PMQ Pizza - January/February 2024

E L E VAT I N G

THE

BUSINESS

JANUARY/FE BRUARY 2024

OF

PIZZA

PMQ.COM

The

Dough Nerds PA G E 2 2

The founders of Flour + Water Pizzeria solved the sog factor in their delivery pizza. Now they’re planning for fast growth.

INSIDE:

Shoot and Sell

PAGE 18

Pop Stars

PAGE 30

The Portable Pizzaioli PAGE 36

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MEET THE MASTERS

ELEVATING THE BUSINESS OF PIZZA

CONTENT EDITOR IN CHIEF Rick Hynum rhynum@wtwhmedia.com SENIOR EDITOR Charlie Pogacar cpogacar@wtwhmedia.com COPY EDITOR Tracy Morin tmorin@wtwhmedia.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR/USPT COORDINATOR Brian Hernandez bhernandez@wtwhmedia.com

CRUST

VP, ASSOCIATION AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT Allison Dean adean@wtwhmedia.com

FIGHT THE FLOP A former accountant and home builder, Jim Cervone’s true love has always been cooking. He opened Crust in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, in August 2020 and followed with a second location in Williamstown last December. After taking Neapolitan-style pizza classes, he loved the style’s purity, but the floppy crust? Not so much. “I like crispy pizza,” he says. “I don’t want to eat pizza with a fork and knife, you know?”

Blending the dough principles and quick cook times of Neapolitan pizza with a New York sensibility, he developed what he calls “neo-New York-style,” complete with a sturdier crust. “I like the simplicity of Neapolitan-style, with organic red sauce and really good mozzarella,” he says.

“That, to me, is what pizza is. My Neapolitan, you can hold it in your hand, and it doesn’t flop. I’m using Italian flour, but I’m also breaking some of the [Neapolitan] rules.”

Read the full story at PMQ.com/jim-cervone.

Scan this code to subscribe or renew your subscription to PMQ! Or visit PMQ.com/subscribe.

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A Publication of WTWH Media, LLC 662-234-5481 Volume 28, Issue 1 January/February 2024 ISSN 1937-5263

BRANDED CONTENT STUDIO DIRECTOR, BRANDED CONTENT Peggy Carouthers pcarouthers@wtwhmedia.com ASSISTANT EDITOR, BRANDED CONTENT Ya’el McCloud ymccloud@wtwhmedia.com ASSISTANT EDITOR, BRANDED CONTENT Olivia Schuster oschuster@wtwhmedia.com

SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PUBLISHER Steve Green sgreen@wtwhmedia.com

VP, EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Greg Sanders gsanders@wtwhmedia.com

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Linda Green lgreen@wtwhmedia.com

ART & PRODUCTION

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Tom Boyles tboyles@wtwhmedia.com

ART DIRECTOR Eric Summers esummers@wtwhmedia.com SENIOR ART DIRECTOR Tory Bartelt tbartelt@wtwhmedia.com DIGITAL PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Blake Harris bharris@wtwhmedia.com

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Ashley Cyprien acyprien@wtwhmedia.com SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Jerry Moschella jmoschella@wtwhmedia.com NATIONAL SALES DIRECTOR Eugene Drezner edrezner@wtwhmedia.com CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Brandy Pinion bpinion@wtwhmedia.com

PMQ PIZZA Issue 1 January/February 2024 (ISSN 1937-5263) is published monthly in January, March, April, May, June, August, September, October, November and December by WTWH Media, LLC, 1111 Superior Ave #2600, Cleveland, OH 44114-2560.

Periodical postage pricing paid at Cleveland, OH. Additional mailing offices at Bolingbrook, IL. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to PMQ PIZZA, PO Box 9, Cedar Rapids, IA 54406-9953.

Cost of U.S. subscription is $25 per year. International $35.

Opinions expressed by the editors and contributing writers are strictly their own and not necessarily those of the advertisers. All rights reserved. No portion of PMQ Pizza may be reproduced in whole or part without written consent.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

January/February 2024 14

Making the Tough Decisions

18

Shoot & Sell

30

Pop Stars

36

The Portable Pizzaioli

42

Confronted with a fateful choice, Alex Koons of Hot Tongue Pizza recognized that change is one of life’s certainties—and embraced it.

For shooting Instagram-worthy photos of your pizzas, this expert says, “The best camera is the one you’ve got,” smartphones included.

22 22

Meet three pop-up pizzeria operators who are taking pizza to the people wherever they are—with minimal start-up costs.

New oven technology has lowered the barrier to entry in the pizza business while hearkening back to its street-food roots.

The Dough Nerds

Motor City Magic

At Flour + Water Pizzeria, Ryan Pollnow (left) and Thomas McNaughton take an “investigative attitude” toward all things culinary. But they’re also finding ways to help employees grow and flourish.

Detroit-style pizza has its own set of rules to achieve the signature light, crunchy crust and caramelized edges that make it so special.

46 The Winner’s Circle

The Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup and U.S. Pizza Team Acrobatic Trials shone a light on some of the country’s premier pie slingers.

8

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

COVER PHOTO BY KRISTEN LOKEN

BRIAN HERN AN DEZ

36

BY RICK HYNUM

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: 11 Moneymakers 49 Product Spotlight 50 Pizza Industry Bulletin Board 52 PMQ Resource Guide 58 Pizza Hall of Fame

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MONEYMAKERS

Players with the Houston Dash soccer team scored fundraising goals for charity by helping make their own specialty pizza, the Dash Board Banger, at Vinny’s Pizza.

HOMETOWN HEROES V INN Y’S PIZZA

THE TEAM AT VINNY’S PIZZA IN HOUSTON TAKES HOMETOWN CAUSES SERIOUSLY, but they also stress “fun” in their fundraisers, dreaming up wacky new pies custom-made for each organization. In October, executive chef Paul Lewis collaborated with B.E.A.R., a support network for abused or neglected children, to create two red-sauce pies that stayed on the menu all month long: the BEAR Necessities and the BEAR-y Scary. In another collab with the Houston Dash, a pro women’s soccer team, to benefit Dynamo Charities, Lewis created the Dash Board Banger, featuring player-selected toppings like mesquite grilled chicken, green apple, Texas goat cheese, red onions and

While many Houston-area pizzerias focus on sports-related promos, Vinny’s Pizza lends its clout to—and creates specialty pizzas for—organizations like the Houston Ballet.

a hot-honey drizzle. And to help the Houston Ballet raise money for a dance scholarship fund, Lewis created pizzas inspired by the Nutcracker and the Rat King. “It’s been such a fun, fulfilling way to support charities,” Lewis says.

