PMQ Pizza Magazine March 2019

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

March 2019

PAYING

WIN the ft

TO

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How Derrick Tung of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square turns back-of-house staff into motivated moneymakers.

PAGE 36

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March 2019

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

PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | Volume 23, Issue 2

March 2019

PAYING TO

WIN

Derrick Tung of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square turns back-ofhouse staff into motivated moneymakers. P A G E 3 6 WATCH THE VIDEO AT PMQ.COM/DERRICKTUNG

The Pizza Industry’s Business Monthly | PMQ.com

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AS SEEN ON PIZZATV.COM PIZZA PIZZAZZ 2019 Kyle Rosch, a regional manager for Brenz Pizza Company in Columbus, Ohio, claimed his third straight first-place win in the annual Pizza Pizzazz contest, held at the Mid-America Restaurant Expo (MARExpo) in January. Tori Trupiano of Dominic’s Italian Restaurant in San Diego finished in the No. 2 spot, while Michael LaMarca, owner of the Cleveland-based Master Pizza chain, earned third place. This year’s MARExpo drew 4,000 attendees and featured 350 booths and more than 50 seminars and culinary demonstrations. And the PizzaTV team was there to capture all the action.

P I Z Z AT V. CO M / V I D E O/ P I Z Z A P I Z Z A Z Z 20 19

If you’d like to contribute to PizzaTV.com and our Roku channel, send links to your best video content to info@PizzaTV.com.

EXCLUSIVELY ON PMQ.COM

HOW TO FIRE A PIZZERIA EMPLOYEE (WITHOUT MAKING AN ENEMY) Firing a staff member is never easy, especially when ex-employees can use social media to get their revenge. We share tips for minimizing hard feelings while protecting your pizzeria’s interests.

Note: It all starts with a company handbook.

7 WAYS TO PREVENT THEFT IN YOUR PIZZERIA Preventing employee theft can seem like a daunting task. Some employers assume the only solution is to install security cameras and constantly monitor staff. But there are less intrusive (and less expensive) ways to solve the problem of sticky fingers.

P M Q . CO M / P R E V E N T I N G T H E F T

P M Q . CO M / F I R I N G E M P L OY E E S

GOING PRO: 5 STEPS TO SUCCESS IN THE PIZZA BUSINESS

FROM CRICKETS TO EDIBLE PANSIES: 7 WEIRD PIZZA TOPPINGS

Many home pizza chefs dream of going pro, but running a pizzeria is a lot different than wowing your friends with pies from your backyard oven. John Arena, co-owner of Metro Pizza in Las Vegas, offers sage advice for pursuing your pizza dream.

If you’re perplexed by the popularity of pickle-topped pies, we’ve got news for you: Pizza can get a lot weirder than that. How about rainbow glitter, roasted crickets and mushy peas? We take a look at some of the weirdest pizzas in the Western world.

P M Q . CO M /G O I N G P R O

P M Q . CO M / W E I R D P I Z Z AT O P P I N G S

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IN THIS ISSUE

MARCH FEATURES ON T COV HE ER

36

Good help is hard to find—and keep.

Derrick Tung, owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in Chicago, has an innovative plan to reinvent staff compensation and incentivize high-performing employees.

30

Mad About Milwaukee

60

Bringing the Heat

50

The Springtime Boom

of 68 ATwoTaleDelis

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IN THIS ISSUE

78

Pizza Without Borders: Despite automation, pizza makers are still in demand in France.

P M Q . C O M /A U T O M AT I C F R A N C E

In Lehmann’s Terms: The Par-Baked Pita Effect

18

Think Tank: Old-School vs. Online Marketing

20

Tips From the Team: Serving Up the Suds

Pizza Hall of Fame: Reservoir Tavern

26

98

P I Z Z AT V. C O M / V I D E O / R E S E R V O I R TA V E R N

IN EVERY ISSUE 6

Online @ PMQ.com

22

Moneymakers

12

From the Editor

80

Product Spotlight

14

From the Inbox

82

The Pizza Exchange

16

Marketing Calendar

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.

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

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FROM THE EDITOR

Rick Hynum Editor in Chief

2019: ALREADY A YEAR TO REMEMBER It has been a while since my noble visage shone gloriously from this page, but let’s be honest: You probably didn’t even notice I was gone. You didn’t miss me one bit, did you?

True, my sabbatical was fairly brief, but a lot happened in my absence. Someone started piling pickles on pizzas. The civilized world was shocked to learn that Queen Elizabeth has quite possibly never eaten pizza—with or without pickles. And Tony Boloney’s in New Jersey debuted a pizza crust made of spaghetti noodles. We’ve got so much to talk about.

Of course, mad-scientist innovation in the pizza industry is nothing new. So we’ll put that stuff on the back burner for now and focus on the U.S. Pizza Team (USPT). Your friendly neighborhood dough spinners made 2019 a year to remember right from the start with their first-ever live appearance on ESPN3. The sports network aired this year’s USPT Winter Acrobatic Trials on January 14, with PMQ’s senior media producer Daniel Lee Perea and World Pizza Championship gold-medal winner Jamie Culliton calling the action like natural-born sportscasters. USPT coordinator Brian Hernandez, who organized the event and kept things running smoothly, also took center stage to present the awards and close out the broadcast. And for all their behind-the-

scenes help, we owe a big thank-you to USPT members Dave Sommers of Mad Mushroom, with locations in Indiana and Kentucky; Lenny Rago of Panino’s Pizza in Chicago; Michael Reyes-Casanova of Ynot Italian in Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Ryan LaRose of The Osteria in Columbus, Ohio.

The Winter Trials were held at the Mid-America Restaurant Expo (MARExpo) in Columbus, Ohio. For both the team and the PMQ crew, the competition created memories that will undoubtedly last a lifetime. Our partners, Go Live Sports Cast, spearheaded the production with skillfulness and finesse and made it all look easy (although, I can assure you, these productions never are). And none of it would have been possible without the generous support of our USPT sponsors: Galbani, Molini Spigadoro, the California Milk Advisory Board, Paradise, Burkett, MFG Tray, La Nova, Grain Craft, Lillsun, Bag Solutions, Presto, Gordon Food Service, Ferrarelle, Univex and Fontanini.

We’ll share more detail about the Winter Trials and the promising future of the U.S. Pizza Team in our April issue.

Until then, thanks again to all of those who made the ESPN3 appearance possible—and here’s to more success to come!

PIZZA MAGAZINE THE WOR LD'S AU THOR ITY ON P IZ Z A | P MQ.COM | P IZ Z ATV.COM

March 2019

PAYING TO

ON THE COVER:

WIN

Derrick Tung of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square turns back-ofhouse staff into motivated moneymakers. P A G E 3 6 WATCH THE VIDEO AT PMQ.COM/DERRICKTUNG

Derrick Tung, owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in Chicago, is respected as much for his keen business mind as his pizza making chops. Photo courtesy Derrick Tung Milwaukee-Style Pizza 30

A Publication of PMQ, Inc. 662-234-5481 Volume 23, Issue 2 March 2019 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 Senior Copy Editor Tracy Morin, tracy@pmq.com

International Correspondent Missy Green, missy@pmq.com Art Director Eric Summers, eric@pmq.com ext. 134 Creative Director Sarah Beth Wiley, sarahbeth@pmq.com ext. 135 Senior Media Producer Daniel Lee Perea, dperea@pmq.com ext. 139 Social Media Manager Heather Cray, heather@pmq.com ext. 137 Video Editor Blake Harris, blake@pmq.com ext. 136 Chief Financial Officer Shawn Brown, shawn@pmq.com Test Chef/USPT Coordinator Brian Hernandez, brian@pmq.com ext. 129

Spring Marketing Ideas 50

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ADVERTISING

PMQ INTERNATIONAL

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

PMQ China Yvonne Liu, yvonne@pmq.com

Senior Account Executive Tom Boyles, tom@pmq.com ext. 122

PMQ Russia Vladimir Davydov, vladimir@pmq.com

Account Executive Chris Green, chris@pmq.com ext. 125

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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Full Line

We are the dough makers and sauce tasters. We are oven starters and cheese graters.

We start early to make the best possible products each and every day. We know pizza.

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From the Mozzarella cheese to premium High Gluten Flour. We have you covered. www. BellissimoFoods.com

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FROM THE INBOX

GROWING IN BAHRAIN I was doing research for my new pizza operation and came across the 2019 Pizza Power Report online. It was very interesting and full of facts. It gave me the feeling that my new pizza business model is heading in the right direction. For the past three years, I have operated a small pizza kitchen in a Bahrain nightclub but have dreams and a working plan to expand to a stand-alone shop again. I’ve been building my business plan for the past year and trying to correct operational mistakes made in the past. I hope you will give us a try if you’re ever in Bahrain.

The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels landed at the Idaho Falls location of Lucy’s New York Style Pizzeria—co-owned by a member of the Idaho Army National Guard—prior to performing one of their famous air shows.

PIZZA ON THE MARCH

DAN BUSLER PHOTOGRAPHY

I’m the public affairs officer for the Idaho Army National Guard.

On our website we recently highlighted an Idaho Falls pizza restaurant owner who serves with the National Guard. In 2009, Sgt. Brian Padigimus started Lucy’s New York Style Pizzeria in Roberts, Ohio—a small town of about 600 people north of Idaho Falls—with Tim Wright, his childhood friend. The two of them, later joined by Brian’s twin brother, Geoff, now own four stores in two states—two in Idaho Falls, one in Orem, Utah, and the original restaurant in Roberts. Brian also serves as an infantry team leader with the 116th Cavalry Brigade Combat Team of C Company’s 2-116th Combined Arms Battalion. This is the state’s only infantry unit. He has traveled around the country and the world with the Idaho Army National Guard. We hope you will consider this story for publication in your magazine or website.

Capt. Robert Taylor Idaho Army National Guard Boise, ID Thank you for sharing this story with us, Captain Taylor. We will keep Sgt. Padigimus in mind for coverage in PMQ Pizza Magazine and will reach out to you to learn more.

Errin Stone Mr. Slice Manama, Bahrain

R OC KS TA R PIZ ZA

We’re glad the Pizza Power Report was helpful to you as you map out the future of your pizza business. Good luck with your plans for expansion, Errin, and please stay in touch!

STUFF WE LOVE

During the federal government’s partial shutdown in January, pizzeria owners showed exceptional generosity to furloughed employees living without paychecks. In communities with a strong federal presence, the shutdown hit restaurants particularly hard, yet these workers and their families were treated to free food at many independent and chain pizzerias from coast to coast, proving that the pizza business, at its best, is still about people over profits.

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TRI

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PROMOTIONAL IDEAS FOR THIS MONTH BROUGHT TO YOU BY

Coming up in PMQ: Frozen Desserts, Dough Mixers, Meat Lovers, Old Forge

april SUNDAY

MONDAY

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April Fool’s Day

LIVE

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National Deep Dish Pizza Day

Final Four Tournament

Use social media to promote specials on your deep-dish pie or debut a new one.

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8

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Final Four Tournament

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12

13

Hell Boy 2 Release

World Pizza Championship, Parma, Italy

Masters Tournament

National Beer Day

✭✭ 14

15

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Palm Sunday

Boston Marathon

National Mushroom Day

18

21

22

23

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Easter

Earth Day

National Picnic Day

Tell guests to pucker up and lock lips for a discounted pie or free beverage.

