PMQ Pizza Magazine March 2018

PIZZA MAGAZINE THE WORLD'S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA | PMQ.COM | PIZZATV.COM

March 2018

the

craft

Caputo offers authentic Italian artisan cheeses to add delicious distinction to any menu.

CaputoCheese.com

THE

LOST BOYS

©2017. All rights reserved. Caputo.

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Home-Grown Olive Oils

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From humble roots in the Mississippi Delta, this pair of laidback best friends are building a franchise empire.

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Delivery: Do or Don’t? 72

Lessons from Pizzagate 54

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the skill To reach an intended outcome, the journey there has to be flawless.

Tradition and Craftsmanship. At Caputo, we partner closely with you to understand your specific cheese needs. We then offer deliciously unique ideas and insights to build your business. Finally, backed by years of cheese-making experience, our craftsmen create the perfect customized solution to help you offer exceptional eating experiences to your customers.

Discover our distinctive difference; call 708-450-0074.

Š2017. All rights reserved. Caputo.

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PIZZA MAGAZINE THE WORLD'S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA | PMQ.COM | PIZZATV.COM

PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | March 2018 | Volume 22, Issue 2

March 2018

THE The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly | PMQ.com

LOST BOYS Home-Grown Olive Oils

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From humble roots in the Mississippi Delta, this pair of laidback best friends are building a franchise empire.

PAGE 44

Delivery: Do or Don’t? 72

Lessons from Pizzagate 54

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ONLINE @ PMQ

FIND US ONLINE

AS SEEN ON PIZZATV.COM TRACKING THE PIZZA PLANET TRUCK The animators at Pixar, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company, clearly order a lot of pizza. The big, yellow Pizza Planet delivery truck - topped with a plastic rocket that figured prominently in Toy Story - keeps popping up in movies like Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc. and Ratatouille. PizzaTV’s Heather Cray takes a closer look at this tricked-out truck on PizzaTV.com.

P I ZZATV. C OM /P I ZZA P LA N E TTRU C K

EXCLUSIVELY ON PMQ.COM

DRIVERLESS PIZZA DELIVERY IS COMING SOON

PIZZERIA SUES WOMAN OVER A BAD REVIEW

Domino’s and Ford Motor Company were the first to partner in a plan to deliver pizzas without a driver behind the wheel. Now Pizza Hut has hopped on the bandwagon.

Learn more about their collaboration with Toyota at pmq.com.

After a customer posted a negative review about his Israeli pizzeria on Facebook, Migdal Haemek offered her a refund or a free pizza. But when she turned down the offer and kept slamming his shop, Haemek took her to court. Find out if he won or lost at pmq.com.

PM Q.COM /DRI VERLESS

P M Q. C OM /RE VI E W LAW S U IT

INDIA-BASED CHEF SHARES INSIGHTS—AND A PIZZA RECIPE

DO REPUBLICANS FAVOR PIZZA CHAINS OVER INDEPENDENTS?

Mrinmoy Pal, executive chef at the Novotel hotel in Visakhapatnam, India, draws from his home country’s traditions to put a local spin on some classic Italian favorites.

PMQ’s Tracy Morin reports on Chef Moy’s Indian-Italian hybrids at pmq.com.

A researcher has found that states carried by Donald Trump in the 2016 election have a higher percentage of sales from pizza chain restaurants than states that voted for Hillary Clinton. Read more about this partisan pizza divide at pmq.com.

PM Q.COM /CHEFM OY

P M Q. C OM /P I ZZA P OLI TI CS

6 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Visit us at Pizza Expo Booth #400!

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IN THIS ISSUE

MARCH FEATURES ON T COV HE ER

44

The Lost Boys Best friends Brooks Roberts and Preston Lott went from small-town singleunit operators to pizza franchise magnates in 10 years - and no one’s more surprised by their success than they are.

By Rick Hynum

from 54 Lessons Pizzagate

With 62 Swag Swagger

Oils: 80 Olive The New World

Down 72 Doubling on Delivery

Spirit of 88 The St. Louis

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IN THIS ISSUE

36 What’s Your Story?

Il Primo Pizza & Wings

Houston-area pizzeria operator Si Mendoza knows the food truck phenomenon isn’t slowing down.

PMQ recently sat down with him to discuss the payoffs - and the potential potholes - that come with adding a food truck to an existing brick-and-mortar restaurant.

By Rick Hynum

In Lehmann’s Terms: Solving the Mystery of Blown Dough P M Q. C OM /DOU GH

Accounting for Your Money: 2018 Tax Laws

20

18

Think Tank: Managers—Salary or Hourly?

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Social Connection: Pi Day

24

The Chef’s Corner: Mario Rizzotti

Meet the Team: Lenny Rago

26

40

Pizza Hall of Fame: Port Sandy Bay

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IN EVERY ISSUE 6 14 16 28 30

Online @ PMQ.com From the Editor From the Inbox The Art of Marketing Moneymakers

34 92 94 97

Recipe of the Month Pizza Without Borders Product Spotlight The Pizza Exchange

Check out our digital and tablet editions for bonus video and multimedia content.

Visit PMQ.com/digital to view the digital edition, or download our tablet app at iTunes, Google Play and Amazon.com.

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Ma Vis at rch it us Bo Pizz 20– oth a E 22 S1 xpo 20 4

Packaging matters.

At WestRock and Star Pizza Box, we deliver pizza boxes that are made with as much care as the pizza that goes inside.

Our pizza boxes and foodservice containers are manufactured to meet the highest quality and food safety standards.

Raw materials are sourced domestically and finished packaging meets FDA requirements for food contact.

To know more about our safe, foodservice packaging, reach out to us at pizzaboxes@westrock.com or call us at 816.415.7359. Our pizza and foodservice boxes are available throughout the United States and Canada.

westrock.com/pizza starpizzabox.com Š2018 WestRock Company. All rights reserved. WESTROCK and the WestRock logo are trademarks of WestRock Company and its subsidiaries and affiliates.

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FROM THE EDITOR

DELIVERY: HOW TO GET THOSE FUN DETECTORS CLICKING Nothing makes a party rock like frozen pizza. That’s the claim, anyway, in an ad campaign that, as of early February, had gotten some traction on social media.

In the video, a certain frozen pizza manufacturer says it created “a social experiment with real pizza lovers” to test the appeal of frozen pizza vs. delivery. The company threw pizza parties for millennials—including dudes with ponytails, so you know they’re hip—and used “hidden cameras and mood-tracking software to track their emotions” as the parties progressed. For some parties, they ordered delivery, while others were served “fresh-baked” pies straight out of the host’s oven … or, rather, straight out of the freezer and then straight out of the oven.

The gist of the campaign is that frozen pizza baking in the kitchen puts folks in a better mood than waiting for a pizza with actual flavor to arrive on their doorstep. This point is illustrated by video footage of people at delivery parties sitting idly on sofas, staring at their watches and sighing impatiently.

Evidently, the hosts never thought to, like, open a bottle of wine and put on a Prince album.

The pizza manufacturer says that, based on the data provided by those high-tech fun detectors, “joy increased by an average of 27%” at parties that served its brand of frozen pizza, while party-goers who had to wait for delivered pizza fell into a deep

Rick Hynum Editor in Chief

depression, popped pills and looked for razor blades to slit their wrists. OK, it wasn’t that bad, but their “joy” allegedly decreased by an average of 20%.

I know that all sounds totally convincing and highly scientific, but don’t panic: It’s just a commercial. However, the campaign raised a worrisome point. A 2017 study by research firm Crimson Hexagon found that 80% of online posts about delivered pizza are “not positive.” Of course, we know it’s those relatively few unhappy customers that vent their spleens on Yelp, while satisfied patrons just eat their pizza, burp contentedly and move on. But this data offers a sobering reminder that it’s important to get your delivery service consistently right.

With that in mind, check out Tracy Morin’s articles, “Doubling Down on Delivery” and “Delivery: Do or Don’t?” starting on page 72. Tracy interviewed two super-busy delivery companies about the strategies behind their success and the upsides and downsides of offering delivery. The articles are packed with useful tips and insights that can help you generate repeat business and boost those Yelp reviews, too.

Just think: Somewhere right now, some luckless partygoers are sitting on a sofa in a silent, gloomy room, waiting for the pizza to arrive and the good times to start. It’s up to you to increase their joy and get those fun detectors clicking!

PIZZA MAGAZINE THE WORLD'S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA | PMQ.COM | PIZZATV.COM

March 2018

ON THE COVER: Meet Brooks Roberts and Preston Lott, the laid-back, good-old-boy masterminds behind a fast-growing franchise company called Lost Pizza. Photo by Daniel Lee Perea

THE

LOST BOYS Olive Oils

A Publication of PMQ, Inc. 662-234-5481 Volume 22, Issue 2 March 2018 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 Editor at Large Liz Barrett, liz@pmq.com Senior Copy Editor Tracy Morin, tracy@pmq.com International Correspondent Missy Green, missy@pmq.com

80

How this Mississippi upstart used a funky vibe and custom art to expand their business by 1,753% over 5 years.

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Improving Your Delivery 72

Art Director Eric Summers, eric@pmq.com ext. 134

Test Chef/Event Coordinator Brian Hernandez, brian@pmq.com ext. 129

Creative Director Sarah Beth Wiley, sarahbeth@pmq.com ext. 135

Special events Caroline Felker, caroline@pmq.com ext. 140

Senior Media Producer Daniel Lee Perea, dperea@pmq.com ext. 139

ADVERTISING

IT Director Aaron Harris, aaron@pmq.com ext. 133 Video Editor Blake Harris, blake@pmq.com ext. 136 Social Media Manager Heather Cray, heather@pmq.com ext. 137 Chief Financial Officer Shawn Brown, shawn@pmq.com Circulation Manager Sherlyn Clark, sherlyn@pmq.com ext. 120

Sales Director Linda Green, linda@pmq.com ext. 121 Senior Account Executive Tom Boyles, tom@pmq.com ext. 122

Lessons from PizzaGate 54

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

Sales Assistant Brandy Pinion, brandy@pmq.com ext. 127 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 2015, Langhorne, PA 19047.

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.

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Chicken

at Visit P u Bo izza s oth Ex #8 po 09

BELLISSIMO MAKES A LASTING FIRST IMPRESSION The taste of fresh chicken comes through with Bellissimo’s easy-to-cook and quick-to-serve Chicken Wings.

This profitable starter can be fried or oven baked resulting in a deliciously crunchy coating.

Bellissimo Chicken Wings are perfect to kick off the football season to make sure your customers keep coming back for more.

Bellissimo offers a full line of par-fried and fully-cooked chicken items.

Visit bellissimofoods.com to contact a representative and request samples and pricing.

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FROM THE INBOX

LINO’S COURTESY TASO V ITSAS

ONE LUCKY STRIKE

I love your publication and am a pizza enthusiast—I try the local flavors wherever I go. I encourage you to stop in our city, Rockford, Illinois, to try any of two dozen local pizzerias. They are all outstanding. Deep-crust, hand-tossed, tavern-style, wood-fired, stuffed-crust, our local pizzerias cover all of the bases. Some have even been featured on television shows. Among our best are Lino’s, Capri, Salamone’s and Sam’s Pizza. Stop through when you’re near Rockford and check out this lesser-known pizza gem of a city for some of the best pizza in America!

Matthew Clutter Rockford, IL We can tell you’re a true pizza aficionado, Matthew! Thanks for the tip.

We will check these pizzerias out as soon as we can!

N HL. COM

I own Crown Pizza in Waterford, Connecticut. My parents started the restaurant 30 years ago. They worked hard, building up their name by offering homemade dishes like stuffed peppers, moussaka, lasagna and hearty plates of fish-and-chips.

Business grew steadily each year, but as I worked there, I asked myself, “How do we grow to the next level?” Then we got our lucky break. On the night of Game 4 of the 2016 World Series in Chicago, my close friend, Rajai Davis—who played for the Cleveland Indians at the time—placed a hat with my restaurant’s logo in the dugout. I had given it to him during batting practice, and it somehow managed to stay there during the whole game. When pitcher Andrew Miller left the game, he sat next to the hat. The network’s cameras caught the hat on TV and, with nearly 20 million viewers, that game changed our lives forever! Afterwards, every news channel around came to my restaurant for every game of the seven-game series. I knew I had to grow to keep all of our new customers. We doubled the size of the restaurant, added seating and bigger ovens, doubled staff and revamped our brand. With one “strike” of luck, we doubled our sales for the year, and business is still growing. To stay on top, we earned prime-time news coverage by partnering with the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun and made a 112-cheese pizza to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Next, I made a pizza with a rose design, and Channel 8’s news posted it.

That led to a new marketing strategy: pizza art! There has been a high demand for pizzas with baseballs, the American flag, Ninja Turtles and more! I hope you will write a feature about us in your magazine!

THE PIZZAS OF ROCKFORD

Taso Vitsas Crown Pizza Waterford, CT It sounds like you’re knocking it out of the park, Taso! You will hear from us about a future story!

STUFF WE LOVE

In a brilliant and heartwarming promo sponsored by Boston Pizza, headquartered in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada, 26 Calgary kids signed a one-day contract to play for the Calgary Flames. The “Flame for a Day” event gave these future NHLers a chance to experience life in the big leagues—and earned amazing exposure for the Boston Pizza brand.

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IN LEHMANN’S TERMS

SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF BLOWN DOUGH Mastering temperature control and proper dough management are the keys to preventing this all-toocommon problem. By Tom Lehmann I get a lot of questions about why dough balls “blow” after being placed in the cooler for extended holding/cold fermentation. The reason is either due to excessive yeast or a temperature control/dough management issue. But in only a handful of instances have I ever been able to attribute blown dough to excessive yeast. In those cases, the yeast level exceeded 3% compressed yeast; in one instance, it exceeded 5%. Most often, it’s a problem of temperature control or dough management.

The warmer the dough is coming off the mixer, the harder it is to cool the dough to 45°, the temperature at which the rate of fermentation is checked. Overly warm dough might continue to ferment well into the refrigeration process. This often allows the dough to begin to leaven, becoming less dense, which in turn makes the dough into a better insulator, allowing its core to ferment for significantly longer than needed. Much of that is due to the heat of metabolism; as the yeast is fermenting, it’s also generating heat that must be removed from the dough if the fermentation rate is to be controlled. The change in dough density combined with the heat of metabolism can

result in more fermentation than desired, resulting in either inconsistent performance or blown dough.