“It’s also been a way for us to broaden our brand into areas of town where people may not have considered us.”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

11

MONEYMAKERS

MUCH ADO ABOUT MOCHI PIZZA

GOREMADE PIZZA

San Francisco chef Ty Mahler has crafted a new fusion pizza with a crust unlike any other in the United States— maybe even the world. Mahler, the co-founder of Mochiko Mochi Pizza, is also a partner with Peter Yen in Sushirrito, the Bay Area’s famous “sushi burrito” brand. For their first pizzeria, Mahler developed a wildly original crust made with a proprietary rice flour blend ordinarily used in mochi, a Japanese sticky-rice dessert. The result is a crust with a crispy outside and a chewy interior, and every pizza comes in a 18”-by-4” rectangle. The Chicken Curry pizza, for example, boasts fried chicken karaage, a cheese blend, corn, jalapeños and Japanese curry, while the Spicy Pork showcases spicy minced pork, cheese, spinach and a sansho pepper cream sauce. Mahler and Yen were inspired to invent the mochi pizza by their kids, who love mochi muffins and doughnuts. Interestingly, mochi dough doesn’t need to rise. Mahler cooks the tacky dough first in a flat aluminum baking pan, transfers it into a deeper aluminum pan, adds the toppings and a sweet Japanese-influenced tomato sauce, and bakes it again for

The pies at Mochiko Mochi Pizza feature a wildly original crust made with a rice flour blend typically used in mochi, a Japanese sweet treat made from sticky rice. MOCHIKO MOCHI PIZZA

10 minutes at 650°F. Finally, he slices it into thick squares.

“People stop in their tracks when they hear ‘mochi pizza.’ It’s something about the two words together,” Mahler told SFGate.com. “People usually view mochi more as a dessert, but what we wanted to do was make it more savory.”

BRING YOUR OWN BLUNT

The Fire It Up Friday promo led to the busiest night in GoreMade Pizza’s history.

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GoreMade Pizza in Columbus plunged deep into the weed in a December 8 promotion celebrating Ohio’s legalization of marijuana. Dubbed Fire It Up Friday, the event brought together jubilant partakers of pot on the patio, where they chuckled at the 1936 documentary, Reefer Madness, and puffed away in public without fear of legal repercussions. “It was our busiest night in our whole seven years of business,” said Nick Gore, the pizzeria’s founder, in an Instagram post. The BYOB (Bring Your Own Blunt) party also featured products from South Fork Hemp, a hemp farm in Patalaska, Ohio. Weather permitting, Fire It Up Friday will become a weekly event, Gore wrote. “The weather was perfect, the vibes were on point, and everyone was so wonderful and patient. And looking out at the people of all different ages and backgrounds, feeling the vibe… this is the restaurant I want to own! These are people I want to host…kind, patient, supportive, thoughtful, loving, sharing, community-focused people.”

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MAKING THE TOUGH DECISIONS

When sticking to the status quo is simply not an option, be ready to embrace change—even if it means changing yourself.

BY ALEX KOONS

W

ORKING IN THE RESTAURANT INDUSTRY PRESENTS DAILY CHALLENGES, but this past year, I encountered one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever made.

When I opened Hot Tongue Pizza, an all-vegan concept, I was confident that I could create a standout pizza minus the meat and cheese on the pie. Yet, over time, it became apparent that I was struggling to draw non-vegan crowds to an all-vegan pizza place.

I’ve always been pretty candid about my dislike for most plant-based cheeses and don’t blame anyone for not rushing in to try my own housemade versions.

On top of this realization, during this past summer in Los Angeles, the strikes among writers and actors had significant repercussions on everything. When you add the summer heat, inflation and a decline in people dining out, it created a perfect storm that resulted in some of our lowest sales, causing stress that would affect any business owner to the point of hospitalization.

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PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

HOT TONGUE PIZ Z A

MAT T POLI Z Z I

HOT THOUGHTS

Now, normally, business decisions happen behind the scenes with minimal fallout—maybe some added stress on staff or an annoying new process. However, in September of 2023, we decided to transition from an allvegan establishment to incorporating animal products.

This decision resulted in a pretty brutal backlash I hadn’t anticipated. People vehemently criticized the shop, attacked my character, and questioned my ethics and morals. I received texts, emails, calls—individuals expressing how foolish they deemed the change and eagerly anticipating our closure.

Sticking to the status quo was simply not an option.

We exhausted efforts to avoid such a drastic shift, but this change provided us with a chance to survive another day. Amidst a multitude of opinions, it’s important to not dwell on other views that lack knowledge of the whole picture. Embracing change, even if it means changing myself, was intimidating. It was hard and still is, but change, like death, is one of life’s certainties. This transition remains a work in progress. A crucial decision had to be made, and we did. After all, you can’t craft vegan pizza if you can’t meet payroll.

If anyone out there is contemplating a change to their menu, policy or restaurant, I hope they find the courage to pursue it. Fear of others’ opinions shouldn’t hold you back when you’re certain it’s the right decision for yourself. Tough decisions are made every day. Don’t be afraid to make yours.

Alex Koons is the owner of Hot Tongue Pizza and co-owner of Purgatory Pizza, both located in Los Angeles.

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Shoot k Sell An expert food photographer shares how to make Instagram-worthy pics.

BY CHARLIE POGACAR PHOTOS BY RORY DOYLE

S

OCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS, ESPECIALLY INSTAGRAM, have become one of the most efficient ways for pizza shops to advertise their mouthwatering pies.

Brands that can cut through the noise with high-quality, curated feeds have a better chance of being noticed, which can ultimately lead to more business.

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PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

Some operators may see other pizzerias’ feeds and wonder how much time and money have been invested in taking beautiful pictures. Of course, not every pizzeria can afford a social media coordinator or a freelance photographer. The good news for independent pizzeria operators, however, is that nearly all of them own a smartphone that should be up to the job—there’s no longer a need to buy an expensive camera or other equipment.

“There’s an old saying that the best camera is the one you’ve got,” says Rory Doyle, a professional photographer who also co-owns an independent Neapolitan-style pizzeria, Leña, in Cleveland, Mississippi, with his pizzaiola wife, Marisol. “Cameras on phones are very good these days. In the realm of social media, iPhones and other smartphones have gotten so good that they

are perfectly capable of producing nice shots. It’s really just about finding ways to maximize the capability of your phone.”

Here are the top five photography tips from Doyle, who shoots for The New York Times, The Washington Post and other major media outlets and currently oversees Leña’s social media presence.

1

Shoot It Fresh Pizzaiolos know that fresh pizza is the best pizza.

Doyle suggests bringing that same mentality to shooting a pie for a social media post. “The [Neapolitan] pizza we serve at Leña’s tastes best immediately out of the oven,” Doyle says. “I think it also looks best right out of the oven—if you can photograph pizza young in its life, you’re going to get the best photo.” This also means you should plan ahead. Rather than noticing a pizza looks photogenic and trying to figure out the best place to shoot it, you might cook a pie with the intent of shooting it, having already set up where the photo shoot will take place.

2

Use Consistent Light In an ideal world, all pizza makers would be able to photograph their creations in natural light, which often provides the best opportunity to get an Instagram-worthy shot. However, sometimes that simply isn’t an option—Doyle notes that many kitchens these days are intentionally dim. In lieu of having access to natural light, Doyle suggests pizza makers seek a consistent source of light. Light sources and light stands used for photography can be relatively affordable and will improve a pizza maker’s social media game almost overnight.

“A constant light source can help you set up the photo and see what it’s going to look like before you shoot it,” Doyle says. “Constant light is different from a strobe light, which flickers for a millisecond. A light or multiple light sources—it could be a light stand, for example—are something you can use when the restaurant isn’t open and you have maybe a little bit more space to play with.”

3

Shoot Different Angles Whether shooting on a phone or a digital camera, there’s never a risk in taking more photos rather than fewer. Doyle encourages pizza makers to try plenty of different vantage points when photographing a pizza.