20

Good Friday

Yappy Hour Got a patio?

Launch a “yappy hour” for pet lovers and raise funds for your local animal shelter.

Game of Thrones Final Season Premiere

19

National Kissing Day

Passover National Rice Ball Day

✭✭ 25

26

27

Arbor Day

Grand Prix

NFL Draft Avengers: Endgame Release

28

29

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#Spring Promo Create a spring-themed hashtag and start promoting your local, seasonal ingredients.

National National Holiday Holiday

Industry Holiday

National Garlic Month

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Sports

Industry Events

Entertainment

✭

Military Pay Day

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Upcoming Events: New England Pizza Conference, June 26, Haverhill, MA

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IN LEHMANN’S TERMS

PREVENTING THE PITA EFFECT IN PAR-BAKED PIZZAS Par-baked crusts offer some time-saving advantages, but keep these tips in mind to prevent the formation of pockets.

Q A

How can I par-bake a pizza crust so that it doesn’t develop into a pocket-like pita?

There are several things you can do to keep your par-baked crusts from turning into pitas. Possibly the greatest factor is the bake itself. While pizza is baked from the bottom up, parbaked crusts are best cooked with a balanced top and bottom bake, at a significantly lower temperature than used for pizza.

When making a par-baked crust in a deck oven, you can either bake it on a screen or right on the deck surface if you add roughly half of the sauce onto the dough prior to baking.

When baking on a screen without the addition of any sauce, a good oven temperature will be between 400° and 450°F. The crust will show signs of bubbling or the beginning of a pocket formation, but this can be addressed by correctly docking the dough skin immediately prior to baking. As soon as the crust is removed from the oven, it should be inverted onto a cooling rack or screen, which will help to flatten the top of the crust.

When baking either on a screen or right on the oven deck with the addition of some sauce, you can bake the crust at temperatures of 500° to 550°F. You will still need to heavily dock the skins prior to saucing, and some bubbles may form, but it shouldn’t cause any major issues. Sauced crusts cannot

be inverted for cooling, so just place them on a cooling rack or a pizza screen to cool. When making crusts in this manner, I like to dispose of any remaining crusts at the end of the day.

However, par-baked crusts made without sauce can be placed into a clean dough box and stored for up to three days.

As I’ve stated before, the big advantage of par-baked crusts is that you can make them during slow periods for use later in the day. Par-baked crusts can be stored at room temperature for the rest of the day. When things get busy and you’re in a rush, these crusts require less time to finish baking than a raw dough skin, so they save time and labor. However, consistency of product is important, so if you use the parbaked approach, you should make all of your pizzas that way!

In my next column, I’ll offer pointers for making par-baked crusts with an air impingement oven. That’s where things get tricky!

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

PMQ . CO M/D O UG H

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THE THINK TANK

OLD-SCHOOL VS. ONLINE MARKETING: GETTING THE BEST OUT OF BOTH From flyers to Google Ads, Think Tankers share tips and tricks for marketing your pizzeria.

Sowilso11: I’ve started a new pizza shop in my town, and I’m looking for various ways to promote it. I have already approached a flyer distribution service, but I’m worried whether these flyers are still a popular promotional tool. Should I try more advanced strategies, like internet marketing, email marketing and SEO? How do you think the results will differ in each of these strategies? royster13: Every shop is different in terms of location, style, competition, etc., so every method of marketing can bring different results. In my opinion, nothing beats a nice-looking shop with “curb appeal” to bring in customers that travel past your store. Also near the top of my list are wrapped delivery vehicles with your restaurant’s logo. These extend your “curb appeal” to a wider audience. Distributing menus still works for

many operators. But they’re not a one-hit wonder—they need to be distributed on a sustained basis. Some stores circulate menus as often as every four or five weeks to stand out from their competition. Others do it only a few times a year if they already have an established client base or don’t have to worry about aggressive competition. I’m not sure if SEO and email marketing are necessarily “advanced” or simply different. Some shops rely solely on those methods and do quite well without any traditional marketing.

Samantha T.: Tried-and-true methods of printing menus and flyers are always a good bet, but they are very expensive and provide limited return. SEO marketing is key so that you can show up organically when someone searches for pizza in your town. Make sure that you or a trusted third-party partner

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 HI N KTAN K.P M Q.COM

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owns/manages your Google My Business listing. It’s the item that appears on the right-hand side of a Google search when you search for your pizzeria. It usually includes photos, a map, and links to online ordering or your website. This listing will drive a lot of traffic to your site, so it’s key to keep it up-to-date. bodegahwy: I disagree with

one point made by Samantha T. Organic search falls below paid search in listings, and it often doesn’t even show up on a smartphone unless the searcher scrolls down. And the right-hand listing of a Google search is really only an issue on desktops. When I look at my data, I’m seeing more than 90% using mobile devices.

However, admittedly, I’m located in a resort market, where people searching for restaurants are on vacation and away from

their home computers. For us, I think a focus on mobile users and paid search is the top priority.

Lee Kim: I bought my shop exactly a year ago and started

a direct-mail program. Since then, we’ve more than doubled our business, and we keep setting new records almost every week. We’re located in metro Los Angeles, where there’s a lot of competition. We haven’t done any SEO thus far, but I probably will as soon as I get around to it.

Karl Pilz: For SEO, you really just have to make sure your website metadata is set so that your pizzeria shows up relatively high when someone searches Google for “pizza [insert your town’s name]”. Yelp, TripAdvisor and similar sites will most likely show up before your site in these listings, because they have a lot of authority and history. There’s not much you can do about that. But maintaining correct website metadata should help you show up in the middle of page 1 of the listings, which is good. Paying someone a monthly fee for SEO is a complete waste of money (and, yes, a lot of people are paying for it).

MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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MONEYMAKERS

IF THE QUEEN EATS PIZZA When Kate Middleton told a group of London children she likes pizza piled with bacon, the whole world knew why Prince William fell in love with her. But many were shocked when the Duchess said she didn’t know if Queen Elizabeth II likes pizza at all. Round Table Pizza, a Concord, California-headquartered chain, wants to find out.

The company sent a formal letter to Buckingham Palace, offering to deliver a free pie topped according to Her Majesty’s demands.

If the queen accepts before the end of 2019, Round Table has also promised free pizza to dine-in customers at participating locations.

“If the queen eats pizza, you eat pizza,” said Geoff Goodman, Round Table’s executive vice president. To sweeten the pot for Elizabeth, the invitation added, “If you enjoy it enough, perhaps one day we will even name a pizza after Your Majesty.”

Surprised by a revelation from Kate Middleton, Round Table Pizza has invited her mother-in-law, Queen Elizabeth II, to try their pizza for free.

QUICK TIP 1

MAKING THE CUT When crafting descriptive menu copy about your pizzas, you can even make your slicing technique sound sexy. Words like paper-thin, shaved, slivered, chiffonade, confetti, and ribbons pique curiosity and fire up the customer’s palate.

THE BEST BIRTHDAY PARTY EVER After watching his mother undergo intensive treatment for skin cancer and then surviving a tornado, Braden Rauzi deserved a pick-me-up for his 12th birthday. And Pizza Man, Rauzi’s hometown pizzeria in Litchfield, Illinois, delivered, throwing a Pokemon-themed party for the youngster and earning free coverage in local paper The Journal-News. Rauzi’s mother, Jennifer, was diagnosed with stage 3 malignant melanoma in late 2016 and underwent multiple surgeries before getting the all-clear from doctors last spring. The Rauzi family then got caught in a tornado that wrecked their house in December.

“We only had 10 days until his birthday after the tornado destroyed our home,” Jennifer Rauzi told the newspaper. “Pizza Man was quick and caring in throwing him the best birthday party ever.” Owners Scott and Jeff Chandler created a Pokemon-ball pizza, while locals donated presents, cakes and decorations for the event.

Braden Rauzi enjoyed his own personal pizza party for his 12th birthday, thanks to the owners of Pizza Man. “To see my son smile like he did on that day brought tears to my eyes,” Jennifer told the local newspaper. “We will never forget it.”

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THE REAL CALIFORNIA PIZZA CONTEST

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Submit Recipes in Three Categories: All-Cheese Mexican-Style The REAL California Contest Entries Open: Feb. 1 - Mar. 25, 2019 Judging for Final Contest Bake-Off: May 9, 2019

Sponsored by the California Milk Advisory Board, the Real California Pizza Contest will celebrate the best pizza recipes made with Real California Cheese from professional chefs and qualified culinary students

Official Rules and Entry Requirements at: RealCaliforniaMilk.com/Foodservice NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER. Contest open to legal residents of the 50 US states or DC, age 18 or older who are either employed or otherwise professionally affiliated with a restaurant or pizzeria or enrolled in an accredited secondary culinary school. Entries must be received by 11:59:59 PM PT on 3/25/19. See Official Rules. ©2019 California Milk Advisory Board, an instrumentality of the CA Department of Food and Agriculture

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MONEYMAKERS

BIG RED FINALLY GETS A BREAK Big Red, a stalwart dough mixer dating back to the 1930s, has retired from the pizza business, but she won’t wander far from her home of the past 21 years: the Flying Pie Pizzeria in Issaquah, Washington.

Katheryn Parker, the pizzeria’s owner, issued a warm and witty press release in January announcing that her beloved Hobart M80 mixer would no longer be pulling pizza duty. “Big Red was known for being reliable, hardworking and relatively quiet,” Parker wrote. “Recently, her old motor began to need more frequent breaks and constant encouragement from staff members. Retirement plans for Big Red include getting out of the kitchen and parking it near Flying Pie’s front door, where she has no intentions of moving. She’s tired and weighs 1,470 pounds.” Parker also welcomed Big Red’s flashier, sexier replacement: “Grayskull has fancy modern amenities like a 15-minute timer, which Big Red deems unnecessary, since she did just fine without it for over 80 years.”

A mixer named Big Red has been a valued team member at Flying Pie Pizzeria since it opened in April 1997. Owner Katheryn Parker said the 80-quart giant mixed her last batch of dough on December 26.

QUICK TIP 2

THE #METOO MOVEMENT IS HERE #MeToo is more than a hashtag: It’s a growing movement nationwide.

Implementing an effective sexual harassment policy—and strictly enforcing it—should be a top priority for restaurant owners. Your employees deserve protection, and so does your brand’s reputation.

CHEETOS WITH HEAT-O ARE NEAT-O Never underestimate the power of a Cheeto. Pizzas topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos are searing tongues and creating media buzz for pizzerias around the country. Lelulo’s Pizzeria in Cape Coral, Florida, landed in the News-Press after rolling out the Chicken Volcano Pizza, featuring Cheez Whiz, a version of General Tso’s sauce, grilled chicken and a blend of cheeses, all topped with a handful of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and a drizzle of ranch dressing. Mickey’s Deli, located in Hermosa Beach, California, also scared up free PR—including coverage in QSR Magazine—with its Spicy Spooky Cheeto Pizza last Halloween. And the Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Pizza has put Ameci Pizza Kitchen, with three locations in Southern California, on the world pizza map, with coverage on national websites like Thrillist, Buzzfeed, FoodBeast and others.

