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Menu Development
2011 October: WHEN PIGS FLY
Pork is media’s darling right now, and operators across the country are happily placing swine in the spotlight. Pork belly. Pork shoulder. Lardo. Speck. Prosciutto. Pancetta. And bacon … always bacon. Pizza is no stranger to pork, showin...
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Employee Management
WITHOUT A HITCH
Imagine this scenario: You’ve just launched a series of four pesto-inspired pizzas. To promote your new menu items, you gear up for a one-day promotional event, practically giving away the pizzas. You’ve advertised the heck out of the promo and e...
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Menu Development
Sauces: Basic is best
“Made in house” is a unique marketing mantra that should be on your menu. The more items you prepare from scratch, the more you stand out from your competition across the street. Granted, some items are easier to make than others. And some items ...
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Menu Development
2011 September: LINKED IN
Making sausage in your restaurant is easier than you think, and fresh sausage cannot be beat. Take a minute and think about how many dishes use sausage. Go beyond topping your pizza and consider sausage sandwiches and even soups like sausage and roas...
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Menu Development
2011 September: NEW YORK NEW YORK
I was born in New York, and I lived there — on and off — for the first 30-something years of my life. During that time I managed to put away more than my share of pizza. And the fact that I was born and raised next door to an Italian bake...
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People & Pizzerias
2011 September: PIZZA A MODEL OF DIVERSITY
2011 marks the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. As anyone who has ever driven a car in Naples can tell you, it has taken a while for reality to catch up with Giuseppe Garibaldi’s noble vision. The fact is that Italy has always been a l...
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Menu Development
2011 September: READY FOR THE RENAISSANCE?
Depending on how you look at it, this is either a horrible or a fantastic time in the pizza industry — the entire restaurant industry, really. Just like our nation has divided into political polar opposites, the pizza segment has separated into...
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Employee Management
2011 September: SOCIAL HOUR
When Facebook was first introduced, the site was the online version of the Wild West, devoted primarily for collegiate use and of little consequence to a young suburban mother like myself. Fast forward a couple of years, and just about everyone I kno...
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People & Pizzerias
2011 September: TAKING A BULL BY THE HORNS
This is the greatest pizza in the world.” That was the mantra that my dad, Dick, repeated to my three brothers and me as kids growing up in New Haven, Connecticut. Sally’s Apizza on Wooster Street was our place. Dick, a lifelong New Haven...
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People & Pizzerias
2011 August: Advice from seasoned independents
Less than three years removed from high school, childhood friends Mark Gold and Lou Siecinski moved from pizza-happy Detroit to Milwaukee to open a pizzeria. Twenty-six years later, Pizza Shuttle is one of the nation’s highest grossing single-s...
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Operations
2011 August: Ask Big Dave
Hey Dave, I currently own a counter service joint and am looking to open my second location. This location I’m looking to do more sit-down. So my question is, is 30- to 35- percent labor cost reasonable for this type of restaurant? Ryan Olson M...
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Operations
2011 August: SERVING EXCEPTIONAL SERVICE
When a gas station stops letting customers use the restrooms because some people use them without making a purchase, or when a grocery store refuses to accept responsibility for mistakenly selling spoiled food, they lose business and create negative ...