Is your bottom line being adversely affected by food costs? If so, Big Dave Ostrander has this to say: “After I realized that I was leaving tens of thousands of profit dollars unaccounted for, I studied and achieved the perfect food cost month in a...

Hundreds and even thousands of people pass by your pizzeria on a daily basis. What message are your windows sending? How to approach window signage and advertising varies from pizzeria to pizzeria. Westshore Pizza in Tampa, Florida, has large, wide f...

My Point of Sale system is the prettiest cash register ever! But does this beauty have brains? American Scientist Donald Norman says, “Beauty and brains, pleasure and usability they should go hand in hand.” If that is the case then this POS is wo...

What do your customers really want? It’s the single most important question a restaurant owner can ask — yet you could spend your entire career chasing the answer. Even with instant feedback on Twitter, Yelp!, Facebook and similar sites, it’s n...

Save on labor by cross-training employees For Mia’s Pizza and Eats, a small mom-and-pop shop in Georgia, cross-training is a cost-cutting necessity. “There really isn’t a time at Mia’s when an employee can claim ‘That’s not my job,’ ”...

Show of hands: who enjoys doing payroll? Indeed, many pizzeria operators far prefer mingling with guests or making pies to the tedious back-office task. Yet, employees must be paid and payroll remains a necessary duty to please employees, the governm...

By the end of next year, there will be 35 million teenagers in the United States. At the peak of the baby boom, there were 33 million. And, what’s more — today’s teens have more disposable income than any other generation of teens h...

A good ad is priceless, but can a price-less ad be good? Most of us would be hesitant to run an ad campaign without a price point, and right­ly so. Research firm Phoenix Marketing International finds that the inclusion of specific pricing is a key f...

Controlling labor costs: a matter of planning and monitoring Andy Lanz runs Figaro’s Pizza in Verona, Wisconsin, an eight-year-old shop with carryout, delivery and a 35-seat dining room. He calls his eatery a “modest one” that doesn’t churn �...

Rather than flipping new staff a book for their self-study or allowing a new bartender to learn the poor habits of a shoddy veteran, integrate these key elements into bar staff training for maximum effectiveness: Engaging and Interactive: creating a ...

Just when you thought you’d caught up with the new wave in technology-style ordering, the big boys have gone one step further than Web sites to introduce text messaging. Yes, you can now order via cell phone — without actually using it to...

Watch this video of Paulie Gee’s in Brooklyn, New York and feel that fire for the pizzeria industry stir inside: It’s Never Too Late to Make Pizza: Paulie Gee’s from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo. This is an example of how video can tell a pi...