Beauty lies in the bottom line. Simply put, beautiful menus are money-making menus. All the rest are money losers.

What kind of menu do you have and how do you know? Let’s slice and dice a typical pizzeria menu. Profitability should be the deciding factor on all future decisions. This exercise will lean on the logical rather than the emotional side of the brain. This may be a painful exercise, but I assure you your new menu will be a money maker.



Several years ago I made a house call to a client in downtown Detroit. After introductions and a quick tour, I picked up a carry out menu. It was a full sheet folded in half, printed off a copier. There was almost zero white space, no descriptions or photos. It was black ink on beige paper that offered four or five kinds of fish, French fries, and 25 sub sandwiches. On top of this were huge pasta and pizza selections. I watched the crew at this pizzeria root through an upright two-door freezer for the right kind of fi sh and fries for a dinner.

I dug out my trusty highlighter and asked the owner to line out any entrees that didn’t sell at least three units a day or were a pain to cook. In 10 minutes we shaved off about half of his slow movers.

I told him how my own menu crept up once. If a customer or I loved an entrée, it was in the next print. I told him how I had to eventually axe my favorite Seafood Pizza.

After I did my first POS report on Menu Mix, it became crystal clear that another three pizzas and half of my sandwiches needed to go as well. I gave the probationary entrees three more months to raise unit sales, then ran another Menu Mix along with a menu engineering report. Menu engineering is a computerized or manual tool that ranks all entrees based on profitability and popularity. Sure, food cost percentage is important — but you can’t take it to the bank. A much more critical number is Contribution Margin (CM). CM is defined as the money that is left over after you have paid for the food and disposables for each and every menu component. This is the stuff that all expenses are paid from as well as where the profit comes from.

Anyway, after my client in Detroit cut his menu, his average delivery time improved by nine minutes. Additionally, the morale in the kitchen soared now that they didn’t have to dig and root for ingredients.
My takeaway thoughts?
❖ Capture the units sold per month report data from your POS system (or manually if you are handwriting guest checks). Black and white doesn’t lie. You probably know in your gut what entrees are dogs, but it’s good to see the reports.
❖ Perform a menu engineering study on your menu. Make decisions with your head, not your heart.
❖ Have your menus and fliers designed and printed professionally.
❖ The most profitable menus are lean and mean.
❖ If you can’t sell more units, sell smarter. Position and describe your stars so they account for higher sales.
❖ Loosen the grip on food cost percent. It’s only half of the profitability equation. ❖

Big Dave Ostrander owned a highly successful independent pizzeria before becoming a consultant, speaker and internationally sought-after trainer. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today and leads seminars on operational topics for the family of Pizza Expo tradeshows.

Q: We don’t have a fryer but found some appetizers that bake in the oven. They have really increased our check average. Can we do the same with desserts?



A: Absolutely! If you can find or make some great looking desserts, people can’t resist –– especially if they are visible and you train your staff to use words like amazing and irresistible. Go for it!

I am reading about trends with offering a gluten-free pizza. Should I jump on this since none of my competitors have?

Trends come and go. Some folks who jumped on the low-carb craze with a crustless pizza actually did well with it for a little while until that fad lost its power. The crustless pizza would fi t the gluten-free diet as well. I honestly have not tried a gluten-free pizza crust that I like yet. Remember, too, that gluten-free isn’t really a fad that will pass. It’s really for folks who are allergic to wheat. You have to know your market. Take a survey. You may be surprised at how many folks would order a gluten-free pizza if you offered it. I think it would be more cost effective to start with a gluten-free pasta offering made of rice or corn to test the waters. If it succeeds, then go for the pizza as well.

I want so badly to open a pizza shop in my town simply because I see how busy the few shops we have are, and they serve horrible product.s What steps do I take to open a little pizzeria?

Well you’ve started in the right place finding this magazine and its many resources and archived articles. It’s not something to take lightly. It’s not just as simple as throwing some money at a location and hiring a few people who claim they know what they’re doing. You need to do the research. I’d suggest you attend the upcoming International Pizza Expo next March. There are seminars to answer all your questions as well as all the products and equipment you’ll need. If you have no experience, I’d really suggest finding a consultant that you are comfortable with to walk you through the whole process.

Business was not good enough to support my salary and the rest of the staff, so I recently took another job to save money. Sales have declined even more and I am wondering if it’s because I’m not there. How can I tell?

That’s always a very tough decision to make. I would only suggest something like you have done if there is a top quality, trustworthy manager in place. Consider finding or promoting a managing partner where they have a small investment in your business. This can make all the difference in the world in terms of growth and profitability. ❖

Jeffrey Freehof, owner of The Garlic Clove in Evans, Georgia, is Pizza Today’s resident expert. Send your questions to: Ask Chef Jeff, c/o Pizza Today, 908 South Eighth Street, Suite 200, Louisville, Kentucky, 40203.

Since it showcases our annual Independent Pizzeria of the Year, I always carry a little extra enthusiasm for our August issue. After all, running an independent pizza business to the highest of standards and success levels is the crux of what Pizza Today is all about.

That said, it is with great pleasure that I introduce to our readers the 2010 Independent of the Year: Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 2004 by former Starbucks executive Joe Fugere, Tutta Bella was the first pizzeria in the Pacifi c Northwest to receive certifi cation from the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletanta (VPN), the watchdog that ensures its American pizzeria members live up to the traditions and standards of the original pizza crafted centuries ago in Naples, Italy. I have personally visited Tutta Bella four different times over the years, and I’ve never left any of the company’s four locations without feeling absolutely blown away by the superior food quality, service, attention to detail, ambiance … you name it. This might well be the perfect pizzeria.

Seattle residents obviously agree. Tutta Bella will top $10 million in sales this year.

To learn more about Tutta Bella and what makes it so special, see our coverage beginning on page 58. If you take nothing else away from this issue, don’t fail to absorb Fugere’s passion for his business and the way he has set it up to succeed by demanding excellence in every facet of it. By cultivating a talented staff and then empowering it, he has fostered an environment in which every employee takes ownership and works to ensure customer satisfaction remains high. Fugere doggedly pursues perfection from every angle, ranging from the wine list or the way an espresso is pulled to the way the cornizione (the pillowy rim of the finished crust) must look before the kitchen can send a pizza out to a table. But while he’s driven by excellence, he’s inspired and guided by authenticity. Essentially, he wants to re-create the quintessential Neapolitan experience in his four Seattle pizzerias each and every day. It’s a lofty bar, and Tutta Bella reaches it.

Congratulations to Fugere and the rest of his staff. You’ll meet many of them in the pages of this issue. People like executive chef Brian Gojdics; beer, wine and spirits manager R.C. Jennings; coffee program manager Jeff Perini; director of operations Joyce Morinaka; training program manager Kelli Phelan; sustainability program manager Erik Cain and facilities program manager Jamie Sprott. These people are at the forefront of one of the nation’s most successful operations, and Pizza Today is proud to cover their success stories.

Best,

Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
jwhite@pizzatoday.com

Q: We make our own dough as we have been for many years. We use an air impingement oven to bake our pizzas, but for some reason, we can never get the pizzas as crispy as we would like them to be. The edges are crispy, but the rest of the pizza leaves something to be desired. What can we do to help get a crispier pizza?



A: In reviewing your dough formula, I see that it contains whole eggs. Whole eggs contribute significantly to the browning process of the dough during baking, thus allowing the dough to color-up faster, resulting in a shorter bake time. This is all well and fine, except for the fact that the shorter bake time also means that the pizza will not be baked sufficiently to develop the maximum crispy texture possible. My recommendation is to eliminate the whole eggs from the dough formula, and then experiment with the baking time to achieve the same baked color, but with a longer baking time. This will help to develop a greater level of crispiness in the finished crust. If your oven is an older model, more than 10 years old, your pizzas may benefit from a longer baking time at a lower temperature. To begin, I would suggest starting out at 435 F with a baking time of 7½ minutes, and then adjust the time and temperature until you achieve an improvement in overall crispiness of the finished crust.

Q: We are presently making a very good quality thick-crust pizza with a tremendous flavor achieved by allowing the dough to ferment at room temperature overnight. We want to now introduce a very light and airy type of crust. Will the substitution of about 25 percent of our present pizza fl our with cake or pastry fl our give us the light, and airy characteristics that we’re looking for?

A: No, it won’t. Both cake and pastry fl our are much lower in protein content than any bread or pizza fl our, so the addition of either to your dough would only serve to weaken it, possibly to the point of collapse, in view of your long fermentation period. Depending upon your dough temperature, formulation, room temperature and yeast level, your fl our will be able to provide sufficient carbohydrate to support something between five and eight hours of fermentation. After that, the yeast will be pretty well spent, making for a thicker, more dense finished crust. Without knowing how you manage the dough when making your regular pizzas, it might be something as simple as just allowing ample time for the yeast to do its work again. After panning the dough, allow an hour or more for the dough to rise between panning it and dressing/topping it in preparation for baking.