“One of the reasons to photograph it from different angles is that something that might look good on your viewfinder may not look as good once it’s blown up on your computer,” Doyle said. “If you have different shots

from a lot of different angles, you may find something looks a bit better that way once you’re going to select your photo.”

Shooting from different angles will also give you a better sense of what works and what doesn’t. If somebody solely shoots their pies from overhead, for example, they might not realize some pizza toppings look better from the side. Having different types of pizza shots can also add much-needed variety to an Instagram feed and help pizzerias stand out from competitors.

4

Add Some Dimension If you ever felt like shooting pizza can be surprisingly tricky, you’re not alone. Even professionals like Doyle sometimes view pizza, despite its natural sumptuousness, as a challenging subject. “In some ways, pizza is quite complicated to photograph,” Doyle says. “It’s a flat food product—there is no tall dimension to it besides maybe the rise of the crust or some larger toppings. But still, it’s flat to the table. In that sense, there can be some challenges.”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

19

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One of the best ways to overcome this hurdle is to photograph pies that have toppings with some dimension to them. For example, dollops of ricotta, cup-and-char pepperoni, or even garnishes like basil can help add compositional depth. Similarly, adding someone’s hand to a photo can help lend dimension and perspective. The same goes for color: Doyle notes that pizza can often be a lot of brown and yellow colors that don’t always jump off the page on their own. Colorful toppings or garnishes and background props—maybe a Parmesan or red pepper flake shaker—can help remedy this issue.

5

Get It Right Pizzaioli may wonder if all of this trouble is even necessary. Can’t filters and basic editing skills be as helpful a tool as some of these tips? Doyle disagrees, saying pizza makers should strive to get the best possible photograph every time—and then worry about possibly making some small edits later. “If you can get the photo with all conditions as ideal as you can possibly get them, you shouldn’t have to make many edits,” Doyle said. “And iPhones specifically do a lot of weird things when autocorrecting an image—sometimes the phone goes way too far.”

Once a pizza maker feels comfortable shooting good images and establishing a baseline of quality in their photography, they can begin toying with manually editing their photos, Doyle suggests. One setting he points to is the “vignette” toggle on an iPhone, which can help focus the center of a photo by lightly darkening the corners of the photo.

Some or all of these elements can help an independent pizzeria gain a stronger social media following through superior photos. The bottom line, however, is that a social media presence is an affordable way to attract more business—so affordable that pizzaioli would be wise to optimize their social media presence, beginning with their photography.

“It can be really time-consuming,” Doyle says. “But if you take a lot of pride in your pizza, curating an artistic feed of what that product is can be just as important. You want to put your best foot forward, and that’s certainly what we strive to do [at Leña].”

Charlie Pogacar is PMQ’s senior editor.

©2023 Lactalis American Group, Inc., Buffalo, NY 14220. Galbani is a ® of Egidio Galbani S.r.l. All Rights Reserved. MADE IN THE USA.

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Thomas McNaughton (left) and Ryan Pollnow take an “investigative attitude” toward dough making, leading to superior pies that also hold up for delivery.

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PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

T H E

Dough nerds For Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow, Flour + Water equals more than great dough. It’s a quest to keep honing their craft while growing a business in which everyone can thrive.

BY RICK HYNUM | PHOTOS BY KRISTEN LOKEN

I

N THEIR QUEST FOR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE MYSTERIES of dough, American chefs often find themselves on an extended sojourn in Naples, laboring under the tutelage of an Italian pizzaiolo who rules his kitchen with a stern, if benign, flour-speckled fist. Not so for Thomas McNaughton, co-founder of Flour + Water Pizzeria and Flour + Water Pizza Shop in San Francisco. He was more interested in pasta, and his teachers were all women: the dozen or so Italian ladies who run Bruno e Franco la Salumeria in Bologna.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

23

Pasta was their first love, but when they turned their attention to pizza, Pollnow and McNaughton caught on fast.

There, in the salumeria’s bare-bones laboratorio, these “wonderful and charismatic characters” ruled the roost, as McNaughton explained in Flour + Water: Pasta, his cookbook published in 2014. Some were older, old enough to remember the hardscrabble post-WWII era.

“They speak softly with an air of authority, often drifting off into dialect, basically acting like the Italian nonna you always imagined, telling winding anecdotes and politely answering your dumb question in that old, Italian matterof-fact way that makes the question seem even dumber,” McNaughton recounted in his book.

McNaughton, a New Jersey native, soon found his way back to the States, his young brain stuffed with Old-World dough making wisdom. In San Francisco, he signed on with David Steele and David White to launch Flour + Water, a pasta restaurant that quickly became a dining destination. When fellow chef Ryan Pollnow joined the team in Flour + Water’s second year, the two self-proclaimed “dough nerds” hit it off right away. “We learned that we speak the same language about food and how to treat employees and the style of restaurant—or restaurants, really—that we wanted to create here in the Bay Area,” Pollnow says. “It was a very quick build as far as the relationship goes.”

But this isn’t a story about pasta bros. McNaughton and Pollnow built their reps on dishes with Italianaccented names like Botte Piccole and Farro Garganelli, but pizza is a language everyone speaks. When they 24

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

“We wanted to engineer pizza that was unique to us, both in the look and feel of that dough and how it behaves inside the pizzeria and for delivery.”

Thomas McNaughton

partnered to create Flour + Water Pizzeria and its carryout/quick-service counterpart, Flour + Water Pizza Shop, it was the start of a whole new business venture that has landed them on “best pizzeria” lists around the world.

It’s safe to say McNaughton has made those ladies at the Bologna salumeria proud.

Rethinking Dough for Delivery McNaughton and Pollnow first started offering a few wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas at the original Flour + Water restaurant while still focusing largely on pasta.

From there, McNaughton says, “We started to dream up a more casual pizzeria, and that was the birth of Flour + Water Pizzeria.” The first location, opened in June 2019, was tiny, so they moved across town to a larger venue in late June 2023. But they had to rethink their dough with delivery and carryout in mind.

Beyond The Dough Presented By

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I was recently sitting on the patio with a glass of wine and the fire pit cracking…

I had my head up looking at the stars…

I was mentally taking an account of 2023 and what I had accomplished.

I felt good. I felt content. I felt happy.

My wife, Megan, came out and asked what I was doing, and I told her.

Marrying her was, by far, the best thing of my 2023. We chatted about our year.

That conversation turned into a motto for 2024: “More In ‘24!”

More. More happiness. More love.

More memories. More peace. More time. More friends.

Do you have a family motto for 2024? I would love to hear it!

Happy New Year and More In ‘24!!

To learn more about Perfect Crust’s pizza liners and other products, visit perfectcrust.com or email Eric Bam at Eric@perfectcrust.com.

About Eric Bam:

Eric is the VP of Sales & Marketing for Perfect Crust Pizza Liners and Incrediblebags.com. Eric is a goal driven optimist that uses his positive attitude to lift up those around him. He’s a father to Nycholas, Alayna and Ruby.

He’s a public speaker and show host. You can find him on all social media @TheEricBam.

Inspired by the classic pasta dish, the Cacio e Pepe pizza has emerged as one of the most popular menu items at Flour + Water Pizzeria.

“Centralizing dough production allows us to evolve so that we can go into smaller 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot spaces.”

Thomas McNaughton

“I truly love a Neapolitan pizza,” McNaughton says.

