Balsamic vinegar became the vinegar of choice for the gourmet cook in the United States in the late ’70s –– nevermind the fact that this marvelous vinegar has been around since 1046. In Modena, Italy, aceto balsamico is as precious as liquid gold. In cellars all over Modena it is not unusual to fi nd kegs of vinegar that have been ageing for 60 or 70 years. Aceto balsamico was such a precious commodity it was given as special gifts, and as part of a bride’s dowry.

Unfortunately, the popularity of balsamic vinegar over the past 20 years has spawned imitations that are weak cousins to the original aceto balsamico di Modena. The difference in fl avor and taste between a top quality, properly aged aceto balsamico and younger versions of “Modena-style vinegar” is like, say, a prime cut of beef from choice beef. It’s all about the intensity of flavor ranging from highly aromatic to slightly sweet and mellow.

The quality of balsamic vinegar range from what is called tradizionale to riserva (must be at least 12 years old), and extra vecchia (must be at least 25 years old). Obviously, the older vinegars are the best and truly represent the quality and unique flavor of what this vinegar is all about. (I once tasted a teaspoon of a 100-year-old aceto balsamico in Verona, Italy, and the fl avor was uniquely spectacular, a once-in-a-lifetime experience that I will never forget.)

Quality balsamic vinegar, the real deal, is made only from the unfermented juice of the fully ripened white grapes –– Trebbiano, Sauvignon and Lambrusco. The juice pressed from these grapes, called the “must,” is boiled down for four or fi ve hours to produce an intense, sweet, ambercolored concentrate. The “must” is then aged for years at a time in small wooden casks made of juniper, chestnut, cherry, oak, ash and mulberry. It’s transferred from one keg to another, each keg or cask adding a new and unique fragrance to the vinegar.

Balsamic vinegar is remarkably versatile. It is the vinegar of choice for a uniquely Italian salad dressing. It can be used as an ingredient in a marinade for poultry or meat. A sprinkle or two adds a special flavor to grilled fi sh or cooked vegetables.

Note: price must be considered. Older vinegars can be quite expensive. So for everyday use, simply look at the label on the bottle. If it reads “Balsamic Vinegar of Modena” (commercial grade that imitates the traditional product, no ageing is involved) you are good to go for the recipes that follow. On the other hand, if you are using an aceto di balsamico for a special chicken, pasta or veal dish, I would suggest making a simple yet delicious balsamic reduction using a vinegar that is at least 12 years old (a little bit goes a long way). Once reduced, I put the vinegar reduction in a squirt bottle and finish off the dish with drizzles of decorative swirls.

Balsamic Reduction

1 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pats

Put the vinegar in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook until it has been reduced to about ¼ cup. Swirl in the pats of butter one by one, stirring constantly. Off heat, cool the reduction. Use in the recipes that follows:

Penne and Chicken Salad
Yield: 4 servings (scale up in direct proportion)

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt to taste
4 ounces cooked penne or other short pasta, drained
2 cups diced, cooked chicken
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 cups mesclun or mixed greens

In a mixing bowl large enough to hold all of the cooked pasta, combine the lemon juice, vinegar, olive oil and salt. Whisk to combine. Add the cooked pasta, cooked chicken and Parmesan cheese to the mixing bowl. Toss to combine.

On an oval serving platter, arrange a mound of the pasta and chicken salad. Alongside the pasta, arrange some of the mixed greens. Drizzle some of the balsamic reduction over the greens. Serve at once.

Chef’s tip: I have used the balsamic reduction when making a steak lover’s pizza. I sauté or grill a ribeye, boneless sirloin or flank steak to medium rare. Cut the steak into bite-size pieces. Toss the steak in the balsamic reduction.

Meanwhile, grill or sweat strips of yellow, red or green bell peppers (or a combination of all three). Cut the pepper into bite-size pieces. Add the peppers to the steak and toss to coat. Brush a 14-inch pizza shell lightly with some of the balsamic reduction. Spread the cooked steak/pepper combination over the pizza crust. Sprinkle a combination of shredded mozzarella and provolone over the steak and peppers. Alternatively, use shredded Asiago cheese in place of the mozzarella and provolone. Bake the pizza. Just before serving, drizzle the top with some of the balsamic reduction.