In some cases, we find that the dough must be allowed to rise for a minimum of 45 minutes to a maximum of 90 minutes to achieve the desired finished crust textural properties. We regularly produce what is referred to as a California style deep-dish pizza. That sounds a lot like what you are looking for. To make this type of pizza, we use dough that has been managed through the cooler overnight; it is then allowed to temper at room temperature for about two hours before the dough ball is fitted to a well-oiled, dark-colored, deepdish pan. We normally use 14 ounces of dough weight for a 12-inch pizza of this type. The pan is covered with a fl at pan separator, or multiple pans are stacked one on top of another if they are stacking pans, and the dough is allowed to rise for about 70 minutes at normal room temperature (72 to 75 F). If the room is colder than this, you may need to use a proofing box set at 90 to 95 F / 70 to 75 percent. In this case, you’re looking at a proof time in the 45- to 60-minute range.

Finished crusts can be either baked on the raw dough, or the crusts can be par-baked, and then the pizzas prepared on the par-baked crusts. In either case, the finished crusts will be about a full inch thick, and they will be tender. If the yeast is too damaged to provide the needed leavening for producing this type of crust, you may need to take half of the dough and mix it with the ingredients to make a half-size dough. This is essentially a 50/50 sponge dough process. The introduction of fresh ingredients, as well as fresh yeast, will refresh the dough, allowing it to proof and bake in a more normal manner once it has been placed into the deep-dish pan, while still retaining much of the fermentation flavor achieved by the long, overnight fermentation period. ❖


Tom Lehmann is a director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

The one thing that really separates International Pizza Expo® from all the general foodservice shows is the fact that our tradeshow floor and seminar program are totally devoted to the pizza industry. For 2011, we’ve decided to add another full day of seminars on Monday, February 28, specifically designed for the new operator/attendee. In addition, Tony Gemignani, the first Master Instructor in the United States to be certified by the Scuola Italiana Pizzaoili and a nine-time World Pizza Champion, will for the first time conduct a three-part hands-on dough workshop where attendees will have the opportunity to work with the theory, techniques and practical side of pizza making. He’ll deal with Old World and New World pizza alike, so there will be something for everyone. Tony owns and operates the International School of Pizza and the United States School of Pizza, which are located in San Francisco, California.

In fact, there’s not another food show –– let alone another so-called pizza show –– where you’ll find four full days of pizza specific seminars, demonstrations, networking opportunities and contests all devoted to a single industry, except International Pizza Expo®. What’s even better, we’ve decided to increase the total number of seminars, demonstrations and workshops to 80 … that’s 10 more than we’ve ever offered before. Can you think of another tradeshow in any industry that’s increasing their educational component?

At Pizza Expo® you’ll find 4½ football fields of pizza-related products, services and equipment, as well as the leading industry experts, consultants and analysts — and they’re all willing to share new ideas and insight on how to adapt, react and prosper in today’s economy. At next year’s show, you’ll find new speakers discussing current issues and topics facing the industry, such as lawsuit protection and tax reduction strategies, pizza trends, social media and more.

The bottom line? There’s always something new at Pizza Expo® that can improve your pizzeria. As always, our commitment to you, our partners, is to continue to grow and improve every facet of Pizza Expo, from the tradeshow floor to our networking events and contests. In fact, if you don’t come away from International Pizza Expo® with new cost-saving or profit-boosting ideas, I’ll refund your registration fee. All you have to do is put it in writing to me and I’ll send you a prompt refund.

Remember, International Pizza Expo® is a tax-deductible working vacation. It’s all pizza and it’s all for you!

Best regards,
Bill Oakley

Lou Cobello is a former builder who came out of retirement in 2007 to open a pizzeria with his wife (Scarlet, a.k.a. Mimi), son (Lou, Jr.) and daughter (Tara). Located in Savannah, Georgia, Lou’s small New Jersey-style shop, Screamin’ Mimi’s Pizza & Subs, focuses on fresh ingredients atop a hand-tossed crust. We caught up with Lou during the Tour de Pizza stop at Screamin’ Mimi’s in June.

PT: You’ve developed quite a reputation in Savannah rather quickly, haven’t you?

LC: Well, there wasn’t anything like this here before we opened. We had another shop several years ago in New Jersey, so we already had the recipes and everything like that down pretty good … People like the pizza. We’ve gotten some good, loyal customers.

PT: What’s the secret?

LC: You just gotta treat people good and give ‘em good food. That’s it. That’s all there is to it. They like to see the owners. We’re here, we talk to them, we know their names. That’s important.



PT: Do you have to market and advertise aggressively when you do that?

LC: Not really. We don’t do much advertising. It’s about knowing the customers and having good relationships with them. We sit down with our customers. That’s what keeps them coming back. We’ve built this through referrals, word of mouth.

PT: How would you describe your pizza?

LC: It’s Jersey-style. We do large pies and oversized slices. We keep it simple. That’s the best way to do it.

PT: Why did you decide to get involved with the Tour de Pizza?

LC: It was a good way to get our name in front of the community and do something fun for the community. It’s been a really fun time having these guys (from the Tour de Pizza) here.

It’s a given that restaurant staff should present a well-scrubbed appearance; after all, who would want to patronize an eatery where employee personal hygiene is unappetizingly sub-par? But beyond this (hopefully universal) baseline, restaurant operators grapple with other appearance related issues — such as whether to hire or retain those sporting tattoos, body piercings or unusually colored and/or styled hair. For many operators, this decision isn’t so clear-cut, even as these forms of self-expression have become more the norm than the exception.

It’s one that operators increasingly face. For example, a 2006 survey showed that one in four Americans between the ages of 18 and 50 had a tattoo; one in seven reported a piercing other than in the earlobe. In the 18 to 29 set, the numbers were even higher, with 48 percent indicating they had one or the other or both. Since this survey was conducted four years ago, it’s reasonable to assume these figures have risen.

In fact, says Joey Bramwell, director of operations for Austinbased DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks, a 54-site, primarily franchised company, it’s become challenging for his managers to find good employees who don’t have a tattoo or piercing, particularly since their staff ranges from 18 to 25 years old. Bramwell, at one time one of the biggest proponents against hiring people with tattoos, says that now when it comes to hiring, they take a “community standards” approach, set by their franchise owners who are expected to know their area and clientele.

“In the higher-end locations, we’ll not pick up employees with visible tattoos or body piercings,” Bramwell says. “But in the college locations, which are a little edgier and where customers also have these, (we will).” However, he continues, if the tattoos/ piercings would distract from the customer experience, they’ll pass on the hire (this rules out full sleeves, offensive tattoos and extreme piercings. Hair is less of a concern because employees wear hats). Additionally, employees with facial/ tongue piercings must remove them, per health department requirements.

According to Jill Morin, executive officer at Kahler Slater, a Milwaukee-based consulting company, by matching the employees to the customers’ expectations, DoubleDave’s takes the right approach. Morin explains that restaurant operators must consider what experience customers are anticipating and avoid jarring them by having employees who are out of sync with that expectation.

Morin, whose company focuses on creating a “total experience design” for restaurants and other businesses, says the following elements are essential to success:
❖ Employees
❖ The perception of the business in the marketplace
❖ Products/services
❖ The place itself

Of these, the employee element is the most critical, says Morin. “If you get this one right, sometimes people will be more forgiving (of mishaps/ mistakes),” she explains. “But if you get this wrong, it is very hard to recover from this.” Lisa Gambardella, owner of Gambardella’s Pasta Bella, located in Fairbanks, agrees. Her clientele is a mix of college students, professionals, tourists and family. Approximately 25 percent of the staff has tattoos and/or piercings.

Because these are not typically associated with a “clean image” or with what her customers want to see, employees are asked to keep visible tattoos covered and to remove facial piercings, says Gambardella. Hair is considered on a per-person basis. Cleanliness counts most, she says, adding that her biggest concern is staff hygiene, especially since there are many students (her employees range from 18-to-35-years old) living in “dry” cabins that lack running water.

“We had an employee with a visible neck tattoo, but he presented a professional, impeccable appearance and he was very knowledgeable, so customers could overlook this,” Gambardella recalls. “But if an employee with tattoos was performing poorly, the customers would blame the tattoos.”

But tattoos and piercings fit right in with Piper Kapin’s two Back Road Pizza restaurants, both in Santa Fe. One is located in a hip, funky part of town with a diverse clientele. The other is in a business park where the customer mix is more professional. Eighty percent of her staff has tattoos/ piercings. Kapin generally doesn’t worry about putting these under wraps.

“They suit our business,” she says. “If someone got a tattoo I was uncomfortable with, I’d talk to them and they may have to cover it, but what counts is that the employees are good with the customers, careful in the kitchen, and clean.”

