Healthy and dietary focus of consumers A growing number of consumers want healthy and dietary-centric options and that’s an issue pizza operators must address. Uno Pizzeria and Grill recently added options for dietary-centric customers and reorganized its menu via its Love All Feed All menu. Customers who are caloriecounting, vegan, vegetarian, gluten-sensitive, dairy-free and/or carb-conscious now have ample choices. Uno added plant-based Daiya (non-dairy) cheese, and now offers vegan pizza toppings, including Classic Beyond Burger, from Beyond Meat. Five new vegan options provide customers a way to build over 16,000 possible combinations. Uno has a carb-conscious category as well, and offers gluten-sensitive choices. “I am incredibly proud of this new menu, one that will appeal to a broad range of new guests, thanks partly to plant-based offerings from Beyond Meat and Daiya Foods,” said Andre Fuehr, Uno executive chef, at the time of the announcement. Regina Pizzeria is an iconic pizza shop in the North End of Boston, Mass. that has stood the test of time (since 1926). Photo by Valentin Wallet.
Boston’s will improve the customer experience. In addition a new, smaller prototype, imagined for today’s on-the-go customer, debuts soon. Krouse adds “Focusing on delivery and utilizing technology even better for convenience and efficiency will also set the leading brands apart from everyone else.” Another pizza chain that has embraced technology is Domino’s pizza. Starting with its mobile app experience in 2014 and continuing with investment in many areas of pizza operations, Domino’s has certainly been a leader. Retail Dive explored the Domino’s pizza innovation at the time, noting that pizza chains would be smart to invest in an enhanced mobile experience. The minute-to-minute tracking of pizza is similar to what third-party delivery apps now provide to their users. The experience differs among platforms. Uber Eats’ tracking of orders has certainly arisen as an advanced application. Domino’s was an early adopter of the real-time food-delivery tracking that consumers now require. RESTAURANT C-SUITE | Restaurant news that’s fresh, informed, inspired (by you) 18
Uno also provides its guests with 15 vegetarian ingredients to customize their meatless pizzas. For calorie counters, the Uno De-Lites menu offers multiple options of dishes containing 600 or fewer calories. Thin crust pizzas offer a bounty of choice: fresh spinach, creamy goat cheese and caramelized onions; wild mushroom and aged cheddar; roasted garlic, grilled chicken, caramelized onions and goat cheese; and roasted eggplant, fresh spinach, pesto and feta. “Heading into the new year, expect to see a big push in the pizza industry towards healthierfor-you and plant-based pizza options,” says Krouse. “Consumers are more conscious than ever about what they eat.” Donatos Pizza menu offers a Very Vegy pizza, as well as the Vegan. It’s Greek to Me Pizza. The latter is a veg fest: banana peppers, black olives, roasted garlic, green pepper, onions, and roma tomatoes on a vegan crust. At sister chain in Canada, Boston’s The Gourmet Pizza, Restaurant and Sports Bar debuted a Christmas Pizza, with turkey and all the fixings, says Melnick. “Seems a stretch at first blush,