But you can run into problems even when your finished dough temperature is on target. If the dough boxes are not cross-stacked in the cooler to allow both heat and moisture to escape, each box acts as an insulator, trapping the heat of the dough inside while allowing condensation to build up in the box. The result is almost always blown dough.

If you don’t keep the dough boxes cross-stacked for a sufficient period of time, it can be just as bad as not crossstacking at all. Keeping the boxes cross-stacked for too long is no better; in that case, the dough cools faster than desired, so that, even after 24 hours or more in the cooler, the dough remains underfermented!

So what’s the perfect length of time to keep your dough boxes cross-stacked? It depends on several factors. Heavier ball weights require a longer cross-stack time than lighter balls.

Also consider the temperature of the cooler itself, and the time when the dough is made. If we make more dough during the afternoon lull before the cross-stack period is completed, there

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Even when you do everything right in your dough management process, you will still end up with blown dough occasionally. But adhering to certain best practices will minimize your risk.

will be a lot of traffic into and out of the cooler as we move into dinnertime. Hence, our cooler may not be operating at peak efficiency during those crucial hours.

I recommend making and processing your dough shortly after the evening rush. This allows the dough balls to remain cross-stacked in the cooler with reduced opening and closing of the door. The cooler will cool more efficiently and at a more consistent rate.

In some cases, you might take too long to ball and box your dough after mixing, in which case the dough starts actively fermenting before the dough balls even go into the box or the cooler—another recipe for blown dough! The rule is to get the dough scaled, balled, boxed and into the cooler within 20 minutes after mixing.

You’ll get better at this with practice. You might even try using a mechanical dough rounder to speed up the process, especially if you’re making several doughs and scaling and cutting smaller-weight dough pieces. For the most part, though, you can address the issue by calling “all hands on deck,” meaning everyone available at that time has to help quickly process the dough.

Even when you do everything right, you’ll still get blown dough occasionally—for example, when your cooler goes down during the night. Then all you can do is clean up the mess and use your emergency dough formula!

Tom Lehmann was the longtime director of bakery assistance for the American Institute of Baking (AIB) and is now a pizza industry consultant.

P M Q. C OM /DOU GH

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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ACCOUNTING FOR YOUR MONEY

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE NEW TAX LAW New deductions will be available, while others have been taken away. By Michael J. Rassmussen

Q A

What do I need to know about the new tax rules?

Congress enacted the biggest tax reform law in 30 years, one that will make fundamental changes in the way you and your business calculate your federal income tax bill and the amount of federal tax you will pay. Since most of the changes will go into effect next year, there’s still a narrow window of time before your final filing for Tuesday, April 17.

Tax software companies have been creating comparative models with the ability to project how the new rules will affect your 2018 tax return using 2017 data. I encourage you to get a final draft of your 2017 business and individual income tax returns prepared so you can use the information to enter into the 2018 tax projection software of your choice.

Here are some key points to discuss with your CPA: • The entertainment deduction: For decades, business owners have been able to deduct 50% of the cost of entertainment directly related to or associated with running their businesses. For example, if you took a client to a nightclub after a business meeting, you could deduct 50% of the cost as long as strict substantiation requirements were met. Under the new law, there is no deduction for such expenses. However, taxpayers are still generally able to deduct 50% of the food and beverage expenses associated with operating their trade

or business (e.g., meals consumed by employees on work travel).

• A new deduction for the self-employed: Self-employed taxpayers can deduct up to 20% of qualified business income from a sole proprietorship, partnership or S corporation. There are a few limitations placed on the deductions, so ask your CPA to help you better understand this new deduction by filing time. This is one deduction you will need guidance on, since it’s related to compensation paid to various employees in your organization.

• The new depreciation law: A 100% first-year deduction for the adjusted basis will be allowed for qualified property acquired and placed in service after Sept.

27, 2017. Alert your tax preparer of any assets you purchased during this time period in 2017.

You should make every effort to prepare your taxes on time this year so you can take the data and model your 2018 estimated tax impact through software provided by your CPA. By being proactive, you’ll understand early in 2018 how the new tax laws will affect you.

Michael J. Rasmussen is the owner of Rasmussen Tax Group (rasmussentaxgroup. com) in Conway, Arkansas.

P M Q. C OM /A C C OU N TI N G

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THE THINK TANK

SALARY VS. HOURLY RATE FOR MANAGERS Think Tankers discuss the best way to compensate employees in managerial roles.

WPI: How many hours should a salaried pizza store manager be expected to work? At what point do you start paying them for working extra hours? And how do you structure bonuses? pizzapiratespp: I believe in paying them an hourly rate. When I paid a salary, I always had a bit of tension with the managers.

If they worked a little less, I was peeved, and if they worked an hour more, they were peeved. I try to keep managers in the 38-to-40-hour range. I find that our operation is just too physically demanding to work more than that on a regular basis. Our GMs make $20 to $22 per hour, plus a bonus of 2% to 4% of the sales. Our entry-level managers, some of whom work part-time, make between $14.50 and $18 per hour. Some of them receive bonuses, but those max out at around $50 a week. Assistant GMs make $18 to $20 per hour, plus a bonus of 2% to 4% of the sales. They also get paid vacation and sick leave, health care and so on. But don’t try this at home! These are California pay rates for longtime employees!

314: I still pay a salary, which is based on an average week for my general managers. Typically, 45 to 47 hours is all they ever work. At my busy shop, which does more than $40,000 a week in sales, my current GM works about 47 hours a week, and his salary is $950 a week plus bonuses, health insurance, a fuel card and two weeks paid vacation. He has three assistant managers under him. d9phoenix: I haven’t had a full-time manager in years. I just

have part-timers—this is not what I want, it’s all that I can find.

As for bonuses, I base them on meeting goals for three items: labor, food usage and sales. From time to time, I will change the goals, depending on what I think is more important.

Unfortunately, everything here [in Boulder, Colorado] has been thrown into chaos over the last year or so. The minimum wage goes up 90 cents every year until 2020, and now we have a soda tax that’s higher than anywhere else in the country!

Get answers to your most perplexing problems and swap tips and ideas with the experts in PMQ’s Think Tank, the pizza industry’s oldest and most popular online forum. Register for free at thinktank.pmq.com. (Member posts have been edited here for clarity.)

T H IN K TA N K . P MQ.COM

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March 20March 22, 2018 Las Vegas, NV Booth #2036 Live Oven Demos with Chef Leo Spizzirri, Maestro Pizzaiolo and World Pizza Champion Tuesday & Wednesday Thursday 10:30AM to 11:30AM; 2PM to 3PM 12PM to 1PM Visits with Peter Reinhart--Best Selling Author and Host of www.pizzaquest.com You can also visit us in Chicago at the NRA International Foodservice Marketplace Show, May 19 – 22, 2018!

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THE SOCIAL CONNECTION

PIEOLOGY

PROMOTING PI DAY ADDS UP TO INCREASED SALES Building a social media campaign around this irrational number is as easy as pi. | By Christopher Wick/ SMM International Pi Day, celebrated on March 14 around the world, pays homage to the mathematical constant represented by the symbol π. Pi is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. It has been calculated to more than one trillion digits beyond its decimal point and is an irrational and transcendental number, meaning it will continue infinitely without repetition or pattern.

Why are we talking about Pi and mathematical symbols here? It’s because, with some help from social media, Pi Day can create amazing results in your bottom line. If you do the math right, expect extraordinary results!

In a particularly successful promotion for one of our clients in 2016, a pizzeria’s Pi Day social media campaign brought in 50 new customers in just one day, totaling $1,263 in sales and 198 coupon redemptions, all for an ROI of 271,470%! This was, as you can imagine, an exhilarating day for our client.

With 33% of new customers ordering online and 67% of them ready to redeem a Facebook promotion from their phone at your pizzeria, it’s safe to say your customers will embrace a great offer on Pi Day. So how can you make it work? Here’s what you need to do: • Plan ahead. Our client’s promotion was created more than a month in advance—another reason why it’s important to develop your social media content calendar, as we’ve

explained in previous issues of PMQ. Planning ahead gives you a chance to polish your campaign and execute it in the most efficient manner. But if you haven’t already planned a Pi Day promo for this month, it’s not too late. Just get started today!

• Create an irresistible offer. It has become something of a pizza industry tradition to promote pizzas for $3.14 on Pi Day. Who wouldn’t pay $3.14 for a pizza? But if you think that’s too big a discount, follow Hungry Howie’s lead—in past Pi Day specials, the chain has offered a medium one-topping pizza for $3.14 with the purchase of any regularly priced Hungry Howie pie.

For Facebook and Instagram, design a Pi Day graphic that includes a photo of a mouthwatering pizza and the special $3.14 price.

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• Leverage the power of your existing audience. For Facebook and Instagram, design a Pi Day graphic that includes a photo of a mouthwatering pizza and the special $3.14 price. Also try creating a special Snapchat filter and invite guests into your store to try it out for themselves. Once you get them through the doors, hold a contest. Pitfire Pizza in West Hollywood, California, last year invited its followers to visit the pizzeria for a chance to win free pies for a year. The winner was the person who was able to recite pi to the largest number of digits beyond the decimal point from memory.

• Take full advantage of video. To build up the excitement on Pi Day, use Facebook Live, Instagram Stories and/or Snapchat to take your followers behind the scenes in your pizzeria.

Dress up a manager or employee as Albert Einstein (March 14 is also the great physicist’s birthday) to offer humorous commentary or show the process of creating a pizza with the pi symbol.

• Start touting your promotion at least a week in advance. Not only will this afford you enough time to raise awareness about Pi Day, you’ll also get some insights on how the campaign is working and how customers are responding. If you need to tweak it to get better response, do so.

ANNA’S PIZZA & PASTA

Located in Winnebago, Illinois, Anna’s Pizza & Pasta celebrated March 14 last year by giving away free pizza to every 10th person who mentioned Pi Day during his or her visit.

Christopher Wick is the founder of SMM International, an award-winning social media marketing agency that’s helped over 100 businesses in the pizza industry. Visit smminternational.com or call 888-SMM-INTL to sign up for a free social media strategy session!

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MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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THE CHEF’S CORNER

tended Read an ex w with ie rv te in Q&A tti at zo iz R Mario iotalks! ar /m m pmq.co M ARIORIZZOT TI.COM

MARIO RIZZOTTI | I R O N

CHEF AMERICA

The popular TV chef and culinary consultant says a good meal is not just about eating food—it’s a celebration of la dolce vita. | By Brian Hernandez With pizza, just as with life, sometimes less is more. Mario Rizzotti, food event emcee, brand ambassador and popular judge of the Food Network’s Iron Chef America, has illustrated this philosophy elegantly with a recipe he calls Mama Rizzotti’s Pizza Bianca con Patate e Rosmarino (White Pizza With Potato and Rosemary). Reminiscent of Rome from yesteryear, this simple recipe embodies what pizza was all about from the very beginning: an inexpensive food staple for the masses, with distinct, delectable, authentic Italian flavors.

And Rizzotti knows plenty about flavor and Italian authenticity. Born in Italy, he moved from Rome to the United States when he was in his early 20s and began to make a name for himself as a chef, TV personality and culinary consultant.

He has a simple motto that every pizzaiolo—and every pizzeria customer—should take to heart: “A meal is not the consumption of food, but, rather, a celebration of la dolce vita.”

On Iron Chef America, he has judged the best culinary efforts

of chefs like Mario Batali, Bobby Flay, Michael Symon, Marc Forgione and Masaharu Morimoto. He was the Italian Culinary Expert for Academia Barilla, where he made it his mission to help consumers better understand real Italian products like olive oil, balsamic vinegar, cheeses and cured meats—and how to recognize the fakes.

Here’s what Rizzotti told me about his potato and rosemary pizza: “When you have good quality ingredients, you don’t need to dress them up. Sometimes less is more. The classic flavors of potatoes and rosemary highlight the simplicity of this recipe. I like to come up with recipes that are close to my heart, my roots and my origin. I try to help people understand that simplicity is the key to any Italian recipe. My mom used to say, ‘Six ingredients are the most you can do for Italian cuisine. But be careful, because six ingredients are already two too many.’” —Mario Rizzotti

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DANIEL LEE PEREA

MAMA RIZZOTTI’S PIZZA BIANCA CON PATATE E ROSMARINO DOUGH

DIRECTIONS

500g flour 300mL water 30g extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) 20g fresh yeast 10g fine sea salt

Heat the water to a lukewarm temperature. Add fresh yeast and activate in the water for a few minutes, until fully “awakened” and frothy. Meanwhile, place the flour in a mixer, add the salt to the dough, and mix well. Then add the water with the yeast and the EVOO. Mix until the dough is smooth and cohesive, for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into two balls (approximately 430g each) and let rest on a counter, well-coated in flour, for 30 minutes.

Peel your potatoes and slice them to ½ cm in thickness.

Stretch the dough in your pan, and top it with the potatoes and rosemary leaves, plus a touch of salt and olive oil.

Preheat the oven to 380°F. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 15 to 20 minutes.

After that, the pizza is finito! Take it out of the oven and drizzle it with some good quality EVOO, and buon appetito!

INGREDIENTS 430g dough ball 4 medium potatoes 2 branches rosemary EVOO to taste Sea salt to taste

Brian Hernandez, a longtime pizzaiolo, is PMQ’s test chef, U.S. Pizza Team event coordinator and a host on PizzaTV.

REL ATED VIDEO

BRI A N H E RN A N DEZ WAL KS Y OU TH ROU GH TH E S T EP S OF MA KIN G TH I S A M A ZI N G P I E AT P M Q. C OM /M A M A R IZZ OT TIP IZZ A.

That’s it! Nothing goes together better than potatoes and rosemary, except maybe Cheech and Chong or Tom and Jerry. I hope everyone takes the time to try this simple yet delicious recipe at home or in their pizzeria. For more info about Mario Rizzotti, check out the online Q&A at pmq. com/mariotalks.

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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THE ART OF MARKETING

Looking for more marketing ideas and insights? PMQ has you covered!

Liz Barrett Foster Editor at Large

MARCH 2018 TOP MARKETING TIPS & TRICKS EVERYBODY WINS! Everyone loves the thrill of scratching off a game piece to see what they’ve won. Department stores are well-known for handing out discount scratch cards during the holidays to encourage store visits, and they’ve been running the same promo for decades because it works. Most printing companies offer a customizable scratcher option, complete with your name and logo.

