PREMIUM & SPECIALITY APPETIZERS

HOME-STYLE FLAVOR IN EVERY BITE

Bellissimo Foods offers a full line of breaded and battered appetizers to suit any pizzeria or restaurant application from Onion Rings to our popular Mozzarella Sticks. Bellissimo appetizers are hand crafted to give you the consistency you count on to deliver superb taste and reliability – time and time again.

Bellissimo appetizers are a simple way to add variety and value to your menu that are easy-tocook and quick-to-serve straight from your fryer or oven. Bellissimo appetizers will consistently match your customers diverse needs and specifications.

For our full line of appetizers, including ovenable options, visit Bellissimo.com to find your local source of Bellissimo Italian products.

Mystic Pizza

A little crystal healing, a little palm reading, a little bit rock ’n’ roll—Pisa Lisa’s three-day Mystical Pizza Fest, to celebrate its second location in Sedona, Arizona, was anything but your run-of-the-mill grand opening. Festivities kicked off on Friday, September 16, with an opening ceremony featuring a blessing from Havasupai medicine man Uqualla, who torched attendees’ handwritten intentions in the wood-fired pizza ovens. The event also featured a dough-ribbon cutting, a welcoming from the chamber of commerce, ginger-lime mocktails, a rabbi’s personally written blessing song, and a group drum ceremony. But the pièce de résistance was a local art piece, long retired as a Sedona landmark—a “life-size” spaceship helmed by an alien—unveiled, fully refurbished, to be enjoyed once more. On Saturday and Sunday, free food samples included pizza slices, kale salad, tomato soup, gelato, and, for pups, doggie meatball treats. Dogs could even receive pet reiki, massages and sound healing. Humans, meanwhile, enjoyed chair massages from a local spa, palm and tarot readings, and free silhouette artistry. “Our Mystical Pizza Fest gave me the chance to share my passion for pizza, family, friends and my beloved home of Sedona, while channeling energy to spread goodwill to the entire hospitality industry,” Dahl said. “If ever there was a perfect Sedona blast, this is it!”

A Mighty Mullet

Emmitt Bailey is only eight years old, but he knows how to rock an ’80s-style mullet. Hailing from Menomonie, Wisconsin, Bailey took first place in the kids division of the 2022 USA Mullet Championship held in late August. That win earned him $2,500, but perhaps the best prize of all was one he never expected: free pizza for a year from his hometown Toppers Pizza store, operated by Perfect 10 LLC. When Steve Repinski, owner/managing partner of Perfect 10, learned that Emmitt’s mighty mullet had garnered national acclaim, he invited the youngster to the restaurant to make his favorite pie and issued a press release about Emmitt’s visit and bonus prize. “Emmitt’s attitude is amazing, just like his mullet,” Repinski said. “He also makes a killer pizza!” Emmitt was one of 25 finalists in his category (ages 1 to 12) in the USA Mullet Championship and got nearly 9,900 votes on Facebook, which advanced him to the next round. A panel of celebrity judges also helped choose the winner. Asked for his advice to someone looking to grow their own mullet, Emmitt said, “Just be yourself and have fun.”

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.

A TEAM-UP OF CHICAGO GIANTS

When two iconic Chicago brands—Lou Malnati’s and Portillo’s—team up on a limited-time pizza, it’s bound to make headlines, especially when it can be ordered from anywhere in the country. The Lou Malnati’s x Portillo’s Italian Beef Deep Dish Pizza, which debuted October 3, is a one-of-a-kind mashup that’s offered only through Tastes of Chicago, a nationwide shipping company specializing in Windy City food. It features Lou Malnati’s flaky, buttery pizza crust, plum tomatoes and Wisconsin cheese and comes topped with Portillo’s famous slow-roasted, thin-sliced Italian beef. Available with either Portillo’s homemade sweet peppers or hot giardiniera, each 9” pizza is made from scratch by Lou Malnati’s, then flash-frozen to preserve freshness before it’s shipped to customers. “When we tasted the Italian Beef Deep Dish for the first time, we knew we had created something special,” said Michael Osanloo, Portillo’s president and CEO. Marc Malnati, Lou Malnati’s owner, believes his company already offers the city’s best deep-dish pies. “The only way we knew to top ourselves was to top our pizzas with the famous flavors of Portillo’s,” he said.

Cutting The Mustard Slice

When Foodigenous blogger Adam Horvath suggested building a promotion around the mustard pie, the owners of Carmine’s Pizza in Netcong, New Jersey, weren’t exactly sold on the idea. But Horvath “mustered” enough support to make it happen on September 28—and the largely unknown pizza style, which originated in Trenton, New Jersey, gained some new fans. It features spicy brown mustard swirled across the crust, plus shredded mozzarella and tomato sauce. Some folks prefer a plain mustard slice, while others crave topping combos like sausage and onions or sausage and fresh garlic. Free slices of all three versions were offered at the Carmine’s event. “More than one person came into the night thinking that mixing mustard with sauce and cheese was pizza blasphemy,” Horvath says. That included Carmine’s owners, Joe Ruocco and Sal Ruocco. “I had to twist their arm to let me do it,” Horvath says. But, he adds, “Everyone—and I mean everyone—left the evening with a newfound respect for the unlikely combo. Not one person that I spoke with said anything bad.” The event, which Horvath promoted on his blog and on the Jersey Pizza Joints group on Facebook, drew about 60 curious customers, and more than 15 mustard pies were sold, Horvath reports.