Dan Richer, owner of Razza Pizza Artigianale in Jersey City, New Jersey, is one of the giants of the pizza community. The author of the influential The Joy of Pizza was named 2023’s Pizza Maker of the Year by 50 Top Pizza, which also ranked Razza No. 13 in the U.S. last year. But Richer’s pursuit of perfection goes beyond pizza: He can also navigate problems with his plumbing and HVAC in a pinch. “Understanding facility management is really important,” Richer says. “So study up….It’ll cause you a lot of stress in your life if you can’t figure out how to diagnose some of those issues.” And we all know what stress will do to the mind and the body—and to your business. That’s why Richer is a big believer in mental wellness. “Everybody should be in therapy,” he says. “I’ve gone through [burnout] many times throughout the decades. And nothing goes well when the leader is burnt out. You have to know when to step back and focus on yourself. Make sure you’re in the right headspace physically and emotionally, because you’re the one that everybody is watching. So keep a full gas tank, and that’ll keep you going.”
ELEVATING THE BUSINESS OF PIZZA
WTWH MEDIA, LLC
CEO Matt Logan mlogan@wtwhmedia.com
CONTENT
EDITOR IN CHIEF Rick Hynum rhynum@wtwhmedia.com
SENIOR EDITOR Charlie Pogacar cpogacar@wtwhmedia.com
ASSOCIATE EDITOR Tracy Morin tmorin@wtwhmedia.com
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ART & PRODUCTION
ART DIRECTOR Eric Summers esummers@wtwhmedia.com
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DIGITAL PRODUCTION COORDINATOR Mariam Sedrakyan msedrakyan@wtwhmedia.com
A Publication of WTWH Media, LLC 662-234-5481
Volume 29, Issue 5
June/July 2025 ISSN 1937-5263
CONTENT STUDIO
VICE PRESIDENT Peggy Carouthers pcarouthers@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER Drew Filipski dfilipski@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER Ya’el McCloud ymccloud@wtwhmedia.com
WRITER Abby Winterburn awinterburn@wtwhmedia.com
SALES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
VP, SALES Lindsay Buck lbuck@wtwhmedia.com
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER Tom Boyles tboyles@wtwhmedia.com
VP, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT Eugene Drezner edrezner@wtwhmedia.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE
Brandy Pinion bpinion@wtwhmedia.com
CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE Tracy Doubts tdoubts@wtwhmedia.com
FOUNDER
Steve Green
PMQ PIZZA Issue 5 June/July 2025 (ISSN 1937-5263) is published monthly in January, March, April, May, June, August, September, October, November and December by WTWH Media, LLC, 1111 Superior Ave #2600, Cleveland, OH 44114-2560.
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Opinions expressed by the editors and contributing writers are strictly their own and not necessarily those of the advertisers. All rights reserved. No portion of PMQ PIZZA may be reproduced in whole or part without written consent.
June/July 2025
24 The Money Train
Consistent training procedures create a better guest experience, reduce employee turnover and food waste, and help today’s new hires become tomorrow’s leaders.
30 Pizza Power Forum Preview: What’s On Your Mind?
PMQ’s readers are our pizza family, and families solve problems together. That’s what the 2nd annual Pizza Power Forum, taking place September 2 through 4 in Atlanta, is all about.
34 Going Tip-Free
Is the tipping model becoming a relic of the past? Two operators share their reasoning, policies and success stories as tipless pizzerias.
40 The Hot Dog King of South Dakota
Pizza restaurateur and U.S. Pizza Team member Sean Dempsey has a summertime side hustle that cuts the mustard: Dempsey’s Proper Hot Dog Co.
Managing dough is like taming a wild beast. Here’s how to establish protocols for success, prevent and solve common problems, and bail yourself out of dough emergencies.
Polly-o mozzarella is the best part of the pizza
Developed specifically for New York style pizza, our new loaf is the perfect combination of quality and convenience. With a superior melt, stretch and browning, this formula is full of flavor with less residual oil.
CHEESE, Made in New York since 1899
email info@polly-o.com to request samples
PAULIE GEE’S: PIZZA FROM THE HEART
AT AN AGE WHEN MOST PEOPLE ARE COUNTING DOWN the years to retirement, Paul Giannone (known as Paulie Gee), then 56, founded Paulie Gee’s in Brooklyn with his wife, Mary Ann. The iconic concept has mushroomed since then, with locations in Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Columbus, Ohio. Now the long-married lovebirds are sharing their story—and 100-plus recipes—with the world in their new book, Pizza From the Heart. “It’s not just a pizza book,” Mary Ann says. “That’s really not who we are.” When you own a renowned pizza brand, publishers expect a cookbook, so the Giannones delivered one.
However, they’re dedicated, above all, to supporting the pizza community. “We’re always looking for people who want to have their life saved the way our life was saved,” Paulie explains. “I’m always looking to help other people open their own shops, and that’s really our focus. We could have created a conglomerate, but that’s not what we wanted.” So if you’re looking for amazing recipes from a pizza legend, Pizza From the Heart fits the bill. But, Mary Ann notes, “I really wanted to use this as more of an inspirational tool than anything.”
Paul and Mary Ann Giannone hope their new book serves as “more of an inspirational tool than anything.”
READ TO SUCCEED
Wednesdays at Big Apple Pizza were once so slow, owner Scott Van Duzer didn’t even go in to work. Now the Port St. Lucie, Florida, restaurateur doesn’t dare stay home—that midweek night’s a monster, thanks to a children’s literacy program he implemented two years ago: Read to Succeed. Scholastic donated 10,000 books to the program this year, and area schools pass out weekly fliers to kids and their parents to promote it. The free books can be picked up at Big Apple, and for every book a child reads, they get a free slice and Pepsi at the pizzeria every Wednesday night from 4 to 8 p.m.—and hundreds of them bring their families along, too. The program has spread beyond Big Apple’s service area, bringing children in from surrounding counties. “We built the slowest day of my week into a day that’s comparable with a Friday,” Van Duzer says. “Not only that, we’re bringing 200 to 300 families here and doing $2,000 to $4,000 in business with them. It builds relationships with the schools, and they’re so loyal. It’s a winwin-win: a win for the community, for my sales, and for the kids because we’re putting books in their hands.” Next on Van Duzer’s to-do list: He wants to enlist pizzerias around the U.S. for the program.
TEACHERS’ PETS
“You have to win hearts before you can win wallets,” says Hengam Stanfield, co-owner of Mattenga’s Pizzeria in San Antonio. In an example of the brand’s exceptional marketing wizardry, Mattenga’s celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week in May by serving 700 teachers at 35 schools. Mattenga’s kicked off the promotion with a late-April social media post that encouraged customers to comment or tag their favorite school, share the post for double loyalty rewards points, and follow the Mattenga’s social media page. That post earned more than 2,200 comments and nearly 700 shares on Facebook alone, achieving an organic reach of 80,000plus. Mattenga’s donated five 16” pizzas to five schools near each of its seven locations. “Each pizza feeds about four teachers, which gets us to that 700 mark,” Stanfield says. At every school, team members took photos that were shared on social media and displayed at Mattenga’s stores to keep the momentum going. “We believe every great promotion should be mutually beneficial,” Stanfield says. “For us, that means doing something genuinely good and generating meaningful brand awareness.”
MATTENGA’S PIZZERIA
For the Read to Succeed program, Scott Van Duzer, shown here with his granddaughter, Abigail, donates 50% of Wednesday night sales—“sales, not profits,” he notes—back to the schools.
SCOTT VAN DUZER
Campaigns like Mattenga’s Teacher Appreciation Week promo build long-term loyalty and create an emotional bond that lasts.
IP Phone Service
Increase revenue and lower cost
• No Busy Signals
• Call Recording
• Call Queuing / Auto Answering
• Multiple (random) start of call upsell messages
• On hold music/message loops
• Detailed reports—hold times, lost calls etc
• Callerid delivered to POS system
• Auto attendants— ”If you have arrived for curbside pickup press one ”
Cellular Backup Internet
Protect against outages
• When your Internet fails our cellular backup router keeps your phones, credit card processing and web orders all working.