Basic Balsamic Salad Dressing

1 clove garlic, put through a garlic press
2 teaspoons Dijon-style mustard
2 tablespoons traditional balsamic vinegar
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Put all of the ingredients in a glass measuring cup and whisk to combine. Use for any green salad or house salad. Scale up in direct proportion. 

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.

Long before Cuba Gooding Jr. laid that line on Tom Cruise in the movie Jerry McGuire, I heard it from my wife every April 15th. My CPA heard the same such words from me. Did you ever ask yourself the question, “What am I doing this for? Did I buy myself a low paying job? All I want to do is make a good living commensurate with the stress and risk I take every day. Am I the only one?”

You are not the only one. A huge majority of operators are in the same wagon. They feel underpaid, overworked and overtaxed and are deeply concerned about the future. The current state of the economy and lack of discretionary income of our customers just adds to our anxiety. Does the possibility of failure cause you to lose sleep?

The secret to staying in this crazy business is to act like a business. If your business has survived to this point in time you probably have satisfying the customer down pat. Your customers are loyal to you because they like the positive experiences they receive when they let you cook for them. Making guests feel special is a learned trait that I call the Service Mentality. Businesses are in business to make profit and to satisfy stockholders needs.

In this month’s “Back Office” section, I’ll try to explain the critical decision-making process I made with a very small group of friends that charted the rest of my career. I’ll also explain why you may feel broke every tax time and the mystery of what profit is. Along the way I’ll ask you to analyze your operation in a methodical way to peel back the pork and get to the bone. This is the zone where you can actually sense real rewards for your hard work and dedication. Turn to page 51 for more. ❖

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 just bought a dough sheeter, which makes stretching so much faster now, but we are getting bubbles in our pizza. How do we eliminate this problem?



A: When hand stretching dough we leave more dough around the edges of the pizza, thus creating a thinner middle. A sheeter will create a more even pizza and bring a little more dough to the center of the pie, which creates more opportunity for bubbling. I would sheet the dough a little smaller than you need it and finish stretching by hand. Docking your dough will also eliminate the bubbles.

We’re in a tourist town and only open six months a year. Locals don’t want to spend what we charge, so we are thinking of offering a take ‘n’ bake to them the rest of the year. What do you think?

I hear your questions, but in my mind I keep going back to the locals you are concerned about. The reality is that your costs won’t change if you continue with the fresh dough, sauce and quality ingredients. You’re only changing who bakes it. I don’t think you can lower your price enough to make this work.

What I’d rather see you do is create a value pizza for the locals. Now I want you to offer both the high quality that you offer now, but create a value pizza that they can afford. If you are making your own dough, you can’t get any less expensive. Also, grating your own cheese is certainly the most cost effective way, so I think you simply need to create a limited pizza menu with a little bit less sauce, cheese and topping — and make it a real value for them. Yes, this may mean lowering your profitability. This way you are giving the pizza the kind of bake it needs in your oven, and it will be something the locals will appreciate and can afford.

With unemployment so high and with so many applicants, why can’t I find good help?

I understand your frustration. I promise there are some folks out there who can learn! You may need to be more careful in the selection process. It may be time to consider hiring folks coming from outside of our field. Look at those really reliable folks whose positions were eliminated but are willing to learn a new trade.

I loved the tiramisu you made in the demo at Pizza Expo. I was confused about the ricotta cheese that you used. Isn’t tiramisu made with marscapone?

Yes, traditionally tiramisu is made with marscapone, but that demo was on 10 ways to use ricotta. Creative cooks love to think outside the box and change recipes up a little bit using different, more accessible and more affordable ingredients to create the same great end result. Give it a try! ❖

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.

Danny Mac’s Pizza, Pasta & More isn’t the highest grossing operation in the industry, but owner Danny McMahon accounts for every dollar as if his were a publicly traded company. While a franchisee for the now-defunct Pizza Magia chain, McMahon learned to crunch numbers in ways that helped him understand his business’s fiscal condition, and those lessons remain in use as the owner of his own shop.

“It taught me where I could save money and where others might be wasting money,” says McMahon, whose business is in Louisville, Kentucky. “I’ve been hanging around that breakeven line for about six months, so I have to watch it carefully.”

That “it” is McMahon’s balance sheet, the financial snapshot of his business’s health. The data it supplies tells him his business’s available cash, the value of his inventory, who he owes and who owes him. Humbling as it was to make a $60 profit in February, it at least told McMahon the bills were paid.

