

impulseguide.com, 716-474-0979

Café Caddie

Sometimes you see an old idea and realize it’s still a perfect solution. That’s the Café Caddie. This tabletop condiment organizer gives customers instant access to napkins, straws, seasoning packets—just about anything to make sure the customer doesn’t have to wait for your staff. It accommodates a wide selection of condiments in an organized manner and can be customized with logos, names and messages. Café Caddie has a built-in removable recycle bin that’s easy to use, washable and convenient. It will help keep your tables clean, healthy and sanitary, and it’s perfect for restaurants, catered events and outdoor dining. These designer tabletop organizers are attractive and come in black or white. Café Caddie holds creamer pods, sugar, spice packets, napkins and straws to make your diners’ experience easier. The whole unit is dishwasher-safe and refrigeration-safe. cafecaddie.com, 925-998-4946

Flipdish

Here’s a company that can handle all of your digital needs. QSR customers expect their food to arrive fast. Flipdish’s digital ordering software and hardware can help you do just that. Through a custom website, app, kiosk and table ordering, restaurants can digitize their operations, reduce reliance on third parties, and retain and activate customers in one convenient platform. Automated loyalty and retention campaigns drive offline and third-party customers to your fully owned first-party channels, maximizing the lifetime value of your customer base. Keep customers coming back through custom marketing campaigns via text messages and push notifications, resulting in an ROI of 532%. Flipdish also lets you reduce queues and increase average order size by 30% with their in-store kiosks, a smart way to drive efficiency and revenue while solving current industry challenges. Safe, convenient and efficient table ordering from Flipdish lets your customers order directly from the table, using their own phones, and from the same app powering your delivery and pickup services. Table ordering increases average order size and reduces your costs. Flipdish is a simple, convenient way to build your digital channels and increase revenue, and you can be up and running in days. flipdish.com

Revel Systems

Revel Systems is the leading cloud-native POS platform and has built a solution specifically to meet the needs of pizzerias. Revel’s cloud infrastructure makes it quickly and easily adaptable for marketplace changes, so it’s perfect for pizza restaurants, which have long been trailblazers in the restaurant tech space. With native options for delivery, online ordering, drive-thru, kitchen management and more—not to mention ingredient-level inventory tracking—Revel’s platform is ready for pizza prime time no matter how you slice it. The intuitive interface is housed on the iPad, and with a central business dashboard, it’s ready to scale as you do. revelsystems.com, 833-437-3835

Ovation

Customer reviews can make or break a restaurant, and this company has a seamless and easy way to help. Ovation was voted the No. 1 guest feedback platform in a nationwide RestaurantOwner.com survey. Ovation uses a two-question SMS-based survey as a “digital table touch” that has redefined guest feedback. Through frictionless integrations with online ordering platforms and other tools, Ovation allows restaurants to easily resolve guest concerns in real time, get more five-star reviews, discover insights to improve, and drive revenue. It’s also a great tool to build your database, which leads to more effective and lower-cost marketing. As an approved vendor of Domino’s Canada, Ovation is a great platform for pizzerias looking to connect with their guests. Rocquisha Whyte, director of corporate affairs at Domino’s Pizza, saw Ovation increase her review velocity by 257.9%, add 2,500 guests to her database, save 149 unhappy customers, and increase her locations’ star ratings by 0.9. “With Ovation, we get direct contact with the customer, and I love it!” Whyte says. “I think customers are actually happier knowing that there’s somebody that can respond right away. I’m so happy.”

ovationup.com/pizza

MAKE MORE DOUGH IN CHICAGO!

Ready to take your pizzeria to the next level? The National Pizza & Pasta Show, taking place August 23 through 25 in Rosemont, Illinois, is the place to start. Featuring some of the industry’s top operators, consultants and technology providers, this event is packed with seminars designed to help you sell more pizza. Here’s a sneak preview, with more details to come in the August issue of PMQ!

Topic: Is Hospitality Dead? 5 Secrets to Unlocking the New Table

Speaker: Zack Oates, Founder, Ovation

With the off-premise boom and social distancing, how do you still connect with your customers?