Consider the ways you can use scratch-offs in your pizzeria: 1. Mail them to customers with instructions to scratch them off at the pizzeria.

2. Hand them out to customers when they walk in the door.

3. Post big winners on social media to woo additional customers to come in to win.

BUILD YOUR OWN BOT Chatbots have been showing up online everywhere, from magazine websites to retailer Facebook pages, in an effort to make it easier to build relationships with consumers. And pizzerias can tap into them, too. Once a customer opts in to getting your messages on Facebook, for example, a message from your pizzeria could pop up in his Messenger account, alerting him that you’re offering a family combo package tonight. The chatbot asks about his favorite toppings, the customer responds, and then it asks if he would like to place an order.

This is not a scene from a blockbuster sci-fi movie—it’s possible right now for your pizzeria, and you don’t even need to be a techie to pull it off. Facebook recently released a program that helps you build simple or more complex chatbots, depending on your level of ability. With the right setup and questions for your users, you can program your chatbot to do any number of tasks, such as deliver the daily specials, share upcoming events, accept online orders and more.

IS THIS THE ULTIMATE GLUTEN-FREE PIZZA? Celebrity chef Rachael Ray was putting pizza toppings on chicken breasts years ago. Now we’re coming across a slew of online video recipes for chicken crust pizzas, plus a company selling ready-to-heat versions in supermarkets. All of them tout the benefits of this low-carb, highprotein, gluten-free alternative to traditional pizza.

Could this be a hot seller in your pizzeria? If you have customers who are gluten-intolerant or cutting down on carbs, chicken crust pizza could be just the thing to get them back into your pizzeria. Try your traditional toppings out on a naked chicken breast or opt for breaded chicken if you want to deliver a more decadent dish.

QUICK PROMO TIP

One of the best investments you can make in your business is hiring a professional photographer. On average, the cost will be less than $500, and you will walk away with highquality professional photographs of your food, restaurant interior and exterior, owners and staff.

Those photos, in turn, can be used repeatedly on your menus, website, marketing materials, social media, pitches to media and more.

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Š2018 AB Mauri Food Inc.

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MONEYMAKERS

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HAVE SNOW PLOW, WILL DELIVER Tony Glorioso, owner of Mario’s Pizza in Union Pier, Michigan, has a snow plow, and he’s not afraid to use it—to deliver pizzas.

Prior to buying Mario’s last summer, Glorioso had locally run a snow plow for years. He hit upon the idea of pairing that service with pizza delivery in December. “Business was kind of slow,” he told WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana. “No one wanted to come out [for pizza]. So we decided, what better way to offer a pizza than [to include] a plow for a special prize?” For $30, customers got their snow-piled driveways cleared and a large one-topping pie delivered to their doorstep. And, for his clever idea, Glorioso received a heap of free press: In addition to the South Bend TV station, the promotion was covered by UPI, TheTakeout.com and various radio stations in the area.

Tony Glorioso turned a bitterly cold and snowy winter to his advantage by pairing pizza delivery with snow plow services for just $30. “Our customers are loving it,” Glorioso told PMQ.

QUICK TIP 1

PAINT A PICTURE WITH WORDS A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a well-written text description of your menu items has value, too. Move beyond a plain listing of your pizzas and dishes and employ vivid language—words like “buttery,” “fresh,” “caramelized” and “crispy”—to make your fare sound irresistible.

CHEF BILLY IS READY FOR HIS CLOSE-UP Billy Manzo, owner of Federal Hill Pizza’s two locations in Providence and Warren, Rhode Island, isn’t the kind of guy who puts on airs, which makes his pizza making videos a popular fixture on Facebook. In one especially funny, yet foodie-friendly, post-Christmas video, Manzo, clad in his usual ski cap, scarf, apron and shorts, showed his fans how to make a pair of decadent dessert items using fried dough, a ricotta mascarpone cannoli, rehydrated Italian dried figs, Nutella and other Italian ingredients. Another video spotlighted Chef Billy’s version of the classic Rhode Island Pizza Strip and garnered more than 1,500 views. But his most popular post in December was a TV commercial-style video, warmly lit and folksy, that drew more than 9,500 views, 186 reactions and 190 shares. A branding masterpiece, it emphasized Federal Hill’s family-friendly atmosphere and Manzo’s charisma and charm without ever feeling like a marketing ploy.

The inimitable Billy Manzo, owner of Federal Hill Pizza, has made masterful use of Facebook Live, recipe how-tos and TV commercial-style videos to build up his restaurants’ social media presence.

G of to T

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MONEYMAKERS

A HIP TWIST ON MONTHLY SPECIALS

Food columnist Denise Neil designed the January 2018 entry for Wichita Brewing’s pizza-a-month promotion. It features an herbed mayonnaise base topped with white cheddar cheese, mozzarella and brown-sugared bacon, finished with sliced tomatoes, fresh arugula and a drizzle of ranch dressing.

Wichita Brewing Co. & Pizzeria partnered with chefs from 11 Wichita, Kansas-area restaurateurs and a food columnist from The Wichita Eagle to create a year’s worth of pizzas in 2017— and the contest was so successful, they’re doing it again this year. Each month, a partner chef designs a specialty pizza that includes five unusual ingredients of his or her choosing. Chef Richard Patton of Hangar One Steakhouse devised the top-seller for 2017, a red-sauce pie that featured two crusts separated by a layer of melted provolone cheese and topped with shaved beef, Italian sausage, red peppers and a spicy giardiniera. Customers who order 10 of the 12 monthly specials receive an “I Ate Wichita” T-shirt designed by a well-known local artist.

QUICK TIP 2

GIVE ’EM A QUICK FIX Think about offering a slice-and-beverage combo for customers who come into your pizzeria alone. This strategy, which is easy to implement, could boost your lunch traffic and your restaurant’s value perception.

JANE MINES GETS HER BIG TV BREAK Gassville, Arkansas, pizzaiola Jane Mines was a featured chef in the premiere episode of the Food Network’s new show Best in Food in January. As co-owner of Nima’s Pizza and a member of the U.S. Pizza Team, Jane got her big break at a 2017 pizza making competition in Las Vegas—though it was her husband and business partner, Rick, who had entered the contest. Dying to dig her digits into some dough, Jane asked the judges if she could compete in the next day’s nontraditional division if any other participants canceled at the last minute. When one of them did, Jane whipped up a pair of New York Reuben pies, inspired by a local deli, and won the event. When the Food Network showed up to film the competition, the network crew was drawn to her, the category’s only female competitor, and captured her every move on video tape. Jane took home a silver medal for her pies, but the free TV exposure for Nima’s Pizza was worth more than gold.

Jane Mines of Nima’s Pizza stepped in to compete at a 2017 pizza making contest when one of the scheduled participants dropped out at the last second.

Her New York Reuben pie eventually landed her on a new Food Network show, Best in Food.

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RECIPE OF THE MONTH

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WH AT’S YOUR STORY?

Si Mendoza and partner Danny Caplinger opened their location of Il Primo Pizza & Wings in 2009 and rolled out their food truck in 2016.

IL PRIMO PIZZA & WINGS | R I C H M O N D ,

TX

Co-owner Si Mendoza details the advantages—and the challenges—of adding a food truck to your existing brick-and-mortar pizza business. By Rick Hynum | Photos provided by Il Primo Pizza & Wings The food-truck phenomenon keeps speeding along, with more than 4,000 mobile kitchens on the road today, according to a May 2017 article in The Economist. And while some restaurateurs believe food trucks pose a threat to their business, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests otherwise: Counties with higher growth in mobile food services also report faster growth in restaurant and catering businesses. No wonder Si Mendoza, co-owner of Il Primo Pizza & Wings in Richmond, Texas, was eager to learn the food-truck business himself. He and partner Danny Caplinger opened their brick-and-mortar restaurant in early 2009 and rolled out their mobile operation in late 2016. We chatted with Mendoza to get his tips for success.

in Florida and now six. Danny and I started working for him and later became partners. In 2008, we made plans to move and build our own Il Primo. But due to the economic situation at that time, there was no point building one in Florida—a study in 2010 showed that one out of three homes in the state were under foreclosure at that time. After doing our research, we learned that Fort Bend County, part of the Houston area, had some of the fastest growth in the country, and the household income and demographics were perfect for our restaurant. Also, we came across a commercial property next to what was, at that time, the largest Kroger being built in the country. So we opened our own Il Primo Pizza & Wings there in April 2009.

PMQ: So tell us a little bit about the history of Il Primo Pizza.

Mendoza: Paul Conti started Il Primo in Arizona in 1983. He

PMQ: How did you segue into the food truck business?

Mendoza: I started with the small classic “roach coach” truck to

grew it to two locations and eventually sold, then moved to South Florida and built another restaurant—same name, same style—in 2001. Before long, there were five Il Primo locations

test out the business. I would send it out in a 1.5-mile radius around our restaurant. It did well because the area is growing, and a lot of construction workers don’t live in the area and

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After seven years of success in Richmond, Texas, Si Mendoza took his brick-and-mortar restaurant on the road, offering pies in just one size at large events and spot locations.

didn’t know our brick-and-mortar restaurant is here. The truck was a great ice-breaker, selling our pizza by the slice with drinks and snacks. But I realized the only way to produce more sales and a bigger profit was to have a full-size truck with an oven. Many of the classic food trucks seemed too small. After looking at trucks for sale and different designs, I bought a 20’ box U-Haul truck. It had enough room for the oven and all of the other equipment needed as well as enough space to move around in and work as efficiently as possible.

PMQ: We noticed you only offer pizza in one size. How does that improve efficiency and turnaround time?

Mendoza: I wanted to make sure we could make the same

pizzas—or as close to the same as possible—that we sell at the restaurant. It’s the exact same recipe and toppings. But, as I have seen in the restaurant, the more options you give a customer, the longer they may take to order, especially if they are with their family or a group. They will try to calculate the amount of food needed per person and the best package deal to meet their needs. I have learned that time is crucial in the food-truck business. Trucks can get huge lines, and people will go to the shorter lines if they are really hungry. So your turnover time is so important. I like the idea of one size—it’s like a close-ended question. I’m controlling the results. Plus, with more pizza sizes, I would have to carry more screen sizes in the truck, and it takes longer to cook the larger pizzas in the middle of a rush.

catering events]. One reason many food trucks have such high prices is because it costs them more money to make their dishes. They might have to rent a commercial kitchen. Also, they tend to be paying retail costs for ingredients. I can charge the average food truck prices, and my profit margin ends up being higher than most food trucks.

PMQ: Obviously, there’s more to operating a food truck than just driving around and looking for a spot to park. Can you tell us about the various moneymaking opportunities?

Mendoza: Commonly, there are three opportunities: events,

accounts and spot locations. Events are any type of party or festival. Accounts are properties where you have made a deal or a contract to be there to sell your pizza. Spot locations are wide open, typically a designated area where food trucks park and serve. I have seen more profit at events, and we have an account with a very popular bar in our area. Sometimes, you will be reached out to for a big event, and you really need to get as much information about it as you can to decide if it will have any real value. For some first-time events, they will project a high traffic flow, but they don’t have any reliable numbers to work from.

Mendoza felt the standard food truck was too small for his needs and went with a 20’ U-Haul truck insead.

PMQ: What are the advantages of running a food truck that’s associated with an existing brick-and-mortar restaurant?

Mendoza: I already have a restaurant, so I get contract pricing.

I’m permitted to use my restaurant as my commissary. I have an established name, so I already know people will buy my products and will feel more comfortable booking me [for JAN/FEB 2018 | PMQ.COM

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It’s really easy to learn about upcoming events. Discussion among truck operators is a good source of information, and most trucks post their schedules on social media, trying to generate their own following.

For any event, you want to know how many other food trucks will be there. Food trucks have a nice sense of community, but, in the end, it’s business. The more trucks at an event, the less revenue you will make. But the people coordinating the event sometimes want a lot of trucks there. I consider it a red flag if it’s not a proven event with a high number of people known to attend. As they say, there’s not enough meat on the bone.

PMQ: Do you cross-promote between your brick-and-mortar restaurant and your food truck?

Mendoza: It’s very important to make

sure customers understand that your truck comes from your restaurant. I have created graphics for the truck that invite people to come see our restaurant and have dispensers that carry the restaurant’s menus for customers to take and look at. We also bring our truck to carnivals at the local schools. It’s very important to be involved with events like that.

With almost every job you do, you will meet someone that’s interested in your service or you will get a lead for a future event.

PMQ: Restaurant work is notoriously difficult. Is it the same with running a food truck?

Mendoza: It’s not an easy schedule.

Mother Nature will teach you, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.” You can’t rely on every job to come through financially. Rain-outs will happen, and you will have to

reschedule an event or not be able to go out at all for an entire day. One key factor to remember is that your truck is both a kitchen and a vehicle for driving, and either of those systems can go on the blink any time. Your truck might run fine, but your oven or fryer might be having issues. One day you might have all the food loaded, all the systems are working, and you’re completely stocked up and ready to leave for the event; then, you put the key in the ignition and your truck won’t start. This actually happened to me—I needed a new battery. The biggest issue for me was when my generator went out. Our truck was down for a week.

Aside from all that, though, it is a pretty cool way to meet new people and earn new customers. You get to see more of your city, too—the view from the truck always changes. And you will get to know how fast you can work in one of the smallest kitchens around!

PMQ: So what’s next for you?

Mendoza: I am looking forward to

selling these trucks myself. I believe that will be my next step. As everyone knows, the pizza business is huge, but I haven’t seen a big movement in food truck sales. I see all the ads for all the equipment, but no trucks for sale. I have a dealer that specializes in wholesale commercial trucks. I have my timeline figured out on how long the production takes, what kind of improvements are needed, and the extras to offer. It’s definitely worth a shot. I think I see a niche that I can attack and grow on it. And the beauty is that the trucks are mobile, and I can drive them straight to the buyer!

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

Got a story to tell our readers?

What makes your pizzeria different?

Email Rick at editor@pmq.com and brag about yourself!

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BOCCELLI

MEET THE U.S. PIZZA TEAM

DANIEL LEE PEREA

Lenny Rago (middle) competed with Panino’s co-owner Bruno Brunetti (left) in the Pizza a Due division at the World Pizza Championship.

LENNY RAGO: GROWING UP ITALIAN

Rago (center) won the U.S. Pizza Team’s 2015 Northeast Pizza Trials, along with his brother Gino Rago (right) and Leonardo Giordano.