• The backup kicks in automatically in seconds. So quickly you will not even drop calls in progress when your primary Internet goes down!
• The same router can be used to create chain wide virtual private network to connect your locations.
• SD WAN LTE/LTE A (4G/5G) modems.
On the PBX
“Press one to receive a text message with links to our onlne ordering ”.
SMS Marketing
Manage bulk text message marketing from our system to drive increased revenue. As low as $0.01 per message. Group text messaging to communicate with your employees (drivers, bartenders, all staff etc).
Price for this service varies based on type of message & volume.
• We apply volume discounts across entire chain, so individual location owners benefit from total chain volume.
As low as $0.01 per message for high volume customers!
Use your Existing Phone Number to send messages!
• Either through direct integration to your POS system, or by exporting lists from the POS to import into our platform, you can schedule & manage outbound text message marketing to increase revenue.
We are fully compliant with CITA/FCC regulations!
Text messages have up to 95% open rate within minutes: push online orders, drive additional revenue, & send upsell messages!
EXAMPLE OF HOW IT WORKS:
1) Send a X Dollars off coupon message to customers who’s last order was more than 90 days ago, with the goal of “re activating” those customers.
2) Send an “upsell” coupon for add on items to more active customers
3) Automated campaign to send a few hundred messages per day, with the goal of adding 10+ additional orders per day. Messages can be coupons, but you can also get great traction with messages such as “Happy Monday. Did you know you are allowed to eat pizza on Monday?” followed by your online ordering link.
THE 2025 DOUGH SURVIVAL GUIDE
Your pizza dough seems to know it’s vital to your business and demands your respect. Here’s how to build a better relationship with the beast that makes the feast.
MANAGING YOUR PIZZA
DOUGH CAN FEEL A BIT LIKE TAMING A WILD BEAST. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT FOLLOWING A RECIPE—IT’S ABOUT WORKING WITH A LIVING ORGANISM THAT REACTS
TO TIME, TEMPERATURE, HUMIDITY AND EVEN THE PIZZA MAKER’S HABITS.
Sensitive and moody, dough doesn’t care about your lunch rush. It might not behave the same way from one batch to the next, even if you followed the dough formula to a T. Put it in the wrong spot in your walk-in, and it will make you sorry. Dough seems to know it’s vital to your business and wants to be treated with respect. You need a system to keep things predictable, plus the skill to respond when your dough does something unexpected. Drawing from more than 25 years of expert advice from dough scientists like the late, great Tom “The Dough Doctor” Lehmann and leading pizza chefs, PMQ has assembled this dough management guide to help you establish protocols for success, prevent and solve common problems, and bail yourself out of dough emergencies. Whether you’re a seasoned pizza chef training new employees or a newcomer to the pizza community, these tips will help you build a better relationship with the beast that makes the feast.
DOUGH MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE: 10 STEPS TO CONSISTENT DOUGH
Effective dough management is crucial to making pizza dough that performs consistently. It also minimizes dough loss, which lowers your food costs. The three essentials of quality dough management are scaling/weighing of ingredients; a good thermometer (to measure temperature); and the ability to follow a timed schedule. Remember: You cannot have effective dough management without time and temperature controls.
1
Weigh all dough ingredients. If the ingredient weights vary, so will your dough quality, so purchase a reliable scale.
2
Know your yeasts. For active dry yeast (ADY), use a good dial- or stem-type thermometer to measure water temperature. The amount of water used to hydrate ADY is four to five times the weight of the yeast,
and that water should be at a temperature of 105°F. Stir well, allow to set for 10 minutes, and then add to the water in the mixing bowl.
For instant dry yeast (IDY), add it directly on top of the flour. Do not hydrate IDY.
For fresh compressed yeast, crumble it on top of the flour. Make sure it doesn’t come into direct contact with the salt or the sugar in the mixing bowl.
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
An emergency dough plan is like an insurance policy. You hope you never need it, but when you do, you’re really glad you’ve got it. Always have an emergency dough formula and procedure written down and secured in the manager’s office.
To convert your regular dough formula to an emergency dough, follow these steps:
1. Double the amount of yeast, but do not exceed 2% of the flour weight.
2. Increase the target finished dough temperature to 90° to 95°F.
3. Mix the dough just until it takes on a smooth, satiny appearance in the mixing bowl (this may or may not be different from the way you normally mix your dough).
4. If your dough formula contains sugar, reduce it by half.
Immediately after mixing, scale into desired-weight pieces and ball. Place the dough balls into plastic dough boxes and wipe them with a little oil. Cover and set aside to proof/ rise at room temperature for two hours, or until the dough can be opened into dough skins without excessive snap-back. Your dough is now ready to use!
3
Mix the dough. Pour the water in the mixing bowl first. A water temperature of 65°F will usually give a finished dough temperature within the desired 80° to 85°F range. Then add the flour and the remaining dry ingredients. Mix the dough for two minutes at low speed, then add the oil. Mix for an additional one minute at low speed. Switch to second/medium speed and mix for eight to 10 minutes to finish the dough.
4
Check the temperature of the mixed dough. Again, it should be within the range of 80° to 85°F. If it’s not, adjust the water temperature of the next dough batch in 5°F increments (whether higher or lower) to achieve that targeted range.
5
Scale and ball the dough. Immediately after mixing, take the dough to the bench, scale into the desired-weight pieces, form into balls, and place into plastic dough boxes. Wipe the tops of the dough balls with a little olive oil before cross-stacking your boxes and taking them directly to the cooler. Aim to get all of the dough into the cooler within 20 minutes of mixing.
6 Why cross-stack your dough boxes? Crossstacking is critical to dough’s success. Sticky or bubbling dough can usually be attributed to failure to cross-stack dough boxes long enough for the dough balls to reach the target internal temperature (typically 50° to 55°F). The dough
TO PREVENT STICKY OR BUBBLING DOUGH, IT’S ESSENTIAL TO CROSS-STACK DOUGH BOXES LONG ENOUGH FOR THE DOUGH BALLS TO REACH THE TARGET INTERNAL TEMPERATURE (TYPICALLY 50° TO 55°F).
balls, being warm, will give up moisture, which will condense on the inside of the boxes if they’re not cross-stacked, resulting in wet dough. Additionally, the box will retain heat from the dough balls, allowing for faster fermentation, which can lead to blown dough.
7 Place dough boxes in the cooler. Make sure to store the dough boxes in a location within the cooler where temperature fluctuations are minimal—i.e., the center or back of the cooler, not near the door. Let them cool for 90 minutes for dough weights of 12 ounces or less, and 120 minutes for 12-plus ounces.
8 Down-stack the boxes.
After the cross-stacked time has elapsed, down-stack the dough boxes and nest them to prevent drying.
9 Dough will be ready to use after 12 hours in the cooler. However, the dough can be left in the cooler for up to three days (72 hours). The dough balls will be at their best after 24 to 48 hours, but many pizzaioli prefer a 72-hour ferment.
10 Remove dough from the cooler. To use the dough balls, remove a sufficient quantity from the cooler to provide roughly a three-hour supply. Keep the dough balls covered in their boxes and allow them to warm to 50° to 55°F before opening them into skins. Once you begin using the dough balls, the dough will remain good to use for three to four hours.
5 TIPS FOR TROUBLESHOOTING
1 Preventing blown dough.
Blown dough is always the result of poor dough management practices. The most common mistake is the failure to cross-stack your dough boxes. Once you’ve made your dough balls and boxed them, the boxes should be crossstacked and placed into the cooler within 20 minutes. Cross-stacking allows air to flow freely through the boxes and around the dough balls, ensuring the balls cool down at a consistent rate. Failure to crossstack your boxes creates an airtight seal, which traps and builds up heat in the dough boxes, allowing fermentation to continue for longer than desired. In that case, the dough balls may never cool off properly,
or they may ferment for too long before cooling down, resulting in blown dough. Finished dough temperature is also important. Dough balls should cool to between 75° and 85°F before going into the cooler.
