Look around your restaurant any given weeknight. Are your tables full of happy customers? If not, you may want to consider having a date night promotion. Gaining in popularity due to the poor economy, these package deals seduce patrons with the promi...

If you run a full service restaurant, it’s difficult to figure out how many tables to assign to each server. You want customers to be served promptly and accurately so they return. You also want servers to earn enough tips to keep them happy. Rober...

If I had to choose between the best counter and phone person or the best pizza maker, I choose the best customer service rep. Pizza makers are made through a mentoring training program. You make and shape them into pizza assembly machines. On the oth...

On a February evening in 2007, a Boston computer programmer named Jascha Franklin-Hodge received a call on his cell phone. He noticed the caller ID displayed a Chicago number. He was asked to create a robust, Web-based communication strategy for some...

Menu size can be a critical element to your pizzeria or restaurant. Believe it or not, offering either too many or too few items can detract from your business. Offer just a few items and you’re at risk of discouraging a repeat visit. Offering too ...

Your menu is the one piece of marketing your customers are guaranteed to read — at least to some degree. But its influence doesn’t stop with helping the diner make an ordering decision. The menu’s role is actually much greater — it directly i...

The job candidate you just interviewed is a hard worker who shows up on time and knows how to deal with customers. At least that’s what the eager applicant told you. You want to make sure, so you call some of the references the person gave you. The...

At any restaurant, the quality of the food served is the most important factor in a customer’s happiness. But it’s not the only thing that matters. Consciously or not, customers are forming an opinion about their dining experience from the moment...

So much of what happens in a restaurant is creative. All cooks like to think of themselves as artistes. It is, after all, called the culinary arts. But when it comes to the menu, that’s where science kicks in. In fact, too much creativity on a menu...

According to the National Restaurant Association, the most profitable menu items are soft drinks, followed closely by alcoholic drinks and then pastas and pizza. The largest pizzeria chains in the world do not sell alcohol, and until just a few years...

Pizza Tweets The NY Slice Truck @TheNYslice Tonight’s Delivery Specials 5p-9p Call 721-8434 Garlic Knots & Wings $7.99 Or 3 Toppings 20 Inch Pizza Garlic Knots Wings $24.99 Why it works: This Tweet was sent out on a bitterly cold day, and the i...

There is something noticeable about the staff’s look at Cocco’s Pizza in Primos, Pennsylvania, — expression of individuality and brand awareness. Employees sport graphic T-shirts with the pizzeria’s name and logo. Owner Michael Cocco says his...