“I’m managing it, and at least I don’t have to borrow money any more,” he adds. “My biggest focus this year has been taking care of my own books.”

At his accounting seminars, people often ask Jim Laube, “Why should I even have to look at that?” says Laube, a former corporate accountant and restaurant manager. “Why? Because it tells you a lot about your business … things that a (profit and loss statement) won’t.”

A P&L or income statement details an operation’s profit or loss by comparing expenses and revenue over a specific month, quarter or year. A balance sheet, on the other hand, gives an operator a more immediate view, showing whether the business has the cash to pay its current bills (including taxes and weekly or monthly commitments to suppliers and creditors) and whether those who owe it money are paying on time.

Divided into two sides — assets on the left, liabilities on the right — the balance sheet “tells you how solvent you are by telling you how much working capital you have,” says Robert Langdon, a former CPA who now speaks to business audiences. “The more working capital you have, the better the odds are you’ll be able to pay your bills.”

To mathematical minds like Laube’s, creating a balance sheet is simple, but he knows many operators are uncomfortable with general accounting. And while there’s no shortage of small business accounting software available, none are worth the investment if an operator can’t or won’t use them.

After a well-meaning family member messed up McMahon’s books, he took them over and started using an online program he says gives him all the information he needs. Laube says McMahon’s choice is common, while other less confident operators defer to professionals.

“This is not rocket science, so anyone should be able to understand accounting if it’s explained well to them,” he says. Yet even if you do defer to a bookkeeper or accountant for advice or to wholly manage your numbers, “don’t be intimated or say you don’t need to know this or that because you’ll let the bookkeeper take care of it. That’s when they start to develop little kingdoms and convince themselves they’re invincible because the owner doesn’t know what to ask. It’s up to you to ask lots of questions so you can understand what those numbers mean.”

While a balance sheet provides an instant view of an operation’s solvency, Langdon says it also tells bankers even more when an operator seeks to borrow money. A business’s “current ratio” and its “debt-to-equity ratio,” both gleaned from the balance sheet, indicate whether loaning money to an operator is risky or smart.

“When they’re looking at loaning money to one business versus the other, they’re looking at the odds that one can repay it versus the other,” Langdon says. “What they’re really doing is betting on different businesses to be successful, and (the balance sheet) is where they get those numbers.”

Current ratio (defined as current assets divided by current liabilities) indicates the amount of working capital in the business. If, for example, a business has $75,000 in current assets and $37,500 in current liabilities, it has $37,500 in working capital and a current ratio of 2 to 1. The higher the ratio, the more liquid the business and the greater chance the owner can pay bills.

“But if that ratio is down to 1 to 1, that means you’ve got at least as many liabilities as assets and that you might not be able to meet those obligations based on the cash coming in,” Langdon says.

A business’s debt-to-equity ratio (how much of that business creditors own vs. how much the operator owns) is calculated by dividing current liabilities by current assets. Therefore, if a business has $200,000 in current assets and $37,500 in current liabilities the debt-to-equity ratio is 29 percent to 71 percent — a highly favorable spread, Langdon says.

“The better that ratio, the lower the risk for the owner and the bank,” he says. Having that information stated clearly on a balance sheet increases the chance a bank will extend credit. “Banks loan cash and expect to be repaid cash plus interest. When you’ve got a good debt-to-equity ratio, odds are you’ll be able to pay them back.” 

Why do I need a Balance Sheet? 

It’s the most immediate way to assess your pizzeria’s fiscal health now. 
It’s what bankers will ask for first — not your P&L — when you apply for credit. 
It lets you know how much cash you have, and how much you’re owed. 
It lets you know how much of your business you own, and how much creditors own. 
Confused and want to hire a bookkeeper or accountant? Check any prospective number cruncher with one or more tests (some are free, some come with a fee) available on the Internet. You also could test them by asking them to explain some accounting principles to you. It’ll provide insight into how well or poorly ? they’ll communicate with you in the future.

Steve Coomes is a former Pizza Today editor and a freelance writer living in Goshen, Kentucky.

For many consumers, pizza and beer are a natural pairing. The cold frosty beverage is the perfect antidote for hot, bubbling cheese, and an acceptable small celebration when out with friends.

But consumers are also becoming pickier –– and not just any old brew will do anymore. Thanks to the wealth of information available at our fingertips –– and the feeling that all of the resources of the entire globe are a few keystrokes away –– pizza patrons are searching for new types of beer to pair with their meals.