“But when we were dreaming of a pizzeria, craveability brought us away from Neapolitan as far as what we wanted to produce as a pizza. We wanted it to taste just as good when it’s delivered to your house as it tastes in the pizzeria. And that brought us to this hybrid—we think of it as a New York pizzeria sensibility, but with a high char factor. We wanted to engineer pizza that was unique to us, both in the look and feel of that dough and how it behaves inside the pizzeria and for delivery.”

But there were “a ton of factors” involved, McNaughton admits. “Through a lot of experimentation,” he explains, “we landed on a deck oven, which immediately brought us away from wood-fired. But we still like a high char. We believe very strongly in bulk fermentation and incorporate a poolish into it. And we believe in that deck-oven bake and slowing down the bake time. We’re roughly at a six-minute bake in a 600° 26

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oven. We’ve incorporated olive oil into the dough to allow for a little more texture as it bakes. And we like a slow [three- or four-day] fermentation for depth of flavor. We also add what we like to call ‘cheese in the middle.’ Our red-sauce pizzas have a layer of shaved dry mozzarella on the base, then it’s topped with raw-milled tomato sauce, and we put our fresh fior di latte on top of that.

That’s a really important step, because that aged cheese allows for a little more oven spring. It doesn’t allow the sauce to get saturated into the dough itself. And then it’s another layer of seasoning. Ryan and I come from chef backgrounds, and we really look at each pizza as we would look at a dish.”

But, of course, delivery pizza is a different sort of dish.

“When you’re coming up with a new dish as a restaurant chef, you put it through a development stage,” Pollnow says. “You taste it, you sit around with other chefs in the kitchen, and you critique and you tweak and you get it to a point where you’re proud to serve it. For the pizzeria, we had to do that same thing, but with the added layer of, ‘How does it hold up for 30 minutes in a box?’ So when we moved the pizzeria to the new location here, we had a dough that we were really proud of.”

Proud but not quite satisfied, Pollnow recalls. “It was a fantastic product, but, because we constantly question and have this investigative nature toward food, we said, ‘Could this dough be better?’ So we put our base recipe through a round of about 18 different tests. We

tested different flour sources and flour types and messed with the hydration level. Once we were happy with the product fresh out of the oven, we put it in that hot-hold environment for 30 or 40 minutes, opened that box back up, then sat around as a group of chefs, saying, ‘Now, how will this taste for someone that would be waiting for delivery in their home?’”

They also custom-designed their own hot-hold cabinets, McNaughton says. “As soon as that pizza comes out of the oven, it hits a stainless-steel rack for 10 seconds, allowing a little heat to be removed from the bottom. That helps with the sog factor. Then it goes into a box that’s held in a cabinet that we helped design.”

In other words, McNaughton adds, “We just like to overthink stuff. That’s all.”

A Hub-and-Spoke Model That “overthinking” has paid off. Flour + Water Pizzeria shows up routinely on “best pizzeria” lists, including one released by TimeOut.com in November 2023 that ranked it at No. 4, topped only by Di Fara Pizza in New York, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana in New Haven, and Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix. Last July, Eater San Francisco named it one of the city’s 17 “essential pizzerias,” shouting out pies like the Smoky Eggplant, the Cacio e Pepe and the OG Osso (featuring bone marrow and horseradish).

Flour + Water Pizzeria also came in at No. 36 on 50 Top Pizza’s list of the best U.S. pizza shops in 2022.

To better accommodate its growing customer base, Flour + Water Pizzeria moved into a much larger space, spanning 4,000 square feet, last summer.

“As soon as that pizza comes out of the oven, it hits a stainless-steel rack for 10 seconds, allowing a little heat to be removed from the bottom. That helps with the sog factor.”

Thomas McNaughton

McNaughton and Pollnow are so happy with their product, they built a glassed-in dough room at the center of the Flour + Water Pizzeria location in North Beach.

“Folks having lunch here can see the dough being mixed, portioned and formed,” Pollnow says. “We’re taking what is traditionally hidden away in most pizzeria concepts and [showing it] as the core, the foundation of what we do. We wanted to put that on display in a proud way, because we take the craft very seriously.”

McNaughton and Pollnow describe Flour + Water Pizzeria as their flagship location, a 4,000-square-foot space complete with a hostess, servers and a full bar.

Housed in the same building, but with a separate entrance, is Flour + Water Pizza Shop, offering quick-service and pizza-to-go options. The dough room serves both operations, but, more importantly, the owners plan to use it as a commissary for additional locations. “It’s like

Elmer Mejicanos, a well-known San Francisco bartender, designed Flour + Water Pizzeria’s new cocktail program.

“We want to elevate and make any position in our restaurants a job that people should be proud of and can look at as a career.”

Ryan Pollnow

Wine drinkers appreciate the house Pasta Sauce wines, crafted in a collaboration with Subject to Change Wine Co. in Richmond, California.

a hub-and-spoke model,” McNaughton says. “We can control all the nuances of the dough and our three- to four-day fermentation process in one location.”

With that model in place, McNaughton and Pollnow plan to open new Flour + Water Pizzeria stores. “We’re currently negotiating leases for other pizza shop locations—think a smaller-footprint QSR version,” McNaughton says. “But we also look at the delivery radius around that pizza shop when we bring it to other Bay Area locations, like East Bay, South Bay and Marin County.

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Centralizing dough production allows us to evolve so that we can go into smaller 1,500- to 2,000-square-foot spaces.

So we’re a little bit more flexible in the size that we can work in.”

Helping People Grow As you’d expect from a California restaurant group, Flour + Water supports the state’s farmers, using a blend of two local organic flours in its dough and buying whole animals to ensure nothing goes to waste.

Pollnow estimates that 85% to 90% of their ingredients either originate in Northern California or are imported from Italy.

The Flour + Water restaurant group is progressive in other ways, with a strong emphasis on corporate culture, values and growth opportunities for employees. In

Employees at Flour + Water can take advantage of a 401(k) plan, medical and dental benefits, and annual arts and education grants.

addition to a focus on diversity in hiring, Flour + Water offers a 401(k) plan, medical and dental benefits, and yearly arts and education grants to help employees further their education. One of the partners even hosts annual financial planning meetings for team members.

Flour + Water also has its own line of pastas available online nationwide and at 300-plus grocery stores on the West Coast. The consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry is “a radically different business, something that we really had to evolve as operators to understand,” McNaughton says. “It’s quite fascinating, how different it is.”

But, in the long run, McNaughton and Pollnow want to grow a Flour + Water business that’s about more than delicious pies and pastas. Their aim is to help their people grow and flourish, too.

“Part of our reason for growing our restaurant group is to create opportunities,” Pollnow concludes. “We want to elevate and make any position in our restaurants a job that people should be proud of and can look at as a career. And we create opportunities for promotion and individual growth. In expanding our restaurant group, we’re creating more positions with higher responsibilities and more management positions by including the Flour + Water restaurant side with CPG. So now we’re creating opportunities outside of traditional restaurant titles.

Creating growth for the group is really about creating growth for our individuals.”

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

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P P STARS 

Three freewheeling pop-up/catering operators talk about how they’ve gone fully mobile to reach new customers—and to work when and where they feel like it.