The U.S. Pizza Team member and co-owner of Panino’s in Chicago learned authentic Italian cooking from a true expert: his mother. By Daniel Lee Perea With his partners and teammates, Gino Rago and Bruno Brunetti, Leonardo “Lenny” Rago, co-owner of Panino’s in Chicago, has traveled the globe and won acclaim in various pizza contests, including the top prize in the 2018 Pizza Pizzazz competition at the Mid-America Restaurant Expo in Columbus, Ohio. Daniel Lee Perea chats with the man behind the pan in this USPT Q&A. PMQ: To start with, who is Lenny Rago?

Lenny Rago: Lenny Rago is a hardworking entrepreneur and

a family man. I’ve been working in pizza since I was 15 years old, riding to work on a bicycle for a mom-and-pop pizza place, and worked my way up the chain. I’m motivated by success. I like when things work. Sometimes it’s not all about the money.

I feel like I’ve accomplished something when I do things the right way. I’m also in the music world, managing a couple of bands with a friend of mine. I write songs and go on the road with the bands sometimes. It helps keep my mind clear and balances out my lifestyle. It’s therapeutic. It relieves stress.

Some people play tennis or golf as a hobby—I’ve got the band thing. But the pizza business is my income and my passion.

PMQ: How does being on the road with a band compare to being on the road with the USPT? Rago: When a band goes on the road, it’s all fun and games

until they do their music thing for two or three hours. But with pizza, it’s a whole weekend. It’s eight-hour shifts. The U.S. Pizza Team builds real friendships. It’s great when you can call up Michael LaMarca or Brian Hernandez and say, “Hey, I need some advice.” That’s the difference.

PMQ: Your brother, Gino, was partially raised in Italy. Were you?

Rago: No, I was born and raised in the United States. But the

household spoke Italian. They would say things in Italian, then I’d answer in English, and that way you pick up the language.

Everything we ate was Italian.

PMQ: Were your parents immigrants?

Rago: My parents were immigrants. My mom came here when

she was 22, and my dad came and they got married when he was 25. My [maternal] grandfather had been coming here, living and working in America, for a long time before that. He had dual citizenship here. He was building railroads.

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Galbani® cheese congratulates Lenny Rago Winner of the 2018 “Best Pizza in the Midwest” Nobody tops Lenny Rago and Galbani cheese.

Lenny won first prize in the Pizza Pizzazz Culinary Competition at the Mid-America Restaurant Expo for his spectacular “Hog Heaven” pie—topped with a combination of Galbani Premio Mozzarella and Galbani Fresh Mozzarella. As Italy’s #1 cheese brand, we’re proud to provide the Ispirazione Italiana that makes everything Lenny creates a slice above the competition.

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©2018 Lactalis American Group, Inc., Buffalo, NY 14220. Galbani is a ® of Egidio Galbani S.r.l. All Rights Reserved.

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“I think simplicity is what made pizza back in the day, and that’s why the Neapolitan style has been so successful over the last few years.”

— LENNY RAGO

come here, work in the rail yards for a while, then go back home to Italy and make more kids! My grandfather’s American citizenship is what got my family here.

DANIEL LEE PEREA

PMQ: He built America!

Rago: Yes! He had the same name as me—Leonardo. He would

PMQ: You grew up in an Italian household that knows only authentic Italian cuisine. How does that inform what you’re doing with food now?

Rago: We do things similarly to our parents. We took their

knowledge and just improved their methods. A lot of the methods they did at the house, we do now. For example, instead of buying breaded eggplant for our eggplant Parmesan, we batter and fry it ourselves, the way our mom taught us.

Same with our chicken Parmesan. I remember my mom making grilled cheeses. She would take one of those large oven trays, put 10 sandwiches on it and bake them, then flip them over. She’d make pizza in the same tray—square pizza, and she’d cut it with scissors. I think simplicity is what made pizza back in the day, and that’s why the Neapolitan style has been so successful over the last few years: the simplicity.

PMQ: Do you think growing up with that authentic cuisine gives you a competitive advantage over people who don’t have that background and learned to make pizza as an adult?

Rago: I think there is an advantage. You see the ways that it

should be done. Then, when you grow up and get into the real world, you take that knowledge with you and develop it into your recipes. We actually saw my mom firsthand doing everything. Every Sunday, she’d make meatballs. We watched her make the dough or make the sauce, whatever. I think that does have an advantage. Researching it or learning it on the internet isn’t the same.

REL ATED VIDEO

P M Q. C OM /P I ZZA P I ZZA ZZ2 0 18

we’re boys. Boys fight. Being four years apart, he did things before I did. In business, we both have our strengths and weaknesses. Do I do a lot more work? Yeah, probably. Do I complain? No, because I know he’s out there doing things that are beneficial to the business. In pizza competitions, I don’t think we’re competitive because we both know it’s about Panino’s.

PMQ: What’s your favorite USPT memory?

Rago: It’s a toss-up. I went into that Cleveland competition

[the 2015 Northeast National Pizza Trials] and won, and I didn’t even think I was top 10! And then Las Vegas [2017 International Pizza Challenge, Pan Division], which was a two-day competition. I saw 30 pizzas from 30 people from all over the world. And to come up second place in the world and first place in America, it’s like you’re on top of the world for a day or two. That was one of the highlights. Competitions are a fun way to hang out with guys. It’s a fun way to market your brand: “Hey, I’m part of the United States Pizza Team!” It’s done wonders for us. It’s done wonders for everyone else on the team.

Daniel Lee Perea is PMQ’s senior media producer.

PMQ: You and your brother, Gino, are business partners. What was that sibling relationship like growing up?

Rago: We grew up in the city [Chicago]. We’d go out there and

play every sport possible. If it was football season, we’d play football. If it was hockey season, we’d go in the alley and play hockey with baseball catcher’s gear. We fought a lot, because

Daniel Lee Perea is a filmmaker, photographer, musician, renaissance man and video game Guinness World Record holder. He currently serves as PMQ’s senior media producer.

42 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Brooks Roberts (left) and Preston Lott started a pizzeria in their home town of Indianola, Mississippi (population: 12,000) just to fill a local niche. Little did they know at the time that it would lead to a 13-store franchise empire that’s still growing.

44 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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THE

LOST BOYS

REL ATED VIDEO P M Q. C OM /LO ST PIZ Z A

This pair of best buddies from the Mississippi Delta parlayed one small-town pizza joint—and a love of pop art and plain old junk—into a fast-growing franchise empire.

By Rick Hynum | Photos by Daniel Lee Perea

In the little Mississippi Delta town of Indianola, the summers can be sweltering, and the mosquitoes are big and mean. As youngsters, best friends Brooks Roberts and Preston Lott played in its broad, flat, green spaces, gazed up at the night sky illuminated by sudden, brilliant flashes of heat lightning, and dreamed of the bigger world waiting beyond the cotton fields and catfish ponds.

But once they made it out of the Delta—as far away as sunny St. Croix, in Roberts’ case—all they really wanted to do was go back home and make pizza for a living.

Now, just 10 years after they returned to Indianola and launched a modest little shop on the town’s main strip, Roberts and Lott have become restaurant magnates of a sort, the laidback, good-old-boy masterminds behind a fastgrowing franchise company called Lost Pizza Co., now with 13 locations in three southern states and more on the way. And, as both men will be quick to tell you, no one’s more surprised by their success than they are.

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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One of the newest Lost Pizza locations, which opened last fall in Oxford, Mississippi, has two stories with upstairs and downstairs patio seating.

UNLIKELY PIZZA IMPRESARIOS

At first glance, Roberts and Lott seem unlikely pizza impresarios. Both are self-taught artists—Roberts paints in a blues-influenced folk-pop style, often using old barn wood instead of canvas, while Lott has a gift for turning random junk into found-art showpieces. As students at Mississippi State University, both men were poised for careers in agriculture, largely to make their parents happy. “I got a degree in plant genetics, so I did cotton research for a few years, but I knew I didn’t want to do that forever,” Roberts says.

Lott earned his degree in poultry science. “I worked in egg production,” he recalls. “I made it, like, six months.”

But Lott came from a restaurant family—his parents still own Pea-Soup’s Lott-a-Freeze, a longstanding Indianola spot

our buddies. And then, the next morning, Preston’s dad would want to kill us because we’d made such a mess.”

Not long after graduating college, Roberts slipped off to St. Croix, where he captained a boat for the Cane Bay Dive Shop. When Lott came to visit him, they ended up at a local beach bar and pizza joint called the Lost Dog Pub and, as they reveled in the hole-in-the-wall atmosphere, began rekindling an old dream of launching their own pizzeria. “Lost Dog had signs they had collected from other restaurants and bars over the years that had been destroyed by hurricanes,” Roberts says.

“They had a collection of all this random stuff all over the walls, and we really liked the feel of the place. And we liked the name, so we just kind of put our spin on that and named our [future restaurant] Lost Dog Pizza Company.”

“We were so overwhelmed, we realized pretty quickly that it’d be hard for us to open any more stores, because Preston was always in one store, and I was always at the other one.”

— BROOKS ROBERTS, LOST PIZZA CO.

for burgers, po-boys, fried catfish and hamburger steaks—and the two buddies grew up in the eatery. “Even in college and after college, I worked in restaurants, and I loved being in the kitchen,” Roberts said. “We always dreamed about owning our own restaurant. We used to take our friends to Pea-Soup’s late at night—usually after a long night of probably drinking too much—and go in the kitchen and whip up something for

At the time, it was still just a dream, but when Lott learned that the building next door to Pea-Soup’s was for sale, it felt like a sign. “I thought, you know, we’ll make them an offer, and if it works out, I’ll pack up and move home, and we’ll do it,” Roberts says. “I think Preston called me the next day and said, ‘Pack your bags, we’re opening the restaurant.’ So my wife and I packed up, moved back to Mississippi and started work.”

46 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Playing the Franchising Game

Despite intense competition from multiple James Beard Award-winning restaurants in town, Lost Pizza has been doing booming business in Oxford, Mississippi.

READY TO LAUNCH

Lost Dog Pizza Company opened on Indianola’s busy Highway 82 in 2007. Best known as the hometown of blues legend B.B. King and a community of about 12,000 souls, Indianola hardly seems like the launching pad for a pizza empire. “It’s a very small town,” Roberts says.

“Everybody thought we were crazy. But we felt like it was really underserved. Everybody always complained about not having a good pizza restaurant. And it’s a big farming community, surrounded by a lot of smaller towns with people who all come to Indianola to go out to eat and do their shopping.”

After attending various food shows and finetuning their recipes, the young restaurateurs quickly learned the pizza making craft and, just as important, instinctively knew how to create a vibe. Passersby on their way to somewhere else can’t help but notice the antique vehicles parked in the restaurant’s lot, including a clunky blue pickup with the Lost Pizza logo and an old yellow hippie van festooned with random stickers, flowers and a window panel that depicts The Beatles.

Inside, customers soak up the bluesy-artsy ambience and place their orders at the counter for loaded signature pies like The Kujo and The Otis as well as a chicken-and-bacon number called The Lucille (named for B.B. King’s guitar)

Lost Pizza Co. founders Brooks Roberts and Preston Lott never intended to get into the restaurant franchising business. In fact, after more than seven years of opening franchised operations with various partners, Lott says, “We’re still learning.” Here’s what they’ve figured out so far: 1. Work with experts. Franchise law is tricky, so don’t think you can figure it out on your own. Hire an attorney who specializes in it. Seek out vendors who have worked with franchises before so they can help you maintain efficient systems and processes.

2. Don’t hurry. Lott’s key piece of advice: Take it slow. “Make sure you know this is what you want to do,” Roberts adds. “It’s a totally different ball game from being in the kitchen every day.”

3. Choose your franchisees carefully. Look for people who share your passion and commitment to quality rather than those who are just looking for a moneymaking opportunity. Make sure they live in the town where the store is located and will work in their stores every day.

4. Create charts for portion control. Ingredient portioning charts will help minimize food costs and ensure consistency of product from one location to the next. “If you put just a little too much cheese on every pizza, at the end of the day it ends up costing a lot of money,” Roberts says. “Quantity control is important.”

5. Get involved in the community. Lost Pizza sponsors local youth sports teams and works with charities like St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “It’s hard to stand out in a lot of markets, because there are already so many restaurants,” Roberts says. “We look for places where can create our little niche and become part of the community, not just another place on Food Row with the other 30 or 40 restaurants in town.”

48 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Thanks to the pop-art decor created by Lost Pizza’s co-owners, customers can easily become engrossed by their surroundings while waiting for their pizzas.

and the vegetarian Happy Hippie. The menu also features a few sandwiches, such as the meatball-packed Mee-Maw 2.0, along with wings and even hot tamales, a Mississippi Delta specialty.

With its tasty pies, blues-themed memorabilia and folk art, the restaurant proved so popular that, within about a year of opening, Brooks and Lott began casting about for a second location. Not far away, the town of Cleveland, home of Delta State University, beckoned. “It’s a college town and a little bigger than Indianola, so we thought that was a good second step,” Roberts says. “We opened that store, and we were so overwhelmed, we realized pretty quickly that it’d be hard for us to open any more stores, because Preston was always in one store, and I was always at the other one.”

Fortunately, as the buzz spread, willing partners were not hard to find.

THE COMPLEXITIES OF FRANCHISING

By 2010, Roberts and Lott began to immerse themselves in the challenge of franchising when a friend, John Mark Elliott, wanted to open a Lost Dog

Pizza of his own in Tupelo, a mid-size Northeast Mississippi city and the birthplace of Elvis Presley.

“We knew if we were going to continue to grow, franchising was the path we needed to go down,” Roberts said. “We were so hands-on, and almost everything we make is from scratch every day. It’s just so labor-intensive.

It was really hard for us to open more stores and be able to count on the staff to do everything the way we were doing it. John Mark put everything he had into opening that first store, just like we did, and we knew he would run it the same way we did. It would be his baby like it was our baby. We had to have someone like that—an owner-operator that’s

going to be there every day to oversee it.”

But franchising is a complicated enterprise. For trademark purposes, they had to change their brand’s name from Lost Dog Pizza Company to Lost Pizza Co. (“We were bummed out to lose the dog, but we still put a little picture of a dog here and there to remember it,” Roberts says.) They brought in an attorney who specializes in franchise law to manage the legalities and chose their franchisees carefully, turning away those who seemed like the wrong fit.