Consolidation within the industry is making this a terrific time for restaurant owners to add imported beers to their bar lineup. InBev and Anheuser-Busch merged in 2008. In Bev owns global Coors and Molson merged in 2004 to create Molson Coors, bringing Canadian brands closer to home, and Coors merged with SAB Miller in 2008, bringing even more imported brands in through established distribution channels.

Tim Kirkland, founder of Renegade Hospitality, noted that many restaurants are adding more imported beers primarily because of the business opportunity –– but also thanks to the streamlined delivery channels. “We’re seeing a lot more placement of imported beers into these accounts because the sales people, for the first time ever, have been incentivized to sell it,” Kirkland said. “Before, if you wanted Stella Artois, you’d have to chase down a distributor in your market. Now, it’s coming in the front door with Budweiser products.”

Part of what draws a restaurant to want to serve imported beers is that customers are willing to pay more for the product. Depending on the market, restaurateurs could charge as much as $7 or $8 per glass for Stella Artois. That’s at least partially because it is served in a Stella-branded glass. “Now, I’m not only ordering this premium beer, but it comes in this special glass,” Kirkland said. “Part of what drives people to order a premium beer is the experience of it.”

The price point, though, varies, depending on the market. Tina Dickson, owner of Ingleside Village Pizza in Macon, Georgia, has a menu of 70 to 80 beers available. She doesn’t count on the beer itself making lots of money, but instead, hopes the draw of the menu will bring people in for meals. She sometimes pays $1 or under per beer for imports and charges $3 to $4 each for a bottle. “People come here because I have a lot of beer,” Dickson said. “I can proudly say I have more beers on the list than anywhere else in town. In Macon, Georgia, that’s a big deal.”

Old Chicago, a national pizza restaurant group, built an entire program around imported beer. The restaurants offer a World Beer Tour for patrons. They receive a passport, and get a stamp for every different type of imported beer they drink, and are considered finished when the customer drinks 110 types. They are limited to four beers in one day.



Tracy Finklang, corporate beverage manager of Louisville, Colorado-based Rock Bottom Restaurants Inc., which owns and operates the Old Chicago restaurant group, handles the beverage list for the restaurants. Finklang has a core group of 75 beers that every restaurant is required to stock, and then the restaurant can add another 45 or more beers that are available in their area. Store operators review local offerings and make recommendations. “The beauty of the program is that it requires the foamer to drink their way through the inventory,” Finklang said, thus avoiding any problems with unusual beers going neglected or stale in the restaurant’s storage. Also, it guarantees repeat business, she said, as “foamers” work their way through the list. The restaurant group now has 1 million people who have completed the World Beer Tour.

Imported beers, Finklang notes, are typically more profitable for the restaurants to sell, and have larger margins. Imported beers, though, have some issues. If a restaurant has a long list of imported beers on the menu, that means all of those beers have to be available, and that can cause storage headaches, Kirkland says. Having the beers on draft can help with that, and drafts usually offer a larger profit margin for the operator. Reach-in coolers for keeping bottles of beer cold are expensive, Kirkland adds: “If I was selling a lot of something, I might look at putting it on draft.”

Kirkland advises restaurant owners to start with what’s available from mainline distributors. Visit other restaurants, sit in the bar and watch what sells, and ask bartenders what’s selling. Also, look at what beer brands advertise nationally. The brands that buy national advertising are the ones that have national distribution, and those brands will be easier to keep in stock. Stay away from obscure beers that can be hard to track down and a difficult sell, Kirkland advises.

Dickson, though, says that’s part of the fun of selling imported beers. She’s gotten several customers hooked on her favorite, Palma Louca, a beer from Brazil, by putting it on special. But occasionally, she has trouble stocking it. She’s willing to try new beers and see how they sell. “I can sell a case of anything,” she says.

A restaurant that wants to sell lots of imported beer needs to get staff familiar with what the beers taste like, and how to describe them to patrons who ask questions. Even if they aren’t familiar with a particular brand, they should know what that category of beer tastes like. Also, note this: “If it’s hard to pronounce the name of the beer, customers won’t order it,” Finklang maintains. ❖

Hang 10

The nation’s top 10 selling imported beers are listed below, courtesy of 2010 Beer Industry Update, which is published by Beer Marketer’s Insights.
❖ Corona Extra
❖ Heineken
❖ Modelo Espcecial
❖ Tecate
❖ Corona Light
❖ Guinness
❖ Dos Equis
❖ Stella Artois
❖ Labatt Blue
❖ Heineken Premium Light

Robyn Davis Sekula is a freelance writer living in New Albany, Indiana.

