Tested and approved. Just like your pizza.

WestRock takes food safety as seriously as you do. Our pizza box liners, medium and finished products are routinely tested by independent, certified laboratories to ensure that only safe materials go inside. Final packaging meets FDA requirements for food contact.

Find out more at westrock.pizzaexpo365.com.

westrock.com/pizza pizzaboxes@westrock.com

The Pizza Witch

There’s magic in the air at Market Pizza, where Megan Jones-Holt casts spells of deliciousness with wild-game pies topped with venison, kangaroo and camel meat.

PMQ.COM DIGITAL EXCLUSIVES

Improving Your Pizza Dough With a Water Filtration System

Water filtration systems can purify or soften your water while even replicating regional attributes, such as New York water.

PMQ.com/water-filtration

Your Dough Is in Your Database

Stop relying on the “hope and pray” marketing strategy and start using your POS data to create a moneymaking customer retention plan.

By Matt Plapp, Restaurant Marketing That Works

PMQ.com/dough-in-your-database

Picnic’s Pizza Making Robots on the Way in 2021

As Picnic gets ready to roll out its fully automated Picnic Pizza System, CEO Clayton Wood explains its capabilities in an exclusive Q&A with PMQ.

PMQ.com/clayton-wood

What if Every Restaurant Served Plant-Based and Sustainable Meals?

As meat-free options become commonplace, Ilana Braverman of DefaultVeg shares tips for incorporating more plant-based foods into your pizza menu.

PMQ.com/ilana-braverman

Consumers Snub Domino’s in Choosing Most Craveable Chain Pizzas

Detroit-style pies from Jet’s Pizza earned the highest praise from consumers surveyed by Technomic.

PMQ.com/craveable-chain-pizzas

What Are the Elements of an Authentic DetroitStyle Pizza?

Imitators abound, but Detroit-style pizza has some critical elements to keep in mind if you’re aiming for the real thing.

PMQ.com/authentic-detroit-style-pizza of PMQ, Inc.

662-234-5481

Volume 25, Issue 2

March 2021

ISSN 1937-5263

PUBLISHER

Steve Green, sg@pmq.com ext. 123

CO-PUBLISHER

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

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Rick Hynum, rick@pmq.com

ART DIRECTOR

Eric Summers, eric@pmq.com

SENIOR COPY EDITOR

Tracy Morin, tracy@pmq.com

IT DIRECTOR

Cory Coward, cory@pmq.com ext. 133

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

Blake Harris, blake@pmq.com ext. 136

TEST CHEF/USPT COORDINATOR

Brian Hernandez, brian@pmq.com ext. 129

SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR

Ingrid Valbuena, ingrid@pmq.com ext. 137

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

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PMQ INTERNATIONAL

PMQ CHINA

Yvonne Liu, yvonne@pmq.com

PMQ RUSSIA

Vladimir Davydov, vladimir@pmq.com

PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE

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

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

Cost of U.S. subscription is $25 per year. International $35. Periodical postage pricing paid at Oxford, MS. Additional mailing offices at Bolingbrook, IL. Postmaster: Send address changes to: PMQ Pizza Magazine, PO Box 9, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406-9953.

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.

“We need a Christmas miracle this holiday season,” the owners of Howdy’s Texas Grill’d Pizza posted on Facebook. And they got one, as customers flooded them with more business than they could handle.

A Christmas Miracle

As sales plummeted due to COVID-19, the owners of Howdy’s Texas Grill’d Pizza needed a “Christmas miracle” to stay in business. And thanks to the good people of College Station, Texas, they got one. A December 17 post on the single-unit pizzeria’s Facebook page noted, “We will not be able to stay open without frequent and repeating local support….Business has dropped more than 50% since last summer.…We need y’all to come back and help us save not just Howdy’s but all of these amazing local restaurants [that] are at huge risk right now.” They didn’t have to ask twice. By the next night, Howdy’s had run out of dough before 7 p.m., and the same happened on the following night, too. The pizzeria also lowered its prices and began offering deep discounts on family meals, then drummed up more business with an ugly-Christmas-sweater promotion. “We’re not looking for charity,” general manager Bryan Lariviere-Crane told a local TV station that covered Howdy’s big comeback. “We want the opportunity to serve, and not just on a one-time basis but consistently.…Make us part of your routine.”