2 Taking dough temperature. How do you know when your dough boxes have been cross-stacked for a sufficient amount of time? If you’re thinking it comes down to temperature, you’re thinking right. Using a stem-type thermometer, insert it into a dough ball and measure its temperature. If you plan to hold the dough balls in the cooler for no longer than 24 to 36 hours, 55°F is a good temperature
to aim for. If you plan to hold them for 48 hours or more, it’s best to target a temperature of 50°F before down-stacking the boxes. These temperatures apply whether you are using a walk-in or a reach-in cooler.
3
Bubble trouble. If your dough bubbles during the baking process, it’s very likely because you took the dough directly from the cooler to the prep table to the oven. If you must work your dough right out of the cooler, dock it with a plastic dough docker before dressing the dough skin.
4
Opening dough into skins. After cold-fermenting, your dough will come out of the cooler at roughly 36° to 38°F. They’re not going to open up easily right away. If you open them up with a machine, they’ll tear. If you open them up by hand, they will be extremely difficult to work with and will fight you all the way. You need to allow the dough to warm up sufficiently so the balls become malleable enough to open without snapping back. The dough’s internal temperature should be at a minimum of 50°F and a maximum of 60°F. As you’re treading closer to that 60° range, however, you will be shortening the length of time before the dough ball has to be used.
MOST
SEASONAL DOUGH ISSUES
CAN BE TRACED BACK TO LACK OF TEMPERATURE CONTROL OR, MORE PRECISELY, A FAILURE TO MONITOR TEMPERATURE WHEN MAKING THE DOUGH.
5 Seasonal challenges.
Temperature is the No. 1 driver of fermentation. Higher temperatures speed up the rate of fermentation, and lower temperatures slow it down. Most seasonal dough issues can be traced back to lack of temperature control or, more precisely, a failure to
FLOUR POWER
monitor temperature when making the dough. To manage seasonal changes in dough behavior, establish a desired mixed-dough temperature (or targeted finished-dough temperature). Use this temperature year-round to set the stage for dough fermentation. You will also need to measure the temperature of each dough after mixing to confirm that it’s within your target temperature range. For most pizzerias, the targeted temperature range will be 75° to 80°F for a walk-in cooler or 70° to 75°F for a reach-in cooler. But the targeted temperature can vary depending on your shop’s specific conditions, the type of pizzas being made and your dough management procedures. The idea is to be consistent!
Selecting the right flour is critical to the final texture of the pizza, according to master pizzaiolo/instructor Leo Spizzirri. Generally speaking, the shorter the maturation time between mixing and baking the dough, the lighter the flour should be. In most cases, a dough with a total maturation of 24 hours, for example, should contain a protein percentage of no more than 12% to 12.5%. As the maturation time increases, so will the protein.
Use the following guidelines:
• 12 hours: 10.5% to 11% protein
• 12 to 24 hours: 11.5% to 12.5% protein
• 24 to 48 hours: 12.5% to 13% protein
• 48 to 72 hours: 13% to 14% protein
• 72 hours or more: 14% or more
As the dough matures, the strength of the flour affects more than just the structural attributes of the dough; it also affects the baked pizza’s color. A flour that’s too weak will show signs of gumminess in the crumb and look white on the exterior. A flour with too much strength will yield a dark-brown or burnt exterior, sometimes before the crumb has finished baking properly and released its moisture. A heavy flour will also be difficult to stretch and seem dense or heavy after baking.
NOVEMBER 11-13, 2025
Orange County Convention Center // Orlando, FL
SHAPING THE FUTURE OF PIZZA, TOGETHER
Don’t miss the third annual Pizza Tomorrow Summit –we are returning to Orlando’s Orange County Convention Center – this year expanded to 3 FULL DAYS!
That’s 3 days of new product discovery from hundreds of vendors – including the co-located FLORIDA RESTAURANT SHOW – which means more vendors, more product categories and more excitement!
Plus over 40 HOURS of free education and the US Pizza Team Competitions!
Registration opens soon. GET ON THE LIST!
THIS YEAR THE SHOW IS EXPANDING TO THREE DAYS!! Co-located with the Florida Restaurant Show –ATTEND TWO SHOWS WITH ONE BADGE!
Start receiving our EVENT UPDATES!
Get your registration DISCOUNT CODE.
It's Alive! How to create a Sourdough Starter
MICHAEL KALANTY, author of How to Bake Bread: The Five Families of Bread and How to Bake More Bread: Modern Breads/Wild Yeast, has developed baking curricula for culinary schools across the U.S., Italy and other countries. At the 2022 International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE), Kalanty claimed top honors in two categories—Flatbread and Ciabatta—for his Pane alla Pala. He’s also the “proud dad” of a sourdough starter named Lucky Lady, showcased in the Puratos Sourdough Library in St. Vith, Belgium. In October 2021, Kalanty
shared with PMQ his secrets for bringing your own sourdough starter to life.
DAY 1:
Let’s start with 100g of water. You should use 80° to 90°F water to kick-start the birth of your starter and give it a nice, warm place to incubate for the first week of its life. If the temperature of the flour is warmer than that, use a little cooler water to get to that Goldilocks zone of 85°F (or adjust in the opposite direction if the flour is cooler). Now we need some kind of natural yeast
ingredient to go in and start the process. You can find this on the outside of vegetables, fruits and grains. I like to use raisins—they have millions of wild yeast cells on their skins. So I put in a handful of raisins. Then you add 100g of flour. Stir it up, and there you go! Basically, we are giving wild yeast an environment in which to multiply. Then you put a lid on it and leave it at room temperature. Just stir it occasionally to get more air for the yeast and to help distribute everything in the starter.
DAY 2:
The next day, you should take out half of your starter. Let’s say we have 200g. Remove 100g of starter and add another 100g each of flour and water, giving you 300g of starter. You always match the amount of flour to the amount of starter left in the container. Then add that same amount of water. Mix it, then let it begin the process again.
DAYS 3 TO 10:
Take out 200g from your starter, then add another 100g each of flour and water. Mix and refrigerate
again. Repeat this step for about 10 to 12 days, and then you should have a nice, ripe, aromatic starter reminiscent of the days of old. After about five or six days at room temperature, you will start to see some bubbles forming. Don’t rush to refrigerate it just yet. Wait a day or so, until you see reliable bubbling. In other words, when you refeed it, make sure you see bubbles again the next day before you refrigerate it. Otherwise, you retard the whole process. Once it’s formed and growing reliably, make sure it stays refrigerated after that.
Planning a trip? You can absolutely freeze your starter. It’s quite easy to reactivate and start up again. Just thaw it out, then halve it and feed it for three days like in the beginning of the starter process, and the creature will come back to life. It can live forever, as long as you feed it and maintain it between uses.
MONEY TRAIN THE
Take notes on top chains’ training procedures to maximize new-hire success, ensure consistent results and keep business thriving.
BY TRACY MORIN
WHETHER YOU’RE RUNNING A SINGLE MOM-AND-POP SHOP or a multi-location empire, setting standards is a must—especially when it comes to employee training. Consistent training procedures create an enjoyable guest experience, reduce costly employee turnover and food waste, and help today’s new hires become tomorrow’s leaders. Here, experts from four top chains discuss how their training ensures maximum success for both the business and its staff.
OUR EXPERTS
AUSTIN ALVAREZ
director of training, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana, New Haven, CT
vice president of training and culinary services, Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream, Bettendorf, IA
PMQ: What is your training process like, and what tools do you use to help new hires?
AUSTIN ALVAREZ: We sign them up for Opus, which is a learning management system (LMS) that focuses on micro learning, and they start taking courses on their phone. The first course is a welcome and introduction: what we do, the history, the culture and, of course, the pizzas.