BY DAVE CONTI

N

BIG WILLIE’S PIZZA

OT THAT LONG AGO, THE BARRIER TO ENTRY for a pizza restaurateur was steep: the lease of a viable space in a high-traffic location, a pricey oven, industrial mixers, refrigeration—and that’s just for starters. Now, thanks to the new generation of portable ovens, pizza makers are popping up, so to speak, in unexpected places, reinvigorating a mature industry while building a fan base that, over time, could lead to a brick-and-mortar store if they’re so inclined. Although many of these nextgen pizza impresarios began their careers in restaurant kitchens, pop-up and catering operations have made them free agents who can work when and where they want to. And their major up-front costs? Well, let’s just say a Roccbox starts at $500, while Ooni’s Karu 16 multifuel oven will run you $800.

For this article, U.S. Pizza Team (USPT) member Dave Conti, co-owner of Red Planet Pizza in Ansonia, Connecticut, shared his own experiences and, on PMQ’s behalf, also chatted about the business and the craft with two other freewheeling pizzaioli: fellow USPT member George Taylor of Taylors’ Pizza House in Endwell, New York, and Willie DePascale of Big Willie’s Pizza in Chula Vista, California.

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BIG WILLI E ’ S PI Z Z A

PMQ: How did you get your start as a pop-up operator?

“I keep the menu simple.

We are very good at what we do, and simple is better for service, prep, transportation, setup and breakdown.”

I’d had for several years….I started giving pizza away to friends, and everyone agreed it was very good.

Dave Conti: I started off my So I decided to buy a wood-fired food career doing barbecue oven. Big Red arrived, and I got competitions. I have been the hang of making pizzas with Connecticut state champion in Willie DePascale, the wood oven. After making ribs and chicken. I’ve won and Big Willie’s Pizza about 100 pies, I was content with placed in other categories like my skills. When the state closed desserts, hamburgers, grilling and down all restaurants for a second pasta. I’ve been to the World Food time because of COVID-19, I said to myself, “I’ve got Championships four times. After many years of using to do something.” I decided to start Big Willie’s Pizza: charcoal and smokers, you’d think I would gravitate to a Pies for a Cause. I made and delivered pizza and asked wood-fired oven—which I do have and use. But when I for a specific donation, and all the proceeds went to bought my first Blackstone propane oven, I was sold on unemployed hospitality workers. Some of these workers this concept! I currently have three Blackstones and a do not have the paperwork to collect unemployment wood-fired Il Fornino oven. or get state-issued relief checks like most of us got. We George Taylor: Along with my wife, Patti, I run Taylors’ have touched many families and have donated more than Pizza House. For our mobile setup, I use two Members $24,000 to local and Maui hospitality workers, the ALS Mark ovens—Sam’s Club Ooni knockoffs—and one Association of San Diego, and Big Table, which helps Blackstone. A big advantage of using a propane setup hospitality workers in need nationwide. versus a food truck is, first and foremost, cost. It’s a lot cheaper to set up with propane ovens, tables and coolers PMQ: Using these ovens, how many people can you than to buy a food truck. Another advantage is flexibility. cook for at an event?

Taylor: I guess about 200 with the current setup—if I can set up in places that a food truck can’t or shouldn’t pizza is the food focus for the event. We have done an get to. event where there were 1,000 people, but there were Willie DePascale: I’m retired from being in the several other food options there. restaurant business for 50 years. During COVID-19, I started making cast-iron bread like everyone else in Conti: I like doing parties of 100 guests or fewer. We the world. After eating way too much bread, I tried to become part of the party, because we are right there in utilize the same dough to make pizza. Wow, it really their yard. I remember one party over the summer. The turned out great! I cooked it on a Blackstone oven that little kids stood there watching, and a little girl said, 32

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“I like that we can watch you—if you had a truck we wouldn’t be able to see you making the pizzas.”

try to accommodate any request, but I refuse to do the pineapple thing. It’s just not right.

DePascale: I cater for parties from 25 guests to a maximum of 200. If the occasion came up, I would push myself to 300. First, I would need to find another pizzaiolo and set up another workstation. I have six Blackstone ovens and two Halos. I strictly use the Blackstones for cooking and the Halos for reheating.

PMQ: What’s the toughest part of the gig?

PMQ: How many pizza options do you offer?

Taylor: We try to do about five or six different pizzas at an event. We meet with the people having the event to discuss options and try to focus on their tastes. So that boils down to maybe six toppings that we take with us.

We’ll do special requests on the fly using those toppings.

Conti: On average, I will offer up to seven topping options. One of my first questions to the client is, “What other food will you be having, if any?” Of course, you always have to ask about food allergies and questions like, “Do you like seafood? Do you have a favorite topping?” We also offer a salad and gelato option. They don’t cost a lot to provide, and they’re pretty easy to put together and serve.

DePascale: I keep the menu simple. We are very good at what we do, and simple is better for service, prep, transportation, setup and breakdown. My basic catering package is a choice of Caesar or Greek salad and six gourmet pizzas, three of which would be considered vegetarian. I do offer gluten-free crust and vegan and

DePascale: There really are no challenges besides trying to make the best pizza possible and making sure every guest leaves with a smile on their face. I really don’t think there are any drawbacks to using portable propane ovens besides [the lack of] the “wow factor” of a big, beautiful dome oven. But when people see the Blackstone oven running and how easily it makes a pizza, they love it. I’ve done it all: backyards, catering halls, parks, schools, hotels, etc. Using portable propane gives you that opportunity.

Conti: I think it’s a pretty simple, straightforward approach to do on-site pop-up parties/events. You don’t need a lot of equipment or help to do parties of 100 or less. With social media, you can get the word out without spending a lot on advertising. We arrived at one party, and they said, “Can you set up at the bottom of the hill?” So I always have material to level out the ovens and tables in this kind of situation. Sometimes, setup locations are so easy, and others can be a challenge. I like the challenge of, “OK, how can we make this work?”

PMQ: Are there certain types of events you’d rather work than others?

DePascale: Pizza is a natural for kids’ birthday parties, but you get tired of all the yelling and screaming. I prefer corporate events or celebrations of life, which is a great market.

“We try to do about five or six different pizzas at an event. We meet with the [hosts of the event] to discuss options and try to focus on their tastes.”

BRIAN HERNAND EZ

George Taylor, Taylors’ Pizza House

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Dave Conti, Red Planet Pizza

B RIAN HERNANDEZ

“It’s a pretty simple, straightforward approach to do on-site pop-up parties/events. You don’t need a lot of equipment or help to do parties of 100 or less.”

Also, being part of the Galbani Cheese family is a big plus!

Taylor: What makes us unique is that we bake the pizzas on the spot, while competitors just drop off premade pies.

Taylor: I like outdoor grad parties. I don’t really want to do drunk parties.

Conti: I like doing events in people’s backyards. Being right there, we get people who will watch and ask questions, and they like getting the pizza as soon as it’s sliced and ready to eat. I did learn this past summer that not every party is a happy celebration. We did an event where someone was facing stage 4 cancer and another where a little girl had a rare disease. It was nice to see people come together to celebrate life even with its drawbacks.

PMQ: There’s a lot of competition in this space now.

How do you stand out from the others?

PMQ: For someone who’s thinking about getting into the pop-up biz, what would you tell them?

Conti: Do your homework. Start small by having your own party with friends, family or neighbors. There are a lot of pizza groups out there that can answer your questions as you go along.