Cleanliness — specifically clean uniforms — is the biggest issue for him as well, says Doug Ferriman, owner of Crazy Dough’s Pizza. Ferriman has four fast-casual locations in Boston and Cambridge, all situated near colleges. The clientele is a mix of students, young professionals and urban dwellers. Employees range in age from 20 to 26; 20 percent have tattoos and/or piercings.

Ferriman doesn’t require employees to cover tattoos (unless they’re fresh or controversial, an issue that hasn’t arisen yet). For sanitation reasons, they’re required to remove facial/tongue piercings.

“There seems to be a trend of young people getting these,” he says. “They’re becoming more mainstream, so customers don’t comment on them.” And as this mainstreaming continues, says Bramwell, it’s something the industry will have to learn to tolerate. “Otherwise,” he says, “our pool of quality employees will slowly diminish.” ❖

Managing Your Vibe

Too many restaurant operators leave things to chance when it comes to creating a memorable customer experience, says consultant Jill Morin. Instead, all the essential elements (employees, marketplace perception, products/services, place) require consideration and integration in a purposeful way.

“The starting point for any restaurant is identifying their vision for their business,” says Morin. “Who are you? How do you want to be different from the competition? Why will people choose you? Why will people want to work for you?

“And, what experience is your target market expecting?” continues Morin, adding that this is where the employee element is especially key.

The next step is avoiding a mismatch between the vision and the experience and the perception in the marketplace, she explains. However, the objectivity required for this can be challenging; why Morin says some restaurants may want to consider using an outside party for assessment purposes.

Pamela Mills-Senn is a freelancer specializing in writing on topics of interest to all manner of businesses. She is based in Long Beach, California.

Joe Fugere effortlessly strides through the open kitchen at the Westlake location of his four-store independent operation, Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria. We’ve been with him for an entire day in Seattle, driving around the city and visiting each of Fugere’s stores, which will collectively top $10 million in sales this year. The highlight reel has been seemingly endless: Tutta Bella’s employees have impressed us with their knowledge and passion; the lengths Fugere goes to in an effort to ensure authenticity and quality dazzles us; the beauty and efficiency of the stores are indisputable. No wonder we named Tutta Bella the 2010 Independent of the Year!



Fugere watches as Executive Chef Brian Gojdics plates a Margherita pie for our cameras. It looks perfect, and Fugere proudly points out the crust’s defi ning characteristics: flame-blackened blisters on the cornicione, a credit card-thin center, a patina of crunch when you bite into it, which yields to a light, fluffy interior. It all starts with the pillowy crust — the cornicione — explains Fugere. That’s where most imposters go wrong.



“We’re storytellers here at Tutta Bella,” asserts Fugere. “Pizza is about sharing, about coming together over something simple, yet wonderful. There are so many stories to tell our customers: about the crust, about the traditions of Naples or Italian culture in general, about the ingredients that go into our pizzas.

“We want and encourage our people — our servers, our baristas, our bartenders — to understand and share with customers these great stories. They provide context and enrich the experience. They give our customers a better understanding of what they’re eating and what it is that’s so great about it.”



Gojdics is quick to chime in with a story about the essential elements of Tutta Bella’s Regina Margherita: “It’s a classic,” he says. “The ingredients are fresh, honest, simple. We’re using fresh mozzarella, fresh basil, tomatoes that are grown in the richest soils in the world.” A truly authentic Neapolitan pizza is a thing of unmistakable beauty, and Fugere instantly recognized that the first time he had one. It was a defining moment in the affable entrepreneur’s life — at the time he was an executive at Seattle-based Starbucks, a high-profile and rewarding job from which one does not easily walk away.



While the intense flavors of Neapolitan pizza made Fugere’s taste buds giddy, there was more to it than that. Above all, he was inspired by the passion and historical importance of the pizza scene in Naples, Italy. Touched by that passion, Fugere set out to fully replicate it, in earnest, with his own pizza concept in the Jet City.

For help along the way, the Tutta Bella founder turned to the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN), a group that certifies Neapolitan pizzerias throughout the world and verifies the authenticity of their products. In 2004, Tutta Bella opened its first location and became the first VPN-certified pizzeria in the Pacific Northwest. “It’s an art and a science at the same time,” Gojdics says of cooking Neapolitan pizza. At Tutta Bella, the pies are baked in a wood-burning oven at 800 F for roughly 90 seconds. “You don’t have much of a margin of error. You can turn your head, then turn back and see that you have burned three pizzas.”



Gojdics says one of his most important functions is “to stay focused on authentic Neapolitan pizza.” At Tutta Bella, “authenticity” isn’t a buzzword — it’s a mandate.

“But there’s more to Brian and his position than that,” says Fugere. “He also has the responsibility to develop people. He’s a leader, and it shows. He’s responsible for cultivating people and instilling in them our culture.”



Therein lies the mastery that epitomizes Fugere. An effective leader and deft at delegation, he is an unrivaled talent developer. He sets lofty goals for his employees, but then supports them by arming them with the tools they need to succeed. Case in point are the coveted Italian tours he sends staff members on annually. Sure, Fugere expects his baristas to be authorities on the art of the Italian espresso … so he sends them to Italy to tour coffee plants and meet with the manufacturer of the espresso machine used at Tutta Bella. He sends Gojdics and other members of the kitchen staff to see the fl our mill and the tomato harvest and taste pizza in Naples; he sends his wine program manager to the Italian vineyards where the grapes that will end up in the wines served at Tutta Bella are cultivated. These tours are immersive and educational — and they create plenty of employee loyalty.



Speaking of employees, Training Program Manager Kelli Phelan has been with Tutta Bella for nearly fi ve years. She recently led a “server summit” with the intent of “bringing all our servers together to get on the same page and make sure we have consistent service across all levels. We talked about what our expectations are and what we want each of our guests to get out of their experience here. We focused on teaching them how their service multiplies out and how they impact the business with their service in either a good or bad way. We talked about what it takes to be a great server at Tutta Bella.”



Phelan says Tutta Bella has approximately 70 servers. These individuals are the front line ambassadors for the brand, and their accessibility makes them the company’s primary storytellers. They are the people most likely to interact at length with customers, the employees best suited to take a minute to tell the story about the fi or di latte Tutta Bella uses, or the Grana Padano, or the reason all employees wear a San Marzano tomato pin on the lapels of their uniform.

Cultivating successful servers starts during the interview process, says Phelan.

“The screening is very important,” she says. “That’s where we try to find out if they are genuinely nice people. One of the questions I like to ask them is who they look up to, who they would like to emulate.” Says Fugere: “We use the interview as an opportunity to educate. We give all our applicants a free pizza card when they leave the store so that they can come in and see what the pizza is like and get a little bit of a feel for what we’re about through the product.”

Phelan says the goal is to have longevity with new hires, “so it’s more about their personality than their experience. We want it to be a good fi t, because we will train them to meet our standards.”



New hires go through an orientation in which they shadow various positions, starting with the host or a bus station. Then they put on a chef’s coat and stand alongside the pizza cutter before talking with the chef to learn more about the products used to make Tutta Bella’s menu items.

“They taste a raw tomato, taste the fresh mozzarella,” says Phelan. “Then, the next day is when they start their service training by shadowing a server. They’ll start taking tables with help on the second day, then they’ll be on their own and get four tables on the third day.”



In all, the entire orientation process lasts fi ve days. At the end of each day, the new hire sits down with a manager or trainer for a meal.

Director of Operations Joyce Morinaka is a prime example of Tutta Bella’s dedication to providing employees with growth opportunities. After living in Italy briefly, Morinaka started as a server at Tutta Bella. A little less than a year into the position, Morinaka was moved into management. Now, she oversees operations at all four Tutta Bella stores.



“I’m an example of our guiding principles,” she states. “It’s exciting that we can provide people with these types of opportunities. We’re creating something really great here, and that’s exciting.”

Fugere, in fact, has taken many of the business principles he learned at Starbucks and modified them to help mold the culture at Tutta Bella. “What we’re trying to do here,” he says, “is build a world-class company on a local level. We know we have a great product — we have Naples to thank for that. But above and beyond that, we have the opportunity to build a great company.



“We’ve adopted a lasting mentality,” Fugere continues. “We have a 100-year mentality. We haven’t built this company to sell in 10 years. We’re building a lasting business.”

Those aren’t hollow words, either, says Morinaka. Fugere is dedicated to the long-term success of his business through investing in the long-term success of his employees — and customers in the community. Since Morinaka shares Fugere’s passion for community involvement and charitable events, it has fallen on her plate to help oversee the company’s donations.



“One of the unique things about this company is that we are often given additional roles that match our interests,” Morinaka says. “So even though I’m the director of operations, I’m also the program manager for donations.”

Fugere says Tutta Bella never says no to a request from the Seattle community. It’s all part of the aforementioned 100-year mentality. And that, says Morinaka, is part of what makes the company remarkable.