Pizza cooks start by touching our dough and getting to know our raw ingredients—going in the walk-in, identifying different prep items, and filling our decorating station with those prep items. Understanding the oven is super important, too. On their first day, they’ll decorate and sauce some pies.
Our front of house spends their first day on a table with a manager— watching pizzas come out of the oven, learning all of our toppings and specialty pizzas, how to cut a pizza, and our standards of what a Frank Pepe pizza should look like. Our servers, counter employees and bartenders each have their own steps to service. These would include greeting the guests; asking if they’ve been to Frank Pepe before; offering salads, drinks, specialty pies and seasonal pizzas; checking in after two minutes or two bites
HEATHER FIGG director of training and development, Via 313, Austin, TX
senior director, learning and development, Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom, Houston, TX
of a salad or pizza; getting refills; and offering dessert. Knowing those steps of service would be the first thing that front-of-house people do.
ASHLEY BALLUF: Every new team member undergoes a comprehensive 30-day training journey. This program blends our interactive online learning platform with in-person experiences, including knowledge demonstrations, hands-on practice and skill assessments. We use a tech-based training platform, Stella, which provides structured and engaging digital coursework. This is complemented by traditional tools like handbooks, operational manuals, and hands-on, shoulder-to-shoulder training to reinforce learning in real time.
Culture is woven into the fabric of training from day one. For company-operated locations, all new hires attend onboarding and orientation at our Support Center, where we introduce them to the Happy Joe’s brand and our safety standards. Once on-site, the focus shifts to customer service excellence and deepening their knowledge of our menu offerings.
“We are in a digital age, so training reflects that—such as providing the employee handbook in a QR code to be accessible to all.”
Rachael Moseley, Old Chicago Pizza + Taproom
HEATHER FIGG: We place a strong emphasis on both culture and technical training from day one. Our digital training platform, the Detroit Pizza Academy (hosted through Wisetail),
ASHLEY BALLUF
RACHAEL MOSELEY
“Our front of house spends their first day on a table with a manager— watching pizzas come out of the oven, learning all of our toppings and specialty pizzas, how to cut a pizza, and…what a Frank Pepe pizza should look like.”
Austin Alvarez, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana
plays a big role in this. It allows us to deliver engaging video content, interactive modules and up-to-date resources for all roles—whether it’s front of house, back of house or leadership development. We also use it to roll out new menu items, seasonal LTOs and company-wide initiatives. We combine this technology with hands-on training led by certified trainers in each restaurant, including role play, demos and cross-training opportunities.
RACHAEL MOSELEY: We combine a dynamic online learning platform with a hands-on checklist to guide new team members through their first week. For hourly employees, our training materials are designed for realtime application. The training checklists include QR codes linking to short videos featuring some of our best team members, demonstrating everything from greeting a table to upselling different menu items to learning the basics of liquor, beer and wine.
We are in a digital age, so training reflects that—such as providing the employee handbook in a QR code to be accessible to all, utilizing Toast as our POS system with user-friendly training modules, and making ServSafe training available by logging in to our company website. This ensures our team is not only compliant but truly understands the why behind our best practices.
PMQ: What strategies do you use for follow-up to ensure the long-term success of new employees?
ALVAREZ: We have a steps of service check-in for servers, which the manager performs. It asks simple questions: Does the server know all the steps of service? Are they performing them at the table? The manager listens
or watches the server as they serve tables, and they determine whether they feel the server is performing them correctly.
We also have a management developmental record (MDR) and a teammate developmental record (TDR). The MDR is for a manager in training, but all of our managers have MDRs, whether they’ve been with us for a decade or three months. Our TDR, the teammate developmental record, is something new this year, and it essentially does the same thing as the MDR. It goes through basic competencies, like: Do you know how to operate the dishwasher? Do you know how to answer phones and take an order? Do you show respect to your teammates? Do you show up on time? That’s been super helpful for us, because we can keep track of how somebody is progressing in these areas and ways in which we can continue to help them.
BALLUF: Training doesn’t stop after 30 days—it evolves. We verify comprehension by requiring new hires to demonstrate and articulate the skills and knowledge they’ve acquired. Beyond that, we host monthly workshops for our leadership team—our “Coaches”— to maintain our standards. These two- to three-hour sessions, led by our Support Center team and special guest speakers, cover new initiatives, continuous learning and real-time retraining.
FIGG: Follow-up and accountability are key, so we conduct regular check-ins, skill validations and assessments to make sure every new hire is supported beyond their first few shifts.
MOSELEY: The team is rallied for a structured 15-minute “pre-meal” before every shift to go over menu knowledge,
news and notes, beer training and some type of motivational end. These are structured but energizing, like a locker-room talk, setting up each individual for a successful shift. For our managers, development is a continuous, layered process. Throughout a six-week training program, we integrate selfevaluations that promote reflection on challenges and personal growth. These conversations are seamlessly woven into the experience, creating an ongoing dialogue about development rather than a formal test. At the end of the process, leaders have a final check-in to ensure they’re fully prepared to step into their role with confidence and the right support.
PMQ: What role do seasoned employees play in mentoring new hires?
ALVAREZ: We encourage our managers to work alongside new pizza cooks. A lot of our managers are people who came up through the ranks, so they might have been very good pizza cooks themselves. We’re always trying to give constructive feedback throughout the shift, to continue to coach and support new teammates.
BALLUF: We’ve built a dedicated mentorship structure around our Certified Trainers, whom we call Mentors. These experienced team members are handpicked for their natural leadership abilities and undergo an extended training process. They guide every new hire and serve as culture carriers, skill coaches and role models throughout the training period.
“Follow-up and accountability are key, so we conduct regular check-ins, skill validations and assessments to make sure every new hire is supported beyond their first few shifts.”
Heather Figg, Via 313
Via 313 combines a digital training platform, hands-on training, and regular check-ins with skill assessments to maximize employee success at its 20-plus locations.
MOSELEY: We feature different trainers from various restaurants in our training videos, which we update every quarter. We encourage teams to send in their best clips to showcase what makes their location special—it creates a sense of pride and ownership, especially for our long-time employees. We also offer cross-training opportunities that give team members who are interested in becoming a manager a chance to test the waters, learn what leadership looks like, and decide if they’re ready to take that next step. They’re seasoned employees who genuinely love the brand and want to spread that passion to every new team member they meet. It helps keep our culture strong and growing.
PMQ: Are there any training
pitfalls to avoid?
ALVAREZ: Don’t get complacent—continuing to get better every day is important. We try to improve our procedures, asking, “How do we make this specific task easier for our teammates?” Listen to the advice of your new trainees. I love to sit down with somebody a few weeks into their training and ask, “How are things going so far? Where do you feel our training program has been very helpful, or where has it not been so helpful?”
MOSELEY: One of the biggest challenges I’ve seen is overrelying on technology to take the lead in training. While tech is a powerful tool, it can’t replace human connection. A computer won’t make someone feel seen or supported. We also recognize the importance of keeping our training content fresh and relevant. To stay in tune with the needs of today’s learners, we continuously evolve our approach. With many team members accustomed to short-form content from social media, we’ve adapted our training videos to fit that format. By incorporating 30-second clips, interactive components and engaging formats, we ensure our content is captivating and gives our team members an edge.
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
Igniting Growth in the Pizza Community
THE LEGENDARY PAUL GIANNONE doesn’t like the term “pizza industry.” I’m no legend, but I don’t care for it, either. I’m on Team Paulie Gee when he says we’re a community, not an industry. Like-minded people with a shared passion: creating and serving the world’s greatest food and making folks happy. Granted, the PMQ team just reports on the pizza community, but we’ve found a sense of belonging here, too. We serve you, and it’s an honor.
And we know this: Owning a pizzeria is tough. You’re not in it to get rich. You just want to make a good living and take care of your family, employees and customers. We know that because we talk to you every day—and we walk away from every conversation inspired. And for PMQ’s 2nd annual Pizza Power Forum, taking place
WHAT’S KEEPING YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT?