The Beat Goes On

Here’s one way to get your pizzeria featured in the local newspaper: Name a signature pie after one of its reporters. To be fair, that probably isn’t why Jeff Bekavac, chief culinary officer for Dallas-based Cane Rosso, honored longtime Dallas Morning News sportswriter Evan Grant with a pizza called the Beat Writer. But the small chain, with six locations in Texas, did get some positive coverage from the paper. The pizza will be offered at Cane Rosso’s Arlington location, along with a pizza named for Texas Rangers outfielder Willie Calhoun. Bekavac said the Beat Writer pizza is a variation on Cane Rosso’s famous Honey Bastard pie, featuring bacon marmalade, meatballs, Sweety Drop peppers and mozzarella. Grant gave the pizza a big thumbs-up, noting, “I’m pretty much a meatball in life. And bacon is kind of a ham, and I’m definitely hammy.” He added, “I hope that if people do try this pie—because there’s a lot of good pies on the [Cane Rosso] menu—that they will think it’s as fun and delicious as I do.”

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Ask us how we can make your life easier and improve your customer ’s experience during these difficult times. Our rapid response support team averaged almost 500 custom changes per week in April-June. As “the rules” changed for our clients, we updated messaging and call flow to minimize impact, maximize revenue. Let PizzaCloud do the same for your stores.

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If you have any interest in call centers call us to discuss options or visit www.pizzacloud.net to register for a webinar.

In Honor Of The King

If Elvis Presley really is still alive, he might have been hanging out in disguise at Pizzeria 201 in Montgomery, Minnesota, for his birthday. Owned by Diane and Troy Domine, the independent pizza shop baked up a one-of-a-kind pizza in honor of the King’s birthday and garnered coverage from the local press. Called the Elvis Presley Pizza, it featured peanut butter, banana slices and maple syrup. It could be topped off with the guest’s choice of bacon or chocolate. Pizzeria 201 is also known for signature pies like the semi-Hawaiian-style Chicken-in-a-Grass-Skirt, featuring Alfredo sauce, garlic chicken, pineapple and pepperoncini with a sprinkling of coconut shavings and mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.

Treating The Troops

As National Guard soldiers roamed the halls of the U.S. Capitol Building during the impeachment hearings in mid-January, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Missouri) and Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Florida) made sure they had something better to eat than MREs. The legislators treated the soldiers to pies from We the Pizza on nearby Pennsylvania Avenue, and, in a show of support for the troops and their defense of American democracy, the pizzeria offered additional ones for free. We the Pizza donated a free pizza for every one that was purchased, resulting in 100 pizzas sent to the Capitol on January 14, and 150 more the next day. The pizzeria also matched every pie donated by customers on its online ordering site. “These men and women are coming from all over the country to protect not just our Capitol building and our businesses but democracy,” said Micheline Mendelsohn Luhn, deputy CEO for Sunnyside Restaurant Group, which owns four We the Pizza locations in the D.C. area as well as other restaurants. Mendelson Luhn told Eater.com that the restaurant’s sales had dropped 50% during the pandemic, but the arrival of the troops had boosted business. “We haven’t been doing numbers like this since March of last year,” she said.