Signature pies topped with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos—like the Spicy Spooky Cheeto Pizza from Mickey’s Deli—are getting media coverage for pizzerias around the country.

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C A R EN H A NTEN

TIPS FROM THE TEAM

SERVING UP THE SUDS Sean Dempsey explains how to pour on the profits by adding craft beers to your operation.

By Brian Hernandez

PMQ: What are the benefits of pairing beers with your pizzas?

Dempsey: People are usually more open to trying new types of beer if you pair it with the right pizza. In the end, that sells more beer but can also increase your pizza sales. If you go to a nice, fancy restaurant, they typically have wine pairings with certain entrees. At Dempsey’s, we suggest beer pairings with certain pizzas on our menu. That helps take the guesswork out of it for the customer and, again, you can sell more beer. The bottom-line benefit of pairing pies and beers is increased profitability. It’s something you can do that other pizzerias might not offer. It also gets people to stay longer and order more.

PMQ: Do you recommend offering flights of beer with several smaller pizzas, letting the customer mix and match?

Dempsey: I definitely recommend doing flights of beer on the menu if you have a variety. We don’t do flights of pizzas, though.

Logistics are difficult for that, but if you have a small-size pie, you should definitely recommend that a table order a few pies to play around with.

CAREN HANTE N

Sean Dempsey has been a member of the U.S. Pizza Team since 2017. He opened Dempsey’s Brew Pub and Restaurant in Watertown, South Dakota, in 1999 and added pizzas to the menu in 2003. But Dempsey got serious about the pizza making craft in 2014. Since then, his restaurant has continued to evolve, pairing housemade craft brews with great signature pizzas.

Here, he shares tips for incorporating craft beers into your pizza operation.

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CAREN HANTEN

Dempsey’s Brew Pub and Restaurant reduces guesswork by offering pizza-and-beer pairing suggestions on its menu.

PMQ: What are some ways operators can incorporate adult beverages into their menu?

Dempsey: It depends on what you are doing at your place— whether you have a liquor license or are just doing beer and wines. We use tabletop flip menus to talk about our new beer flavors or pairing specials and steer customers toward what we would like them to order. And getting the word out on social media is huge. Show pictures of your food and beers and make “specials of the week” for pairings. Be visual and visible to the public. That will get the word-of-mouth going.

PMQ: So social media is crucial?

Dempsey: Indeed. We use this platform called Untappd that lets us print out heavily designed beer menus while pairing it to an online app that allows the customer to leave reviews on the flavors and scout out their next craft beer adventure.

PMQ: What suggestions would you make to help pizzeria owners develop their own craft beers?

Dempsey: As far as adding beer to your operation in general, the first step I would recommend is getting a draft system. The cost on draft vs. bottles is like night and day. A lot of distributors will help you install a system as well. For developing your own signature beers, there are a couple of options. There are small brew systems you can buy that will make a keg or two at a time.

“A good rule of thumb is, the more complex the beer, the simpler the pie should be.

And the more complex the pie, the simpler the beer.”

— SEAN DEMPSEY

You could go that route, but you can also team up with a local brewery and get them to make a branded label just for your pizzeria. It helps the local breweries out and also helps with the promotion of the beer. They will promote it along with you to get more people in the door to try out your label. This will also create a lasting relationship. The brewery will come to you with ideas, and you can do the same. You can keep the beer menu rotating seasonally without having to add a lot of overhead to your operation.

PMQ: Would you suggest going exclusively with craft beers on your menu or adding domestic brands as well?

Dempsey: I’m a fan of both, actually. The big beer culture going on is craft. Everyone wants to see craft beer, but, on the other hand, Dempsey’s also has seven domestics on tap. You will always have people who just want to come in and order MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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CAR EN H ANTEN

Although Sean Dempsey added pizzas to his menu back in 2003, he only became serious about the craft in 2014 .

what they know. Others want to experiment with new flavors. A good beginning setup would be three crafts and three domestics on tap. You can always grow either side if needed.

PMQ: Can you offer some tips for pairing beers with pizzas?

Dempsey: We have a Diavolo pizza that we pair with Peroni, because why wouldn’t you? These are Italian flavors, but it’s a spicy pie with layers of sopressata and ghost pepper-infused cheese paired with a light-bodied, mild Italian beer. Always try to complement the flavors in your pizza-beer pairings. If you have a pie with steak, go with something along the lines of a stout, or pair heavier toppings with a great full-bodied beer. A good rule of thumb is, the more complex the beer, the simpler the pie should be. And the more complex the pie, the simpler the beer.

PMQ: If someone’s just starting out, should they stick with beer or go wholehog with wine and liquor, too?

Dempsey: Beer all the way. Pizza and beer—it’s a match made in heaven. And don’t forget about growler sales. The takeout aspect can add a whole additional revenue stream to your operation.

Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s test chef.

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To listen to the unabridged interview, check out the podcast on Pizza Radio, available on iTunes. For more information on the U.S. Pizza Team, visit uspizzateam.com, or contact Brian Hernandez at brian@pmq.com or 662-234-5481, x129.

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MAD about

MILWAUKEE You can’t go to Milwaukee and not drink beer. Fortunately, Milwaukee-style pizza was designed with beer drinkers in mind.

By Rick Hynum, Daniel Perea and Brian Hernandez Photos by Daniel Lee Perea We all know pizza and beer go together like Laverne and Shirley. So it should come as no surprise that Milwaukee-style pizza—unique to the beer capital of the world—is designed specifically to be eaten with an ice-cold brew. Preferably in a tavern with lots of friends.

And even if you don’t know a soul when you arrive, you will make friends in Milwaukee. Just as it was portrayed in classic TV shows like Happy Days

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and Laverne & Shirley, it’s a hard-working, bighearted Midwest city where strangers don’t stay strangers for long, notes Wade Nemetz, co-owner of Milwaukee Food Tours. “If you walk into a local tavern, you’re going to be a local by the time you walk out,” he says. “Everybody’s going to know you.

People here love meeting new people and making friends. Milwaukee is just a really big small city.”

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At The Caradaro Club, the Works comes topped with sausage, mushrooms, onions, black olives, green peppers and pepperoni.

(Right) This cheese pizza is a favorite at Zaffiro’s.

It’s also a city that loves a good pizza pie. Since the 1940s, Milwaukee—with its lively mix of Sicilian, Italian, German and Irish immigrants—has evolved its own pizza-and-beer culture. “Milwaukee is a city that surprises,” Nemetz says.

“It’s a city of value. You can come here and have a great experience that’s inexpensive. And we have great cuisine.

People don’t necessarily think of Milwaukee as a food city, but when they come here, they’re really wowed.”

THE SMO, THE SMOP AND THE WORKS

People do think of Milwaukee as a beer-drinking town.

Thanks to German immigrants who brought their brewing skills to the New World, the city already had 138 taverns in 1843—one for every 40 residents—and that was before Frederick Miller founded Miller Brewing Company there in 1855. By the mid-1940s, competition was stiff, and tavern owners needed to stand out from the pack. “A great way to get customers in the door was to offer something to eat, and pizza was very good for that task,” Nemetz says.

“Inexpensive, quick and easy to produce, it was a great way to draw crowds from the factories for lunch and dinner.”

And since thin-crust pies bake faster, Milwaukee-style pizza boasts a crispy cracker crust with the sauce and toppings spread right to the edge, Nemetz says. “I have

heard people that try it for the first time describe it as similar to flatbreads,” he adds. The pies are typically oblong-shaped or rectangular and cut into squares, which are said to be easier to grab and hold with one hand while gripping a brewski with the other.

The classic topping combo features sausage, mushrooms and onions—known locally as the SMO. Throw in some pepperoni, and you’ve got a SMOP. Walk into any pizza joint in the city and ask for a SMO or SMOP, and they’ll know exactly what you’re talking about. If you want your pie loaded with toppings, you can order The Works. But don’t embarrass yourself by using the wrong terminology.

“For an old pizza guy like me, sausage, mushrooms, onions, black olives, green peppers and pepperoni is my favorite,” says Wally Kutch, owner of the legendary Caradaro Club, which has thrived in Milwaukee for 75 years. “That’s called the Works. It’s not a Supreme. It’s not a Deluxe. In Milwaukee, you say, ‘Give me The Works,’ and you know what you’ll get every time. If you say, give me everything and the kitchen sink, well, then, you’re gonna get anchovies.”

Kutch should know. The Caradaro Club is widely credited as the birthplace of Milwaukee-style pizza. John Caravella and Joe Todaro founded the restaurant in MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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Sausage, mushrooms and onions (SMO) form the classic Milwaukee-style topping combo at pizzerias like Zaffiro’s.

“People don’t necessarily think of Milwaukee as a food city, but when they come here, they’re really wowed.”

— WADE NEMETZ, MILWAUKEE FOOD TOURS

1945, combining their last names into a single brand name, and developed their recipe for a thincrust, rectangular pizza pie. To create demand, they wandered downtown Milwaukee and handed out free slices to passersby. As business took off, the Caradaro Club became a training ground for other aspiring pizzaioli, who went on to found iconic pizza hotspots like Balistreri’s and the Calderone Club.

“With all the beer that was being produced here in the early part of the 20th century, there was a pizza oven in every bar,” Kutch says. “So pizza in Milwaukee became synonymous with taverns.”

“You need to have food when you’re drinking,” adds Chris Ranson, director of tourism and merchandise at Lakefront Brewery. “Pizza is a perfect sharing food. You can share a whole pan of pizza, and the squares are easy to pick up and easy to drink with.”

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benefit, according to Tom Siever, an executive with Balistreri’s. “We put a lot of ingredients on our pizza,” he says. “When you’re eating it, you’re getting a lot of flavor. A square slice holds up all that weight.”

A CLOSELY GUARDED SECRET

Kutch, like many of Milwaukee’s pizzaioli, guards the secrets of his cracker-crust dough closely. He says the preferred final thickness is about 1/16”. “You’ve got to roll out the dough thin,” Kutch says. “And to make it stand up [to a lot of toppings], you need a high-gluten flour and a certain percentage of salt in the mix.”

Siever advises paying close attention to ingredient proportions in your dough mix. “It’s extremely important to have the proper ratio of water, shortening or oil, flour—that’s gonna be your baseline,” he says. “Then you need to mix long enough and fast enough to get gluten production. Once you get that right, you need to let it rise.”

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Wally Kutch, like many Milwaukee pizzeria owners, sends Caradaro Club customers home with carryout or leftover pies in stapled bags rather than cardboard boxes.

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“You’ve got to roll out the dough thin.

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Like Kutch, Siever won’t divulge much more than that. “We have the recipe written down in a safe place, and there’s only three people who know how to make the dough,” he says.

He adds, jokingly, “We’re never in the same place at the same time.”

When the dough is ready, Nemetz says, “A couple of the pizzerias will actually par-bake the crust, pull it back out, flip it over, dress it, and then put it back in to finish. I think it helps that the classic Milwaukee pizza never really has that many toppings on it, even if you order it with everything.”

“When you’re doing a thin-crust pizza, you can bake it off much quicker,” Siever says. “For taverns, especially for people that are hungry, you want to feed them quickly. And

pizza is everything you want to make of it—ingredients can be from soup to nuts.”