Oates will share the secrets to finding out how your customers feel on- and off-premises, getting happy customers to help market your pizzeria, fixing root issues, driving more revenue and unlocking the power of digital hospitality.

Topic: Slam-Dunk Selling for Pizza

Operators: Turning Your People Into Sales Superstars

Speaker: Bill Guertin, Chief Enthusiasm Officer, The 800-Pound Gorilla Guertin will reveal the sales techniques used by professional sports teams’ ticket sales departments to sell out their stadiums and how pizzeria operators can adapt these techniques to produce higher checks, bigger tips and more profits.

Topic: Navigating Different Styles of Pizza in a Big-City Market

Speaker: Jonathan Porter, Chicago Pizza Tours

How do different pizza places properly brand and differentiate themselves in a highly competitive market? Porter founded Chicago Pizza Tours in 2009, becoming the first Chicago food tour company focusing solely on Chicago’s most defining food: pizza. This seminar includes a slideshow presentation on some famous Chicagoland pizzerias.

Topic: Who Really Invented Chicago

Deep-Dish Pizza?

Speaker: Peter Regas, Blogger/Founder, pizzahistorybook.com

Take a historical, research-rich deep dive into the facts and conjecture behind the creation of one of America’s most famous food inventions. This panel discussion will include Steve Dolinsky, Peter Regas, Jonathan Porter, Drew Axelrod, Tim Samuelson, Marc Malnati and others.

Learn from the industry’s best and brightest at the 2022 National Pizza & Pasta Show.

Topic: Adapting to an Evolving Industry

Speaker: Bob Vergidis, Chief Vision Officer, The Point of Sale Cloud

Pizza used to be one of the few delivery foods, but that’s no longer the case. The industry must adapt to keep its slice of the pie. Vergidis will discuss technology trends, ideas and changes in the market and provide an exciting new perspective for the future.

Topic: Where Is My Money?

Speaker: Izzy Kharasch, President, Hospitality Works Kharasch will explain how to uncover and prevent various types of theft that occur in restaurant operations and offer three real-life case studies where he identified and halted theft, increasing profits in under three weeks.

Topic: Think and Grow Rich in the Pizza Business

Speaker: Pasquale DiDiana, President, Bacci Pizzeria

Learn how Bacci Pizzeria’s Pasquale DiDiana went from one store grossing $300,000 per year to multiple locations grossing $5 million in under five years using principles from the classic Napoleon Hill book.

Topic: Utilizing Call Centers for Higher Volume

Speaker: John Scully, CEO, Pizza Cloud

Scully’s company provides telephone/internet solutions to the pizza industry. In this seminar, you’ll learn how call centers can provide a better experience for your customers, make your restaurant more competitive and increase sales and profits.

Topic: Proper Staff Training and Service Orientation

Speaker: Brian Margulis, Professor of Hospitality Management, Roosevelt University

Learn how to create an orientation and training program. This seminar will cover behavior modeling and learner-controlled instruction, the characteristics of effective sellers/greeters, and handling guest complaints.

Topic: Negotiating Leases and Lease Renewals

Speaker: Dale Willerton, The Lease Coach Facing a lease renewal or signing a new lease in the next 24 months? Willerton will discuss lease negotiations, midterm rent reductions, site selection, building acquisitions, and document reviews.

Topic: How

to Use Text Message Marketing to Generate More Revenue

Speaker: Shane Murphy, CEO, Boostly Murphy will cover why text marketing is so effective, industry stats related to text messaging, and the dos and don’ts you should be aware of. You’ll walk away with a playbook to build an engaged audience and a profitable marketing engine through SMS.

Topic: Did You Receive Your ERC Credit?

Speaker: Joel Manning, CPA, Principal, Manning & Silverman P.A.

Many businesses will qualify for ERC. Your restaurant can receive up to $26,000 per employee. Attend this seminar to learn more! Manning has 35-plus years of experience providing accounting services to his clients and can think outside the box to help them.

Topic: Hiring and Retaining Employees

Speaker: Robert Bernstein, Attorney, Laner Muchin P.A.