“Joe’s feeling of generosity is really touching,” she says. “We don’t have an advertising budget. We get involved in the community instead. Our Columbia City store is in a true inner-city neighborhood. You don’t see many of those any more. It’s fun to get involved with the neighbors, to bring the kids in and do tours with them or to donate pizzas or $40 gift cards to schools. Every time we build a Tutta Bella, the donation program is a big part of it from the very beginning.”



As you may have noticed, the phrase “program manager” is used a lot at Tutta Bella. It goes back to Fugere’s employee development and delegation prowess. Though hands on, Fugere fully capitalizes on the strength of his key people by rewarding them with a chance to showcase their own entrepreneurial talents. Tutta Bella doesn’t simply serve espresso, for example — it has a dedicated “coffee program” with its own manager. Ditto for other areas of the operation.



Meet Jeff Perini. He’s responsible for the coffee program, which accounts for a surprisingly significant percentage of Tutta Bella’s sales. Since each Tutta Bella already has a coffee bar where professional baristas hand-pull fresh espressos, it makes sense that this portion of the business could be used to attract revenue during a day part that doesn’t traditionally find a pizzeria’s doors open to the public.

“We’ve got employees here in the morning anyway, and we have this great coffee bar, and we’re located right in the middle of neighborhoods and commuter zones, so it really seemed like a good fit to open in the morning during the breakfast shift,” says Perini. “It has worked out really well. We have quite a few people stop in for their morning coffee and maybe a biscotti before work. We’ve managed to transform what would be a dead period into another source of revenue.”



Since the coffee bar at the Columbia City store is housed in a separate room adjacent to the main dining area and has its own external entrance, Fugere hung an Attibassi espresso sign to give the appearance that a standalone coffee shop exists next to Tutta Bella.

“I think it gives it a nice feel, almost like a separate business,” he explains. “Having its own door really helps, because we can keep people from walking through a dark dining room on their way in to get an espresso in the morning.”

On the morning we visited, barista Giovanni Rogano was manning the coffee counter. Our cameras caught him pulling espresso after espresso adroitly. He explained to us that Tutta Bella takes great pains to be authentic to the experience one would find in Naples.



“In Italy, the drink matches the mug. So we put our espressos in a three ounce mug, our cappuccinos in a six-ounce mug and our lattes in a nine ounce mug,” he says.

Later that night, we’d find ourselves at a different Tutta Bella bar. There, we sipped refreshing and inventive libations and talked about their origins with Beer, Wine and Spirits Program Manager R.C. Jennings.

Jennings has been with Tutta Bella since nearly the beginning. He entered the equation as a store general manager and wrote the company’s training manual. Among other things, Jennings is in charge of putting together Tutta Bella’s wine list, which changes twice a year.

“We also have a new wine special every time we have a pizza special,” Jennings says. “In Italy, wine is food, and it’s enjoyed with every meal. We want the experience here to be as authentically Italian as possible, so the one thing Joe requires is that all of our wines be Italian. What I try to do is get a good mix from every region.” When we visited Tutta Bella in May for this story, Jennings had 14 wines on the menu — 10 reds and four whites. All were priced below $40 for the bottle.



“My focus the last year or so has been ‘Italy Accessible,’ ” Jennings explains. “All the wines are $40 and under, and they’re available by the glass. And I want to make it as simple as possible [to sell the wines], so I actively promote to customers that they can taste the wines and try them if they’re interested.”

Jennings says he evaluates the lineup and makes changes every six months. Right now, he says, he’s “really focused on building value. Since wine accounts for 20 percent of our overall sales, we’re able to really have a lot of fun with it.” For wine to be such a large part of the sales mix, Jennings says it takes a knowledgeable and proactive service staff. It all goes back to Phelan’s earlier assertion that the servers have a ripple effect on the entire business.

“I encourage our servers every night to pick something about our wines to focus on that night,” says Jennings. “If the servers aren’t behind the wine, the wine won’t sell.”

That’s where Fugere’s storytelling culture comes in. It’s a simple, effective way for servers to subtly educate customers about Tutta Bella’s wine offerings. And considering that Italian wines are on the upswing in terms of current popularity, there are lots of stories about them to be told.

“I don’t like to get bored, and I don’t like the servers to get bored,” says Jennings. “One of the positives is that I’ve definitely seen a surge in the last few years. Italian wines are hot again.”



Aside from the wine, Tutta Bella is also known for its innovative spirits menu. While Fugere originally required that Italian grappa be used as the base, he has since softened his stance and allowed the use of vodka or gin as well. That’s because he realized “we were missing out on a lot of options when we weren’t offering vodka or gin,” says Jennings. Still, despite the program’s expansion, Jennings says the spirits menu that is typically engineered by co-worker Brandon Hamlett (who could not be present for our interview) remains rooted in the Italian basics.

“When we build a menu, we like to start slow and simple and let things expand from there,” he says. “Like the wines, we want our menu to be accessible and have people taste the drinks.”

While creativity runs rampant throughout the organization, the fact of the matter is that the spirits menu allows for more experimentation than any other avenue — its ingredients and combinations aren’t dictated by a third party such as the VPN. On our visit, which prefaced summer, the focus was on cool, refreshing cocktails that cleanse the palate, such as lemon and cucumber. Jennings says the inventiveness of the wine and spirits program is a result of the freedom Fugere allows Hamlett and him to have.

“Whenever we launch a new program, cost is never the first consideration,” he says. “First, it’s creativity, authenticity and simplicity.” Those were the guiding principles, as well, when Gojdics teamed with a local brewery to formulate a Tutta Bella-branded beer, which was blended specifically to match the flavors found in a traditional Neapolitan pizza.

“Tutta Bella Amber Ale is made specifically for us,” Gojdics says. “Over the course of the last couple of years, I was always on Joe about adding another beer. And then we started having all kinds of problems with the beer in terms of delivery. So we wanted to tailor a beer specifically for us.”

Gojdics found a Seattle microbrewery by accident. He explains it this way: “I picked up a (local) magazine with Kurt Cobain on the cover, and in the back I found an article about a new microbrewery. I saw many parallels between us and them. Their mission statement could have been written by us.”

So the chef approached the brewers and arranged for some pairings. What they discovered, says Gojdics, is that ambers pair well with Neapolitan pies “because they’re less hoppy and more malty. And we discovered that one thing that’s in this particular amber that may not be in others is a black malt, and that matches the roasted characteristics of the cornicione.”

Tutta Bella Amber Ale went on the menu 15 months ago, and Gojdics says, “we sell a ton of it. We’re very, very happy with it.”

Truth be told, there’s very little — if anything — going on at Tutta Bella that its founder and employees shouldn’t be happy with. Tables turn four times on a busy Friday night (average guest experience is 90 minutes), and sales will climb to an average of $2.5 million per store by the end of this year. When the dust settles, that’s really what it’s all about — building a successful business in a responsible, encouraging way.

Once again, enter Fugere. Responsibility, accountability and sustainability are as important to him as authenticity. And just like he found a donations advocate in Morinaka, he has found an environmental steward in Sustainability Program Manager Erik Cain.



“We like to lead by example and let people discover what we’re doing,” says Fugere. “Erik is a perfect example of living the message we send — he lives on a boat and rides a bike to work.”

Cain’s responsibilities include finding effective ways to lessen Tutta Bella’s waste and negative impact on the environment. Since restaurants are some of the largest consumers of energy and generators of waste, Cain says it’s relatively easy for a pizzeria to take small steps that add up to make a big difference.

“We recycle and compost all the glass, cardboard and paper we use,” he says. “We’re getting very close to having zero garbage. Another thing we noticed is that kids were going through around 100 plastic cups and lids every few days. So we got a reusable kids cup with recyclable lids.”

Those are just a couple of Cain’s initiatives, but they’re already paying dividends for Tutta Bella, says Fugere.

“The unexpected consequence and the reward to some of what we’re doing in terms of composting,” he says, “is that composting is less expensive to have picked up than garbage. But you’d be surprised the number of people who recognize and appreciate what we’re doing.”



That’s a far cry from Jamie Sprott’s ancillary appointment at Tutta Bella. While his work as a chef in one of Tutta Bella’s locations surely attracts attention, his secondary task of serving as the Facilities Program Manager is one of the more thankless gigs in the system. Let’s not confuse low profile with unimportant, however. Sprott’s skill set saves Tutta Bella thousands of dollars annually.

“Somebody’s got to do it,” Fugere jokes of Sprott’s responsibilities. “In reality, though, it’s extremely important to running a world class company.”

Think about it. What’s more damaging to a pizzeria than a major equipment failure in the middle of a dinner rush? What does it cost to get a repair company in to fix the problem after hours, on immediate notice? If there’s a Jamie Sprott in the building, life gets much easier.