Taylor: Make time to promote. Get your food into people’s mouths. Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on how you look at it—I haven’t had the time to get out and do this because we have gotten busier at our restaurant.

DePascale: In San Diego, there are a lot of guys doing pizza trailers—they’re great for festivals, fairs or parking lot parties. I decided I want to make pizza right in front of the guests. I call myself the “pizza-tender.” We’re working very close to our guests, whereas most trailer-oven guys can’t get personal with their guests because they are in a driveway or on the street.

DePascale: Give it all you’ve got. You must love the craft of pizza. It has to come from your heart, not your pocket.

The money will come, but making people happy through food is the best feeling you can experience. Knowing that you made the best pizza possible is a great feeling. Always put quality first, and use the best products. You also should make it simple and make it fun for yourself and employees.

Conti: For me, being a member of the U.S. Pizza Team and having won some contests is a great selling point.

Dave Conti is co-owner of Red Planet Pizza in Ansonia, Connecticut, and a U.S. Pizza Team member.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

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DOUGH AND BEHOLD

36

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THE

PORTABLE PIZZAIOLI

BY CHARLIE POGACAR

A new generation of portable pizza ovens is unlocking profitable pop-up possibilities for entrepreneurs who aren’t ready for a brick-andmortar business.

I

N MANY WAYS, PIZZA IS GOING BACK to its roots. Once a street food in Naples, Italy, pizza spent more than a century being domesticated, with brickand-mortar locations pumping out the vast majority of pies on the market. While that type of pizza business isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, new pizza oven technology has allowed up-and-coming pizza makers to more easily take their show on the road.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

37

“It doesn’t take too long to get to know your [oven]. If you have a solid dough recipe, you just need maybe 10 to 15 bakes to find the hot and cold points.”

Richard Payne, Dough and Behold

DOUGH AND BEHOLD

Richard Payne received a portable pizza oven for his birthday. Now he’s the acclaimed pop-up artist behind Dough and Behold in London.

Take, for example, Richard Payne, a pop-up pizza artist from London, who has a day job that has nothing to do with pizza. If you’ve ever watched Peaky Blinders, you’ve seen something Payne worked on—he’s an award-winning post-production video editor by day. At night, Payne can be spotted at local haunts, firing up his portable pizza oven to cook for the masses. His business is called Dough and Behold, and it has amassed more than 36,000 followers on Instagram.

Payne had long experimented with making bread at home and became infatuated with dough in particular.

After years of baking bread, he began experimenting with cooking pizza on a clay stone in his home oven. In 2016, he got his first Ooni oven as a birthday present and began baking outside, in his garden. “When I made my first pizza in that oven, it was honestly, truly terrible,” 38

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Payne says. “But it absolutely destroyed anything I’d ever made before that. It was like a shaft of light coming down from heaven. From that point on, I knew I’d never go to another shop and buy a branded pizza to reheat in the oven. From that point on, I was addicted to pizza.”

Payne’s first pop-up happened in an unlikely setting.

There was an upcoming Christmas fair at the school attended by his daughter, Emily, who was 10 years old at the time. The community was invited to set up tables and sell arts, crafts and the like. Payne figured, “Well, I’ve gotten pretty decent at this pizza thing—maybe I’ll try doing that.”

It was at this point that Payne realized he needed a name and an Instagram handle. After a little experimentation with wordplay, he eventually came up with Dough and Behold (@dough_and_behold on Instagram), and the name stuck.

Payne admits now that he had no idea what he was getting himself into when he signed up for that Christmas fair. He gives this advice to anyone looking to parlay a portable pizza oven into a moneymaking opportunity: Get your process down first. And don’t try to do it alone.

That’s what Payne did, and soon he had a line of 50 hungry people snaking outside his booth. Fortunately, his intrepid daughter came to the rescue. When Emily could have been hanging out with friends and exploring the Christmas fair, she hopped behind the counter and began stretching dough for Payne. “That remains one of my favorite memories as a parent,” Payne recalls. “And that pop-up also cemented that this was something we wanted to keep pursuing. It gave Dough and Behold a purpose, if you will.”

Payne kept honing his craft, and, as he did, he received more and more attention on Instagram. That gave him confidence to continue pursuing pop-ups during his nights and weekends. It also meant he was forging online connections with a number of other pizzaioli around the world. He eventually got connected with a group who

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Some might say Feng Chen of Leopard Crust is a selftaught pizzaiola, but, she notes, “I feel that it was the dough that schooled me on how to make pizza.”

“More often than not, the space I’ll be making pizza from isn’t optimized for a pizza workflow—so solving for that is all part of the fun.”

Feng Chen, Leopard Crust

LEOPARD CRUST

dubbed themselves the Pizzaiolo Tribe. The crew, which includes other renowned pizza makers with strong social media followings, regularly meets online to network and compare notes—and the pandemic only strengthened those connections.

Payne now makes decent side cash with his pop-ups at local venues. He is sometimes a guest chef at Base Face Pizza in London and was named an Ooni ambassador, which means he has experimented with just about every type of portable pizza oven you can imagine. He says the rate at which the ovens are evolving is staggering—and mastering them isn’t all that hard once you know what you’re doing. “It’s a pretty steep learning curve,” Payne says. “It doesn’t take too long to get to know your Ooni. If you have a solid dough recipe, you just need maybe 10 to 15 bakes to find the hot and cold points. It’s just like any pizza oven, really, in that it has its own quirks.”

Payne was especially impressed to realize he could cook virtually any pizza style with a portable pizza oven.

The temperatures get as high as 950°F, and the ovens can accommodate different types of pans. “Any style you want to explore, these ovens can do it,” Payne says.

“In the U.K., we weren’t previously as influenced by U.S. pizza. Being closer to Italy, everyone wanted to do true Neapolitan pizza. Now, so many people are trying New Haven style, New York style, you name it.”

L EO PARD CR UST

Learning From the Dough Feng Chen, based in Bangkok, is another international pop-up pizza maker on the rise. She began around the same time as Payne, and the two are quite close—they get together whenever Chen is in London. Her Instagram account, @leopardcrust, has nearly 59,000 followers.

Chen specializes in sourdough-crust Neapolitan pies.

She first tried a portable pizza oven after borrowing a Roccbox from her friends at Sarnies, an acclaimed Bangkok-based restaurant. “I was blown away by the 40

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

restaurant-quality pizza such a compact oven could produce,” Chen says. “My first few pizzas weren’t very good, but they were enough to get me hooked on the process.” Eager to improve, Chen says she made pizza every single day at home for two straight years, ate each one and took detailed notes about the dough she had made and the oven conditions she’d used. “It was a very rewarding process, including the necessary hiccups,” Chen says. “While some might say I was self-taught, I feel that it was the dough that schooled me on how to make pizza.”

Like Payne, Chen says that the only way to really perfect the pizza pop-up is to go through the experience of doing it. Dough management, in particular, can be a tricky thing to master if you’ve only ever made pizza indoors and you suddenly find yourself at an Payne and Chen are good friends outdoor venue with a line of people who get together and talk pizza who are ready to eat. Memorably, whenever Chen travels to London.

Chen’s first pop-up was executed in DOUGH AND BEHOLD 100° weather in an open-air space with two Roccboxes running at full blast.