Stromboli is a sealed, toasted Italian sandwich, usually stuffed with deli meats and cheese. Romano’s Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant in Essington, Pennsylvania, lays claim to the original, where Pete Romano and family continue the stromboli tradition set by his grandfather in the early 1950s. But other operations carry stromboli on their menus, adhering to the original concept or bending it into an Italian turnover, using pizza dough instead of the traditional Italian bread dough. Each holds favor with American diners, who seem to seek out stromboli with avid affection.

Romano’s serves between 400 and 450 stromboli a week, with stromboli making up about 20 percent of its business. “For us, it’s a sandwich,” says Pete Romano, manager of Romano’s Pizzeria & Italian Restaurant and steward of his grandfather’s labor-intensive stromboli recipe. “The crust should have the consistency of Italian or French bread — kind of crunchy. You should not taste the dough, but rather, fully cooked bread.” The restaurant offers a number of stromboli, including the most popular, The Original, which houses ham, peppered ham, coteghino (fresh sausage) and American cheese, with a choice of sweet or hot peppers.

“People hear that we invented the stromboli and they want to try the original one,” says Romano. Others include The Special Stromboli, a powerhouse of lunch meats: ham, coteghino, ham cap, prosuttino, Italian salami andpepperoni, as well as American cheese and a choice of sweet or hot peppers. For the Vegetarian Stromboli, diners can choose either broccoli or spinach with mozzarella, provolone, Romano and American cheeses.

“Our kitchens operate as a bakery,” says Romano. The bread dough is made in the early morning, proofed, punched down, filled with ingredients, then proofed again. The stromboli are pre-baked, frozen and then refrigerated until service. When ordered, they are re-heated in the oven for 20 minutes. “It was never a fast food,” adds Romano. “Since 1950, it’s been a pre-fabricated sandwich.” One of the upsides to reputation is interest from across the country. Romano obliges by selling frozen stromboli via FEDEX delivery.

Stromboli’s Italian Restaurant in Ackworth, Georgia, menus stromboli that feature pizza dough, not bread dough. Indeed, this operation’s version of stromboli is much more prevalent than the stromboli found at Romano’s — and it’s incredibly popular in this incarnation, too. Stromboli’s serves both stromboli and calzone, and the stromboli outsell the more familiar calzone. First, the difference: “The way we do it here, calzones have ricotta, stromboli doesn’t,” says Thomas Marroquin, general manager of this 122-seat restaurant. “But they’re both folded over pizza without the sauce. It’s absolutely crucial to get the dough right — that’s what makes a great stromboli.”

The Steak Stromboli, a take on the classic Philly cheese steak, is the most popular: medium-rare peppered steak, roasted green pepper, sautéed mushroom, caramelized onion and a blend of whole-milk mozzarella and skimmilk mozzarella. “That 50-50 blend of mozzarella really makes the stromboli delicious,” says Marroquin. “The whole milk adds a lot of flavor and good texture, and the skim mozzarella binds it together without adding any more grease to the stromboli.” The dough is stretched and hand tossed, then stretched into a rectangle. The ingredients are placed over top, then it’s folded up like a taco and flipped over, so the fold is underneath. After the top is sliced for venting, it’s baked for 8 to 10 minutes. “We make everything to order, so the stromboli are assembled as the orders come in,” says Marroquin. “Our pizza guys work really hard.” He charges $8.95 for stromboli and runs a 21 percent food cost. “The food cost is why we love the stromboli!” he says.

Stromboli’s also menus a Create Your Own Stromboli, allowing diners to choose up to four items for $8.95, with each additional ingredient running 75 cents. “By far the most popular? Sausage, pepperoni, mushroom and onion. I hear that all the time,” says Marroquin. The most unusual combination? Buffalo chicken, mozzarella and ranch dressing. “The customer loved it. ... It’s hard to go wrong with a stromboli.”