Bernstein is a labor lawyer for the restaurant industry. Hiring employees, general liability, insurance, and retaining staff will be discussed in this session.

Topic: The Bright Future of Pizza

Speaker: Steve Green, Publisher, PMQ Pizza Media

As publisher of the pizza industry’s No. 1 media company, Green has his finger on the pulse of the pizza industry. He will lead a panel discussion about the current state of the pizza industry and the moneymaking opportunities of the future.

LINCOLN OVENS

The new ventless mid-size conveyor oven, Lincoln Aperion 2424 impinger, has independent top and bottom air control to set air flow, eliminating the need for different finger configurations. Dual blower motors and higher output elements reduce cook times by up to 20%, while the front-located, intuitive touchscreen control and removable front door lets you quickly program a recipe or access a 24” x 24” cooking area.

LINCOLNFP.COM/PRODUCTS/2424

HS, INC.

Located in Oklahoma City, HS, Inc. is a manufacturer of unique foodservice products and maintains excellent quality control and customer service. Producing a quality product and taking care of customers has been the company’s philosophy since its inception in 1986 and continues to guide its practices today. HS offers complete in-house design and manufacturing capabilities and welcomes custom projects and ideas.

HSFOODSERVERS.COM

REVEL SYSTEMS: ON-DEMAND WEBINAR

Pizzerias face unique challenges and opportunities for effectively utilizing a POS platform. They require menu flexibility and precise inventory management. Customers also expect a variety of ordering options both on- and off-premises and from third-party marketplaces. In this on-demand webinar, Revel product experts detail how a cloud-native POS platform can help you easily manage these complexities to improve your pizzeria’s operations.

PAGE.REVELSYSTEMS.COM/PIZZAWEBINAR

MELINDA’S

Melinda’s has done it again. Melinda’s, the craft pepper sauce company that’s famous for making a variety of sauces that are thicker, hotter and better than average hot sauces, is now making a Louisiana red cayenne pepper sauce as well as a Mexican-style pepper sauce, featuring premium fresh chiles and spices, called Mexicana. Both have approachable heat with all the flavor you would expect from Melinda’s products.

MELINDAS.COM

MERIDIAN STAR

With more than 3,000 clients nationwide, Meridian Star POS specializes in providing highquality, state-of-the art point-of-sale systems and amazing 24-hour-a-day customer support to the pizza restaurant industry. With an industry-leading cash discounting program, all of this is available for $0 per month.

FREEPOSPLACE.COM, 800-675-5810 EXT. 216

AUTHENTIC FOODS

Authentic Foods’ new gluten-free pan pizza crust mix is perfect for Detroit-style, Sicilian, deep-dish and bar-style pizzas. The mixes are so easy to make and so good that nobody will know the difference! Options include pizza crusts, knots, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and more. These mixes are available in a variety of sizes to suit your needs. Visit their website for samples and recipes.

AUTHENTICFOODS.COM, 310-366-7612

PHADE

Phade is the world’s first marine-biodegradable, home- and industrial-compostable line of drinking straws and stirrers. Made with PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), a unique new biopolymer derived from the fermentation of canola oil, phade’s sustainable drinking straws maintain the feel and user experience of traditional plastic equivalents but will safely return to nature through composting.

PHADEPRODUCTS.COM

Watch the video at PMQ.com/phade

IGPM DISTRIBUTION

IGPM Distribution is the exclusive distributor of Kalkomat Boxers, WIK Basketball and Air Hockey, and Hit the Green MMA interactive games. Located in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, IGPM ship its games to the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South and Central America. They also stock all parts, provide tech support and offer a one-year warranty. You can view all of their games on their website.

IGPMDIST.COM

Watch the video at PMQ.com/igpm

SUNDAY

Launched by Christine de Wendel (ManoMano), Victor Lugger and Tigrane Seydoux (Big Mamma Group) last year, sunday transforms the tedious minutes needed to order and pay at a restaurant into a quick, easy experience of under 10 seconds with a simple QR code for the menu and payment. In one year, sunday has raised $124 million, partnered with 6,000-plus restaurant owners and recruited more than 350 employees in eight countries.