But Milwaukee-style pizza, like pizza in most parts of the world, largely adheres to time-honored traditions. “The major players here haven’t deviated much from what people have come to know and love,” Siever says. “When our old customers move away and then come back to town, the first place they go is Balistreri’s. That’s what they remember, what they loved when they were growing up. We tweak things a little bit—we might add a couple of things—but we stick to the basics of what made us who we are. Never forget where you came from.”

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

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Paying To

Win

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Log e sc d th ie Gee’s ndy City i l ehin Go b hy Pau me a W er the o w out has bec tion und otege ina e pr are Squ za dest of Pauli . g n piz rship u e tung ick T lead Derr derrick / m o c . pmq

Derrick Tung, owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in Chicago, details his innovative approach to paying and incentivizing employees—and why his opening night was such a stinker.

By Jonathan Porter | Photos courtesy Derrick Tung Paulie Giannone was a middle-age ex-IT professional when he started Paulie Gee’s in Brooklyn’s Green Point neighborhood in 2010. The concept quickly found success and expanded to Miami, Baltimore and Columbus, Ohio. When the native New Yorker was ready to move into that other pizza capital, he tapped another reformed office drone for the job—lifelong Chicagoan Derrick Tung, a former healthcare-administratorturned-pizzaiolo and the former operator of the wood-fired mobile pizza operation Za Pi. Tung opened Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in the summer of 2016. In this interview, Tung, respected as much for his keen business mind as his pizza making chops, tackles the thorny subject of paying and retaining good employees, solving the disparity between back-of-house and front-of-house compensation—and why his opening night was

Derrick Tung shows off a couple of signature pies from the kitchen at Paulie Gee’s Logan Square.

such a stinker.

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MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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Derrick Tung won the Gluten-Free category of last year’s U.S. Pizza Cup with this Detroit-style beauty. Made with gluten-free flour, it featured mozzarella, sharp white cheddar, pepperoni, bacon jam, ricotta, and Mike’s Hot Honey.

“In Chinese culture, water represents good fortune, so my parents firmly believed [an opening-night plumbing problem] was a good omen for the restaurant. But I don’t think the omen accounts for sewage water.”

— DERRICK TUNG

Porter: Why did you decide to partner with Paulie instead of opening your own place?

Tung: Partnering with Paulie provided

me with the confidence to open up a larger spot from the get-go. He provided strong mentorship around many of the questions I had for my first restaurant, along with teaching me more about his wood-fired pizza processes. When we first opened, about one out of every three guests were either New York transplants, had been to Paulie’s in Brooklyn, or had heard of Paulie Gee’s. That was a significant amount. Also, the mention of Paulie Gee’s in Chicago was able to draw some great press around our opening, which helped put our restaurant on the radar faster. Paulie and I share a

lot of similar views when it comes to business, which made for a good fit as a mentor/mentee relationship. While we don’t agree on everything, we often can agree to disagree and move on, which is important in any relationship.

Porter: I hear there was an opening-night horror story. Can you tell us more about it?

Tung: We decided to open on a Thursday

night so that we could ease into the weekend and make adjustments as necessary. We opened our doors, and the house was pretty much full within the first hour, and we were buzzing along. About an hour and a half in, one of my staff members tells me there’s water coming up from the ground in our dish room. By the time I got back

there, they were already trying to use physical obstacles to block it off so the rising water wouldn’t flow into the back kitchen area. While I’m assessing the dish room, someone comes to tell me that the [customer] bathrooms are also starting to see water coming up from the pipes. At this point, we ended up comping all the food and drinks for the guests that were in-house. We shut down operations and deep-cleaned everything the water touched, since we suspected it was sewage water.

We all went home, pretty deflated after weeks of ramping up for our big open. When I’m upset, I eat Totino’s Pizza Rolls and drink root beer floats.

The next day, we let everyone know that opening time has been delayed

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Located in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood, Paulie Gee’s Logan Square is a 75-seat restaurant with a full bar area that provides seating for an additional 20 guests.

due to city construction problems. We investigate the issue all day, and we stress-test the system by running water for four hours and flushing the toilets regularly to see if there’s still a backup issue. About one hour before we open, we see the rising waters again and have to shut down again, but at least this time there were no guests to kick out.

Finally, after a full morning of fixing some of the issues and stress-testing the system for eight hours—which produced an insane water bill—we opened our doors again on Saturday, July 9. In Chinese culture, water represents good fortune, so my parents firmly believed this was a good omen for the restaurant. But I don’t think the omen accounts for sewage water.

Porter: What are the similarities and differences between the various Paulie Gee’s locations?

Tung: All the locations offer wood-fired

pizza that has nearly the exact same dough recipe at each location. We’re all playing Paulie’s greatest hits, so pizzas like the Hellboy, Cherry Jones, Greenpointer and others are ones that we want everyone to experience. But from

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Clad in a pizzafied Wayne’s World T-shirt, Derrick Tung gets ready for a night on the town with Jonathan Porter and Chicago Pizza Tours.

“Once we hit a certain target, our pizza makers begin earning a bonus per hour based on house sales. Our first-tier target is $2,500, so any time we hit that, they make an additional $1 per hour for that shift. For every $1,000 more we hit, they make another $1 per hour. So, at $5,500, each pizza maker is making an additional $4 per hour.”

— DERRICK TUNG

there, each location definitely has its own persona. The salads, desserts and many of the pizzas reflect a lot of what each owner feels is best for their community, along with their personal interests.

For instance, I’ve always loved kimchi on pizza, so we make a housemade kimchi and top it on our pizzas, as inspired by my wife’s favorite pizzeria in the world, Pizzeria Lola in Minneapolis.

Growing up, I’ve always loved the allmeat pizza from Pizza Hut, so the Big Bad Wolf was an ode to the all-meat pizzas I remember—but dressed up using sopressata, local Italian fennel sausage, and housemade bacon jam. The biggest difference at Paulie Gee’s Logan Square is the Detroit-inspired pizza that we offer, which has become our topselling pizza. After a side trip to Detroit

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è

Still a relative newcomer to the pizza scene, Derrick Tung , owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in Chicago, cemented his reputation by winning the Gluten-Free category of the U.S. Pizza Cup in Chicago last June.

with my wife before the restaurant opened, we fell in love at first bite with Buddy’s Pizza. I came home and started researching and learning how to make my own version of what I remembered from that one experience, which resulted in the Logan Square pie that you can get at my restaurant. I’ve had a chance to go back to Detroit and try eight different Detroit-style pizza restaurants, and it made me realize that my memory of the Buddy’s pie is very different from what we’re executing now. I still love Buddy’s plenty, but it’s definitely not the same pie.

Porter: How do you decide what to feature for your Square of the Month special?

Tung: Each month, my staff and I rotate one wood-

Detroit Meets Chicago— Minus the Gluten Derrick Tung, owner of Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in Chicago, was disappointed with his first pizza competition experience and wasn’t planning to try again. It’s a good thing he changed his mind: His entry in the Gluten-Free category of the U.S. Pizza Cup, held last June at the North American Pizza & Culinary Academy in Chicago, helped catapult Tung to pizza making glory. His Detroit-style pie featured a 100% starter made with gluten-free flour and a 24-hour rise time before par-baking. He topped it with whole-milk, low-moisture mozzarella, a sharp white cheddar edge, two layers of cupped pepperoni (under and over the cheese), and a housemade bacon jam, then finished it with post-oven ricotta and a drizzle of Mike’s Hot Honey. The win earned him a spot on the U.S. Pizza Team and a chance to compete in this year’s World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy.

fired pizza and two Logan Squares—our Herbivore and Omnivore. What we pick is somewhat random.

Sometimes it’s about seasonality of ingredients, while other times it’s a food we tried somewhere and wanted to reimagine on a pizza, like Italian beef or lasagna.

Sometimes it’s just a whim that we want to play with, like lighting a pizza on fire tableside with a saganaki-style pie.

We typically will taste a pizza at least four or five times before it makes the menu, tweaking different aspects of it.

We focus on a variety of taste factors, including saltiness, acidity, sweetness and textures, so we’re often making additional adjustments before the final pizzas of the month are introduced.

Porter: Can you talk a little bit about how you incentivize and reward your staff, and why that’s important?

Tung: I’m a firm believer that, for staff to be motivated,

rewards must be aligned properly with goals. We use a lot of different methods for rewarding and celebrating with staff, ranging from celebration meals when we break old records to staff outings about once every six months. It’s important to spend time together as a team outside of the restaurant so that we get to know each other as family.

One of the key things I’ve always disliked is that, at most restaurants, only the front-of-house staff reaps the rewards of a busy night based on tips, while the backof-house works harder but with no reward. Whenever I worked back-of-house at some places, it was one of my biggest annoyances that there was no reward for busier nights versus slower ones. To address this problem, I adopted one of the systems that Paulie uses to reward his pizza line. Our pizza makers have a base hourly rate, and

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A popular Paulie Gee’s standard, the Hellified Pork Pie White comes with fresh mozz, Berkshire sopressata picante, sweet Italian fennel sausage, sliced red onions, sliced fresh garlic, fresh basil and Mike’s Hot Honey.

once we hit a certain nightly sales target, they begin earning a bonus per hour based on house sales. For instance, our first-tier target right now is $2,500, so any time we hit that, the pizza makers make an additional $1 per hour for that shift. For every $1,000 more we hit, they make another $1 per hour. So, at $5,500, each pizza maker is making an additional $4 per hour. This doesn’t balance out the difference in front-ofhouse versus back-of-house pay, but it helps keep our team focused as we get busier and gives them something to be excited about as each order comes in.

Also, with the recent changes in federal law regarding tip sharing, we’ll be testing out a new system that will help close the

gap a bit more and align everyone onto a tip structure that will help incentivize everybody a little more tightly.

Porter: How did you determine that things were out of balance in terms of compensation for FOH and BOH? Tung: We experienced some great

growth in 2018, so I wanted to see what the impact was across everyone’s hourly and total pay—mostly focused on the hourly. In January 2018, the difference in a FOH position’s pay vs. BOH was significant ($27 an hour vs. $12.12 an hour). By November 2018, FOH saw a 27.7% increase in hourly pay, while BOH saw a 12.5% increase due to higher volume at the restaurant. This

was solely based on tips (FOH) and bonuses (BOH), which just helped reinforce to me how unaligned this system is. As we continue to grow, this system would basically have our FOH continue to make more via tips (volume), but BOH would continue to increase at a slower rate (under the current bonus structure). I want our system to reflect the importance of BOH, so I felt like we had to revise our whole payment system.

Porter: How does the new structure work?

Tung: It has four key components: tips,

loyalty-based pay, skill-based pay, and intangibles. As you may know, the new federal law allows for restaurants to

“We’re all playing Paulie’s greatest hits, so pizzas like the Hellboy, Cherry Jones, Greenpointer and others are ones that we want everyone to experience. But from there, each location definitely has its own persona.” — DERRICK TUNG 44 PMQ PIZZA MAGAZINE | THE WORLD’S AUTHORITY ON PIZZA

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Tung recognizes the value of both his frontof-house and back-ofhouse staff and works to pay everyone equitably.

spread tips throughout the house (with owners/managers excluded) but first requires that all folks are making the minimum untipped wage per hour as mandated by federal and local laws—whichever is higher. In Chicago, that means $12 an hour for now and $13 an hour in July. So, to do this, it requires us to pay our servers, bartenders, hosts, etc. that minimum wage. This comes out to around $5,000 extra per month, which would equate to about 22% of tips. This 22% will be spread across the BOH based on hours worked and positions being covered. And for the company to cover that $5,000 per month, we discussed new lines of potential revenue at our staff meeting, where they generated many ideas that we plan to start trying to implement in March 2019. These include semi-private chef ’s table experiences, private pizza making lessons, cost-cutting strategies, price increases on our most popular items, etc.