DOMINO’S AIMS TO BE “DOMINANT NO. 1” PIZZA CHAIN

Already the top pizza chain in the U.S. in terms of revenue—with nearly $7.1 billion in domestic system-wide sales last year—Domino’s aims to be “a dominant No. 1” in the coming years, CFO Stu Levy told QSR magazine. The company, which currently operates more than 6,200 stores, believes there’s room for a total of 8,000 Domino’s locations nationwide. In the fiscal year that ended November 2020, Domino’s held 22% of the country’s total quickservice pizza market, according to research firm NPD Group. In contrast, other major chains had a combined 30%, while regional chains and independents accounted for 48%. Domino’s also captured 36% of the U.S. pizza delivery market, compared to 27% for other major chains and 37% for regionals and independents. On the carryout side, Domino’s held 15% of the market, while the other major chains controlled 32%, and regionals and independents dominated with 52%. “If you look at market share leaders across a lot of industries…you’ve got a lot of companies that are much higher than [22% market share] when they are the leading player,” Levy told QSR. “So when we look at that, we say there’s [room for] growth out there.”

PIZZA HUT TAKES DETROIT-STYLE PIZZA NATIONWIDE

In what Pizza Hut described as its “biggest launch of 2021,” the chain rolled out a limited-time Detroit-style pizza special in late January. Pizza Hut offered four varieties of the famous Motor City style, including the Double Cheesy, layered with aged Parmesan and mozzarella; the Double Pepperoni, loaded with 32 regular slices and 48 slices of crispy, cupped pepperoni; the Meaty Deluxe, featuring bacon, Italian sausage and cupped pepperoni slices; and the Supremo, topped with Italian sausage, red onions and green bell peppers. All four pizzas feature a new vine-ripened tomato sauce. “Detroit-style is the fastest-growing trend in pizza,” said Pizza Hut chief brand officer David Graves in a virtual preview of the new offering. “It’s no longer a Midwest-only thing. As America’s iconic pizza company, when there’s a big trend, our customers expect us to bring those pizzas to the rest of America.” The Detroit-style launch was the second new LTO from Pizza Hut in two months; in December, the company rolled out its Triple Treat Box, a three-in-one deal featuring two medium pizzas, five breadsticks and 10 Cinnabon Mini Rolls in one box.

MOUNTAIN MIKE’S CLIMBED TO NEW PEAK IN 2020

Mountain Mike’s Pizza, a West Coast pizza chain with more than 230 stores in California, Oregon and Utah, managed to log its best sales year ever in 2020, even with its dining rooms remaining closed for most of the year due to the pandemic. The company ended its fiscal year with system-wide sales up 13.3% and same-store sales up 7.3% over 2019. The company credited its success to the resilience of its franchisees, fan loyalty, and the underlying strength of its carryout and delivery business.

“Remarkably, this year we had a handful of franchised restaurants break the $2 million annual sales barrier for the first time in the brand’s history, with the average sales of our top 50% of restaurants achieving close to $1.2 million in annual sales,” said Mountain Mike’s CEO Chris Britt in a statement. “It really has been breathtaking to see the growth in restaurant count and sales that many of our franchisees have experienced over the past few years.”

Mountain Mike’s opened 15 new restaurants in 2020 and signed agreements to expand into new Western states, including a 60-plus unit development deal in Arizona and Utah. The company has 25 new locations planned for 2021.

Several factors contributed to the brand’s success in 2020, the company said, starting with growing digital orders by more than 120%. Digital orders reached nearly 40% of total orders by the year’s end. Credit also goes to a more flexible, data-driven and digital-focused marketing strategy, and quick implementation of contactless delivery, tamper-free packaging and other safety protocols at the outset of the pandemic. Additionally, Mountain Mike’s ramped up third-party delivery integration with new guest incentives and launched a Brand Reputation/Guest Relations Department. The department responded to 99% of all guest feedback submitted via email and telephone, leading to stronger guest engagement in all markets.

“It’s no secret that 2020 was a big year for pizza, but it became our goal early on to set a standard in the segment and lead by example, which meant allowing our values as a brand to guide us in every decision we made,” said Jim Metevier, Mountain Mike’s president and COO. “As a family-focused brand committed to the communities we serve, we went to work finding ways to bring added value and convenience to our guests while doing everything in our power to make them feel safe when choosing Mountain Mike’s Pizza. Equally committed to our franchise partners, we amped up communication to ensure they were informed and had the tools to pivot and continue running their business with confidence.”