“It was critical to keep close tabs on the dough to prevent overproofing, while also preventing More than anything, this new generation of portable yourself from overheating,” Chen says. “In extreme pizza ovens has lowered the barrier to entry to get into conditions like that, I have to tweak my dough schedule the pizza cooking game. Many of the ovens mentioned to ensure its window of use matches customer demand. above sell for a few hundred dollars—and the burden of The goal is to change the process to suit the conditions learning the craft lies with you, the pizza maker. But, as without compromising on the end result.”

Chen and Payne can attest, the sky’s the limit. “Having a There are many other things to consider when running portable pizza oven is the lowest-cost way to get started a pop-up, especially since not every venue will be ideal [in the pizza business],” Chen says. “The portability of for pizza making. But Chen relishes the challenge. “Doing these ovens also means you can set it up anywhere. You something different each time requires staying open to don’t need a brick-and-mortar location to start selling new ideas and being ready to adapt,” she says. “More pizza.” often than not, the space I’ll be making pizza from isn’t optimized for a pizza workflow—so solving for that is all part of the fun.”

Charlie Pogacar is PMQ’s senior editor.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

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Now a bona fide worldwide sensation, the Detroit style was dreamed up inside a humble pizzeria as a hybrid of Sicilian and Motor City influences.

BY TRACY MORIN

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W

hat do you get when you cross a Sicily-born waitress, a booming American automotive industry, and a now-legendary pizzeria trying to make its mark on Motor City? You might just invent a whole new style of pizza that’s going stronger in the 2020s than ever before. In other words: Detroit-style pizza.

According to legend—and, unlike with the origin of many pizza styles, this one isn’t hotly contested—Buddy’s Rendezvous Pizza was the birthplace of the pan-baked, airy, crunchy-edged slice of heaven that is known as the Detroit style. The waitress in question, named Connie, was employed by owner Gus Guerra, an Italian immigrant who’d opened his business in 1946. Many believe she helped develop the recipe, but Buddy’s old-timers admit that others, such as Guerra’s mother, grandmother or wife, also could have played a role. Whatever the exact details, the results are delicious.

PR TY CI LIC UB /P ZA PIZ YS DD BU

From

DETROIT With Love

Unmistakably Motor City Detroit pies were unique from the outset. First of all, they were baked not in foodservice pans, but in rectangular blue steel pans that were used in the automotive industry (giving new meaning to the concept of eating local). “The dough is made with flour, salt, water and fresh cake yeast, then stretched to fit the shape of the pan,” explains Wes Pikula, chief brand officer at Buddy’s, still based in Detroit and opening its 23rd location. “The pepperoni is layered right on top of the dough (versus over the cheese), and we use brick cheese, not mozzarella.

The sauce goes on top of the cheese using a skimming method, three spoonfuls across. The light, crunchy crust has caramelized corners because the brick cheese is spread end to end, forming a ‘bark’ on the edges with a crunchy texture. You can eat slice after slice and not feel

heavy. People refer to it as the best grilled cheese they’ve ever had.”

Pikula breaks down the style in more detail: • A strict dough handling procedure creates a stickier dough that’s never floured. A light coat of oil is used to stretch and press the dough into the pan, but no butter or oil is used in the recipe to condition it, creating what Pikula calls a “lean dough.” The rise during the fermentation process is designed to make a light, airy, crunchy crust that’s cut into square slices.

• Blue steel pans offer a different and faster kind of heat transfer than aluminum foodservice pans.

Buddy’s seasons each new pan before using, but through repeated baking sessions, they develop a seasoning that imparts a unique flavor. Pikula notes JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

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JE T ’ S PI Z Z A

Buddy's Pizza invented the Detroit style, but the Jet's Pizza chain has taken it further, opening more than 415 stores in 21 states since it launched 45 years ago.

•

that pans can circulate in the pizzeria for 20 or 30 years. Originally, they were only one size—10” by 14”—but now 8” by 10” is also used.

The sauce is very mild, not overly spiced or laced with a lot of oregano or garlic. It’s also not a cooked sauce, which lets the flavor of fresh California tomatoes shine. The spooned method during the application is designed to let the stripes of sauce spread or “bleed” around the pie during baking.

The Style Spreads Of course, no good pizzeria legend would be complete without disagreements, breakups and bastardizations.

As the Buddy’s style split off into new pizzerias, and new regions of the country and world, the style has become not only defined and admired but subject to endless iterations. “Over time, people used creative freedom,” says Pikula, who’s been around to witness the changes— he started as a dishwasher at Buddy’s nearly 50 years ago.

“As people left the pizzeria and opened their own places, each left with a bit of the recipe, and things changed. We see it now in Thailand, South Korea, Mexico. Everyone’s writing about it, and everyone wants it. But when you try the knockoffs versus the original, you can taste the difference.”

In fact, Buddy’s is hoping more people around the country will taste the difference for themselves, as the brand has recently launched a line of frozen pizzas in major grocery stores. Equipped with their own pan to bake in, the pizzas are arriving right on time, as Detroit pizza fever has fully swept the nation in recent years. (See the sidebar for more details.)

With the style spreading worldwide, Detroit itself has started to honor its native pizza. Buddy’s founded National Detroit-Style Pizza Day in 2021 as a way for all U.S. Detroit pie slingers to celebrate on June 23.

But locally, the date has been recognized as Buddy’s 44

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

Pizza Day by former Detroit Mayor Dave Bing and the Detroit City Council, who credit Buddy’s Pizza for putting this now-iconic innovation on the map.

“I think what makes it great is the balance,” Pikula says. “It’s very basic, but it’s very good. You don’t need to overdo it. You can find the Detroit style in Colorado or Austin, Texas, but people who travel always say it’s so different when they come here.”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s copy editor.

PandemicAppropriate Pies

P

erhaps fueled by stressed Americans seeking the ultimate in comfort food, the pandemic era ushered in arguably the biggest years for the Detroit style, in 2021 and 2022. Outlets from Food & Wine to Thrillist blared headlines like “How Detroit-Style Pizza Took Over America.” Even Pizza Hut unveiled a version in early ’21.

While possibly a year or two past its peak popularity, Tastewise noted that Detroit-style pizza was still trending in 2023, with an increase of 5.51% in social discussions in the last year.

Still, it has a menu penetration of only 0.56% in restaurants overall, with 4,830 restaurants currently offering Detroit-style pizza on their menu. If you’re itching to try making this iconic pie style, you’re in good company—it’s still winning competitions and intriguing pizzaioli everywhere, and there’s plenty of room in the market for more.

USPT NEWS

USPT coordinator Brian Hernandez (far left) and Jim Binner, director of sales for Galbani Professionale (far right), present awards to secondplace finisher Daniel Saccone and winner Niles Peacock.

THE WINNER’S CIRCLE Older and younger generations of pizzaioli and pizza acrobats competed—and cooperated—at the Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup & Acrobatic Trials. Cue The Lion King music.

STORY AND PHOTOS BY BRIAN HERNANDEZ

T

HE QUEST TO FIND THE COUNTRY’S BEST PIZZA makers is never-ending. In any competition around the world, the winner almost certainly won using tips and techniques they picked up from previous years’ champs, thus keeping every winner’s achievements alive and meaningful. Then, the circle begins anew. Cue The Lion King music.

The Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup (GPPC) and U.S. Pizza Team (USPT) Acrobatic Trials continued this great tradition in 2023, pitting 30 of the nation’s best pizzaioli against each other to find two champions amid all that dough-flying action. When the flour settled, the GPPC champion and the USPT Acrobatic Trials champion earned the honor of representing American 46

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

pizza, the USPT and its sponsors at the World Pizza Championships (WPC) in Parma, Italy, on April 9 to 11.

Hosted by the USPT and the Pizza Tomorrow Summit in Orlando, Florida, on November 8 and 9, 2023, the event proved there is still a demand for culinary and athletic pizza competitions among the country’s pizzeria operators. “They’re the ones using the products day in and day out,” says Jim Binner, director of sales for Galbani Professionale, the USPT’s Platinum sponsor. “To have their support—and for us to support them—it’s a perfect relationship.”

And every great team needs a home field. “I secured that [USPT] relationship with the show before we signed up a single exhibitor,” says Glenn Celentano, founder of

(Left to right) McKenna Carney captures the top prize in the USPT Acrobatic Trials with her fresh moves and youthful energy; Niles Peacock emerges as the winner of the Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup.

the Pizza Tomorrow Summit. “I knew that having that as an anchor in our event was critically important to our success. When you have two days of competition here with the USPT, that’s what makes it a pizza show.”

Additionally, the USPT will now hold qualifying events coast to coast, with the next U.S. Pizza Cup taking place in the Pizza Tomorrow Summit Pavilion at the 2024 Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, taking place August 25 to 27 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

Meanwhile, at the 2023 event, each competitor had to bake in the same oven, the Napoli Trad. 110 G from Fiero Group. They made everything from Chicago deep-dish, New York and Detroit styles, plus high-heat Neapolitan styles, in hopes of garnering the title. And with the use

of event sponsor GI Metal’s perforated peels and oven tools and USPT sponsor MFG Tray’s mini dough boxes, the pizzaioli had the proper tools for the job, along with delicious products from Galbani and USPT Gold Plus sponsor Margherita Meats.

But having the proper tools doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know the oven. This is where the ingenuity of the pizzaioli and the spirit of competition comes in.

With hungry new talent showing up at every event and bringing a fresh perspective on ingredients and flavors, the culinary side of pizza competition is more robust than ever. Case in point: the 2024 Galbani Professionale champion, Niles Peacock of Niles Peacock Kitchen & Bar in Edmond, Washington. Peacock’s winning pie, My Hot

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2024 | PMQ.COM

47

USPT NEWS

David Whisker triumphed as the Fastest Pizza Maker in the USPT Acrobatic Trials.

Date, featured a 96-hour pre-ferment dough, opened up and brushed with garlic oil and topped with whole-milk mozzarella, Gorgonzola crumbles, garlic-rubbed medjool dates and a reduced balsamic glaze, then finished with Galbani Pecorino Romano cheese.

Taking second place—and placing in a major competition for the second time in six months—was USPT Premiere member Daniel Saccone of Saccone’s Pizza in Leander, Texas. He satisfied the judges’ scorecards and taste buds with a delightful cheese pizza straight off his menu. Proving you don’t need all the extra bells and whistles when you have a high-quality base product, Saccone’s winning pie starts on an 84-hour fermented dough and showcases his signature sauce with whole peeled tomatoes and whole-milk mozzarella.

Could this be a winning strategy in the long term for competitors? Perhaps the tide has turned, and judges are looking for simplicity with discernible flavors.

Maybe we don’t need as many toppings as long as we can fully taste each and every flavor, avoiding the kitchen-sink approach.

This year’s GPPC also saw one of the largest turnouts for pizza athletics in recent USPT history. With fresh faces like 20-year-old Freestyle Acrobatic champion McKenna Carney of The Nona Slice House in Safety 48

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

Harbor, Florida, the younger generation is bringing a new energy and flair to the sport. And these newcomers benefited from watching veterans like the 2023 Fastest Pie Maker and Box Folder champ David Whisker of B.C. Pizza in Boyne City, Michigan; Largest Dough Stretch champ Matt Hickey of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh; and USPT champions like Jamie Culliton, David Sommers and Wilhelm Rodriguez.

With both a new Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup champ and USPT Acrobatics champ for the 2024 season, the USPT will head to the WPC in April, with its sights set on some precious metal. And we have the utmost confidence that they’ll dance across those boards once again in 2024.

Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s test chef and U.S. Pizza Team coordinator.

To see complete results of the 2023 Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup and the Acrobatic Trials, visit USPizzaTeam.com/23gppc.

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

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Grande Fumella Grande Fumella is a lightly smoked, part-skim mozzarella that complements and enhances the flavor of other ingredients and offers excellent melt, stretch and reheat. Pre-shredded to save time and labor, it’s all-natural, with no preservatives, fillers or artificial ingredients, and naturally smoked with cherry and hickory wood. Four in five diners prefer a lighter smoke intensity, making Fumella a surefire hit for new menu ideas.

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57

BY TRACY MORIN

(Clockwise from left) A young employee prepares a pie at the original Perry’s in Newport Beach; current owners Jess and Dawn Bingaman met at the pizzeria in the 1980s; Perry’s Pizza was featured in the iconic ’80s movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

NIA

PMQ PIZZA | PMQ.COM

OR

58

OF

E

When Rick Montano was ready to retire from Perry’s Pizza, the business he started in 1973 in Newport Beach, California, he proposed an attractive deal to manager Jess Bingaman, who grabbed the chance at business ownership. The beloved beachside pizzeria was famous locally— and even beyond, as a backdrop in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High—and it had already changed Jess’ life once before. It was there that he met his wife, Dawn, a frequent customer at the pizzeria.

“We met in 1985, got married in 1995, then bought the restaurant in ’96,” Dawn recalls. “It was kind of surreal, meeting him there and then suddenly working behind the counter!” Luckily, it turned out to be a perfect pairing, in both life and business, since they wield complementary skill sets. Jess masterminds the menu, while Dawn oversees customers and employees, and her sister, Lynette Swanson, handles social media and marketing.

Another shakeup-turned-blessing occurred in 2014, when new owners bought the building where Perry’s had served slices to SoCal beachgoers for 40-plus years. When their lease wasn’t renewed, the duo nabbed another spot: a former laundromat in a nearby Huntington Beach

S TAT

Perry’s Pizza

E OF CAL T A T S IF

shopping center. After a lengthy build-out, Perry’s opened to its loyal following and has since expanded into the storefront next door, doubling in size (to almost 4,000 square feet) with an enclosed patio, additional indoor seating, and a 10-seat bar. “The move was a blessing in disguise, because the old location was great, but very seasonal,” Dawn says.

“Where we are now is not such a destination, so people come year-round.”

“What we’ve done is turn this location into a destination,” Jess adds.

“On Friday, Saturday, Sunday nights, the whole neighborhood comes in.”

The menu has also grown, with sandwiches, pastas, soups and weekday specials like prime rib Wednesdays, plus staff-designed pizzas that earn a placement if they pass the “Jess taste test.” “We still have the same pizza recipe and mixer from the 1970s,” Jess says. “We upgraded from a convection to a brick oven, to improve the crust. I learned a lot from Rick, and I’m lucky he chose me. But we’ve developed a lot more unique stuff and raised the bar. We’re not just beach pizza anymore.”

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Tracy Morin is PMQ’s copy editor.

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