Italian Deli Stromboli
Yield: One stromboli

Frozen bread dough, thawed
Dried oregano, to taste
Dried parsley flakes, to taste
Black pepper, to taste
31⁄2 ounces thinly sliced capicola
31⁄2 ounces thinly sliced Genoa salami
2 cups shredded mozzarella
¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese
Garlic powder, to taste
1 egg yolk, beaten

Let dough rise until doubled, according to package directions. Punch down. Roll loaf into desired shape (rectangular, pictured at left). Sprinkle with oregano and dried parsley flakes, leaving 1 inch of dough at the bottom. Sprinkle with mozzarella, Parmesan cheese and garlic powder. Add capicola and salami. Fold dough, bringing one corner to the other; turn over, then fold to bring other corners together. Seal the seams and ends with a small amount of water. Place seam side down on a baking sheet. Brush with egg yolk. Bake in 375 F oven for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Let stand for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve warm.

Katie Ayoub is is a frequent contributor to Pizza Today. She lives in Toronto, Ontario.

A hearty congratulations to Domino’s Pizza is in order. As you can tell by the cover of this particular issue of Pizza Today, the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based juggernaut is our 2010 Chain of the Year. This represents the second time the company has been awarded the honor (2003).

Without question, no foodservice entity — I’m not just talking the pizza segment here now — has made more noise than Domino’s over the past 12-18 months. Between a food safety scandal that caught the attention of the masses on YouTube and a bold revamping of their core product, Domino’s was in the national press a lot in 2009 and thus far in 2010. Here is just a small sampling of the headlines the company has made:
❖ A Video Prank at Domino’s Damages Its Brand (New York Times)
❖ Domino’s Pizza Adds Chocolate Cake to Expand Menu (Reuters)
❖ Domino’s Pizza Delivers Change in Its Core Pizza Recipe (USA Today)
❖ Domino’s CEO Brandon to be Michigan Athletic Director (USA Today)
❖ Patrick Doyle to Succeed David Brandon As Domino’s CEO (Crain’s Detroit Business)
❖ Domino’s Pizza Opens 9,000th Store (Forbes)
❖ New Domino’s Pizza Recipe Doubles Quarterly Profits (New York Daily News)
❖ Domino’s Says New Recipe, Frank Ad Campaign Help Double Profit (USA Today)
❖ Domino’s Tough Love on Itself is Getting Noticed (MSNBC)
❖ Domino’s Launches Massive $75 Million Ad Blitz (Forbes)

Clearly, there’s been a lot going on in Ann Arbor recently. And my gut tells me there’s much more still to come.

Was any pizza company more newsworthy than Domino’s in the past year? Not even close. Match their buzz with their very strong financial performance (an unbelievable 14.3 percent jump in same-store sales in the first quarter of 2010 for domestic units), and it becomes clear that we really only had one choice for our Chain of the Year.

Congratulations, Domino’s! Read more about the company and its recent developments and performance beginning on page 58. And stay tuned for our August issue as well, when we’ll name our Indy of the Year.

Best,

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

Recipes for pasta carbonara vary as much as the stories of its origin. Some operators build carbonara sauce with eggs, pecorino, pancetta and black pepper; while others use cream, bacon and Parmesan. Carbonara is derived from the Italian word for charcoal. One legend claims that the dish was made for Italian charcoal workers. (Some menus list pasta carbonara as “coal miner’s spaghetti.”) Other tales explain that it was first prepared over charcoal grills. Operators may not be in agreement on the dish’s origins — or what’s in it — but they can agree that this decadent dish is worth carrying on the menu.

Moe Abrishamkar Jr., head chef/owner of Amalfi Ristorante Italiano in Rockville, Maryland, prepares linguine carbonara ($13/dinner, $11/lunch) where al-dente linguine is dressed in a combination of eggs, cream, onions and prosciutto di parma that is topped with Parmigiano- Reggiano. “Linguine carbonara is a fun and simple dish that tastes delicious,” says Abrishamkar.

After preparing the dish for a year, Abrishamker tweaked his recipe in response to his diners’ desire for more healthful fare. Before Abrishamker used pancetta. While delicious, he says, pancetta is highly fatty. Today, Abrishamkar utilizes prosciutto di parma. “Prosciutto makes for a slightly different and healthier version of the dish. It also doesn’t hurt that I love the flavor,” he says.

The food cost for the dish fluctuates depending on the price of prosciutto di parma and Parmigiano- Reggiano. “Beyond that it is simply a little pasta, eggs and onions. On average it costs around $7 for the ingredients, Abrishamkar says.