When I was asking around as to whether anyone was doing this already, some folks suggested just raising wages for BOH directly. That’s always an option, but it doesn’t put everyone on the same plane of incentivization. The goal is to have a system where everyone—from the host to the server to the pizza maker to the dishwasher—is excited that we have another guest walking through our doors because that extra guest doesn’t just mean the company will do better—it means they’ll do financially better too, which I hope will lead to a better experience for all our staff and our guests.

While revising the system, I began exploring how other companies paid their employees, and the Costco employee payment model stuck out particularly. They utilize a system where, for every 1,040 hours you work (half a year for a fulltime employee), you receive a raise ranging from 25 cents up to $1 (around year four). This system makes sense, especially

for the restaurant industry, where turnover rates are high and employees are always looking for more money. Given the time and money cost of training staff, I felt this system would be good to model after. The more time someone spends in the restaurant working, typically, the more valuable they are, as they’ve built the experience of knowing what to do in different situations for their position. This loyalty-based method of pay seemed like a great basis for the new payment structure.

Shown here with his wife, Cathy Reyes, and daughter Abby, Tung often posts pics of his family on the pizzeria’s social media platforms.

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Porter: What about pay based on skills and intangibles?

Tung: The current vision is to have a skills test tied to each level

of loyalty raises. So, for example, I would want a newer server who’s put in 1,040 hours with us to know our top three selling pizzas based on guest orders so they can provide advice to new guests. They also need to know our top five highest-margin items to help boost our bottom line. For a pizza maker, I would want them to be able to stretch four pizza doughs in a certain amount of time to keep pace on busy nights. We’re still looking at the system to determine how the skills tests and loyalty hours should tie together for our base wage system.

Finally, we have a set of intangibles that we’d like to take into consideration for moving to the next tier. Things like how often they smile, how well they play with the rest of the team, their willingness to pick up shifts when we need help—things that we don’t have an easy way to benchmark/measure but are important to a well-functioning team. I’m still looking at ways to measure this so that it’s more factual and not so experientially based when we have discussions with staff on improvement. If anyone has any advice on this part, let me know!

Porter: So what’s next for your restaurant?

Tung: I want to continue to optimize the space for more service.

For instance, we recently opened up on Tuesday evenings and started having a limited lunch service on Saturdays and

Abby is already gearing up to follow in her dad’s footsteps as a pizza maker.

Sundays. As the area grows and as guests ask for it, we hope to grow into a brunch on weekends and have lunch available during weekdays when it makes sense. We’re also working on creating a program where guests can come in and learn how to make pizzas and potentially other fun, unique experiences for our guests. I’ve always toyed with the idea of offering another style of pizza as well, but that’s on the back burner for now, potentially further down the line!

Jonathan Porter is the owner of Chicago Pizza Tours.

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“Spring,” Robin Williams once observed, “is nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’” It’s also an invitation to shrug off that heavy winter coat, step out into the sunshine and take a leisurely stroll to the nearest pizzeria. Start planning now to freshen up your restaurant for the springtime boom with lively seasonal decor and promotions that will get customers singing and cash registers ringing. Spring into action with these moneymaking ideas inspired by pizzeria operators around the country.

1

HOST A PRIVATE TASTING.

Hearty soups and comfort food made winter bearable, but now it’s time to lighten up your menu. Dante Pizzeria in Omaha, Nebraska, kicked off the season in 2017 with a private tasting of its new spring menu. The pizzeria invited a limited number of Omaha’s top food bloggers and influencers to the event, where chef Nick Strawhecker served up a seasonally inspired eightcourse menu, complete with wine pairings. The spring menu included a variety of veg-centric snacks, from Fried Potato Puffs to Beet Tortellini and Arugula.

Try this: Create an invitation-only tasting event for food bloggers, entertainment reporters and “Instafoodies” in your area. Invite local celebrities—such as TV news anchors, sports coaches or political figures—for added cachet.

DO

offer members of your loyalty program a “first look” at your new menu, along with limited-time discounts.

BRING ON THE BRUNCH.

Got a hunch that adding brunch could make a bunch of money? Now’s the time to find out. Under the Sun Eatery and Pizzeria, located in Boulder, Colorado, has earned rave online reviews for its weekend brunch menu, including the Captain’s French Toast—challah bread coated with Cap’n Crunch cereal, plus Chantilly cream and strawberries—and fried chicken and waffles. Vegetarians, meanwhile, sing praises about the Birdie: a layer of potatoes, tomatoes, baby kale, mozzarella and Grana Padano, topped off with poached eggs and a drizzle of arugula walnut pesto.

Try this: Plant an herb garden outside your restaurant and use what you grow in your recipes.

Post social media pictures of the herbs to emphasize the freshness of your ingredients, and promote the garden on your website.

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3

MAKE 420 A MAGIC NUMBER.

April 20 is the highest (pun intended) of holy days for connoisseurs of cannabis. Of course, smoking the stuff remains illegal in most states, but you don’t have to get baked to celebrate this made-up holiday. D’Amore’s Famous Pizza, the celebrity-friendly chain with eight locations around Los Angeles, last year created a secret 420 Day menu that included the Weed Pizza, a pie shaped like a marijuana leaf, and won national coverage in USA Today.

Pizza Peddlers, located in Noble, Oklahoma, offered free (perfectly legal) brownies from a local bakery with every April 20 order. Other pizzerias keep it simple, offering menu specials priced at $4.20 or 420-themed signature pies.

Try this: Develop a recipe using hempseed in your pizza dough and call it the 420 Pot Pie. (Hempseed contains no THC and is safe and legal in the United States.)

DON’T

keep your social media contest or fundraiser results a secret. If you get “too busy” to post the winners’ names or amount of money raised, customers might not take part in the next event.

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU.

4

Speaking of made-up holidays, Star Wars fans will celebrate May the 4th all across the galaxy. Smart pizzeria operators can tap into the force with promotions built around the theme. Totally 80’s Pizza in Fort Collins, Colorado, lures in the Lucas troops every year with an all-day party that includes face painting for the kiddies and appearances by characters like Princess Leia and Chewbacca.

Customers even get a 10% discount by placing their order in the voice of Jabba the Hut. Meanwhile, Paulie Gee’s Logan Square in Chicago has been known to offer pizza portraits of Princess Leia and R2D2, and Dallas-based Cane Rosso serves up the C-3P0 pizza, featuring three cheeses and pepperoni.

Try this: Host a Star Wars costume contest with gift cards or free food as prizes. Or award prizes to costume-wearing guests who post selfies with a designated hashtag on Facebook or Instagram.

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HASH OUT A SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN.

Celebrate springtime where the crowds are sure to gather—on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Hashtag campaigns help boost your brand exposure across multiple platforms, and spring is the perfect season to launch one. Using a hashtag like #springatvinniespizza, invite customers to post mouthwatering photos of their pizzas or other menu items for a chance to win free food or gift cards. Also use the hashtag to promote new menu items featuring seasonal and locally grown ingredients.

Try this: Whenever a hashtag contest winner comes in to redeem the prize, take that person’s photo and post it as a reminder of the ongoing contest.

DO

promote healthier menu items, such as fresh salads and vegetarian pizzas, and post high-quality photos on social media.

BUILD SOME EGG-CITEMENT AROUND EASTER.

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What’s the Easter Bunny’s favorite restaurant? IHOP, of course. But that shouldn’t stop you from hiring him for your Easter promo in April—he’ll learn to love pizza if the money’s right. The Saratoga, New York, location of Beer Wine Pizza last year booked the cottontailed giant for an Easter meet-and-greet on Saturday, March 31. Pizza Pi, located on St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands, hosts an annual underwater egg hunt— actually fastener nuts dyed in pastel colors and dropped into the water—for preteens and teenagers. Nuts of different colors earn different prizes, including $2 off a pizza. If hosting an Easter egg hunt is too complicated, simply buy an Easter Bunny costume and play the role yourself for a family-friendly holiday event.

Try this: Work with a local brewery to host a “hops festival” for Easter week.

Develop a special menu with pies that pair well with the craft beers.

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7

REBOOT YOUR PATIO.

If you offer patio dining, now is the time to start planning an al fresco refresh.

Start out with a little spring cleaning—dust off the tables and chairs, replace worn-out cushions and consider putting a new stain on wooden tables.

Replace battered umbrellas or tiki torches and fix wobbly tables. Beautify the area with small potted plants and bulb lights. After a long, cold winter, many customers will be eager to relax in a peaceful outdoor setting and, hopefully, linger for an extra beer or two.

DON’T

Try this: Create springthemed cocktails using seasonal fruits and serve them in tall, frosted glasses with paper umbrellas and bright straws.

Develop recipes for alcoholic and nonalcoholic versions.

forget your gluten-free customers. Make sure to develop one or two new gluten-free items for your spring menu.

8

DON’T FORGET MOMS.

We shouldn’t have to remind you, but Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 12, and shame on you if you don’t celebrate it.

According to the National Restaurant Association, 32% of moms list eating a meal in a restaurant with their families as the gift they most want for Mother’s Day. In addition to offering holiday specials or a brunch, add heart-shaped pizzas to the menu, give each mom a complimentary rose and develop some unforgettable desserts.

Try this: Why limit Mother’s Day to one day? Turn it into a three-day weekend extravaganza with different offerings each day, including wine specials, kids menus, Sunday brunch and more.

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor-in-chief.

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Buying an oven is like getting married—weigh the pros and cons carefully before rushing into a long-term commitment. By Rick Hynum

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Pizza makers don’t just depend on their ovens to make money—it’s practically a love affair, a relationship based on tender care, patience and understanding. Pizzaioli know their ovens like they know their wives or husbands. But ovens, like spouses, don’t live forever. And some ovens just don’t deserve you.

Fortunately, unlike most people, pizza ovens are getting better and better all the time. If you’re in the market for a new oven, the market won’t let you down. There are various styles for various tastes and needs—some are plain but ever-faithful, while some are high-maintenance but sexy as heck. Of course, none of them are cheap. Before you rush into a long-term commitment, here’s what you need to know.

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CONVEYOR OVENS Pros: Conveyor ovens are widely used for a reason. Because this oven type’s speed and airflow are fixed, every pie is baked the same, ensuring product consistency. They’re also essentially idiot-proof, ensuring fast workflow in the kitchen during busy hours. They don’t require an experienced, keen-eyed pizzaiolo to peel them in, pull them out and move them around to find the sweet spots. You can place multiple (similar) pies side by side on the line and watch them come out perfectly baked on the other end. They’re assembly-line marvels that just about anyone can learn to use in little time. Finally, they preheat quickly, hold their temperature well and cool down quickly. How sexy is that?