The Pizza Power Forum is back to serve you in 2025. Join us on September 2-4 in Atlanta, and let’s solve the pizza community’s problems together.
BY RICK HYNUM
September 2 to 4 in Atlanta, we’re excited to bring you all together again as a community.
Here’s our pledge: This event is your event. Every session will help you solve a problem that keeps you awake at night. But we don’t want you to just show up, sit and learn from our experts. We want you to join the discussion and feel part of something bigger. Hang out between sessions, make friends, and encourage, advise and lift each other up.
At the Pizza Power Forum, you are not butts in seats. You’re our pizza family. Families solve problems together. That’s what this event is all about. So read on for the details, and we’ll see you in Atlanta!
PMQ's Rick Hynum, who hates posing for pictures, made an exception for Janet Zapata of 550 Pizzeria at the 2024 Pizza Power Forum.
The 2nd Annual Pizza Power Forum
SEPTEMBER
2-4,
ATLANTA MARRIOTT MARQUIS
14 Educational Sessions & 25+ Speakers
Conference Schedule:
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
10 a.m.
KEYNOTE: DIGGING INTO THE INTOUCH INSIGHT DELCO STUDY: TAKEAWAYS FOR YOUR INDIE PIZZERIA
In this groundbreaking survey from Intouch Insight and PMQ Pizza, we identify the major pizza chains’ strengths and weaknesses in terms of carryout and delivery—and how you can beat them at their own game. The chains specialize in getting pizzas out the door fast, but are they living up to customers’ expectations? Is third-party delivery worth the extra fees? Do order-taking robots really outperform humans? Get the answers here!
Speaker:
Laura Livers and Sarah Beckett, Intouch Insight
11 a.m.
RECLAIM YOUR LIFE: BUILDING A PIZZERIA OPERATION THAT RUNS WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
Burnt out? Can’t get a vacation to save your life? If your pizzeria can’t run without you there every single day, what happens if you get seriously injured or ill? Fortunately, replacing yourself— and getting back some much-needed personal time—is easier than you realize. It’s a matter of training, empowering and trusting your managers and team
members so business keeps humming along. This panel takes a look at how you can start running your company as an owner rather than an owner/operator.
Panelists:
Joey Karvelas, Karvelas Pizza Co.
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
Patt Miller, Pizza Patt’s Slicehouse
11 a.m.
SOME LIKE IT COLD: SHIPPING YOUR FROZEN PIZZA TO BUILD A NATIONAL BRAND
Shipping your frozen pizzas nationwide doesn’t just mean incremental revenue. It can transform your independent pizzeria into a name brand around the country. Our panelists will show you how they address the logistical, financial and operational challenges involved, including choosing the right pizza style, freezing techniques to preserve flavor and texture, packaging, and working with co-packers and shipping partners.
Panelists:
Alexandra Castro, Everything Dough
Brian Lewis, Bocado
Matt McKenney, Pizza Freak Co.
1 p.m.
FRANCHISING 101: GROW YOUR BRAND USING A TIME-TESTED MODEL
You want to scale your business, but you can’t personally run every single store. Franchising is complicated, and you
don’t know where to start. This session features franchisors with decades of experience as well as relative newcomers who can share the challenges they’re going through right now. Learn about franchise disclosure documents, franchise agreements, site selection and build-outs, franchisee recruitment and more.
Panelists:
Erica Barrett, Dough Boy Pizza
Carl Comeaux, Crust Pizza Co.
Ric Gruber, Billy Bricks
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
1 p.m.
SUPERCHARGE YOUR MENU WITH GAME-CHANGING LTOS AND SIGNATURE PIZZAS
A stagnant menu won’t drive new traffic to your store. Sometimes all it takes is one or two new pizzas or dishes that are unlike anything customers can find elsewhere. Dreaming up and promoting LTOs and unique menu items will build excitement and buzz and set your pizzeria apart in a crowded field. This panel takes a look at how ideation works for several successful operators and will help you hone your process, too.
Panelists:
Brandon Bruner, Lynn’s Chicago Pizza
Louise Joseph, Dough Girls Pizza
Khanh Nguyen, Zalat Pizza
Janet Zapata, 550 Pizzeria
Igniting Growth in the Pizza Community
2 p.m.
GET YOUR PIZZA MARKETING QUESTIONS ANSWERED!
For even the most experienced pizza pros, marketing is often a weak point. You love making pizza, not marketing it. Fortunately, our panelists have a knack for both. They’re content creators, storytellers and social media wizards who have put in the time, creativity and hard work to craft a consistent message and system that sell more pizza—and it has paid off. In this session, they’ll take your questions and spill their secrets, demystifying the process and bringing clarity to a challenging facet of the pizzeria business.
Moderator: Rev Ciancio
Panelists:
Sofia Arango, Atlanta Pizza Truck
Lynn Humphreys, Lynn’s Chicago Pizza
Sean Jefairjian, A Slice of New York
Matt Plapp, America’s Best Restaurants
Hengam Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
Janet Zapata, 550 Pizzeria
2 p.m.
TV FAME & THE PIZZA GAME: BEHIND THE SCENES OF TV’S HOTTEST COOKING SHOWS
If you’ve watched Beat Bobby Flay or Best in Dough—or even non-cooking shows like Shark Tank—you’ve probably wondered: “How did these chefs make the cast, what was the experience like, and how can I be next?” Our panelists will tell you how they earned national TV fame and success, from the casting process to prepping for and shooting their segments, plus what happens on the set when the cameras aren’t rolling!
Panelists:
Erica Barrett, Dough Boy Pizza
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
Jackie Mazza, DHS Hospitality
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
10 a.m.
PRE-LOADING 2026: PUMP UP YOUR SALES WITH A FULL YEAR’S WORTH OF MONEYMAKING PROMOTIONS
No more flying by the seat of your pants! Start planning now for a more profitable 2026 with Matt Plapp, CEO of America’s Best Restaurants. Plapp and his team work with more than 2,500 restaurants to build year-round marketing plans that capitalize on customer data, loyalty programs, email and the latest social media tools. Plapp will help you design and execute a full year’s worth of promotions and irresistible special offers (the kind customers would be crazy to turn down) to drive more traffic and pump up your sales volume.
Speaker:
Matt Plapp, America’s Best Restaurants
10 a.m.
THINK AND GROW LIKE A CHAIN OPERATOR!
You have the grit and spirit of an independent operator, but you’ve got big ambitions, too. Two or three stores isn’t enough for you. You want to build an empire in your market(s). In this powerhouse session, you’ll discover how to standardize and streamline operations for consistency, institute strict quality controls, develop a clear brand identity, choose your locations strategically, and adopt chain-level purchasing and vendor relationships to secure better pricing.
Panelists:
Joey Karvelas, Karvelas Pizza Co.
Khanh Nguyen, Zalat Pizza
Matt Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
11 a.m.
CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP: TRAINING, COACHING UP AND GETTING BUY-IN FROM EMPLOYEES
When training new employees, it’s tempting to take the path of least resistance—throw them into the deep end and hope they can swim. But Generations Z and Alpha aren’t built that way. They crave feedback, coaching and a positive, high-morale culture that delivers personal and professional rewards and opportunities to grow. In this lively panel discussion, you’ll discover training and coaching methods that really work!
Panelists:
Jon Bortles, Woody’s Wood-Fired Pizza
Ric Gruber, Billy Bricks
Jackie Mazza, DHS Hospitality
Salvatore Reina, Francesca Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta
Hengam Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
Matt Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
11 a.m.
OPENING STORE NO. 2: HOW TO KNOW WHEN YOU’RE READY AND HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
Is it time to open a second store? Is that a challenge you’re ready for? Let’s get it all nailed down and make sure store No. 2 is for you. Michael LaMarca of Master Pizza has intimate knowledge of what really goes into opening a new location. This veteran operator and franchisor, who has grown Master Pizza to 15 locations, will walk you through every step, from knowing when, where and why to launch a second location to creating must-have manuals, building a Lead Team and training the trainers.