“Every day I set aside a certain amount of time where I can do things around the building,” says Sprott. “Since I’m in one store, I have a contact person set up in each of the other three locations that feed me information.”

Sprott maintains a list of all the equipment Tutta Bella uses — everything from large items down to light bulbs. His database allows him to immediately see whether an item is under warranty and which repair company is best suited to quickly fi x it. And, in many cases, he can fi x it himself.

“We maintain 40 to 45 different service providers,” says Sprott, “because we have a lot of specialty equipment. But I’m a tinkerer and a do-it-yourself type of person — it’s just my nature. So I will fi x something myself if I can. If I can’t, then I make sure I’m here when the service guy comes and I stand over his shoulder and watch how he fixes it so that I can do it myself the next time.” Sprott and Fugere say that a proper maintenance schedule goes a long way as well.

“Anything on the line needs to be blown out with an air compressor regularly,” advises Sprott. “Also, we do a bimonthly cleaning of the grease traps and exhaust systems. For our woodburning ovens, they need to be cleaned every two months.

“Coming up with a maintenance schedule is important. It’s really a money-saving issue to have equipment serviced frequently. It’s much cheaper than repairing it.”

In fact, says Fugere, the Facilities Management Program has reduced maintenance costs by nearly $2,000 per month. And as is nearly always the case with Tutta Bella, there’s an additional fringe benefit to the program.

“It affects morale,” says Fugere. “You don’t want to work in a place that’s in disrepair, where the equipment looks bad and doesn’t work. Our kitchens are open, and we’re proud of what we serve and how we serve it.” ❖

Jeremy White is editor-in-chief of Pizza Today.

When I walk into a restaurant, I look for it. When I check out the competition I grab it. What is it, you ask? It’s your menu! Unfortunately, many times I am left disappointed and uninformed. This small but essential element of a restaurant has become a glorified price list with a logo. What more can a menu be? How about a powerful marketing muscle that lifts you to the next level? When I discovered this, my store sales rose 14 percent!



Menus help establish a restaurant’s brand, reinforce its unique standing in the community and present customers with the food they prepare and serve. More than that, menus sell product. Let’s talk about a few tricks of the trade.

First, use a professional menu developer. The menu is often the first impression you make on a customer, so make it count. DIY and it looks like it. Send it to the local printer and it looks like everyone else in town. Take the time to check out menu designers at International Pizza Expo or ones listed in this magazine to see who can help you maximize the impact of your menu. Ask for samples and request referrals, look for results –– you only have one chance to make a good first impression.

When designing your menu, think marketing. Do you have any signature or high profit items? Do you have a product that is a customer favorite? Are you the official pizza of some organization? Have your recipes been passed down for generations? Has your business received awards? All of these questions need to be and can be addressed in a well-designed menu. Knowing these answers will exercise your menu muscle and build your menu into a powerful selling machine.

People are more likely to buy a product if it is placed first or last in a list of items. Let’s look at your gourmet pizzas. Place the gourmet pizza with the highest profit first on the list. Add an image of this item and we can potentially increase sales of that item by 15 percent. Vision is a primary human sense. It not only brings things to our attention, but also moves us to action. Professional images of the food you actually serve incorporated into a menu design will persuade customers to buy. Additionally, a well-conceived heading like “House Favorite” or “A Louisville Tradition” grabs attention and guarantees consumers a positive experience, thus persuading them to buy. Bold lettering or boxing of items also draws people to the items you want to sell. Beware not to overdo it or this will lose its effect. Try one item in each menu category.

Descriptions of menu items should make a guest drool. Don’t be afraid to explain what is in a dish and use ethnic names, if they fit, to add a bit of panache. “Nana’s homemade white sauce” will intrigue a hungry customer.

Hungarian novelist Arthur Koestler once wrote, “The more original a discovery, the more obvious it seems afterwards.” This certainly is true of the menu, a marketing muscle to be reckoned with. ❖

Scott Anthony is a Fox’s Pizza Den franchisee in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is a monthly contributor to Pizza Today.

There are so many ways to slice this pie –– using fresh tomatoes –– I am not sure where to begin. Is there anything more glorious, sweeter or sensual than biting into a dead-ripe tomato? I did that throughout the summer months in my youth. Those 100-plus tomato plants in our backyard garden never stopped pumping out fresh tomatoes, and I never stopped eating them. Those that we didn’t eat out of hand, in salads or on pizza (so many tomatoes, so little time) were crushed and canned into a puree for further use as the fall and winter months rolled in.



Fresh tomato pizza is as easy as getting your hands on dead-ripe tomatoes –– preferably Roma or plum (those words are interchangeable). Roma tomatoes have a dense, meaty flesh with low moisture and fewer seeds than fresh slicing tomatoes. But, let me be clear: If I can get my hands on some ripe beefsteak tomatoes, I would use them, too.

Controlling moisture comes into play big time when making a fresh tomato pizza. So, to avoid the soggy crust syndrome, the less watery the tomatoes ... the better the pie. Unless you just cannot avoid it, never refrigerate tomatoes of any kind. Cold takes too much away from the very essence of this fruit (yes, it is a fruit). Hopefully you can find space to ripen and rotate fresh tomatoes. It’s well worth the effort.

Should you slice tomatoes? Good question. With Roma and plum tomatoes being my first choice, I would definitely say you can slice — and if it fits your style of pie, then go ahead and chop or dice. My reasoning behind that relates to balance. The end user needs to get a good bit of tomato with each bite. In other words, think about a pizza that is layered with coins of pepperoni. “Coins” of Roma tomatoes will not only beef up the appearance and ultimate pleasure of the pizza, but gives something to the eater bite after bite.

Another option is to dice the Roma or plum tomatoes and let them stand in a stainless steel bowl for 30 minutes or so. Drain off any excess water. Now move ahead with a fresh tomato pizza –– maybe even this fragrant, fresh and easy one.

Fresh Tomato Caprese

Pizza Yield: One 12-inch pizza (scale up in direct proportion)
4 large Roma tomatoes, diced, to yield 1½ cups
6 ounces (about) diced fresh mozzarella (fi ore de latte)
1 cup torn or cut (with kitchen shears) fresh basil
2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons grated Parmesan
Salt and pepper, to taste
12-inch pizza shell lightly par-baked and cooled

In a stainless steel bowl, combine and toss the tomatoes, mozzarella, basil and olive oil. Brush the crust lightly with EVOO. Spread the tomato mixture evenly over the crust up to the crust edge.

Sprinkle on the grated Parmesan. Salt and pepper. Serve. No further heat or baking required.

Option: slice the fresh Roma tomatoes into rounds. Arrange the tomatoes on the olive oil-brushed crust. Sprinkle on the mozzarella. Bake. Out of the oven add the fresh basil. Drizzle on some more olive oil. Serve. 

Pat Bruno is Pizza Today’s resident chef and a regular contributor. He is the former owner and operator of a prominent Italian cooking school in Chicago and is a food critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Visit any pizza restaurant and you’re likely to find workers of many races, colors and religions, and as we progress into the 21st century, this diversity is likely to become even more so. But while your workforce may contain employees from around the globe, that doesn’t necessarily mean harmony exists within the ranks of your staff. That said, what are you doing to assure that your employees are not subjected to any kind of racial harassment?

Legal professionals say that every restaurant needs to have a policy stating that racial harassment is not acceptable and will result in termination or other disciplinary measures. This written policy should be given to all new hires before they begin work.

If your workforce includes a lot of non-English speakers, it’s a good idea to have your policy translated and available in more than one language.

Without a written policy, “you are reckless beyond belief,” says Jon Hyman, a management-side employment lawyer at Kohrman Jackson and Krantz law firm in Cleveland, Ohio.

It’s a good idea — at least every other year, but probably more often for a pizzeria operator with high turnover — to talk to employees about harassment, says Hyman. Managers should also make sure they know the policy inside out, and should keep up with the laws because they change regularly, explains Ann Kiernan, a New Brunswick, New Jersey-based lawyer and a trainer with Fair Measures, a company that teaches managers and employees the skills they need to create respectful workplaces. Small businesses can keep updated on the laws through a business association or industry, or their local chamber of commerce.

If a supervisor hears of harassment, it’s important to take steps immediately. “It can often lead to a hostile work environment, so if the employee is able to continue the harassment, it will only strengthen the other employee’s claim and will lead to great damages the longer it continues,” says Tim Davis, an employment attorney with Grasch & Gudalis in Lexington, Kentucky.

How to handle harassment depends on your restaurant’s policy, points out Kiernan. It’s important to take into account the employee’s previous behavior. They might get a warning, or a written warning if it’s more serious, and by the next warning they’re terminated. Or it could warrant instant dismissal.

“You’ve got to consider terminating your employee, even if they are your best employee, because it will affect your business’s bottom line if they continue creating a hostile work environment, and it could lead to increased damages,” points out Davis.