Cons: A faulty conveyor belt can throw everything out of whack. If there’s a malfunction, the pizzas won’t move along and everything can go into shutdown mode faster than the

Conveyor ovens are essentially idiotproof, ensuring fast workflow in the kitchen during busy hours.

U.S. government. Also, remember that you must do your part to ensure consistency—with conveyor ovens, it’s hard to add or subtract a minute to the baking time of any one pizza to get it just right.

DECK OVENS Pros: You have to play your deck oven a bit like a delicately tuned musical instrument, but the result is pizza with amazing flavor. The deck itself may be made with ceramic tiles, large bricks or sections of stone. These surfaces bake the bottom crust differently from a conveyor oven, and, since they’re usually coated with flour or cornmeal to prevent sticking,

the crust comes out with a distinctive and wondrous texture, appearance and taste. Stone decks yield a nice, crispy crust, absorbing the oils and moisture released from the pizza to ensure a drier final product. Tiles, although not as thick as stone, also absorb oils and moisture, and they’re less expensive.

Cons: Deck ovens tend to release heat as the doors are opened and closed and pizzas are inserted, shuffled and removed. They also require a skilled operator who pays close attention and knows how to consistently get the optimal bake for each pie.

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You have to play your deck oven a bit like a delicately tuned musical instrument, but the result is pizza with amazing flavor.

ROTATING DECK OVENS Pros: This version of a deck oven rotates the pizzas for you, reducing the amount of skill required for your cooks. Since it’s not necessary to open and close the doors constantly and shuffle the pies by hand, less heat escapes and less energy is consumed.

Cons: Your cook still needs some skill to operate the oven, but not as much compared to running a traditional deck oven.

WOOD-BURNING OR COAL-BURNING OVENS Pros: Perfect for dine-in operations, these ovens look gorgeous in your restaurant and create ambience—warm fire, cozy table, delicious food—that your customers won’t soon forget. They also deliver unique flavor and, because they can achieve very high temperatures (up to 900°), bake the pie quickly. Wood generates a gentle, moist heat and imparts a unique, smoky flavor while maintaining the crunch of your toppings.

Coal ovens are almost synonymous with New York pizza. They cook at even higher temperatures than wood-

fired ovens, reaching up to 1,000°, and produce a signature char, a crispy crust and a chewy interior. As versatile as they are powerful, these ovens can be used to bake many other menu items, including breads, roasted veggies and meats, and sandwiches. Finally, these ovens don’t require electricity or gas to operate, although you still have to pay for the wood or coal.

Cons: Pizza ovens of any kind don’t come cheap, but high-quality woodburning and coal-burning ovens are a major investment. They take up a lot of space, and becoming a “keeper of the flame” requires a high level of expertise.

Every oven is unique, and the quality of your pizzas will depend heavily on the skills of your oven tender. These ovens can also take a while to heat up to baking temperature and need to be fed continuously, whether the restaurant is open for business or not. Finally, some states and municipalities regulate the installation and use of these ovens— make sure you know the law before you fire up your oven.

Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.

A Question of Taste Your average pizza eater can’t tell the difference between a pie fired in a wood-burning oven versus a coal oven. But pizza makers know that each type of pizza has its own distinct flavor profile. According to Giordano’s, with 18 stores in eight states, here are some of the key features of both pizza types:

Wood-Fired Pizzas • Associated with traditional Neapolitan-style pizza • Thin center • Puffy edges • A distinct leopard-spotted char • Softer, more delicate texture • Crispier toppings • Generally features fresh mozzarella • Cheese is melted, not burnt, and imbued with a smoky flavor

Coal-Fired Pizza • Commonly associated with New York-style pizza • Smoky, thin crust • Crisper and more stable • Chewy interior • Slightly smoky taste • Uses specialty cheeses, such as dry mozzarella • Cheese is applied before the sauce

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XLT Conveyor Ovens boast consistent, fast bakes supported by a seven-year warranty. If you combine your oven purchase with an integrated XLT exhaust hood, which reduces your operating costs while keeping your kitchens quiet, cool and clean, you can increase your warranty coverage to 10 years. XLT has also introduced a countertop oven for sandwiches and sides and an XLT grill for proteins. xltovens.com, 316-943-2751 MIDDLEBY MARSHALL WOW! 2 OVEN

The Middleby Marshall WOW! 2 conveyor oven utilizes variable air flow (VAF) technology that allows the user full control of the air flow in the baking chamber, resulting in optimal results in cooking product. Pizza makers can gain bake speed and save on energy costs using the WOW! 2 Oven. middleby-marshall.com, 877-346-8367 PIZZA SOLUTIONS

Pizza Solutions offers one-stop shopping for high-quality pizza ovens and equipment for pizzerias, restaurants, commercial kitchens and more. From gas and electric ovens to pizza and sandwich prep tables, refrigeration units and more, they offer great products from trusted brands at competitive prices along with unrivaled service. pizzasolutions.com, 855-289-6836 EDGE OVENS

Edge Ovens come in six different models to meet all your oven needs. The EDGE60WB “Wide Body” (pictured) is available for high production locations. The 38” belt gives you the ability to bake three 12” pizzas across or up to two 18” pizzas side by side without having to stagger them. edgeovens.com, 888-480-3343

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PEERLESS OVENS

The Peerless CW62PSC Double-Stacked, Gas Deck Pizza Oven offers exclusive features including a space-saving design and 4-cell “Power-Pak” gas burner system for better distribution of heat and better baking. The CW62PSC has a total of 4 decks, each being 42” wide by 32” deep by 7” high. The CW62PSC holds sixteen 16” pizzas. It has a footprint of 56” wide by 42” deep by 70” high, saving valuable kitchen space without sacrificing output.

800-548-4514, peerlessovens.com UNIVEX

Univex’s Stone Hearth Pizza Dome ovens are made of whole refractory bricks and furnace baked. The oven’s surface bottom is more than 7” deep and guarantees fast temperature recovery, allowing you to cook pizzas continuously without pauses between baking. Eight layers of insulation allow superior heat containment and minimal heat release.

800-258-6358, univexcorp.com MARSAL OVENS

All Marsal ovens feature Marsal’s signature beauty through industrial design, allowing your oven to become the centerpiece of your restaurant, and delivering superior performance as a result of innovative Marsal engineering. All Marsal ovens are designed to maximize power, spread heat evenly throughout the baking chamber, and provide you with the crispiest, most delicious bake.

Many sizes and styles are available to choose from. 802-652-6600, marsalovens.com FORNO BRAVO

Forno Bravo offers commercial wood-fired ovens manufactured in the U.S. for pizzerias, restaurants and mobile caterers in a range of sizes and styles. Available fully assembled or as modular kits in both wood and wood/gas options, the ovens are listed UL737, UL2162, NSF/ ANSI-4, ANSI-z83.11a, and CAN/CGA-1.8DUAL for restaurant use in U.S. and Canada.

800-407-5119, fornobravo.com FISH OVEN

Fish Oven’s Mechanical Revolving Tray ovens provide a true, consistent hearth bake for all pizza types with no moving or turning, even during peak production. Fish Oven’s energy-saving insulation keeps the heat in the oven so your kitchen stays cooler. Production capacities range from 40 to 277 pizzas per hour. 877-526-8720, fishoven.com MARRA FORNI

Marra Forni’s Rotator Smart Oven is changing the way pizzerias cook. Its innovative touchscreen technology gives you full control of crucial functions, such as temperature, deck rotation speed, direction and auto on/off. Enjoy labor and energy savings thanks to better heat absorption and retention and faster, more consistent cooking. Every oven is custom-built and tiled to order in many color options. 888-239-0575, marraforni.com WOODSTONE

Do more with a Double Door. The Wood Stone Fire Deck 9660 Double Door oven not only allows you the flexibility to scale as you grow, but it also helps you maximize your menu without expanding your footprint and increase your production (because it is built for high throughput!). Call us at 800-988-8103 to learn more!

ITALFORNI

Ital Forni offers a premiere line of quality commercial cooking equipment from Italy. Ital Forni’s innovative solutions are designed specifically for the U.S. market, including TS Stone Conveyor Ovens, the aesthetically pleasing “Bull” made of tempered stained glass, and the value series TK Deck Ovens. 424-364-0075, ItalForniUSA.com

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Mortadella Head menus creative sandwich combinations with memorable names to appeal to the hip local college crowd.

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a of

TALE

two

Delis Thinking of adding a deli component to your pizzeria? These two creative operators explain how sandwich success has kept their pizza businesses booming. By Tracy Morin

Deli sandwiches aren’t a terribly different animal than pizza; they both rely on a bread base and can be topped or filled with essentially any ingredients.

But, thanks to their different formats, sandwiches can exponentially diversify M O RTA D E L L A H E A D

a menu. They give customers more choice, generally take less time to serve than pizza, and allow for eating on the go to fit today’s busy lifestyles.

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DEMO’S PIZZERIA & DELI

Each sandwich at DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli is piled with 5 ounces of meat and fresh, farmers marketsourced veggies.

“Almost five years into our business, we wouldn’t be at the point we are today if we didn’t do that deli-style menu,” asserts Anthony DeMarco, co-owner of DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli in Raleigh, North Carolina. “It broadens our horizons—the best decision we’ve ever made.” Want to make the deli business a significant slice of your profits? Learn some success secrets from these two flourishing sandwich slingers.

DEMO’S PIZZERIA & DELI Raleigh, NC Before owners DeMarco and Clay Adams opened their downtown Raleigh hotspot, they honed their chops at a 4,000-square-foot restaurant and nightclub in the suburbs for nearly three years. Given the opportunity to infiltrate an up-and-coming business and nightlife district, they leaped at the chance—but knew they’d have to cash in on lunch crowds and catering for local offices. “People aren’t going to eat pizza all the time; it’s not necessarily an everyday food,” DeMarco explains. “So we wanted to have different options with a pizza and deli operation.”

WINNING WAYS

• Think local and seasonal. DeMo’s sandwiches feature bread made fresh daily, as well as seasonal veggies, both purchased from the local farmers market.

• Partner with a strong brand. “We use Boar’s Head, which has a good reputation to match our other high-quality products, and the reviews we’ve been getting back it up,” DeMarco says. “We use their meats, cheeses, even pepperoni (on both sandwiches and pizzas).” Of course, if you stock a well-known name, make sure it’s clearly conveyed on your menu, website and marketing materials.

• Add some DIY touches. Made-to-order egg salad, as well as housemade chicken and tuna salads and coleslaw, have proved a hit with guests. DeMo’s often runs through 10 to 20 pounds of chicken and tuna salad daily.

Grab-and-Go: A Good Idea?

Today’s harried customers love an easy, in-and-out meal purchase. Is having a grab-and-go deli section the answer? Our operators weigh in: “In our small space, we wouldn’t have the room for a grab-and-go cooler/display. Plus, we’re so heavy on quality, we don’t want things sitting out for long, so we choose to not have anything premade.”

—Anthony DeMarco, co-owner, DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli, Raleigh, NC “It depends where you are.