Speaker:
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
1 p.m.
GO BIGGER, GO FASTER! ENGINEERING YOUR PIZZERIA FOR PHENOMENAL SUCCESS AND GROWTH
At Mattenga’s Pizzeria, owners Hengam and Matt Stanfield have a system for everything. Their fast-growing, familyowned pizza brand, with nine locations in San Antonio, is one big system of systems—marketing, management, employee training and scheduling, inventory, sales projections—and each system feeds into the next. From checklists and time trials to the “10-2030 rule,” the Stanfields will help you build an operation that runs smoothly and efficiently while creating a fun, memorable experience for your guests.
Speakers: Hengam and Matt Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
2 p.m.
THE MAD SCIENTISTS OF PIZZA: MASTERING THE INTRICACIES OF PIZZA PERFECTION
Our panelists aren’t really “mad”—just crazy about making pizzas and other dishes that will drive customers insane with pleasure. We’ve asked these dough-slinging brainiacs to venture out of their laboratories and divulge all of their secrets, from techniques like microblistering and autolysis to crumb structure, the window-pane test, and whatever else springs to mind. There is always more to learn in the pizza making craft. Here’s your chance to learn from the best.
Panelists:
Brandon Bruner, Lynn’s Chicago Pizza Juan Perez, Posto Vitangelo Recchia, Bella Napoli Pizzeria Wilhelm Rodriguez, Papa’s Pizza Jeff Varasano, Varasano’s
For $165, your all-access pass to the Pizza Power Forum also includes:
3:15 p.m.
GET YOUR TOUGHEST DOUGH QUESTIONS ANSWERED!
The complexities of pizza dough can sometimes leave even experienced chefs baffled and frustrated. What’s driving you crazy? Is your dough formula living up to your dreams? Can’t get time and temperature squared away for consistency? In this dough-focused freefor-all, our panel of experts will tackle your problems head-on, offering their unique perspectives based on decades of experience. Just bring your questions and be ready to take notes!
Satchel's Pizza owner Satchel Raye, pictured with his daughter, chimes in at a PPF session.
TipFree Going
Think tips are a must at your business? Think again. For two operators on opposite coasts, going tipless has proven to be a superior system for their employees, customers and bottom line.
BY TRACY MORIN
MOST PEOPLE IN THE FOODSERVICE INDUSTRY know that tipping can create confusion and contention among customers and employees alike. And operators typically treat it as a necessary evil. But is it? PMQ recently chatted with two operators who are rejecting this standard American practice—and enjoying major benefits. Read on for their reasoning, policies and success stories as tip-free pizzerias.
Why Go Tipless?
Isaiah Ruffin, co-owner of Pizza by Ruffin in Seattle with his wife, Colleen Constant, ran a food truck before opening their brick-and-mortar location in October 2024.
“Even before the food truck, just working in restaurants, tipping was always a point of contention,” he explains.
“In grad school, I wrote my thesis on sustainable foodservice, and a big part was about the gratuity system, which really opened my eyes.”
Ruffin points to the tipping culture’s many negative impacts: inequity, higher turnover, and even increased sexual harassment incidents, both between employees and with customers. “We opened our business with gratuity not being a factor,” he says. “Tipping promotes discrimination, inequality of the distribution of wages and deviant behavior, while facilitating bad service. And those are things we wanted far away from our business.”
Bridget Murphy, worker-owner at Extra Extra Pizza— with her founding partners, husband Joey Pucciarelli and friend Soon Ho Sim—in Buffalo, New York, also decided on a tipless model. The trio had more than a decade each of experience in the restaurant industry and held manager positions when the pandemic struck, leaving owners scrambling. “We realized that the business of restaurants was not working—from a standpoint of taking care of your employees and your personnel, but also definitely in the financial aspect,” Murphy says. “It really hit home with us, how thin restaurant margins were, and we thought they shouldn’t be that way.”
“Tipping promotes discrimination, inequality of the distribution of wages and deviant behavior, while facilitating bad service.”
Isaiah Ruffin, Pizza by Ruffin
The solution, for this threesome, was to open a business that embraced the mantra “Put people first,” creating a workerfriendly environment and a worker-centered business. “Eliminating tipping was the first and easiest way for us to do that,” Murphy explains.
PIZZA
BY RUFFIN
Husband-and-wife duo Isaiah Ruffin and Colleen Constant (left and middle) took their tipless policy from food truck to brick-and-mortar pizzeria—and funnel any extra cash to their food-based nonprofit.
“We price using standard industry markup, and then we just add on an extra 20%, so a ‘tip’ is built into the price of the menu items….We’re able to keep pretty good price points, even with that extra cost.”
Bridget Murphy, Extra Extra Pizza
“Here, all work is valued, whether you’re cooking pizzas, washing dishes, bartending, or doing the payroll and bookkeeping. All of those tasks are essential for a business to be thriving, so we feel that they should all be paid the same wage.”
But Murphy’s plans for pay equity bumped up against the labor laws in New York State, where back-ofhouse and front-of-house workers can’t share tips. The founding owners also discovered their policies and procedures were more aligned with a cooperative model. They teamed up with a local program called Cooperation Buffalo, which helped them set up an equality-based business plan, complete with nixing tipping altogether.
Tip-Free Benefits
Although Murphy’s primary goal of eliminating tipping was to create pay equity, she has found other benefits as well. “One, it allows for more financial stability for the worker—everybody’s happy to work a Tuesday or a Friday or a Saturday lunch, because there’s no difference in what your wages are,” she explains. “Additionally, people are just as happy to be working in the dish pit as they are bartending or cooking pizzas. And—we were surprised by this—it also makes our bookkeeping and financial record keeping really simple and straightforward. That takes a lot of paperwork out of it, which is great for such a small business.”
Ruffin adds that a tipless system entices—and retains— prospective employees. “We don’t attract typical
EXTRA EXTRA
PIZZA
(3)
Using a cooperative model, Extra Extra Pizza has grown to four worker-owners (left to right on bottom right photo): Gabriel Burgos Nieves, Soon Ho Sim, Bridget Murphy and Joey Pucciarelli.
restaurant workers,” he says. “One employee we’ve had since the first week was like, ‘There’s no reason I would ever leave.’ She knows what she’s going to make—when we’re dead slow, she makes the same amount as when we’re super busy. There’s no guessing.”
Seattle-based Pizza by Ruffin is able to pay its small staff a living wage while simplifying the payment process and streamlining its operation through a tip-free policy.
At Pizza by Ruffin, a slice of pizza costs $8, but all prices are flat fees—tax and tip included. “So what you see is what you pay, and it’s been wildly successful,” Ruffin says. “We’ve had people seek us out because of that. Actually, when we first opened, people kept saying, ‘Your price is too low. We want to tip.’ So we raised our prices until people stopped saying it! And now it’s smooth sailing.”
“When we first opened, people kept saying, ‘Your price is too low. We want to tip.’ So we raised our prices until people stopped saying it! And now it’s smooth sailing.”
To determine his menu pricing, Ruffin simply considers food costs, employees’ pay and desired profits. Though Seattle’s minimum wage is $20.76 per hour, he determined its living wage was $33, so all employees make that amount. “I would suggest finding the living wage in your area and doing the calculations on how much you need to charge to make that happen,” Ruffin says. “Know your staff needs and your food costs, and then you can figure out how you need to be pricing the menu.”
Isaiah Ruffin, Pizza by Ruffin
Customers love the ease and straightforwardness of Ruffin’s all-inclusive pricing. “It’s easy for us and the customers,” he says. “It removes awkward exchanges and the expectation to give more. It also removes the guest’s involvement in how much our employees get compensated. Our customers often tell us how much they enjoy the ease of our pricing structure. We often get told our food is very affordable. Because they don’t have to think about taxes, tips and other fees, it seems like a discount.”
Extra Extra Pizza also engaged in careful calculations to determine menu prices. “We tried to take the average of what a server would make for their shift, which would include the pre-opening, the setup, the breakdown and closing,” Murphy explains. “For our menus, we price using standard industry markup, and then we just add on an extra 20%, so a ‘tip’ is built into the price of the menu items.”