They also built relationships with an equipment vendor and restaurant design team to ensure an optimized layout for each location, as well as a single POS provider, PDQ POS, that helps set up

“We knew if we were going to continue to grow, franchising was the path we needed to go down.”

— BROOKS ROBERTS, LOST PIZZA CO.

50 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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each store and track every location’s financials in real time, complete with nightly reports.

Meanwhile, ensuring consistency in the kitchen from store to store has been just as challenging. “That was one of the most complicated parts,” Roberts admits. “Preston is Italian, so he has a lot of family recipes that we used and tweaked a little bit as we grew. Not only did we want to protect our recipes, but we wanted to have consistency throughout our brand. So we had to find a company to package all the dry ingredients and distribute them to each of our locations so that everybody was using the exact same brands of seasonings, the exact same amounts, and doing everything exactly the way we were doing it. In the beginning, we didn’t have the volume and the movement to have our food distributors distribute that stuff for us, so we had to do it ourselves. We were running around every day with truckloads of stuff, taking it from location to location. As we grew, we were able to have the buying power and volume, so we could get our

vendors to pick up our products and distribute them for us. That was a big growing pain.”

HETERO LIFE PARTNERS

But Roberts and Lott worked through the pain, researching new markets, scouting high-traffic locations and fielding offers from wannabe partners.

“We’ve had lots and lots of people approach us, interested in franchising, but we’ve been really picky about who we will even consider,” Roberts says. “We want people who put their heart and soul in it the way we do, not just somebody who’s looking for a quick buck.”

As the chain expanded to other towns around Mississippi and then into Memphis, Tennessee, and Jonesboro, Arkansas, its reputation for great pies spread, earning “Best Pizza in Mississippi” honors from Mississippi Magazine for the past three years.

Roberts and Lott still dream up new recipes, putting a Southern twist on their pizzas. One recurring winter special features chopped hot tamales and cheddar cheese, while a springtime

special comes topped with fried green tomatoes, bacon and baby spinach.

And Roberts and Lott still provide their own decor for each Lost Pizza franchise store, taking random found objects and plain ol’ junk and creating a one-of-a-kind, eye-catching esthetic.

In the upstairs section of the Oxford, Mississippi, location, customers quickly become engrossed with their surroundings as they waited for their food. Roberts’ own paintings, including a rendition of Nobel Prize-winning novelist William Faulkner, adorn the walls alongside classic movie posters and all manner of oddities—one side of a rusted Ford Ecoline truck with a baby doll peering through the window; a large glass dining table inlaid with an assortment of oddly compelling brica-brac; toy airplanes suspended from the ceiling; and an old barber’s chair propped up in a corner.

And there’s plenty more where that came from. “We have a big warehouse full of it,” Roberts says. “We collected all this stuff even when we were kids.

We always had an eye for junk. Anytime MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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Lost Pizza’s fare has been singled out as the “Best Pizza in Mississippi”

by Mississippi Magazine for the past three years in a row.

we’re on the road, we’re always looking out for antique stores, junk stores, flea markets. Anybody that has a bunch of junk in their yard, we’re going to knock on the door. Whenever we get ready to open a new restaurant, we’ll load up a few trailers and bring it out and just start putting stuff around the place and see what sticks. My wife was really excited when we opened our first restaurant, because it gave me a place to put all of my stuff.”

It’s all part of that funky Lost Pizza mystique, a reflection of its down-to-earth founders, who have remained best friends through all of the ups and downs of growing their company.

“It’s really weird,” Roberts says. “We live next door to each other, and our kids are best friends. We’re pretty fortunate in that we have this business relationship and can still maintain

our regular friendship. I call him my hetero life partner. We do everything together.”

And both men still marvel at the success of Lost Pizza Co. “When we started, we didn’t know what would happen,” Lott says.

Brooks agrees, adding, “We were young, we didn’t have kids, we didn’t have a lot of bills. We just wanted a cool place in our hometown to eat pizza and have a couple of beers with friends and make a living off of it. That was our intention, and it just kind of went from there.”

Now they spend most of their time traveling from one store to the next and meeting with potential franchisees instead of slinging pies in the kitchen. But, as surprised as they are with the way things turned out, Roberts says, “I still love it. It’s definitely different from what I signed on for, but I don’t think we can complain. I still love it every day, and I can’t picture doing anything else.”

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

TK 52 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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54 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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m o r f s n o s s e L

A Z Z I P E GAT The manager of Comet Ping Pong talks candidly about a fake-news nightmare that rocked the pizza industry—and explains how he managed a PR crisis of epic proportions.

By Heather Cray & Rick Hynum

Bryce Reh,

manager of Comet Ping Pong, knows a thing or

two about “fake news.” For several months in late 2016, the family-friendly pizzeria, located in Washington, D.C., became ground zero in a horrifying controversy dubbed “Pizzagate”—a thoroughly debunked alt-right conspiracy theory that nevertheless created a personal and professional nightmare for Reh, owner James Alefantis and their staff.

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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The bizarre theory, circulated on various alt-right websites and online forums, alleged that Comet Ping Pong was the home base of a global sex trafficking ring run by prominent Democrats, including then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager, John Podesta. Although D.C. police called the claims “fictitious,” true believers besieged the pizzeria, previously known for its tasty pies, Ping-Pong tables and live music, with threatening phone calls and negative online reviews. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church picketed outside the restaurant, shouting anti-gay and anti-Muslim slurs.

Pizza shops in other cities were also “Pizzagate” targets, including Roberta’s in Brooklyn, New York, and East Side Pies in Austin, Texas. But Comet Ping Pong bore the brunt of the allegations, as staffers faced death threats and twisted accusations of misconduct from what a New York Times editorial called “an army of online terrorists.”

Although no proof was ever presented to support the allegations, “Pizzagate” quickly mushroomed into a crisis for Comet Ping Pong, climaxing in an incident in which an armed man, Edgar Maddison Welch, stormed into the restaurant, fired an AR-15, and started searching the premises for underage sex slaves. Welch eventually surrendered to police, admitting he’d found no evidence that anyone was being harmed in the pizzeria.

The Comet Ping Pong management declined most interviews with the press last year. But after the controversy died down, PMQ’s social media director, Heather Cray, visited the store during a trip to D.C. and met Reh in person.

“He told me stories, as seen in the papers, about the Westboro Baptist Church harassment, the shooting, and being publicly harassed at his own home,” Cray recalls. Although months had passed, she says, “The look on Reh’s face brought back memories that made you feel the stress of it all.”

“I thought, ‘This man deserves a Manager of the Year—or the Decade— award,’” Cray continues. “When you come across a restaurant manager or employee who treats the business as if he built it from the ground up himself, you can understand how he gained the trust of both the owner and the employees. These employees trusted Reh to keep them safe and employed.”

But Reh was, at the time, still reluctant to talk on the record. “I promised to keep his stories confidential, declining even to share them with my editor when we talked on the phone that night, and headed home the next day,” Cray recalls. “Over several more months of email exchanges, we developed trust, and Reh gave me insights on how to handle a PR crisis from his own harrowing experience.”

Reh eventually agreed to an email interview with Cray and the PMQ editorial staff. Here, he talks candidly about the experience and explains how taking the high road paid off in the end.

56 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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R Part of Reh’s strategy included keeping the company’s pizza consistent to their high standards and maintaining the familyfriendly atmosphere.

PMQ: As the “Pizzagate” lies and misinformation continued to spread, were you guys attempting to combat them?

Reh: The thing about bad press is to be able to discern its credibility. If we had gotten a bad food review, I would take that as an indicator that we need to reexamine...the way we operate our business. Negative feedback is just as useful as positive feedback, probably even more so. If the bad press is completely baseless, it’s a different story.

If you take yourself seriously, it’s not really worth expending a lot of time and effort to combat opinions that aren’t worth their salt. (Food pun!) In the beginning, it was mostly a matter of trying to figure out when to speak and, far more importantly, when not to speak. Many times, people can’t resist getting involved in a conversation that is about themselves, but it’s not always the most productive way to get that conversation to go away.

PMQ: So what was your strategy, and how did it come about?

Reh: This might sound lame, but my strategy, first and foremost, was to maintain the business standards. The way I saw it was, the whole game would

“The way I saw it was, the whole game would be lost if we allowed our standards to slip, which would be the touch of death for the business—which is what all the ‘Pizzagaters’ wanted.”

— BRYCE REH, COMET PING PONG

be lost if we allowed our standards to slip, which would be the touch of death for the business—which is what all the ‘Pizzagaters’ wanted. It’s not always easy to turn your focus away from harassment, but I think the ability to identify what is a real priority rather than a perceived one is crucial. I also think you need to surround yourself with people you can trust completely and that give very clearheaded advice. Considering we were being attacked by tens of thousands of people as well as major national figures, we couldn’t choose a path that required us to be louder than anyone else. Every “move” we made had to be specific, quiet, but to the point. To “raise our voice,” as it were, would mean we were on their home turf, and we refused to allow ourselves to be sucked into a battle not

of our choosing. At least, as much as possible! I would have rather not had any of this stuff happen!

PMQ: As someone who wasn’t that experienced dealing with the national media, how did you work your way through the challenge?

Reh: It was difficult, really. I would tell people to not be afraid to turn their phone off and get away from the TV. The most stressful moments are usually when people want to become hypervigilant, but it’s just as important to preserve your mental alacrity. If you are a burned-out wreck, you won’t be able to make the quick, rational, thoughtful decision that may be required of you.

58 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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PMQ: You’ve said you knew you needed to get out in front of the story, so you contacted The New York Times and gave them an exclusive interview with yourself and the Comet Ping Pong owner. Why do you think that was important?

Reh: Once things started getting out of hand and there was no average “time/force multiplier” I could employ, it was necessary to think outside the box. I couldn’t respond to the (literally) tens of thousands of emails, online reviews and web posts, so we released a New York Times article to set the record straight for any sane person who could listen. It was a way to respond to all of it in one stroke. Again, I would stress the importance of making a move and then letting things play out a bit without overreacting. Make your point, move on to the next thing.

“Once things started getting out of hand and there was no average ‘time/force multiplier’ I could employ, it was necessary to think outside the box.”

— BRYCE REH, COMET PING PONG

PMQ: Looking back on the experience, how would you describe the support you’ve received from your loyal customers?

Reh: One word: amazing. Couldn’t have done it without them. There are some days I seriously question why anyone should be so lucky as to have a community that is this amazing. I go to work for them. Paying rent is nice, of course, but, really, I do it because I love these folks. They really are like my extended family.

PMQ: Pizzerias may get bad PR for minor infractions, but that’s nothing compared to what you guys have gone through. After all this, what advice would you give to your fellow pizzeria operators, managers or owners about dealing with any kind of PR crisis, major or minor?

Reh: Be confident enough to listen to real criticism and confident enough to ignore the garbage that some people say. Know what fundamental principles your business relies on and stick to them. It’s a human industry—we all make mistakes. Success is getting back up after bad things happen. If life is knocking you down, you succeed by getting up one more time than anyone else will.

Heather Cray is PMQ’s social media manager. Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

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Swag

Washington, D.C.-based &Pizza has made logoed merchandise, featuring the company’s trademark ampersand, a key part of its branding strategy.

with

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Swagger Pizzeria and promotional experts share their top tips for creating must-have logoed merchandise—and how to get it in customers’ hands. By Tracy Morin

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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You know the drill.

Logoed merchandise equals free advertising and enhanced brand loyalty. But did you know it can also “Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn, New York, has done an amazing job of building their brand and cult following through swag and branded apparel. It starts with the underlying brand identity, and a creative brand mark or logo is one of the driving forces. Fonts, color palette and imagery all play a part in customers’ adoption of and affinity with a brand. Roberta’s has used graffiti-style artwork geared toward the alternative counterculture in Bushwick. They sell online via their website, while in-store merch is displayed on the walls. And employees wear branded items while working, which entices diners to purchase.

It’s a great way to turn customers into brand ambassadors!”

forge close ties with the community, foster mutually beneficial partnerships with local artists and influencers, and ramp up your employees’ cool quotient? Today, pizzerias and promotional gurus alike are expanding the possibilities and power of cool

Nicole Biscardi | AllDay Industry

merchandise—here’s their sage advice

New York, NY

on creating swag with swagger.

AS HC AS CL

“Standards like magnets, T-shirts, hats and beanies will always be popular, but now you can offer more unique items for top clients— think portable cell phone chargers in the shape of a pizza slice. For large-volume orders, you can get basic logoed T-shirts for $2 or less, so set up programs where customers buy a slice and get a T-shirt for $5—not only do you make a small profit on the shirt, but you get free advertising and increase brand loyalty!”

ES

Release a new collection of swag at least yearly to keep it fresh, fun and exciting. Tie in a pop culture trend!

Harry Ein | Perfection Promo

Walnut Creek, CA

64 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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SLICE IS RIG H T PIZZA

“The not-so-secret technique to getting the best value out materials, of your swag investment is to generate useful materials not necessarily fun or exciting items like Frisbees or noisemakers. T-shirts and hats are great, but pens, notepads, mugs, books and bags are harder to turn down.

A nicely branded canvas tote is especially good, particularly if you’re giving away other items or if you just want to sneak some menus or flyers into the swag. You want customers to use, or at least keep, the items, so ensure that your logo, design or other branding doesn’t ‘ruin’ the basic value of the item. Consider designing merchandise with lifestyle messaging first and logo second—for example, T-shirts with a pi symbol on the chest and maybe your logo on the sleeve’s hem or shoulder. Or try a notepad with pages that say ‘To-Do List’ on top, and on the bottom, ‘Order a pizza from [pizzeria name and phone number].’”

Rich Harris | insomniagraphix

Montclair, NJ

A DO RO LEI

Find creative ways to display your swag items on sale in the pizzeria— behind the bar, near TVs, anywhere customers frequently look.

“Our initial efforts were turning music-themed T-shirts into ripped and torn vintage tees with our logo—fusing the music selections we love into shirts our customers could wear. Our next iteration was creating custom tees with different cropped images of original artwork, by artist Dessie Jackson, displayed in our restaurant. In 2017, we collaborated with the comic artist Creees HyunSung Lee, creating a Canyon of Heroes [New York City’s setting for ticker-tape parades] illustration for T-shirts. It incorporated our servers and back-of-house staff as heroes, riding a parade float down the Canyon of Heroes, being adored.”