SUNDAYAPP.COM

Watch the video at PMQ.com/sunday-app

U R STICKERS

U R Stickers is a newer-technology sticker program with no setup or plate charges. This is a full custom, made-inthe-USA program that will work well to promote your pizzeria in many ways. The stickers are removable and restickable, so they can be positioned and repositioned anywhere, resulting in higher sales and many different uses. Sell them to customers or give them away as swag.

URSTICKERS.COM

Watch the video at PMQ.com/u-r-stickers

proof below and sign-off on the advertisement as shown or indicate changes in the column. Please return this signed proof to Stacie Dennison at either:

OPTIMAL DOUGH PROTECTION

» Outlasts plastic trays

» Won’t bend or dent

» Withstands temps -60 o to 250

» Lids and dollies available

» Custom color matching

PH 800 458.6050 • www.mfgtray.com • Contact your preferred distributor

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

• Dough Tray Covers – designed to fit.

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

• Dough Scrapers – two ergonomic designs.

• Dough Tray Dollies – heavy duty. The preferred dough tray of pizza operators in the US and Abroad for over 30 years! Order by phone or online. Call 908-276-8484 www.doughmate.com

www.doughmate.com

GREEN LANTERN PIZZA

BY TRACY MORIN

Thomas Vettraino and his wife, Irene, opened Green Lantern Tavern in Madison Heights, Michigan, in 1946. But the little hole-in-thewall tavern really hit its stride in 1955, when it turned into Green Lantern Pizza, thanks to the success of its patrons’ favorite drink accompaniment. “In a small community like Madison Heights, Green Lantern was a hit from the beginning,” says marketing director Chris Fichter, who also owns a location in Clinton Township. “And we’re still known as one of the best pizza places in town. We’ve built such a cultlike following.”

By 1984, the couple’s daughter, Marlene, and her husband, John Spreitzer Sr., took over the operations. But their sons, John Jr. and T.J. (Thomas), were the ones to start expansion in 2004, opening the brand’s first delivery and carryout store in Royal Oak, Michigan. Two more would follow in 2013—one dine-in and one DELCO in Clinton Township. By continuing to open another store every two to three years, the brand has grown to seven locations, with two more scheduled this June and July. “Every one of our restaurants is very high-volume, but we have a slow, steady growth model,” Fichter notes. “John and T.J. took over basically after high school, and they’re workhorses.” Their sister’s husband, Pete Rodriguez, is also on board in the third-generation family affair.

With its Detroit-suburb origins, Green Lantern serves a mean square, but it’s actually known for its Original Round pies, featuring thick-cut pepperoni, fresh-made dough and sauce, and cheese

shredded on-site. “When people in this area crave pizza, they crave Green Lantern,” Fichter says. “We’re a craft pizza. Even when we open a new location, we don’t have to do any marketing—that’s how good our word-of-mouth is. If your product isn’t good, people aren’t gonna come back, so the fact that we’ve been making pizzas since 1955 speaks for itself.”

Despite its reputation, the pizzeria mixes up its advertising with traditional direct mail and active social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. In recent years, the company has adopted 21st-century technologies, like online ordering, SEO, geofencing, and a new POS system that allows for incredibly detailed statistical breakdowns and highly successful email marketing campaigns to more than 110,000 subscribers. “We’re not really a coupon-based company, and we’re pricier than others, but you get what you pay for,” Fichter explains. “T.J. and John choose franchising partners who are in-store, active owner-operators, because it’s all about the power of consistency. We believe that slow and steady wins the race—or, as we say, ‘One slice at a time.’”

The third-generation owners of this Michigan cult favorite are banking on slow but steady growth, with two new locations set to launch this summer.

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

(Clockwise from top left) “Uncle Bennie” mans the bar at the Green Lantern in the 1950s; an old-school portrait shows founder Thomas Vettraino; the pizzeria has expanded its menu to a range of items; Original Round is its best-known crust style; the original location still thrives in Madison Heights, Michigan.

www.caputocheese.com

Chicago is more than a deepdish kind of town. It’s also the birthplace of two other distinct styles—and it’s now a pizza mecca to rival New York.

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