It’s also important to remember that harassment can come in many forms. A great number of teenagers text message, so when a workforce skews young, it’s particularly important to have a handle on how those employees communicate. Then there are the popular social media Web sites. These technologies and the appropriate use of them should be incorporated into a pizza restaurant’s harassment policy, says Hyman. Technology, he explains, “makes it easier to get to someone and harass them — and it’s not just in the workplace, but someone could put something on your Facebook wall at 2 a.m., and that’s harassment.”

Toppers Pizza, a 26-unit pizza franchise headquartered in Whitewater, Wisconsin, is already on top of social media “because we’re aware that harassment can take place off site or out of hours using social media,” says Robin Gittrich, human resources assistant.

Toppers is meticulous with its harassment training. New employees are shown a 20-minute video devoted to the subject, and they also receive a hard copy of the company’s policies, which they have to sign.

The company also recently introduced an e-learning portal called Toppers U. for which it is developing content for a harassment prevention program, and hopes it will be available in the next year.

“The program would keep giving the employee feedback until it’s certain they understand it,” explains Gittrich. Should a harassment case arise at Toppers, employees are advised to report it immediately without fear of reprisal.

“We take every allegation seriously,” says Gittrich. “Toppers would look into it. And if we believe there’s been a violation of the policy, it would lead to disciplinary action up to termination.”

Metro Pizza, with five locations in Las Vegas, also has a written, zero tolerance policy that is given to all new employees. Co-owner John Arena says new hires sign off on the policy “so it’s clear they’ve seen everything.”

There’s no specific ongoing training at Metro, “but during staff meetings we are constantly reinforcing the points that are part of the orientation,” Arena explains. “We are always talking about being sensitive to the guests and to each other, and also making sure we’re providing opportunities to people.”

Fair Play

Your workplace should be an even playing field for all employees. Here are a few tips to ensure it is: 

Make sure rules are consistently and evenly applied to all groups and people. 
Seek input. If you are having a difficult time formulating a policy, ask the employees what they think should happen in a given circumstance. Typically, they will appreciate the amount of respect the employer is showing and will respond with workable solutions. 
Have an employment attorney draft, or at a minimum review, all policies to ensure equal employment opportunity compliance. 
Have more than one person that employees can make harassment complaints to in case a supervisor is the one doing the harassing. 
Understanding your employees is tantamount. Talk to them and get to know their culture and community. Really listen and have an open mind.

Amanda Baltazar is a freelance writer in Anacortes, Washington.

The appeal of personal pizza is simple: It’s designed for diners craving something tasty and inexpensive, delivered to the table rather quickly. By definition, a personal pizza should be an adequate serving for one person’s meal. While there is no definitive size, individual-sized pizzas usually range between 6 to 8 inches, says Tom Lehmann, director at the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.

Operators can rejoice at the fact that personal pizzas bake at the same oven temperature as regular-sized pies. According to Lehmann, the average dough weight for an 8-inch thin crust personal pizza is 4¾ ounces. Dough weighs 6¾ ounces for an 8-inch thick crust personal pizza. Since larger pizzas take a few more minutes to come out of an oven, smaller pizzas means faster delivery to diners and more tables turning.

Chris Presutti, sales manager at Tomanetti Food Products, a par-baked crust manufacturer and distributor in Oakmont, Pennsylvania, says their 7-inch pizza crusts have grown in popularity more recently. “With the economy, everyone wants something inexpensive on the menu. A small pizza is very inexpensive,” he says. “It keeps people eating out for lunch. The food cost for the pizza on average is 80 to 85 cents, add in a drink and small side, and your food cost is only a few dollars. That’s a nice profit margin.”

Vito Racanelli, Jr., chef/owner of Onesto Pizza & Trattoria in St. Louis, Missouri, says: “Personal pizzas are a great way to get people to try more pizzas. They definitely help us sell more specialty pizzas.”



One year ago, Racanelli added his version of a personal pizza — a 10- to 12-inch pizzette ($6.95, with up to three toppings for 75 cents) to the menu. For $8.95, diners can order mini versions of specialty pizzas such as the margherita, chicken pesto or mad Cajun. The pizzette’s food cost is lower than regular-sized pizzas, says Racanelli, since it requires fewer ingredients, but the labor cost is higher since more pizzas need to be made.

At the Fox’s Pizza Den location in Lagrange, Georgia, the 5-inch Bambino was originally geared toward children, but so many adults requested it they added it to the main menu. “We sell 25 to 30 Bambinos a day,” says franchisee Dave Dopp. “We definitely couldn’t take it off the menu. A lot of people would be mad at us.”

Dopp estimates the Bambino has a 27 percent food cost. “It’s as simple to make as regular pizza,” he continues. The pies especially help operators capitalize on lunch specials. “The markup and profit for personal pizza should be the same as regular-sized pizzas, but if you only offer full-size pizzas during lunch, you may be losing business to sub shops and fast food restaurants who offer lunch specials,” says Lehmann. Instead, he suggests, operators menu a $5 personal pizza lunch special that includes a soft drink and chips. Lehmann also advises limiting the offering to the lunch daypart. “It erodes away from bigger meals,” he explains. “An individual pizza costs around $3 for dinner, while a 12-inch small will cost around $7. I’d rather customers order a small and take it home.”

Racanelli limits pizzettes sales to lunchtime since dinner service produces larger check averages — with the exception of Monday, which is “Customer Appreciation Day”. “When people split a pizzette at lunch and I get a smaller check average, it doesn’t bother me. But I do want to increase the check average at dinner.”

However, operators may want to consider restricting delivery orders to a minimum of two personal pizzas or limiting personal pizza for dine-in and carryout business only. “What does it cost to deliver a pizza? Add in insurance, gas and delivery charges, and I’d have a problem purchasing it as a buyer,” says Lehmann.

“Personal pizzas are definitely worth the time,” he continues. “You could probably sell slices just as well, but most people perceive individual-sized pizza better than slices. They think fresh-baked and are willing to pay more.” ❖

Personal Pizza Tips
❖ Control your sauce. “The hardest thing about individual sized pizza is over saucing because it’s so small. Really watch when you sauce. If you put too much sauce on it will become soupy, and the toppings will slide off,” says Dave Dopp, owner of a Fox’s Pizza Den franchise.
❖ Consider using a cake pan. “An 8-inch personal pizza corresponds with a common cake size. If you are looking for individual-sized pizza pans, go to a used bakery equipment supplier and buy individual cake pans,” says Tom Lehmann, a director at the American Institute of Baking.
❖ Start small. “When you first introduce personal pizza, limit it to one meal period and see how it goes,” recommends Vito Rancelli, Jr. chef/owner of Onesto Pizza & Trattoria.

Melanie Wolkoff Wachsman is a freelance writer in Louisville, Kentucky. She covers food, business and lifestyle trends.

No member of pizza’s holy trinity — dough, sauce and cheese — should be overlooked. Without hitting all three out of the park, your pizza easily gets lost in the crowded foodservice landscape. So why do so many operations simply open a can of tomato sauce and roll with it? In my opinion, giving your customers the very best sauce should be a top priority. And one way to do that when working from a canned sauce base is to take matters into your own hands with a little “sauce doctoring.”

With that said, here’s my advice to you: do some research to find out what people like in your area. What I served in Massachusetts helped put me in the top 100 independent pizzerias in the country about a decade ago. But I needed to tweak that recipe a little bit to please the diners here in Georgia, where I now live. Lesson: we must be willing to understand what our customers want if we plan to succeed.



In my years of working in foodservice, I have met more than my fair share of arrogant chefs and operators who insist that their way and their recipe is the best. Regardless of what kind of feedback they receive, they aren’t willing to alter their recipes for anyone. While that approach actually does work for a select few, I can promise you that the demise of many a restaurant has come about as a result of this stubbornness.

That’s why it’s important to learn the most loved flavor profiles in your area. Some regions tend to favor sweeter sauces, while others spring for spicy, chunky, zesty, herbladen, etc. There’s an audience out there for each type … which audience lives in your town?

In my restaurant, I take a centrist approach and go for the middle ground when it comes to the flavor profile of my sauce. My sauce is mildly sweet, but with a rich and fresh tomato flavor that isn’t overpowered with herbs. I find this has an appeal to a wide audience. Those looking for a zestier sauce or something with more herbs can shake on some crushed red pepper and oregano or basil at the table.



Knowing that the quality and flavor of your pizza sauce should be amongst the highest priority in your business, it’s crucial to understand some important principles. Let’s start at the beginning. I can’t stress this enough, so listen up: it is nearly impossible to take an inexpensive, inferior product and make something superior out of it. Let that sink in. Reread the sentence again if you have to. If you are starting with a substandard sauce, you are already losing.