Michael DiBugnara | Adoro Lei

New York, NY

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OATH PIZZA

“Oath Pizza offers an array of swag, most notably the ‘Crust Fund Baby’ T-shirt and ‘Pizza Is My Therapy’ tote bag. Our successful swag is a team effort. Often, we’ll receive requests from employees, guests and/or business partners asking for a certain type of swag, and if the team agrees it’s on-brand, they go for it. We have two strategies for getting swag into the hands of guests. First, employees don’t wear a traditional uniform, but, rather, an array of Oath-branded shirts, hats, buttons and more (and employees often wear their Oath gear outside of work). In addition, Oath gives away swag at almost every event we participate in!

Suzanne Lenzer | Oath Pizza Boston, MA

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P M Q. C OM /OATH P I ZZA

Know your community and target audience. Create swag they’ll use, and find out where they’ll be so you can put it in front of them!

DOT’S PIZZERIA

“Choose high-quality promotional items that are in line with your business and will showcase your logo or message. For a pizzeria, customized sunglasses or flying discs can emphasize a fun, casual atmosphere. Contests, open houses, holidays, landmark anniversaries and seasonal events are all opportunities to distribute personalized swag to customers. People love free stuff! Plus, every time they use the items you gave them, your name or message gets positive exposure. It’s long-term advertising at affordable pricing.”

Shelley Grieshop | Totally Promotional

Coldwater, OH

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Use swag as a thank-you gift for guests who send awesome feedback, and get it in the hands of local influencers, partners and friends of your brand.

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Partner with a local artist to create your swag design. This strengthens your ties to the community and lets you customize your swag to suit each location’s vibe.

P M Q. C OM /S WA G

“We have a lot of fun creating our swag and only make things we’d want to own or wear ourselves. For certain items, we’ll commission designs from our artist partners, and then our in-house designers will take it to the finish line. Other times, we go through the entire design process in-house. All of our Tribe members (employees) rock &swag—which we provide for free—every day in the shops. They’re the best not—if it’s a hit with gauge if something is going to sell or not— it. Finally, we work with an employees, we know we can sell it agency, Village Marketing, which has a lot of great influencer agency relationships with influencers and bloggers. We seek out people who we feel are on-brand, represent a segment of our target demographic and generally have large reach. We did a holiday campaign where part of the strategy was hosting Influencer Sleepovers at select hotels in each of our markets.

We gifted a few top-tier influencers all of our new, limitededition holiday swag in our custom swag boxes (along with pizza) for the ultimate girls’ night in. We got amazing content and millions of impressions out of it!”

Dana Fraser | &pizza

&PIZZA

Washington, D.C.

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DOUBLING

DOWN P DELIVERY With 270 drivers on staff, Seattle’s Pagliacci Pizza shares the keys to exceeding delivery expectations. By Tracy Morin | Photos courtesy Pagliacci Pizza

Since its founding

in 1979, Pagliacci Pizza has grown to 26 locations, all in the Seattle

area. A big part of that success has been delivery, started 25-plus years ago in 1992 and now employing a whopping 270 drivers—all overseen by driver manager Sasha Mitronovas.

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To ensure speedy service, Pagliacci Pizza’s restaurants only deliver to addresses located within a 12-minute drive.

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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Pagliacci’s drivers are empowered to solve customers’ problems at their doorstep.

“Years ago, we assessed that the majority of our customers interact with a delivery driver and that we knew very little about that transaction, so we decided we needed to invest in this interaction,” says Jeff Woodruff, Pagliacci’s VP of operations.

“We sought out our friendliest, most engaged driver and challenged him to elevate the level of service at the door for our customers.”

So how exactly is this company raising the bar on delivery?

Here, Mitronovas shares his successful strategies.

PMQ: What factors create great delivery?

Mitronovas: We focus on:

Speedy service. We staff a lot of drivers, especially during busy times. Critically, our delivery areas are set up for speedy delivery, so we sacrifice greater range. We don’t provide delivery to addresses that are more than about a 12-minute drive from a location. This allows our drivers to become experts in their small delivery areas, further reducing delivery times. And speedier delivery results in fresher, hotter, better food.

Accuracy. Our drivers are required to double-check the entire delivery prior to departure. Even if the kitchen hands the driver the wrong pizza, it’s the driver’s responsibility to catch it. Our drivers receive a bonus if their location does a good job preventing “driverpreventable complaints.” In addition, our drivers are required to verify the entire order at the door with their customer—and correct it if needed.

Employee empowerment. We ask our drivers to ensure that each customer is 100% satisfied with the delivery prior to leaving the customer’s door. If not, the driver has 100% authority to do whatever he needs to do to make the customer happy: call the store to get new product sent to the customer, sign the customer up for a gift card, take money off at the door (up to comping the entire order), or any combination of the three, no questions asked, even if the error originated with the driver.

Friendly drivers. When hiring drivers, our focus is to hire naturally friendly people who genuinely like serving others, not fast delivery drivers who don’t really care about their customers. Our hiring process helps identify delivery drivers who have great social skills and are people persons.

For example, we stress making eye contact when sincerely thanking the customer at the end of the transaction. We don’t have our drivers follow scripts, just a defined procedure.

The big picture. Our drivers understand they are representing our brand at all times, not just while in front of a customer.

That’s why we explicitly communicate, over and over, that safety and community relations are more important than quick delivery times. We look for opportunities to let someone cross the street, to slow down and move over when passing someone walking a dog, to drive extra slow if kids are out in the neighborhood, etc.

A dedicated call center. A call center handles all delivery calls (or helps an online customer who needs extra service). Highly trained customer service reps take great care of customers and will call our drivers if there’s an issue. They also take calls from our drivers—for example, if the driver is having trouble connecting with a customer—and provide assistance.

At Pagliacci, a driver’s No. 1 job is to act as a traveling brand ambassador.

PMQ: What are some challenges?

Mitronovas: Hiring the right people to

deliver and training them well, plus traffic and providing timely delivery during superbusy rush periods.

Third-party delivery is also having a substantial impact. Until recently,

“You simply need to outperform thirdparty delivery companies and earn the customer’s trust.” — SASHA MITRONOVAS, PAGLIACCI PIZZA 74 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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delivery competition has consisted of mostly other pizza places or Chinese food. Suddenly, with very little warning, our delivery competition is every single restaurant in Seattle. We have seen a moderate decline in our delivery transactions but, fortunately, not a large impact.

The competition from third-party delivery has caused us to double down on our approach: friendlier and more professional drivers as well as service consistency. For example, every delivery order receives an accurate quote time that the customer can count on. We are the professionals, with 25 years of delivery experience in Seattle. If we send a customer a gift card as compensation, it comes with a hand-signed letter of apology from our owner. You simply need to outperform thirdparty delivery companies and earn the customer’s trust.

PMQ: How do you support your drivers?

Mitronovas: We have bonuses aligning our drivers’ interests

with what’s good for the company. Our driver-preventable error rate for all of 2017 was .11%—meaning we had one driver-preventable complaint out of roughly every 900 deliveries, including catching kitchen mistakes before leaving the store! We provide great training for our drivers, and a driver manager—that’s me—who’s in charge of delivery operations. Also, most of our locations have a driver lead, a

“We don’t provide delivery to addresses that are more than about a 12-minute drive from a location. This allows our drivers to become experts in their small delivery areas, reducing delivery times.”

— SASHA MITRONOVAS

driver who has shown natural leadership skills and receives additional compensation to help manage and represent the driver staff at that location.

Do not think of your driver’s primary job as delivering food; that’s their secondary job. Their primary job is to be traveling brand representatives. We highly value our drivers, and we take care of them accordingly. We do peer reviews and offer great compensation, including medical, dental and vision

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“Our drivers are required to double-check the entire delivery prior to departure. Even if the kitchen hands the driver the wrong pizza, it’s the driver’s responsibility to catch it.”

— SASHA MITRONOVAS

insurance options and a 401(k) plan with a company match.

Our drivers receive a gift for their birthday, holiday/Christmas and anniversary every year. We have drivers with 20-plus years of tenure, and many over five or 10 years. We have drivers who have bought houses or condos working exclusively as drivers for us. We’ve had drivers become general managers. I’ve been with the company for 22 years, and I spent my first seven years here as a delivery driver.

PMQ: How does your POS system help ensure great deliveries?

Mitronovas: We have our own software, which we use to do

virtually everything. We own the copyright to the software and have a full-time developer on staff who updates on a weekly basis. It’s a huge advantage but very expensive. Obviously, smaller companies would struggle to make that kind of investment.

But what our POS system does for delivery is instantly let us know if a given address is in or out of our delivery area. It also tells the driver what “zone” the address is in—each store’s delivery area is broken into 25 to 40 zones to help drivers find addresses and managers to route deliveries together very quickly. We have accounts for every customer where we can make temporary or permanent notes regarding delivery preferences (i.e., “knock quietly, baby is sleeping”). We use

the POS to give accurate delivery quote times. Our drivers are required to call in advance any time they will be 10 minutes or more past the quote time.

PMQ: How do you solicit feedback on delivery?

Mitronovas: Comment cards attached to delivery boxes; an

online comment form; and callbacks from the phone center.

We do ride-alongs with drivers, on which either I, a store manager or driver lead assesses the driver’s performance. If you’re wondering if your drivers are friendly and engaging with customers, go along with them and see for yourself. Also, every single driver-preventable complaint is followed up with the driver, one on one, by a manager. We document this follow-up and quickly see if a particular driver is struggling to fulfill our customers’ and our expectations.

Customers are constantly praising our drivers. We had a longtime driver pass away from a sudden heart attack, and one of his customers attended the service and spoke about how he had grown up with this driver delivering to him and how he was considered a part of the family. We’ve had drivers stop and assist a stranded motorist or get a first-aid kit from their car when a customer answered the door after just cutting himself.

These things have actually happened!

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

“Safety and community relations are more important than quick delivery times. We look for opportunities to let someone cross the street, to slow down and move over when passing someone walking a dog, to drive extra slow if kids are out in the neighborhood.”

— SASHA MITRONOVAS, PAGLIACCI PIZZA MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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DELIVERY: R

DO?

DON’T? Delivery accounts for between 60% and 70% of Pizza Shuttle’s business, but doing it right isn’t getting easier. By Tracy Morin | Photos courtesy of Pizza Shuttle

Over 33-plus years,

Pizza Shuttle in Milwaukee has racked up its share of “Best of

Milwaukee” awards and other honors. A favorite among college students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, this independent pizzeria offers online ordering and a smartphone app with various large-pizza deals to feed a crowd of youngsters and delivers well into the wee morning hours (10 a.m. to 3 a.m., Sundays through Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 4 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays).

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:

But owner Mark Gold, who founded Pizza Shuttle in 1984 with best friend Louis Siecinski, believes that delivery has seen the industry’s biggest disruption since the POS system. “Third-party providers are changing the whole industry,” he says. “Now people can open a kitchen in a warehouse with no phone, taking only online orders through third parties, or open up ‘ghost stores’ with five ‘restaurants’ in one kitchen, just for delivering—no seating, bathrooms or high rent. Instead of 15 competitors, I now have 500.”

But delivery has upsides: Gold finds that these customers spend 5% to 15% more on their order vs. dine-ins, and millennials are willing to pay up to $5 for the service itself. With 30 to 40 drivers (an average of seven years on staff), delivery is big business for this single-location pizzeria, making up 60% to 70% of orders.

And Gold’s POS system ensures that delivery is streamlined and simplified, from order taking to doorstep. “You can’t do high-volume delivery without a POS system,” Gold says. “And if you don’t have a POS, I’m sure you’re getting ripped off somewhere.”

But he warns fellow operators that getting into delivery is like opening a “business within a business.” Adding a delivery option creates the need for packaging and hot bags, proper insurance, driver hiring and training—and money to pay for it all, particularly as minimum wages rise in some cities and states. And, with deliveries, so much more can go wrong—incorrect orders, traffic, hard-to-find addresses—while food quality suffers through transit time.

“Delivery is hard to handle,” Gold says. “The question is, what kind of Pandora’s Box do you want to open? Look at what it would add to your business and what it would require to run—or start by offering delivery through a third-party provider to see what kind of sales you get. Delivery is feasible, but to do it right takes a lot of time and effort!”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

“You can’t do high-volume delivery without a POS system. And if you don’t have a POS, I’m sure you’re getting ripped off somewhere.”

— MARK GOLD, PIZZA SHUTTLE

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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Olive Oils: The New World Imported oils get most of the glory, but it may be time to start exploring the homegrown possibilities. By Liz Barrett Foster

Estimates from the International Olive Council

show global olive oil production will reach 2.85 million tons this year, with Spain leading the pack as the world’s top producer and countries like Italy, Greece, Portugal and Tunisia adding to the hefty total.

So who’s buying all of that oil?

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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ALEX ANDER RUBIN

What is Extra-Virgin Olive Oil? Extra-virgin is the highest grade an olive oil can receive, and international standards require the oil to meet both chemical and sensory requirements to be sold as extravirgin, according to the California Olive Oil Council, based in Berkeley, California.

The oil’s chemistry, tested in a laboratory, must meet or exceed specific parameters that indicate the careful handling and storage of the olives and oil. No chemicals or extreme heat may be used during the extraction process. Every year, within a few months of harvest, the California Olive Oil Council Taste Panel assesses every California olive oil to ensure that it’s free of defects occurring from the use of poor quality olives, faulty handling, etc. Only then can the oil receive a Certified Extra-Virgin Seal.

“By purchasing [fall harvest olive oil] domestically, you’re better able to guarantee freshness, and the flavor is enlightening when it’s truly fresh.”

— BRADY WHITLOW, CORTO OLIVE

We Americans are certainly taking our fair share. Over the past few decades, the United States has grown to become the world’s second largest consumer of olive oil, using 90 million gallons annually, yet obtaining only 5% of it from producers here in the United States, according to the American Olive Oil Producers Association. Stats like this one have made many growers and farm-to-table advocates anxious to bring additional olive oil production Stateside.

Olive oil has been produced, in some capacity, for more than 150 years in the States. You can find olive groves in Texas, Florida, Arizona, Oregon, Hawaii and Georgia. However, no other state has embraced the delicious fruit-derived oil as warmly as California. With growers stretching from north of Sacramento down south to San Diego, the Golden State now plays host to more than 400 growers and producers and more than 75 varieties of olives, according to the California Olive Oil Council (COOC), based in Berkeley, California.