Customers still feel like they’re getting a good value, and the pizzeria has been able to afford several raises since opening. “We’re able to keep pretty good price points, even with that extra cost,” Murphy says. “We’re in a neighborhood with diverse incomes, and we wanted to make sure that a family can eat in and not feel that they can’t afford it, or that they can’t afford to tip so they have to get takeout.”
Murphy similarly cites the streamlining effects of going tipless. “It makes the checkout process really simple and fast, and they know exactly what they’re going to be paying,” she says. “It takes all of that gray area, question marks, manners, etiquette and weirdness out of the equation.”
Addressing Pushback
Of course, not every customer can wrap their heads around a tipless system. In fact, Ruffin and Constant found that some customers resisted the policy—going so far as to launch a wadded-up $20 bill their way. “So we started a nonprofit, the Food Lit Foundation,” Ruffin says. “When people are so inclined to give cash, we put that toward our nonprofit, which funds school learning gardens.”
Murphy also found that some customers were initially uncomfortable with the tipless system. “It was definitely weird for people at first,” she says. “But employees said, ‘I don’t want a patron to feel that they can take advantage of me or talk to me a certain way, or that my
PIZZA BY RUFFIN
paycheck is dependent on them liking me.’ And that has been really empowering for all of us as workers. We found that by being able to lay down those boundaries, people are really receptive to it and appreciate the straightforwardness of our service.”
To spread the word, Ruffin recommends making a PR and marketing push once you’ve gone tipless. He’s found that this point of differentiation has been cited in local news stories about the pizzeria, and since many customers learn about his business from these outlets, they know what to expect.
Operators can also avoid confusion with signage and customer education, both in-store and online. “We have it printed on our menus, we have a little bit of history about it on our website, and we don’t have a tip line or anything to sign on our receipt, so that really helps,” Murphy says. “Some people insist on leaving a couple of bucks. But if people do leave cash, we just let them know that it’s not going home with us. We have a fund—we bought ourselves a microwave with that money, or we’ll
buy rounds of coffee or takeout food for the crew. So it just goes for little treats for us, but it’s by no means expected, and it’s not part of our wages.”
For Extra Extra, any pushback is definitely worth the result: running an equality-based pizzeria where everyone feels valued. “One negative reviewer called us the most political pizza shop they’ve ever seen,” Murphy says with a laugh. “But we are proudly political, and we’ve found that by having these kinds of protocols and principles, people really respond. They appreciate knowing that the workers are taken care of, and that they can feel good about going to Extra Extra as opposed to other places. Using that as a marketing tool goes a long way. You can tell our employees are taken care of and that they’re paid well, because they’re happy to be there—so not only do we say it, but customers can see it for themselves.”
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
host.fieramilano.com
The Hot Dog King of South Dakota
Wieners are winners for pizzaiolo Sean Dempsey, slathering on an extra $60,000 in three months as a summertime side hustle.
BY BRIAN HERNANDEZ | PHOTOS BY CAREN HANTEN/TIMELESS PHOTOGRAPHY
IN 2020, WHILE THE WORLD SLOWED DOWN, Sean Dempsey, owner of Dempsey’s Brew + Pub & Restaurant and Danger Von Dempsey’s Pizzeria & Brewhaus, was gearing up. Watertown, South Dakota, became the unlikely launchpad for a side hustle that would soon become a cult favorite: Dempsey’s Proper Hot Dog Co. Amid pandemic chaos, restaurant restrictions and supply chain headaches, he launched a different kind of foodservice venture—one with wheels, buns and a whole lot of mustard. After all, he says, “People really love a good hot dog.”
Dempsey grew up steeped in restaurant life and became the heir of a culinary empire founded by his parents, Lyne
and Bill Dempsey III. The original Dempsey’s restaurant opened in 1999 and quickly became a local legend. Sean Dempsey officially took the reins in 2015, adding several Danger von Dempsey’s stores along the way.
Bill briefly retired in 2016 but couldn’t stay out of the game for long. Suddenly obsessed with hot dogs, he went on a quest to find the best one in the land. “He ordered every hot dog he could online…and eventually landed on Vienna Beef from Chicago [for the meat],” Dempsey recalls.
Bill started his hot dog cart in March 2020 before retiring again. The cart rotated down to his son like a perfectly steamed wiener on a carousel. Sean decided to
As the self-proclaimed “Hot Dog King of South Dakota,” Sean Dempsey takes personal responsibility for “quality control.”
GLADIATORS OF GLUTEN AND GLORY
From Indiana to Oceanside, current U.S. Pizza Team members proved their crust knows no borders at the 2025 World Pizza Championship.
When it comes to international pizza showdowns, the U.S. Pizza Team doesn’t just show up — they show out. At the 2025 Campionato Mondiale della Pizza in Parma, Italy, the flour-dusted gladiators entered the global arena of crust, cheese and sauce and left a mark the industry won’t soon forget.
Facing hundreds of individual competitors in each category, the performers making the Top 50 for the U.S. Pizza Team were:
David Sommers, Mad Mushroom, West Lafayette, IN
Largest Dough Stretch - 9th place
Fastest Pie Maker – 21st place
Pizza Classica - 33rd place
Chef Vitangelo Recchia, Bella Napoli Pizzeria & Restaurant, Port Charlotte, FL
Pizza Classica – 46th place (USPT walk-on & winner of the ’24 Galbani Cup)
None of this would be possible without the unwavering support of our incredible sponsors. Special thanks to Platinum Sponsor Galbani Professionale US, Gold Plus Sponsor Margherita Meats, and Gold Sponsor REAL California Milk. Like we always say: They support the team that supports the industry. And with their help, we’ll keep slinging world-class pizzas until the last oven cools.
For a full list of scores from Parma, visit USPizzateam.com and make sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram for all the doughy adventures, travel tales, and upcoming pizza shenanigans.
Chef Vitangelo Recchia of Bella Napoli beams with pride over his Pizza in Teglia creation.
Giovanni Labbate sizes up the judges before he presents his Gluten Free submission.
David Sommers packed his culinary game in the same bag as his largest dough skills.
Patt Miller, winner of the 2024 Galbani Professionale Pizza Cup, took his pizza show on the road and across the sea to Parma, Italy.
COLE KISTLER/WTWH MEDIA
COLE KISTLER/WTWH MEDIA BRIAN HERNANDEZ
BRIAN HERNANDEZ BRIAN HERNANDEZ
expand the offerings to include five or six different styles of dogs, along with a Hot Dog of the Week, which often mirrored the Pizza of the Week at his pizzeria. It blew up. “Thankfully, my staff was supportive enough to dub me the ‘Hot Dog King of South Dakota,’” Dempsey says. “Please don’t tell your friends.”
A Summer Moneymaker
Why a hot dog cart? They’re efficient, affordable and a crowd favorite. “They have a huge advantage versus other mobile food options,” Dempsey says. “We picked up a solid one for under $3,500. It’s also something in our market that just didn’t exist. It’s mobile. You can pull it like a small trailer….There are different models for carts, based on volume. For us, we went with a mid-size model, something that can handle a lot, but not to the point of needing a whole food truck.”
Once on-site, setup takes less than 10 minutes. “We have two people: one person to run the mobile POS and one to make the dogs. In a rush, it’s easy for the ‘front’ person to help sling dogs as needed. We also run only three-hour shifts, for the most part, so we get out, set up, cook, and break down pretty fast.”
The carts operate three or four days a week, mostly during the summer, and return home every night for cleaning and prep. Best of all? They clear $60,000 in three months, Dempsey says.
Burn and Turn
Dempsey also uses the cart to test potential new markets for his pizzerias. Without even realizing it at first, he was able to gather valuable intel—foot-traffic patterns, customer preferences and neighborhood dynamics—long before committing to a particular market.