Let me share an anecdote with you. Recently, I went to a pizzeria and was excited to see Veal Parmesan with spaghetti on the menu. Much to my surprise, the sauce that smothered this dish was so horrible that I couldn’t eat it. It had to have taken great effort to make any sauce taste that bad. The operator obviously started with a cheap, inferior sauce and tried to doctor it up. But, like I said, you can’t make a superior end product if you start with inferior beginnings.

If you aren’t pleased with the sauce you’re using for your base, start by getting samples from your vendors so that you can experiment with different brands. Or if you’ve heard of a company or have seen sauce ads that appeal to you in Pizza Today, call that company directly and ask for a sample and who you can purchase their product from.

Once you have a base and are ready to alter it to your specific needs, there are several options. Let’s say, for example, that you are using an extra-heavy pizza sauce, but you want to cut the heaviness a little. You can do this by adding some ground tomatoes and puree, but that will dilute the flavor. So you’ll have to compensate by adding ingredients such as sugar, salt, garlic and Italian seasonings. Treat this process like the Colonel did with his 11 herbs and spices for his secret recipe chicken. You need to first measure precisely. Secondly, make sure your employees understand the importance of following the recipe and do not alter it.

If your sauce is too acidic, add just a little bit of sugar to cut the acidity. If your sauce is too thin, add either some extra heavy pizza sauce or even a little tomato paste to thicken it.

Some people get confused about whether or not to cook pizza sauce like we do when we’re making a marinara. The short answer: don’t do it! It is not necessary to cook pizza sauce during its preparation. In fact, cooking it can be highly detrimental.

Just keep in mind that basic is better when it comes to your pizza sauce. Keeping it simple will result in a better sauce and fewer operational headaches for you. ❖

Jeffrey Freehof owns the Garlic Clove in Evans, Georgia, and is a frequent speaker at the Pizza Expo family of tradeshows.

Z-licious

Appetizers are hot. Go beyond the typical fried mozzarella or bruschetta and offer your customers a zucchini Parmigiana that will have them coming back for more. Take a fresh zucchini peel and trim off the stem end. Slice the zucchini lengthwise and dip in fl our. Shake off the excess and dip into a beaten egg. When covered, coat in breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan. Fry until golden and serve with warm marinara sauce for dipping.

Yeast Affection

We frequently get questions about the differences between fresh, instant and active dry yeast and whether they can be interchanged in recipes. First, don’t confuse the three. They are different products that require their own unique handling. Secondly, yes, with a little work you can convert recipes to conform to your chosen yeast. For instance, one pound of fresh yeast can be replaced with eight ounces of active dry yeast and eight ounces of water. Or it can be replaced with 5½ ounces of instant dry yeast and 10½ ounces of water.

Thrill of the Grill

Grilled pizza is easier than you think. The hardest part is making room in your kitchen for a grill, which a pizzeria really doesn’t need. In other words, don’t go out and buy a grill simply to offer a few grilled pizzas. On the other hand, if you happen to have a grill — make use of it! Start by rolling dough out thin and brushing it with seasoned olive oil. Grill the oiled side until it’s lightly browned. While it’s on the grill, brush the top with olive oil. When the bottom is browned, remove from the grill,flip it over and add sauce and toppings. Return to the grill and cook until finished.



Going to Sicily?

Here are some tips to keep in mind should you be thinking of adding a Sicilian pie to your menu:
❖ Use a dough that has some olive oil in its formulation for a lighter, more flavorful crust.
❖ For a really light crust, allow the dough to go through three risings: two outside the pan, one inside it.
❖ Generously oil the baking pan. Use vegetable oil for this — it’s cheaper.
❖ If you want a crunch to the bottom of the crust, sprinkle the bottom of the baking pan with cornmeal.

Going green means taking ecofriendly steps to decrease an operation’s carbon footprint, or the amount of energy produced to do just about everything: burning fuel for deliveries, cooling and heating, etc. But what does green talk really translate to for pizzeria owners? “The key characteristic of “going green” is that it is a continual process of improvement and is relative to where the individual pizzeria begins the process,” says Jerry Lawson, national manager of the ENERGY STAR Small Business and Congregations Network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA.) “Customers care and want to be supportive of businesses who are striving to earn profits in an environmentally responsible manner, and business owners care as much about the environment as anyone, but they are also learning that many aspects of green are just good business.”



Consider this: every business has factors to consider regarding going green, especially budget-wise. Experts advise focusing on long-term effects, and not just upfront costs. “Restaurants and commercial kitchens are one of the highest energy consumers — using approximately 250,000 BTUs per square foot, which is roughly 2½ times more energy per square foot than other commercial buildings,” says Una Song, program manager of the EPA’s ENERGY STAR Program’s commercial food service equipment division. “Restaurants that invest strategically can cut utility costs while making significant contributions to a cleaner environment. Restaurateurs should consider total lifecycle costs in their decisions.”

When it comes to green, planning is everything. Check out www.energystar.gov for step-by-step green restaurant guides. “Decide your motivation, and your desired outcome, and start researching things you can do,” says Dan Simons, principal of Vucurevich- Simons Advisory Group (VSAG), a restaurant consulting organization specializing in green practices. “Pick an area: trash that goes to landfills — research composting, recycling, and reducing what you send to landfills — it’s not glamorous, but it can make a big impact.”

The EPA recommends installing compact fluorescent lamps in refrigerators and kitchen ventilation hoods, and high-efficiency pre-rinse spray valves in kitchens. Conduct refrigerator maintenance: check and replace door gaskets, clean evaporator and condenser coils and check refrigerant charge. Set water temperatures at about 120 F for hand washing and 140 F for dishwashing. “Fix water leaks immediately — especially hot water leaks: wasted water, sewer and water heating costs can add up to hundreds of dollars a year,” says Song.

Government tax credits are available for upgrading features such as heating and cooling units, lighting, windows, doors, etc., and some cover installation costs. Many states provide rebates for energy friendly appliances such as ovens and dishwashers. Check out EPA’s ENERGY STAR building upgrade manual, featuring a free online tool, Portfolio Manager (which estimates monthly energy usage from utility bills, and tracks these stats over time as compared with the national average), as well as calculators to estimate returns on product investments. (See www.energystar. gov)

A significant way to green a pizzeria is through LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certifi cation, granted to eco-friendly building or remodeling projects by a rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council. Certifi cation includes an application and approval process. (See www.usgbc.org/)

Last spring, owner/chef Edward Sylvia — bringing the established customer base from his Cer Té cafe and catering — transformed a 1,200 square foot former sub shop into Pizza by Cer Té, New York City’s fi rst green pizzeria. “Being a chef, I always believed in local being better, and I’ve always used local farmers markets, local cheeses and everything else,” says Sylvia. “I wanted to take it a step further and have the construction LEED (Gold) certified so everything was in sync with the philosophy of the food.” Challenges included a yearlong building process, versus about six months for a regular pizzeria, and finding local fresh sauce during the winter — Sylvia’s in talks to obtain sauce from a local greenhouse grower. Designed for delivery and takeout, the space features herbs grown onsite, rain water storage to water herbs and clean premises, converted heat energy, river rock fixtures, filtered and aerated water for drinks and options for hybrid and bicycle delivery.

Going green provides a unique opportunity to stand out from competitors. “There are a few thousand pizzerias in NYC, and if we were a regular pizzeria, we’d be just another one opening,” says Sylvia, who is planning a free-slice incentive for customers who bring in a Pizza by Cer Té reusable plate made of sugar and printed with edible ink. “Being green has become a PR and marketing dream ... once you mention it, people are interested immediately.”

Zpizza, with 95 franchise locations throughout the U.S., is also offering an extra large pie for the price of a large for bringing in their reusable tray or handing it to delivery drivers.

Solidify your restaurant’s green position and plan for the future by joining a green restaurant organization. In conjunction with Earth Day 2010, VSAG launched the Leadership in Eco-Hospitality Advocacy Foundation (LEAF), a non-profit membership organization providing green info and networking for restaurants — Pizza Fusion is a potential founding member. The Green Restaurant Association (www. dinegreen.com) also provides green certification and resources.

“The future of the green movement belongs to entrepreneurs, because green is good for business and has become a business itself, with an exploding array of products and services demanded by consumers in the marketplace,” says Lawson. Sylvia agrees. “What I’m doing is for the next generation,” he says. “Whether I stay in the space or someone else takes it over, it will help the environment. It’s almost like planting a seed.” ❖

‘The key characteristic of “going green” is that it is a continual process of improvement and is relative to where the individual pizzeria begins the process. Customers care and want to be supportive of businesses who are striving to earn profits in an environmentally responsible manner, and business owners care as much about the environment as anyone, but they are learning that many aspects of green are just good business.’ —Jerry Lawson, National Manager of the ENERGY STAR Small Business and Congregations Network of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Lee Erica Elder is a freelance writer in New York City.