In fact, 99% of all U.S.-produced olive oil comes from California, according to Patricia Darragh, executive director of the COOC. “The climate and growing conditions in California

82 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Visit us at Pizza Expo, Booth #1225

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PMQ’s Liz Barrett Foster got a firsthand look at a fall olive harvest in California in November.

REL ATED VIDEO P MQ . C O M/C A L IFO R NI AOLI VEOI L

are ideal for olive oil production,” she says. “California also has very strict standards for everything it produces.”

John Mesrobian mills 200 acres of high-density olives in Sanger, California.

Opened just two years ago, The Mill at King’s River is an organic and kosher-certified facility and handles largely private-label olive oils. “Most importantly, we are certified by the state as a safe food-handling facility and Safe Quality Food (SQF)-certified, which is a two-part inspection that cost $100,000 and audited our paper and bottling line and then our milling process,” Mesrobian notes. “Most national companies are requiring SQF and HACCP certification now.”

As of August 2017, there were more than 40,000 acres of olives planted in California for the production of extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO), with an estimated 3,500 new acres earmarked to plant each year through 2020. Whether they’re hand-picking or using over-thetop machine harvesters, all growers agree that the most important phase of picking and producing good extra-virgin olive oil is getting the olives, freshly picked during fall harvest, to the mill in time to process them within 24 hours of harvesting.

“We use an oil blend from Mexico for dressings and sauces, but we use California olive oil for our finishing oil. It’s more flavorful and tastes more like olives.”

— JESSICA ORY, THE CHEESE BOARD PIZZA

THE TRUE TEST: TASTE

“Like any other fresh product, the more local an olive oil is, the fresher it will be,” says Brady Whitlow, president of Corto Olive, which produces a 100% EVOO and two blends. “By purchasing [fall harvest olive oil] domestically, you’re better able to guarantee freshness, and the flavor is enlightening when it’s truly fresh.”

“The bottom line is that operators should do a taste test,” Mesrobian says.

“Buy the oil that you’re impressed with and that you feel will impress your customers.”

Mesrobian adds that operators can go to any number of mills throughout the States and specify how they want their oils blended to create an oil that

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distinguishes their pizzeria from the one down the street. “Choose an olive oil that improves your product,” he advises. “That should be your standard.

For example, a custom mix could be 30% Arbequina, 30% Arbosana and 40% Koroneiki. Make the olive oil unique to your organization.”

The Cheese Board Pizza, an employee-owned company in Berkeley, California, wanted to support local products when it started using California olive oil several years ago, according to co-owner Jessica Ory. “We use an oil blend from Mexico for dressings and sauces, but we use California olive oil for our finishing oil,” she says. “It’s more flavorful and tastes more like olives.”

MEETING STRICT STANDARDS

Like the Italians, California producers have implemented strict rules to ensure the quality of their olive oils. In addition to California Olive Oil Council standards, the state’s olive oil producers must meet other criteria to obtain certification and approval from governing bodies. These standards are considered checks and balances for safe production.

In response to growing consumer demand for more proof of food safety controls, the SQF program has systems in place that monitor procedures

better—and safer—olive oils as more American restaurateurs start looking closer to home for their ingredients.

“Consumers are demanding locally produced food,” Darragh says. “Chain pizzerias may have different olive oil needs than smaller independent pizzerias, so we’re able to match an operator with an olive oil supplier based on taste, variety and distance from their business.”

“Olive oil is the next culinary experience that chefs are experiencing,” Whitlow says. “There’s a new awakening to its potential as a real flavor enhancer.

When choosing an olive oil, learn and understand that you need to taste it comparatively and know and trust your source.”

Liz Barrett Foster is PMQ’s editor at large and author of Pizza: A Slice of American History.

A LEXAN DE R R UBIN

Expert Taste Test

used by producers, manufacturers, distributors and brokers. The program is designed to meet the needs of suppliers, the food industry and consumers, according to the SQF Institute.

Additionally, since the program is administered by the Food Marketing Institute, it benefits from continuous retailer feedback regarding consumer concerns, which are passed along to SQF-certified suppliers.

The Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP), meanwhile, is a management system that addresses food safety through the analysis and control of biological, chemical and physical hazards, from raw material production, procurement and handling to manufacturing, distribution and consumption of the finished product.

These systems and processes sound complex, but the goal is simple: to make

When the California Olive Oil Council’s Sensory Panel taste-tests olive oils for extra-virgin certification, they follow the rule of four S’s, which is reminiscent of wine tasting—and which you can try on your own. When comparing several oils, use a small colored glass to mask the color of the oil. Swirl the oil to release its aromas. Sniff the oil and pick up on its nuances. Next, slurp the oil by taking a little oil in and drawing air through your teeth so that the oil sprays over your palette. Finally, swallow. This technique helps you detect the oil’s pungency at the back of your throat.

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Be sure to visit these PMQ advertisers in Vegas, March 20-22!

AB Mauri .......................... Booth #3031 AM Manufacturing ........... Booth #643 Allied Metal Spinning ...... Booth #1225 Americo ........................... Booth #1455 Ardent Mills ..................... Booth #626 Arrow ............................... Booth #448 Bag Solutions .................. Booth #1649 Bellissimo ........................ Booth #809 Caputo Cheese ................ Booth #1446 Devanco Foods ................ Booth #2931 Doughmate ...................... Booth #1425 Edge Ovens ...................... Booth #105 Escalon ............................ Booth #442 Fish Oven ......................... Booth #2911 Fontanini ......................... Booth #1020 Forno Bravo ..................... Booth #2036 Galbani ............................ Booth #637 GI Metal ........................... Booth #1646

Graincraft ........................ Booth #1242 Grandé ............................. Booth #814 Harbortouch .................... Booth #2125 HTH Signs........................ Booth #2619 Italforni ............................ Booth #1053 La Nova............................ Booth #842 Lloyd Pans ....................... Booth #609 Mailshark ......................... Booth #1557 Marsal Ovens ................... Booth #400 Message on Hold ............. Booth #301 MFG Tray ......................... Booth #1244 Micromatic ..................... Booth #1202 Microworks ...................... Booth #455 Middleby Marshall ........... Booth #400 MTI................................... Booth #467 Northern Pizza Equip. ..... Booth #2216 Ordersnapp ...................... Booth #2219 Orlando Foods ................. Booth #3517

PDQ ................................. Booth #1267 Peerless Ovens ................ Booth #109 Perfect Crust ................... Booth #3019 Pizza Solutions ............... Booth #109-A Robot Coupe .................... Booth #2726 Saputo ............................. Booth #1609 Slice................................. Booth #155 Somerset ......................... Booth #1252 Speedline......................... Booth #203 Stanislaus........................ Booth #413-222 T. Marzetti........................ Booth #859 ThrivePOS........................ Booth #2317 Thunderbird ..................... Booth #2616 Univex.............................. Booth #862 Varimixer ......................... Booth #2111 Westrock ......................... Booth #S1204 XLT Ovens ........................ Booth #2714 Yamato ............................ Booth #1326

PMQ provides this list as a service to our readers, and assumes no responsibility for inaccuracies in booth number listings.

See us at Pizza Expo Booth # 643

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St. Louis-style pizza has its fans and detractors. Offer it in a special promotion at your pizzeria and let your guests make up their own minds. By Liz Barrett Foster

America’s Gateway to the West

boasts many unique features—the world’s tallest arch (located smack dab in the middle of downtown), one of the oldest botanical gardens in the United States, and, of course, the one-of-a-kind St. Louis-style pizza.

Provel is a blend of provolone, Swiss and cheddar cheeses and one of the distinctive features of St. Louisstyle pizza.

In the 1950s, pizzerias started popping up in an area of St. Louis—where Italian immigrants were settling—called The Hill.

As luck would have it, in 1947, a stretchless cheese called Provel was created “specifically for the pizza industry.” Provel combined provolone, Swiss, cheddar and liquid smoke. This unusual blend of cheeses may have been designed to taste smoky in an effort to mimic the flavor of pizza coming out of a wood-burning oven. Whether it was a matter of taste or clever cheese marketing, St. Louis’ pizzerias began using Provel.

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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Provel is a blend of provolone, Swiss and cheddar cheeses and one of the distinctive features of St. Louis-style pizza.

Beyond the Provel, St. Louis’ round, cracker-thin pies, which are cut into squares (called party or tavern cut), are adorned with a slightly sweet sauce and toppings all the way to the edge so that every bite is covered.

Who was the first to serve this unique style?

While Imo’s Pizza—which touts its pizza as “the Square Beyond Compare”—is widely credited for the famous St. Louis style, another historic pizzeria, Farotto’s, also lays claim to the creation, having opened its doors in 1956, eight years prior to Imo’s.

As with other regions of the country, St. Louis-style pizza is, of course, not the only style of pizza offered in the city. In fact, many pizzerias provide customers with a choice of cheese—because the word Provel on a menu can cause even some locals to run the other way.

Bashing St. Louis-style pizza turned into a running joke on Jimmy Kimmel Live! after the host’s wife, St. Louis native Molly McNearney, made him try a slice. Deadspin columnist Drew Magary even denounced the St. Louis style as a “war crime.” But this style has its fans. Actor Jon Hamm, appearing on Kimmel’s show, proclaimed that it “tastes like 11 World Series victories.” And J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Eater.com writes, “Ever since tasting it for the first time, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. And I’ve finally figured out why I love it so much. St. Louis-style pizza is not pizza. It’s a big pizzaflavored nacho.”

Despite this well-documented love/hate relationship with Provel, the St. Louis style has broken free of St. Louis, with Imo’s Pizza opening nearly 100 locations inside and outside of the city, and several other pizzerias offering it on menus in New York (Speedy Romeo), Texas (5th Street Pizza), and Florida ( Jake’s Pizza).

REL ATED VIDEO

P M Q. C OM /S TLS QU A RE OFF

STL Square Off PMQ and PizzaTV were there, spending the day exploring the STL Square Off Pizza Festival! For a closer look at the festivities, visit PMQ.com/stlsquareoff and check out our video coverage!

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REL ATED VIDEO

How to make St. Louis-style dough PMQ sat down for an interview with STL Square Off winner Tim DeRienzo. Find out more about his award-winning pie at www.pmq.com/ TimDeRienzo

Join PMQ test chef Brian Hernandez at PMQ.com and learn best practices when it comes to making the unique St. Louis-style dough.

MARKETING THE ST. LOUIS-STYLE

Today’s consumers love experiencing new dishes and posting about them on social media, and it would be relatively easy to make and market a St. Louis-style pizza in your own pizzeria. You can order Provel cheese or create something similar in your kitchen using cheddar, Swiss and smoked provolone. The St. Louis-style dough is yeast-free, resulting in that familiar cracker-thin crust and eliminating the rise time during prep.

Once you’ve tested some recipes, offer the pie as a special to St. Louis transplants or those who are curious about regional pizza styles. On your slowest night of the week, consider running a special that introduces customers to a different city’s style, such as St. Louis, Chicago or Detroit.

Doing some light research, you can present each pizza with a list of interesting pizza and city facts or a quiz that makes the experience more memorable.

Post a Facebook Live video showing your guests’ reactions to a taste of St. Louis-style pizza. You may find that a majority of your customers like it, giving you another pizza to add as a rotating special.

Liz Barrett Foster is PMQ’s editor at large, and author of Pizza: A Slice of American History.

P M Q. C OM /H OW TOM A KE S TLS TYLE DOU GH

How to make St. Louis-style pizza PMQ test chef Brian Hernandez takes you step-by-step through the process of creating your very own St. Louisstyle pizza from scratch.

P M Q. C OM /H OW TOM A KE S TLS TYLE P I ZZA

On your slowest night of the week, run a special that introduces customers to a different city’s pizza style, such as St. Louis, Chicago or Detroit.

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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PIZZA WITHOUT BORDERS

REL ATED VIDEO

P M Q. C OM /O L IV ET R EES

DENIAL AND PROCRASTINATION RESULTS IN PANDEMIC OLIVE TREE PEST Apulia, Italy

The European Union (EU) gathered for an emergency meeting in Paris recently to address a type of bacteria that’s killing ancient olive oil trees around Europe. The microorganism was first detected in 2013, and the EU has now declared Xylella fastidiosa “one of the most dangerous plant pests in the world and a top priority for the EU.” The bacteria are transferred via cicadas and turn the leaves brown, eventually killing the tree.

The region of Apulia, in the “heel of Italy’s boot,” was the first to detect the pest. To protect the rest of Europe, scientists with the EU hoped to contain it by mandating the felling of infected

and susceptible trees 20 kilometers away from a designated buffer zone in the north of Apulia. But slow action, widespread denial and farmers’ fears of completely losing their livelihood by tearing down their ancient olive groves resulted in only onethird of the trees being removed.

Thanks to this slow response, Xylella has now extended its reach into other parts of Italy, Germany, France and Spain. The EU is presently investing almost 10 million euros in research and education programs to hamper its spread, although it has already been declared too late to eradicate Xylella completely.

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CHINESE TOP THEIR COFFEE WITH CHEESE Shanghai, China

Milk tastes great in coffee, so why not pour in some cheese sauce? Think of it as cappuccino with a squeezy cream topping instead of foam. At the FHC Food Show in China, cheese coffee was just one of the unusual items on the menu, along with “champagne coffee,” a mixture of sparkling water and coffee syrup extract.

According to a representative at Milan Gold, a coffee company that has been in business since 1995 in China, good ol’ Western-style java is starting to gain popularity in the Chinese market. For years, Milan Gold catered mainly to luxury hotels that served foreign guests who requested coffee. But with the introduction of Starbucks in 1999, coffee has gained a foothold as an everyday drink, no longer reserved for wealthy visitors.

While coffee culture and education are growing in the market, China still has a way to go, especially if the country wants to replicate coffee as it’s made in Europe or the Americas. On a day tour with the U.S. Pizza Team, I ordered a plain, black coffee (through a translator) and received a cup of light beige liquid. When I asked the translator to help correct the error with the shopkeeper, she politely replied, “There is black coffee inside the milk.”

REL ATED VIDEO

A NEW BAG FOR TAKEAWAY PIZZA

P M Q. C OM /C H I N A C OFFE E

DRESSBOX

Moscow, Russia

A new type of plastic bag for carrying pizza-to-go has been spotted around Europe. From Amsterdam to Moscow, Dressbox bags, which are easy to use and effective for managing pizzas, can be found in both independent shops and at the stores of multinational giants like Domino’s and Papa John’s. But while the technology is simple, cheap and innovative, some bag producers worry that plastic is becoming a thing of the past. As Europeans become more sensitive to environmental concerns, some countries, especially in Scandinavia, are returning to paper and other renewable resources for restaurant packaging.