Grab-and-go can work really well in a densely populated financial district, where you know you’re getting crushed at lunch and have to pump out 500 sandwiches in three hours. I have friends with places like that in downtown Boston, and if you’re making them at 11 and selling an hour later, they’re not sitting out for long. In a suburb, though, you probably wouldn’t do it. With our menu, we couldn’t—they’d be soggy—but it’d work for a certain menu. You see places with premade sandwiches all over Italy, so people can easily grab them and eat while walking down the street.”

—Chuck Sillari, co-owner, Mortadella Head, Somerville, MA

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• Cater to special diets. As lighter options, DeMo’s offers spinach and gluten-free wraps. Vegan cheese also makes the menu. “Nowadays, customers need those choices,” DeMarco says. “With so many people coming in for our sandwiches, we have to offer something for everyone.”

• Keep it simple. In a much smaller space than their previous location (1,400 square feet), the DeMo’s owners streamlined the menu to predominantly pizza, sandwiches and salads.

The sandwich menu itself is fairly straightforward: eight specialty cold sandwiches, eight hot sandwiches, and a create-your-own option, for which customers choose their bread, meat, cheese, toppings, spreads, and add-ons like avocado or bacon.

• Show your stuff. Though adding deli operations needn’t require much additional equipment, DeMo’s takes its sandwiches seriously with a 12’ deli case displaying meats and other merch. “If you’re just trying to add sandwiches, you don’t have to be that elaborate,” DeMarco notes. “But

DEMO’S PIZZERIA & DELI

DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli shows its stuff, including cold cuts and other merchandise, in a 12’ glass case by the ordering counter.

‘deli’ is in our name, and we charge a premium price, so it’s important for us to do more.”

• Angle for catering orders. In a booming business district, party trays and boxed lunches are big business for DeMo’s.

DeMarco often promotes the option by taking trays to local corporations so they can try the goods, gratis. “Sandwiches are so easy to do for catering: throw together 30 to 50 subs, cut them in quarters, make them look nice, and send them out on a platter,” DeMarco says. “It’s easy money and really helps the bottom line.”

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A BETTER WAY TO PERFECT YOUR CRAFT

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M O RTA D E L L A H E A D

In lieu of traditional advertising, mouthwatering “food porn” shots entice customers via Mortadella Head’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

• Stand out through quality. Fresh ingredients are a must, but customers also notice when operators aren’t skating by on the bare minimum. For example, while some competitors use frozen meat for cheesesteaks, DeMo’s goes through 75 pounds of Black Angus top round beef each week on these sandwiches alone—cooking and roasting to medium-rare in-house before slicing and portioning into 5-ounce heaps for each sandwich.

• Mind your speed. When locals are swarming during the lunch rush, avoid lengthy lines by optimizing your kitchen design and operations for speedy sandwich assembly. “We do a fast sandwich,” DeMarco says. “We’re heavy on quality but make sure we crank ’em out quick!”

MORTADELLA HEAD Somerville, MA In the Boston area, pizza-and-sub shops are commonplace; it’s a combination that Chuck Sillari, co-owner of Mortadella Head with Sebastian Fricia, grew up with. But, while overseeing his 10-year-old, four-location Boston Burger Company, Sillari realized that most of these outposts were pretty uninspired—all serving up roughly the same menu items in a dreary, old-school setting. He envisioned something different to cater to the area’s influx of trend-fueled hipsters.

“We wanted to take that old-school pizza/sub shop and reinvent it with a fun menu and better ingredients,” Sillari explains. “We’ve been open only three months, but so far, it’s been working really well!”

DEMO’S PIZZERIA & DELI

WINNING WAYS

• Try creative combos. Sillari credits much of his success to a menu that boasts unique specialty sandwiches, often with memorable, quirky names. The Mortadella Head combines a chicken cutlet, fried eggplant, roasted red peppers, mortadella, provolone, ricotta and vodka sauce.

The Plymouth RockSTAR serves up Thanksgiving dinner in sandwich form, with roasted turkey, fried stuffing, American cheese, cranberry sauce, gravy and garlic aioli. And The Pig & Fig melds sweet and salty with prosciutto, poached pear, Gorgonzola, fig jam, mixed greens, house vinaigrette and a balsamic glaze.

DeMo’s Pizzeria & Deli fills sandwiches with quality ingredients, like Black Angus top round beef, roasted in-house, for its three varieties of cheesesteak.

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Our Design.

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M O RTA D E L L A H E A D

At Mortadella Head, sandwich ingredients are often crossutilized for other menu items, including pizzas and gourmet French fry creations.

• Strut your sides. Mortadella Head adds value in the form of included sides—and they ain’t your typical bonus bag of big-brand potato chips. Instead, each sandwich comes with housemade chips (tossed in Pecorino-Romano, rosemary, garlic butter, salt and pepper) and a choice of the pizzeria’s own giardiniera or pasta fagioli soup. For those who crave French fries, there’s an entire menu subset of gourmet options at a premium price: think Rhode Rage Fries, topped with fried calamari, banana pepper rings, garlic butter and lemon aioli, and Shepard’s Pie Fries, with ground beef, shredded carrots, sautéed onions, gravy and cheddar.

• Cross-utilize ingredients. With two types on offer— traditional round and Roman-style rectangular pies— Sillari can use many of his sandwich ingredients on pizzas, too. “For example, we have a pizza right now with grilled steak, peppers and onions, like a Philly cheesesteak,” he says. “We can cross-utilize so many things on our fries, sandwiches and pizzas: meats like mortadella, capicola and salami; vegetables like arugula and potatoes; and add-ons like rosemary and garlic cream sauce.”

• Encourage social media salivation. Sillari ditches traditional advertising and focuses strictly on social media to spread the word about his sandwiches and other menu items. Mouthwatering shots of Mortadella Head creations fill his restaurant’s Instagram and Facebook pages, accompanied by localleaning hashtags like #bostoneats, #somerville and #davissquare, as well as general ones such as #foodie, #foodporn and #cheatmeal. “We have a lot of college students here, so we search to find what hashtags we know will work for that demographic,” Sillari explains.

“We’ll even direct-message people on social media and say, ‘Come in Friday night to try this!’”

• Lighten up with LTOs. Limited-time sandwiches, often a result of sudden inspiration that leads to kitchen experimentation, are a regular feature at Mortadella Head. Recently, an off-the-cuff trial was so popular it made the permanent menu: the Porco Dio!, with porchetta, broccoli rabe, caramelized onions, provolone and Calabrian chili mayo. “There are no set rules, so we have a lot of fun with it,” Sillari says. “As we grow, we’ll probably get more systematized, like having a sandwich of the month. The sky’s the limit!”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

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PIZZA WITHOUT BORDERS

PAZZI is the first completely autonomous pizzeria, set to debut in Paris this May.

R E L AT E D V I D E O WATCH T H E V ID EO AT P M Q . COM / AUTO MAT ICFR A N CE

LIVING HOT AND FAST IN FRANCE

Tech companies are pushing automation, but demand for flesh-and-blood pizza makers is higher than ever.

By Missy Green

The food industry in France is on a fast track to automation, and it doesn’t come as much of a surprise. France is the second largest consumer of pizza in the world. And, like in so many countries with high costs of living, robots are favorite employees. “A robot is always consistent, always sanitary, and he never decides suddenly not to show up to work,” says Thierry Graffagnino, a French chef who has developed recipes for a pizza making robot named PAZZI that’s under development by food tech startup EKIM. “He doesn’t think; he just does what he’s programmed to do.” And it goes without saying that robots don’t complain or request time off—at least not yet.

Not that French foodservice workers have much to worry about right now—it’s notoriously difficult to fire an employee in France. But as more companies invest in an automated future, that could change. At Parizza, one of the biggest pizza trade shows in Europe, companies marketing ordering kiosks abound. Their top selling point? The low cost. It’s more affordable, they say, to install an ordering kiosk than

an employee at the register, not to mention all of the other benefits, such as increased accuracy for orders and reduction of theft.

But despite their doomsday reputation, many of the latest innovations in French technology are not at odds with humans.

“A machine can never replace the art of a real pizzaiolo,” Graffagnino says. In fact, one company notes that its pizza vending machines will create an additional source of income for the pizza maker without stealing anyone’s job—the pizzas would still be made by a person but could be sold around the clock.

Meanwhile, in Italy, you can find farmers using vending machines to sell raw milk at any hour of the day. In the Netherlands, farm fresh eggs sit, ready for sale, in vending machines by the side of the road.

If anything, pizza makers are more in demand since automation began to creep into the food industry. Like Italy, Scandinavian countries and many other parts of the developed world, France is facing a labor crisis when it comes to pizzaioli.

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“There is a huge shortage of pizza makers in France, because people don’t want to work,” says Rabah Zoaui, a pizzeria owner and pizza making instructor in Carcassonne. “Our field is difficult because of the hours.”

In America, millennials pose similar problems to the traditional workforce, reports Gino Rago, co-owner of Panino’s in Chicago. “Young people today lack passion in the work they do,” he says. “They want to set their own hours. When we grew up, our schedule was our schedule, and if you wanted off, you had to find someone to cover for you.”

With frequent turnover and apathetic employees, more innovations are popping up at industry trade shows. On display at Parizza last year was an Italian dough press that mimicked the touch of a real pizzaiolo’s hands. Several others promoted par-baked crusts that require no skills to prepare.

“A robot is always consistent, always sanitary, and he never decides suddenly not to show up to work.”

—CHEF THIERRY GRAFFAGNINO

Clockwise from top left: Thierry Graffagnino has spent years developing the perfect pizza dough and sourcing all the ingredients for PAZZI; Radostin Kiryazov demonstrates a dough press that uses soft varying pressure to mimic human hands; A vending machine outside Bergamo, Italy, sells raw milk along a busy country road; Missy Green spins pizza dough with French chefs at the Parizza show in Paris.

Never fear: The art of pizza making is still alive and well, despite these innovations. The first pizza beauty contest in Paris will be held April 1 to 2 this year at Parizza. In addition, Galbani will hold its third annual Pizza a Due competition, mirroring the culinary contest at the World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy. The event aims to raise pizza to the level of haute cuisine, with teams of pizzaioli and chefs working side by side to craft pizza masterpieces—no robots allowed.

To find out more about Parizza, visit parizza.com.