Back during the good ole days of 2006, one of the top complaints among owners of expanding restaurant chains was finding top-tier locations at reasonable cost. Not only were the best spaces taken, but buildout costs were expensive and finding good contractors was challenging.

Fast forward to today. The restaurant industry is reeling with chains and independents failing or shuttering underperforming locations. Same store sales fell precipitously in recent years, forcing many restaurants to re-engineer their menu with “value offerings” to entice the public to open their wallets. Bank financing has dried up, with financiers running away when they hear anything with the name “restaurant” in it.

You’d think it was the end of the world for restaurants. Instead, today offers an unprecedented opportunity for pizzerias with the right concept looking to expand.



There are some obvious reasons. The downturn in the commercial real estate market and failure of retail chains has forced landlords to lower rents quite markedly in some markets. According to CoStar, a commercial real estate information fi rm, the most recent data available showed that the national average asking retail rental rate fell 4 percent to $16.94 per square foot at the end of the third quarter of 2009 from a year earlier. And the decimation is expected to continue as Reis, another provider of commercial real estate market information, predicts that the vacancy rate will continue to climb throughout the end of this year, while effective rents will further slip another 1.4 percent.

Even traditional high-cost cities have seen rents fall. Numero 28 Pizzeria co-owner Rolando Biamonte has expanded to three locations in New York City over the last two years. “Greater space availability and falling rents have made it easier for us to bring our gourmet pizza to more locations,” says Biamonte. The company recently opened a location in the East Village to complement an existing West Village location.

Weaker operators, saddled with poor management, significant debt loads or high occupancy costs are being pushed out of business — resulting in less competition. Some failed restaurant locations are leaving suitable space and equipment. This is the strategy Vinny Williams, co-owner of Massachusettsbased Rose and Vicki’s, often employs when looking for new locations.



“We’ve been able to acquire restaurant equipment vacated by previous tenants from banks for pennies on the dollar,” says Williams. He and his partner just opened their fourth location in a former freestanding sandwich and pizza restaurant.

Lower rents lead to lower breakeven points, providing new restaurants with greater pricing flexibility and fewer required customer visits to prosper. “It certainly gave us more breathing room,” adds Williams. The annual rent on his most recent location is $40,000 less than what the previous tenant was paying. Some owners have even received free rent. And lots of it, in fact.

“On one of our leases, we received a year of free rent on a 5-year lease containing two additional five-year options,” says to Brian Ognian, vice president of development for Hungry Howie’s Pizza. The company has even been approached by landlords offering incentives for them to leave existing locations and reopen nearby. “In all the years, I’ve never seen anything quite like this before.”

While some concepts are negotiating lower rents, some chains are using these troubled times to move their brand up-market. This is exactly what the Marietta, Georgia-based Stevi B’s pizza buffet chain is doing. According to Matt Loney, president, three years ago a company the size of Stevi B’s could never get into prime, top-tier locations since space was often gobbled up by larger chains. “The downturn has afforded our company the chance to get into Class A locations at former Class B prices,” says Loney. The downturn has led Stevi B’s to plan aggressive growth with eight additional locations projected to open in 2010 to add to the current 35 locations they operate today. “We’ve even repositioned our brand to take advantage of these opportunities,” says Loney, who has been busy adjusting the company’s concept to take advantage of these new upper scale markets.

“We’ve been able to serve a whole new clientele with our latest locations”.

Landlords, in addition to offering lower rents, have increased tenant improvement allowances. Charlie Morrison, president of 360-unit Pizza Inn, has seen this phenomenon in Texas.

“I’ve seen tenant improvements steadily increase from $20 to $30 per square foot three years ago to $30 to $50 per square foot today,” says Morrison. “If you’re selective about opportunities, you’ll find them”.

Loney has also seen an increase in tenant improvement allowances. “Landlords know that traditional financing has dried up,” he says. He has seen landlords with strong capital backing increase tenant improvement funding to reduce the chain’s initial investment in new locations.

Sometimes the opposite occurs with TI allowances because landlords themselves lose access to capital. When they can’t fund tenant improvements, landlords are forced to drastically slash rents to entice tenants to pay for their own tenant improvements. Morrison saw rents at one retail shopping plaza fall below $10 per square foot from $25 per square foot four years ago because the landlord could no longer fund tenant improvements.

The drop in construction activity has been a boon for some pizza owners. According to Ognian from Hungry Howie’s Pizza, with unemployment in the construction industry in a state of depression, general contractors are lowering prices because their costs are dropping due to greater availability of subcontractors.

“Our contractors have been very aggressive and cooperative in lowering investment costs,” says Ognian. “The lower upfront investment is allowing some of our multi-unit operators a chance to open additional locations sooner than anticipated.”

Contractors aren’t the only vendors Ognian has seen getting aggressive on price. “We’ve been able to hire a design fi rm to help augment our brand that frankly was out of reach a few years ago,” adds Ognian.

Just remember that good times don’t last forever — but neither do bad ones. Expanding pizzeria operators are getting well-positioned for the next upturn, whether the good times return in six months or six years. ❖

Timothy Howes is a business consultant and an Assistant Professor of Management at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.

More and more I am seeing a bumper crop of vegetables showing up on restaurant menus –– and I am not talking salads here. From asparagus to zucchini and everything in between (arugula is the hottest green being used as a pizza topping right now), vegetables of every shape and color have become the go-to ingredients that add pizzazz to pizzas (and pumps up that pasta dish to pleasing perfection).


(Broccoli rabe –– also known as rapini –– is a distant cousin to the cabbage and turnip. )

I am seeing rapini (also known as broccoli rabe) and radicchio being used in pasta dishes with delicious effect. as simple as blanching the rapini until it is tender, followed by a quick sauté olive oil and garlic. That’s the prep. toss the cooked and drained pasta (short pasta such as penne, ziti orrecchiette or rigatoni) into the rapini, combine serve.


(This might look like red cabbage, but it’s actually radicchio. This colorful offering can be used in salads, but we have a recipe using it on pizza. )

Another vegetable that works in pasta dishes and as a pizza topping is asparagus. Trim and clean the asparagus, then toss brush with olive oil. Grill the aparagus roast it in the oven). Now cut the spears into 1-inch pieces. Use as is for a pizza topping or toss with cooked pasta.

Since the dog days of August are upon us, here’s a great dish to consider for a late summer special now through the end of September. I make this dish more than a few times during late summer when I have access to fresh, dead-ripe tomatoes and arugula. The dish comes out more or less like a pasta salad. Served with crusty Italian bread, it becomes an entree salad.


(Arugula has a tendency to be gritty, so rinse well before using. )

After you check out my fresh tomatoes and arugula recipe, I have a couple more for you to try as well.


(For the best flavor, choose smaller zucchini. It is younger and boasts more flavor. )

Rigatoni with Fresh Tomatoes and Arugula
Yield: 4-6 servings
(scale up in direct proportion)

3⁄4 pound rigatoni, cooked until al dente, drained, cooled slightly
3⁄4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled, minced
½ cup chopped red onion
8 ripe Roma tomatoes (about 3 pounds), cored and cut into bite-sized pieces
2 cups, tightly packed chopped arugula
1 cup grated Parmesan

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the vinegar and olive oil. Add the garlic, onion, tomatoes and arugula, then toss to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooked pasta to the bowl. Toss to combine. Sprinkle on the Parmesan. Toss again. Divide into serving portions.

Arugula, Prosciutto and Fresh Mozzarella Pizza
Yield: One 14-inch pizza
(scale up in direct proportion)

1 14-inch pizza shell
2 cups fresh arugula leaves
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3-4 very thin slices prosciutto (about 2 ounces), shredded
6 ounces pizza sauce
2 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced or cubed
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan Toss the arugula with the olive oil and prosciutto. Set aside. Spread the pizza sauce over the pizza crust. Put the fresh mozzarella over the sauce, spreading it out evenly. Sprinkle the Parmesan over the mozzarella. Bake the pizza until the crust is brown and the cheese has melted. Let the pizza cool for a few minutes, then slice. Just before sending the pizza out, arrange the arugula/prosciutto mixture over the top.

Pizza with Sauteéd Radicchio
Yield: One14-inch pizza
(scale up in direct proportion)
1 14-inch pizza shell
1⁄4 cup olive oil
5 cups coarsely chopped radicchio*
2 cloves garlic, crushed
4 ounces shredded part-skim mozzarella

In a large sauté pan, warm the olive oil over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. Add the chopped radicchio and the garlic. Cook and stir for about 10 minutes or until the radicchio is soft and wilted. Remove from heat. Set aside. Spread the sauteéd radicchio evenly over the pizza crust. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the radicchio. Bake. ❖



You can substitute escarole for the radicchio if the cost of the radicchio is too high. ❖

Pat Bruno is Pizza Today’s resident chef and a regular contributor. He is the former owner and operator of a prominent Italian cooking school in Chicago and is a food critic for the Chicago Sun-Times.