Missy Green is a pizza spinning gold medalist and PMQ’s international correspondent. She currently resides in the Netherlands.

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

CURDTOWN Curdtown’s all-natural, white cheddar cheese curds are an explosion of flavorful goodness. These cheesy nuggets are nestled inside a light, crispy Panko breading that delivers crunch with every bite. They make a great alternative to the usual appetizer offerings or as a special pizza topping, delivering more cheese, more flavor and less breading.

612-297-0587, curdtown.com

THE UHLMANN COMPANY The Uhlmann Company produces Heckers and Ceresota Unbleached flours for top pizza restaurants in Chicago and New York City. Using only the finest winter wheat with the highest quality protein, these flours deliver the consistency and quality that professionals demand. Tony Gemignani has praised Ceresota as “one of the finest flours in our industry”!

866-866-8627, heckersceresota.com

YAMATO Yamato offers the PB-200 weighing scale, perfect for portion control in the preparation of pizza and baked goods. It features a foot tare switch for hands-free use, an easy-to-read LCD display and a low-profile design. Its removable stainless-steel platform allows for easy cleanup, and it includes a rechargeable battery and an AC adaptor.

262-236-0036, yamatoamericas.com

SPEEDLINE SOLUTIONS Speedline lets pizzeria operators plug in new integrated solutions to the point of sale, dig into data with custom dashboards, add mobile schedules and alerts, reduce paperwork, and sell more pizza online using native ordering apps for Android and iOS. You can even cut labor costs by delivering third-party orders direct to the POS. 888-400-9185, speedlinesolutions.com/plugin

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WINNER WINNER THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

PIZZA DINNER! The USPT is proud to congratulate members Lenny Rago (left) of Panino’s Pizza in Chicago and Kyle Rosch (bottom left) of Brenz Pizza in Chapel Hill, NC. for taking first and second at the Pizza Pizzazz competition at the MidAmerica Restaurant Expo in Columbus, OH. The team also wants to congratulate member Michael Reyes-Casanova (right) of Ynot Italian in Virginia Beach, VA. for winning the grand prize of a trip to the World Pizza Championships in Italy with his Freestyle Acrobatics routine!

For more information on joining the U.S. Pizza Team, contact Brian Hernandez at brian@pmq.com or 662-234-5481 x129

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2017 Silver Sponsors

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MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE APPS

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

CHEESE

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE DIGITAL SCALES

COFFEE EQUIPMENT

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE DOUGH

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE FLOUR

FOOD DISTRIBUTORS

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FOOD DISTRIBUTORS

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MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

FRYERS

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Reach More Hungry Customers with an Occupant List • Saturate neighborhoods with your message • Personalize for more effective campaigns • Save on postage It’s better than Every Door Direct Mail – and we’ll throw in free mailing software!

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www.melissa.com/hungry 1-800-MELISSA

MANAGEMENT

INSURANCE

keep more of your hard earned dough!

3 money saving programs:

sCheduLing • aTTendanCe • daiLy Log

FAST, PAINLESS SCHEDULING • MONITOR LABOR COSTS • REDUCE TURNOVER • NOTIFY EMPLOYEES • ELIMINATE BUDDY PUNCHING • IMPROVE COMMUNICATIONS • WEB-BASED

save time and increase profits!

www.timeforge.com 866.684.7191

MARKETING IDEAS

PIZZAPRO .............................................................Low cost pizza delivery insurance program Contact Julie Evans (717) 214-7616..............................................................www.pizzapro.amwins.com

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE MIXERS

MARKETING IDEAS

Precision HD-60 Pizza Mixer 7-Year Unconditional Parts Warranty on all gears and shafts in the planetary and transmission!

Holdsbowl! art 80-qundles a Ha . bag 50 lb our! of fl

www.pizzamixers.com • 1-877-R-MIXERS

Pizza Package

A Gift For Your Customers

Includes: CL50 Ultra Veg Prep Machine, 2mm and 4mm slicing disc, 7mm grating disc, 10mm dicing kit disc holders, and dice cleaning kit

Or Retail Promotion

Custom Branded Bottle Openers

Reasonable Minimums

800/824-1646 www.robotcoupeusa.com Set Your Pizzeria Apart From The Rest!

Made in the U.S.A.

The Original Variable Speed Mixer 3/26/17

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Varimixer Strong as a Bear.

www.cymba.com •978-652-9622•info@cymba.com

Pizza’s Great Storyteller

800-222-1138

www.varimixerusa.com www.varimixer.com

Radio-style stories to bring customers in.

Let pizza’s greatest storyteller make you a local pizza hero!

• Fully-produced 1-minute pizza stories

Hear samples at PizzaTV.com/Rix

12:50 PM

V6OP

mixer@varimixer.com • 14240 South Lakes Dr • Charlotte, NC

Rix Quinn

Heavy Duty MIXeRS RS

2-Year Warranty

M E AT TO P P I N G S

“Consistently Delicious!”

60 qt. Pizza Mixer handles 50 lb. bag of flour Direct gear drive transmission • Rigid cast iron construction

Globe Food Equipment Co. | www.globefoodequip.com

FOODSERVICE, PRIVATE LABEL AND RETAIL PRODUCTS

847-228-7070 • Elk Grove Village, IL • www.devancofoods.com PRESTIGE FOODS ............................314-567-3648 ........................MEATTRADER@MSN.COM Low Closeout Pricing! Call for this week’s special. For Deals That Go To Your Bottom Line.

MOISTURE-ABSORBENT TOPPINGS CONDITIONER/SUPPLIES

MONEY MANAGEMENT

Money to Grow Your Business GrowthCapitalSolutions.com direct # (513) 601-3809 MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE PIZZA BOXES

OLIVES THE WORLD`S LARGEST OLIVE AND OLIVE OIL PRODUCER

Your food. Our custom-printed boxes.

A winning combination.

ACORSA USA 2200 FLETCHER AVE. SUITE # 702, FORT LEE, NJ 07024 Tel. 201-944-0474 ...... Fax # 201-944-1279 enrique.escudero@dcoop.es ... www.dcoop.es

Ten case minimums. Pizza, sub, slice, kids and other boxes available.

We offer a full line of Green Olives, Ripe Olives and Olive Oil from Spain for private label or branded. OU Kosher and BRC Certified. Inventory stored at 11 warehouses throughout the U.S.

ON HOLD MARKETING/PHONE SERVICES

800-626-0828 | starpizzabox.com PIZZA BOX LINERS

ONLINE ORDERING

Dinerware Integration Online Mobile Ordering Solution for Restaurants

Dinerware

$99 Monthly imenutogo.com 0% Commission Go Mobile Today!

(718) 554-0524

Grow Your Business with the power of online ordering More Orders. Starting Now.

SliceLife.com/JoinNow or (844) 880-2346

PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS

PIZZA BOXES

CUSTOMIZE YOUR PIZZA BOX Doing It The American Way! TAKE YOUR IMAGE TO THE NEXT LEVEL 7” to 36” Custom Boxes and Odd Sizes Available

UP TO 4-COLORS | NO PLATE FEES*

Rectangular Flat Bread Boxes Available

888.400.3455 ext.107 | wpackaging.net 2001 East Cooley Drive, Colton, CA 92324 108 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS

MARCH SPECIALS

High Qua lit y Pizza Tools

Made in Italy Since 1986

Phone 630-553-9135 sales@gimetalusa.com www.gimetalusa.com MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE PIZZA OVENS

PIZZA OVENS

Stone Deck, Pizza Dome, and Bakery

EARTHSTONE OVENS, INC. 6717 San Fernando Rd..................................Glendale, CA 91201 800-840-4915 ....................Fax: 818-553-1133 ............................. www.earthstoneovens.com All units UI listed.

WOOD STONE CORPORATION..................... Stone Hearth & Specialty Commercial Cooking Equipment ............................1801 W. Bakerview Rd.................................... Bellingham, WA 98226 TOLL Free 800-988-8103Fax: 360-650-1166 ................................woodstone-corp.com

www.univexcorp.com Tel. 800-258-6358 Fax. 603-893-1249

P I Z Z A PA N S

WWW.XLTOVENS.COM TO ORDER CALL (316) 943-2751 | TOLL-FREE: (888) 443-2751 | FAX: (316) 943-2769

Introducing

THE

TRADITIONAL, FAST CASUAL, ARTISAN...

WE’VE GOT PIZZA COVERED

PIZZA BUTLER!

Space-saving footprintEasy storage | Versatile Function Sturdy Contruction | Customizable

Call Manny at 718-894-1212 ext. 218 Order online at www.thepizzabutler.com

VENTLESS IMPINGEMENT CONVEYORS, BATCH, AND ARTISAN BATCH OVENS 1-800-90TURBO | www.turbochef.com

pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE PIZZA PEELS

PIZZA SUPPLIES

PRINTING

WATERPROOF MENUS - Full color printing on 14mil synthetic stock - Super durable - won’t rip or stain - Spills clean right up - FREE Rounded Corners!

- FREE Design - NO Templates!

CHASE

MENUS

www.chasemenus.com | 1.866.661.4152

PIZZA SUPPLIES

• Pizza Preparation and Delivery Products •

National Marketing, Inc.

www.nminc.com 800-994-4664

734-266-2222

Fax: 734-266-2121

Manufacturers’ Direct Pricing • Call or order online • We export

www.pizzatv.com

MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE R E F R I G E R AT I O N

SAUCE

Since 1915, The Neil Jones Food Company has been producing premium quality tomato and custom blend sauces. A family owned and operated corporation, we only pack from the freshest and finest vine-ripened California tomatoes. So whether you prefer classic #10 cans or new shelf-stable pouches, you will always get the very best in fresh packed tomato products from Neil Jones Food.

ROOM KEY ADVERTISING

HOTEL ROOM KEY ADVERTISING DIAL #600 from your room for In-Room SPEED DIAL Papa John’s ROOM DELIVERY to Your Business

PIZZAROOMKEYS.COM • 866-912-3539

SCALES Commercial weighing scales for restaurants, catering, delis, and other retail markets.

SAUCE

Pizza@YamatoCorp.com 262-236-0000 TO M ATO P R O D U CT S

The Best Tomatoes Italy has to Offer Imported to North America exclusively

by Orlando Foods.

TABLECLOTHS

201-368-9197 | orlandofoods.com

You Top the Pizza, We’ll Top the Tables!

Updating your dining room is easy with our easy-care vinyl table covers … always made to your specs. Fabrics are also available by the roll.

• 372 colors and 65 mix-and-match patterns • Covers are custom made within 2-3 weeks • Available with velcro, umbrella holes or elastic for a perfect fit.

• No minimums required

View and order patterns online at Americo-Inc.com

Call 1-800-626-2350 FREE SWATCHES!

601 East Barton | West Memphis, AR 72301

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE TELEPHONE EQUIPMENT/SUPPLIES/SERVICE

WEB OFFSET PRINTING

Specializing in voice and data communications service, repair, installation, sequencers and on-hold messaging.

GUARANTEED LOWEST INDUSTRY PRICE!

www.fidelitycom.com.........................800-683-5600

TO M ATO P R O D U CT S

WINGS

YEAST

pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/ MARCH 2018 | PMQ.COM

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PIZZA HALL OF FAME

(Clockwise from top) Three bartenders man Port Sandy Bay in the ’50s; Dick Allie stands at the site of his new construction in 1946; a dedication marks the pizzeria; Ma and Pa Wiener work the kitchen in the early ’60s.

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Has your pizzeria been in business for 50 years or longer? If so, contact us at tracy@pmq.com

PORT SANDY BAY

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After 70-plus years, rustic shipwreck decor, sled-pan pizzas and vintage high-school portraits still charm this pizzeria’s original patrons, who now visit with their grandkids in tow. By Tracy Morin Back in 1947, the small town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin, seemed an unlikely place for a pizzeria—but the concept didn’t start as a pieslinging powerhouse. The brainchild of several friends (including a state senator) opened as a high school hangout, serving fish dinners and nickel beers. A husband and wife from New Jersey, known locally as Ma and Pa Wiener, later bought the business, introducing their pizza recipe to befuddled locals in the mid-’50s. “This was the first place people could enjoy a slice of pizza in Two Rivers,” says Travis Kadow, co-owner of Port Sandy Bay. “It was a cheap meal, so even though it was very different for this area, people took to it.”

Located just off the shore of Lake Michigan, the pizzeria snatched some unique decor (and its name) from washed-up debris: Its exterior sign is an old wooden rudder from a ship, and portholes have been installed into some of the doors. Meanwhile, its 20” SnoCoaster Pizza, created when a local aluminum company approached Pa with its new metal sleds for hill riding, remains an irresistible novelty item.

The Wieners’ daughter later took over the business, after which Al and Judi Geimer assumed the reins for five years, changing the vibe from beer bar to family restaurant. But in 1993, Ruth and Richard Kadow transformed the pizzeria from struggling to surging, thanks

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to some brave changes: The kitchen was refashioned into a game room, a brand-new kitchen and equipment revved up production, interiors received remodeling, and a parking lot replaced gravel.

Richard also introduced a frozen line, now with a presence in three counties and churning out 1,500 pizzas every other week. In a small town that’s packed mainly in summer with visitors from adjacent campgrounds and state parks, that leap of faith diversified the business and made it a year-round moneymaker.

Eventually, two dedicated employees also bought into the business: Marshall Fanslau dreams up top-selling new specialty pies, and Erik Groll, a former supermarket manager, significantly expanded the frozen operation. Meanwhile, the game room with ticket redemption, a charm-laden rustic setting, Friday fish frys and frequent give-back efforts keep the place buzzing with happy families—all in a town of about 10,000. “It’s all about investing in your business, making people happy and serving a good product,” Travis concludes. “You’ve got to be a people person, know your customers and be able to talk to them. Sometimes giving a little is the best advertising.”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

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A great menu goes a long way, but how you showcase and share your food can help you get a bigger, better slice of the pie. Stop by booth 442 to learn more about how Escalon and Polly-O can help support your menu.

scan your badge for a chance to win a professional photoshoot for your menu.

See official sweepstakes rules at escalon.net. ©2018 Escalon Premier Brands • © 2018 Churny Company

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