“When we open a new shop, we announce we’re coming to town X,” Dempsey notes. “We move a hot dog cart out into the new market and start teasing what we’re going to do at the store. It works pretty well. We make some bucks, and we get a lot of press. Though, in our case, we have to
let them know the pizzeria won’t be selling hot dogs—[they’re offered] only in the summer and only on the cart.”
Dempsey’s Proper Hot Dog Co. offers a virtual U.S. road trip on a bun. “Our biggest sellers are based on hot dogs around the country,” he says. “The Cincinnati Dog (chili, cheese and Fritos); a Seattle Dog (sauteed peppers, onions and cheddar sauce); the Warsaw (sauerkraut, stone-ground mustard and caramelized onions); the O’Malley (corned beef, Thousand Island and sauerkraut); and a Chicago Dog. If you don’t know what that is, we can’t be friends.”
Dempsey’s not ruling out a brick-and-mortar hot dog restaurant, either. “I think a two-person staff, with a small selection of craft brews and a menu of six to eight dogs in a 20-seater, would crush it. Try and stay true to the nature of the hot dog cart—burn and turn.” His inspiration? “Dirty Frank’s Hot Dog Palace in Columbus, Ohio!” he says. “That place rocks….They have fun with it. [You’d need] a solid sense of humor to cater to that crowd. But Late-Night Dogs, Dogs After Dark, Nooners—it would be a riot.”
Sean Dempsey: pizzaiolo, brewmaster and, now, hot dog czar. Proof that the side hustle, when done right, can feed more than your bottom line—it can fuel your passion. So if you find yourself in Watertown this summer, odds are the Hot Dog King will be there, tongs in hand, doing it proper.
Brian Hernandez is PMQ’s associate editor and coordinator of the U.S. Pizza Team.
For more information about the U.S. Pizza Team, its members and sponsors, visit USPizzaTeam.com.
The hot dog cart offers a respite from the hustle and bustle of a pizzeria, making it a coveted job among Dempsey’s staff.
KEYNOTE: DIGGING INTO THE INTOUCH INSIGHT DELCO STUDY: TAKEAWAYS FOR YOUR INDIE PIZZERIA
Speakers:
Laura Livers and Sarah Beckett, Intouch Insight
RECLAIM YOUR LIFE: BUILDING A PIZZERIA OPERATION THAT RUNS WITH OR WITHOUT YOU
Panelists:
Joey Karvelas, Karvelas Pizza Co.
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
Patt Miller, Pizza Patt’s Slicehouse
SOME LIKE IT COLD: SHIPPING YOUR FROZEN PIZZA TO BUILD A NATIONAL BRAND
Panelists:
Alexandra Castro, Everything Dough
Brian Lewis, Bocado
Matt McKenney, Pizza Freak Co.
FRANCHISING 101: GROW YOUR BRAND USING A TIMETESTED MODEL
Panelists:
Erica Barrett, Dough Boy Pizza
Carl Comeaux, Crust Pizza Co.
Ric Gruber, Billy Bricks
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
SUPERCHARGE YOUR MENU WITH GAME-CHANGING LTOS AND SIGNATURE PIZZAS
Panelists:
Brandon Bruner, Lynn’s Chicago Pizza
Louise Joseph, Dough Girls Pizza
Khanh Nguyen, Zalat Pizza
Janet Zapata, 550 Pizzeria
GET YOUR PIZZA MARKETING QUESTIONS ANSWERED!
Moderator: Rev Ciancio
Panelists:
Sofia Arango, Atlanta Pizza Truck
Lynn Humphreys, Lynn’s Chicago Pizza
Sean Jefairjian, A Slice of New York
Matt Plapp, America’s Best Restaurants
Hengam Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
Janet Zapata, 550 Pizzeria
TV FAME & THE PIZZA GAME: BEHIND THE SCENES OF TV’S HOTTEST COOKING SHOWS
Panelists:
Erica Barrett, Dough Boy Pizza
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
Jackie Mazza, DHS Hospitality
PRE-LOADING 2026: PUMP UP YOUR SALES WITH A FULL YEAR’S WORTH OF MONEYMAKING PROMOTIONS
Speaker:
Matt Plapp, America’s Best Restaurants
THINK AND GROW LIKE A CHAIN OPERATOR!
Panelists:
Joey Karvelas, Karvelas Pizza Co.
Khanh Nguyen, Zalat Pizza
Matt Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
CULTURE AND LEADERSHIP: TRAINING, COACHING UP AND GETTING BUY-IN FROM EMPLOYEES
Panelists:
Jon Bortles, Woody’s Wood-Fired Pizza
Ric Gruber, Billy Bricks
Jackie Mazza, DHS Hospitality
Salvatore Reina, Francesca Brick Oven Pizza & Pasta
Hengam Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
Matt Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
OPENING STORE NO. 2: HOW TO KNOW WHEN YOU’RE READY AND HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
Speaker:
Michael LaMarca, Master Pizza
GO BIGGER, GO FASTER! ENGINEERING YOUR PIZZERIA FOR PHENOMENAL SUCCESS AND GROWTH
Speakers: Hengam and Matt Stanfield, Mattenga’s Pizzeria
THE MAD SCIENTISTS OF PIZZA: MASTERING THE INTRICACIES OF PIZZA PERFECTION
Panelists:
Brandon Bruner, Lynn’s Chicago Pizza
Juan Perez, Posto
Vitangelo Recchia, Bella Napoli Pizzeria
Wilhelm Rodriguez, Papa’s Pizza
Jeff Varasano, Varasano’s
GET YOUR TOUGHEST DOUGH QUESTIONS ANSWERED!
Panelists:
Alessio Lacco, Atlanta
(Clockwise from top left) In the early ‘80s, a flier shows off Garibaldi’s second catering truck; Mike and his son, Michael, oversee the pizzeria today; Mike, Mike III, Michael, and Mike’s grandson Matthew carry the business across three generations; a candid shot at Garibaldi’s shows its original location near campus; Mike shows off his new, state-of-the-art automatic slicer in the mid-’80s.
BY TRACY MORIN
Garibaldi’s Pizza
As a new college grad in a bleak job market, Mike Garibaldi noticed a lack of food options near Tennessee’s University of Memphis and imagined opening a deli near campus. Instead, fate connected him with out-of-towners who wanted to start a pizzeria. They exited the business after a year, but Garibaldi’s Pizza is still going strong, celebrating 50 years in 2025.
With a $2,500 initial investment, no experience, and recipes pulled from both sides of the Italian-American family (Mike and his wife, Donna), Mike learned on the job—and struggled the first year. But business picked up, enabling a second location in 1979 and a third in 1986, both in eastern suburbs that housed growing families. “We learned and developed on the fly, but we always tried to keep it good and keep it simple,” says Mike, who runs the business today with his son, Michael (they’re known by locals simply as Senior and Junior, with young Mike III also learning the ropes). “We were around for the whole delivery explosion, and pizza was becoming a mainstay of the American diet. But we didn’t have giant budgets—we did a lot of grassroots marketing.”
Garibaldi’s also distinguished itself through innovation. In 1980, Mike invested in a heated catering truck (today, the company has five)
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to deliver dozens of hot pies on-site and later started manufacturing a proprietary spice blend for consistent sauce across locations. Meanwhile, Michael pushed for more technology, so the pizzeria established a web presence in 2001, adopted a POS system with online ordering and an app, and purchased conveyor ovens to streamline operations. Despite being a humble, family-run independent, the Garibaldis thought like the chains—and made game-changing decisions for productivity and growth.
Still, at Garibaldi’s, the human touch prevails. In an atmosphere Michael calls “old-school Italian mixed with Cheers,” customers and employees become family, and community efforts remain top of mind. Plus, the father-son owners aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty, whether fixing the roof or handling a Friday-night rush. “This is all we’ve ever known,” says Michael, who was tossing pizzas at six years old. “My dad is in the trenches every day—that’s just how we roll.”
“It’s pretty simple,” Mike adds. “Go to work and work hard.”