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

MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

PORTION PEEL

The Portion PeeL has it all: accuracy, consistency and a return on investment. It gives wood peel users a more accurate and consistent way to stretch dough. Its laseretched measuring circles are custom-made to each customer’s pizza sizes, preventing overstretching dough, ensuring more accurate and consistent crusts, reducing food costs and increasing profits. Visit Pizza Expo booth no. 1277. portionpeels.com, 330-608-5928

PRECISION MIXERS Precision Mixers withstand the toughest of mixing environments and deliver savings with the longest warranty in the industry. With the HD-60 Pizza Mixer, which comes standard with a seven-year warranty on all gears and shafts in the transmission and planetary, your kitchen staff can mix with confidence. A range of mixers, from 10-quart to 140-quart, are available. Spiral mixers are also available. precisionmixers.com, 877-764-9377

SUNGLO PATIO HEATER The Sunglo Patio Heater Model PSA265 is a natural-gas outdoor heater for open restaurant patios. The in-ground post minimizes desk space and positions heaters at the ideal height for comfort and safety. It’s available in various control systems, from a manually controlled unit needing no electrical connections (PSA265) to a fully automated ignition system (PSA265E) requiring an external 24VAC source. infradyne.com, 888-317-5255

SIERRA RANGE VOLARE From Sierra Range, the revolutionary Volare gas-fired, double-deck pizza oven inspires cooking perfection day after day. It features dual rotating ceramic stone decks and a glass enclosure. Designed for pizzerias, restaurants, airports, hotels, markets and schools, it will bake up to 160 medium-sized (12”) pies per hour—as well as sandwiches, breads and bagels—with the quality and taste you desire. mvpgroupcorp.com, 888-275-4588

THE EQUALIZER The Equalizer is a precision pizza-cutting tool. The multi-blade rocker knife controls and eliminates failed attempts at uniform slices of pizza. Critical for organizations involved in by-the-slice sales, equal slices deliver customer satisfaction and calculated nutritional portions. The Equalizer is available in multiple sizes and slice options. Visit Lloyd Pans at Pizza Expo booth no. 1857. lloydpans.com, 800-748-6251

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

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MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

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00 FLOUR

Molino Pasini s.p.a. - Italy

Full line flours for Pizza, Fresh Pasta, Ready Mix for gnocchi Phone: 1-973-454-8534 +39 0376 969015 www.molinopasini.com - info@molinopasini.com

Call 800-501-2458 ........... www.doughmate.com ......... fax: 908-276-9483

The Original Dough Box

◆

FOOD DISTRIBUTORS

• Fiberglass strength & durability outlast plastic trays • Secure stacking, won't bend or sag • 3 standard sizes with snap-on lids • Optional lids and dollies available

FLOUR, GLUTEN-FREE Scan for Demo

FRYERS

BE THE Premium Flours Make Gluten-Free Tasty & Easy!

Tel: 310-366-7612 E-mail: sales@authenticfoods.com Web: www.authenticfoods.com

FLOUR

Exceptional pizza starts with exceptional flour.

Traditional Pizza Flours, Whole Grain Flours, Pizza Crust Mixes, Private Label Packaging, Proprietary Blending, Custom Development

KING OF

CHICKEN WINGS With AutoFry and MultiChef ventless technology you can serve hot delicious appetizers without the need for costly renovations.

Fully Automated • Convenient • Reliable • Safe • Affordable • Fully Enclosed For more information call 800-348-2976 or visit us online at MTIproducts.com • AutoFry.com • MultiChef.com Your Source for Ventless Kitchen Solutions for over 25 Years

For more information call 1-800-553-5687 or visit www.baystatemilling.com

A revolutionary ingredient changing the way people enjoy Italian cuisine Carlo F. Pedone • 414.301.4245 • carlo@pinsaromana.us

FURNITURE/FIXTURES

Heat your Restaurant with SUNPAK® Outdoor Patio Heaters

Learn more about Pinsa Romana or attending the academy: pinsaromana.us • pinsaschool.com

SEE US AT PIZZA EXPO, BOOTH #2939

Wall or ceiling mounted, nothing on the floor Natural Gas or Propane Models Made in the U.S.A.

www.infradyne.com

888.317.5255

MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

MAGNETS

GLUTEN-FREE PRODUCTS Scan for Demo

Premium Flours Make Gluten-Free Tasty & Easy!

Tel: 310-366-7612 E-mail: sales@authenticfoods.com W H O L E S Web: O M www.authenticfoods.com E & D E L I C I O U S ™ WHOLES

OME & DELICIOUS

™

M A C H I N E R Y/ E Q U I P M E N T

1-800-426-0323

www.northernpizza.com

HOTEL 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

Ovens Mixers Prep Tables Walk-ins Parts Smallwares

MAILING LISTS

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!

Get a Free Quote Now

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

INSURANCE

PIZZAPRO INSURANCE PROGRAM Insurance Designed for Pizza Delivery Operations HAVE YOUR AGENT CONTACT US TODAY!

Julie Reisinger: (717) 214-7616 | pizzapro.amwins.com MANAGEMENT

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

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

805-473-8494 | 1-800-760-8662 100 %C ott on

MARKETING IDEAS

lo Po

Your Logo Here 100% Cotton Raglan Sleeve T-Shirt with Sewn Material

Cotton Poly-Blend Chef Shirt

Custom Caps

FOR MORE CHEFWARE, VISIT WWW.TASTEOFITALY.ORG (PGS 22 & 23) FOR MORE CHEFWARE, VISIT WWW.TASTEOFITALY.ORG (CLICK PGS. 22 & 23)

1-800-760-8662 | 805-473-8494

Pizza’s Great Storyteller

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

Rix Quinn

11’ 6” Outdoor Flags (with stand)

Chef Aprons

W

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

M E AT TO P P I N G S

ON HOLD MARKETING/PHONE SERVICES

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.

“Consistently Delicious!”

FOODSERVICE, PRIVATE LABEL AND RETAIL PRODUCTS

847-228-7070 • Elk Grove Village, IL • www.devancofoods.com

O N L I N E DATA R E P O RT S

MIXERS

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 0 5 lb our! of fl

Euromonitor International

Your Strategic Partner for Company Growth Contact us at info-usa@euromonitor.com or visit www.euromonitor.com

www.pizzamixers.com • 1-877-R-MIXERS

Heavy Duty MIXeRS RS

2-Year Warranty

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

Discover all the pizza trends in the Pizza Consumer Trend Report.

312.506.4060 | info@technomic.com

Globe Food Equipment Co. | www.globefoodequip.com ONLINE ORDERING

POS Integration with: Dinerware

MOISTURE-ABSORBENT TOPPINGS CONDITIONER/SUPPLIES

Custom App $99 Monthly + 0% Commission imenutogo.com Online Mobile Ordering Solution (718) 554-0524

OLIVES THE WORLD`S LARGEST OLIVE AND OLIVE OIL PRODUCER 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

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

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

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

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE PIZZA BOXES

PIZZA OVENS

Your food. Our custom-printed boxes.

A winning combination.

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

800-626-0828 | starpizzabox.com PIZZA BOXES

CUSTOMIZE YOUR PIZZA BOX SAVE $$$ on BOXES TAKE YOUR IMAGE TO THE NEXT LEVEL

PIZZA OVENS

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

PIZZA BOX LINERS

PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS

Stone Deck, Pizza Dome, and Bakery PIZZA MARKETING

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

CONTROL THE

BEAST marraforni.com

inquiries@marraforni.com

888.239.0575

WWW.XLTOVENS.COM pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/

TO ORDER CALL (316) 943-2751 | TOLL-FREE: (888) 443-2751 | FAX: (316) 943-2769 MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

PIZZA OVENS

PIZZA PEELS

TRADITIONAL, FAST CASUAL, ARTISAN...

WE’VE GOT PIZZA COVERED VENTLESS IMPINGEMENT CONVEYORS, BATCH, AND ARTISAN BATCH OVENS 1-800-90TURBO | www.turbochef.com

PIZZA SUPPLIES

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

• Pizza Preparation and Delivery Products •

PIZZA PANS 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

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

PIZZA DELIVERY THERMAL BAGS

Model PBF10/1416S -Packed 2 $87.98 or $43.99 + S & H Model PBF10/1618S - Packed 2 $91.98 or $45.99 + S & H

Warranty: 6 months for all manufacturing defects!

Order Manufacturer Direct Toll Free: 1-844-545-9675 Fax: 763-577-5680

High Qua lit y Pizza Tools

Made in Italy Since 1986

Phone 630-553-9135 sales@gimetalusa.com www.gimetalusa.com MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE PIZZA SUPPLIES

PRINTING

PRINTING

Are you a pizza-making genius?

PROVE IT!

Share your best recipes with PMQ - and the entire pizza-loving world in the Recipe Bank.

• Pizzas • Appetizers • Entrees

• Wings • Flatbreads • Salads

• Desserts • and More!

SAUCE

Submit your recipes TODAY at PMQ.com/recipebank!

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PIZZA INDUSTRY RESOURCE GUIDE

SAUCE

WINGS

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.

YEAST

SCALES

Booth #7110 T E L E P H O N E E Q U I P M E N T/ S U P P L I E S / S E R V I C E

Know a pizzeria that’s over 50 years old and a pillar of the community?

TO M ATO P RO D U C T S

Nominate them for inclusion into the Pizza Hall of Fame!

Visit

www.PizzaHallofFame.com for more information.

pmq.com/Recipe-Bank/ MARCH 2019 | PMQ.COM

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THE PIZZA EXCHANGE

TA B L EC LOT H S

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.

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

• • • •

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

ALWAYS WITH YOU.

Come follow us, like us, and engage with us on these social media platforms!

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PIZZA HALL OF FAME

Watch of Fam Pizza Hall PizzaT e videos on V.c NEW P om and th e izzaTV chann Roku el!

Reservoir Tavern, once a converted house and speakeasy, has enjoyed more than 80 years of success under the helm of three generations of fathers and sons, all named Nick Bevacqua.

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

RESERVOIR TAVERN A stroke of bad luck transformed into a surprise blessing, spawning one of the oldest pizzerias in the United States. By Tracy Morin Though born in the United States, Nick Bevacqua moved with his family to their homeland, Italy, as an infant, eventually returning at 17 years old. With little English but a strong work ethic, he toiled at manual labor jobs and, while digging a road trench, was hit by a car, landing him in the hospital for months. But the tragedy had a silver lining: With the $1,800 insurance settlement, he and a partner opened up Reservoir Tavern in 1936 in Boonton, New Jersey—far from a bustling metropolis at the time but the only spot they could afford. “He hung around the bigger towns, like Paterson and Jersey City, and tried to pick up hints,” recounts Nick Bevacqua III, grandson of the original founder and current owner. “It took forever to be successful but picked up in the ’50s and ’60s, when more people had cars and could get around.”

With slow-rise dough fired up in a coal oven, plus his wife’s beloved Italian recipes, the tavern eventually cemented its reputation and passed from father to son through three generations: first Frank and Nick Jr. (who turned 90 last January and remains a regular fixture at the business), and now Nick III, who grew up in the pizzeria juggling

every job and assumed full operations in the early ’80s. With more than 80 years under its belt, Reservoir Tavern has not only flourished, it has become a bona fide landmark in Boonton, even nabbing a TV spot on 20/20. “We spend absolutely no money on marketing, but everyone knows us in North Jersey—even as far away as Europe!” Nick III marvels. “With so much history and so many memories, this place is truly unique.”

The once-tiny converted house and speakeasy has grown to a full bar and restaurant with seating for 127 and a vast kitchen to crank out its famous Clam & Garlic Pizza and other family-style favorites. And it continues to evolve with the times, now offering third-party delivery service, gluten-free pies, and eclectic menu specials to suit modern palates. “People are more educated now, so if you make an exceptional product, they appreciate that,” Nick III says. “You could set your clock by some of our customers walking in, and that’s what we love: the people. I say it’s dumb luck, but I guess we did something right!”

Tracy Morin is PMQ’s senior copy editor.

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CHICKEN WING EATNG CONTEST

VOTED BEST BOOTH AT PIZZA EXPO 25 YEARS IN A ROW!

SIGN UP AT THE BUSIEST BOOTH AT PIZZA EXPO BOOTH #2059

/joeylanova /lanovawings @joeylanova La Nova Wings

Phone: 716-881-3355 | www.LANOVA.com

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