The dish sells well. Abrishamkar estimates the linguine carbonara has a 30- to 40-percent profit margin. Another bonus: it takes only a few minutes to prepare. “The longest part is cooking the pasta,” Abrishamkar says.

“It’s hard to mess up pasta carbonara. It’s such an easy dish to prepare,” adds Jim Kerstetter, general manager of Pomodori’s Pizza, which has two locations in Cincinnati, Ohio. Pomodori’s pasta carbonara tosses together sautéed pancetta, mushrooms and fresh garlic with extra virgin olive oil and spaghettini. “Spaghettini holds and maintains a good coating of the sauce,” says Kerstetter, who estimates the $12.95 pasta dish has a 15-percent food cost and a 65-percent profit margin.

Ron Inverso, owner of Ron’s Orginal Bar & Grille in Exton, Pennsylvania, whips up his orecchiette carbonara by cooking up a sauce with mushrooms, peas, carrots, garlic, onions, applewood smoked bacon, sherry and cream. The $13 entrée has an estimated food cost of 25 percent and earns a 75-percent profit margin. “It’s pretty popular,” Inverso says. “It’s a different item. Most of the cream-based pastas like Alfredo are made with cheese, butter and cream. The sherry adds a sweet wine-like flavor to it.”

Inverso finds the sherry balances out the bacon’s smoky flavor. He chose orecchiette, tiny discshaped, dimpled pasta, because it holds onto the sauce well and makes a nice presentation.

To produce his carbonara, Inverso sautés diced bacon, garlic and olive oil until slightly browned. In a separate bowl he whisks together egg, Romano, cream, salt and pepper. After the pasta cooks, he tosses it in the egg mixture. Then he adds mushrooms, peas and carrots to the sauté pan, reheats and deglazes with sherry. Lastly, he tosses the pasta in the pan, making sure to cook the eggs and serves with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.

While Inverso is not opposed to deviating from a traditional carbonara recipe with the addition of sherry, he won’t remove the bacon. “It’s not carbonara without the bacon,” he says “The bacon makes the dish. Otherwise it’s just Alfredo.”

Tony Maronni’s, in Sussex, Wisconsin, may not be set up for preparing pasta, but that doesn’t stop owner Tony Lippold from utilizing carbonara. The sauce appears on his chicken carbonara specialty pizza. “It’s definitely one of our top fi ve specialty pizzas,” says Lippold, who estimates the pizza’s profit margin is 75 percent.

The carbonara specialty pizza displays a layer of housemade Alfredo sauce, topped with grilled marinated chicken, pre-cooked and diced applewood smoked bacon, Parmesan, Romano, mozzarella and provolone. The pizza sells for $11.99 (small), $15.24 (medium) and $18.99 (large). Lippold estimates the food cost is 25 percent. “It’s really easy to make since it’s so few toppings,” he says.

Pasta carbonara may be a quick and easy dish to prepare, but it still requires complete attention throughout the cooking process. For example, it’s important to remove the pan from the heat when adding eggs to the carbonara sauce. “A lot of people miss this step and cook the eggs,” says Abrishamkar. “Lose focus for a minute, and you can ruin a wonderful dish.” ❖

Orecchiette Carbonara
Yield: 1 Serving

6 strips Applewood smoked bacon-cooked
1 tablespoon fresh chopped garlic
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1 fresh egg
2 tablespoons Romano
2 ounces heavy cream
9 ounces orecchiette pasta
Pinch of salt
Pinch of fresh ground black pepper
1 ounce fresh mushrooms
1 ounce carrots, diced fine
1 ounce peas
2 ounces cream sherry

Sauté diced bacon, garlic and olive oil in a pan until slightly browned. In a separate mixing bowl, whisk egg, Romano, cream, salt and pepper. Set aside. Heat pasta in boiling water then drain thoroughly. Add pasta into egg mixture bowl and toss thoroughly. Return pan with bacon to the heat for about a minute. Add mushrooms, peas and carrots, then sauté until warm. Add sherry to deglaze. Add pasta and egg mix to the pan, then toss to make sure eggs are cooked. Deglaze with pasta water as needed. Transfer to serving bowl and grind generous amount of black pepper over the top.

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

America talked and Domino’s Pizza is listened. If you’ve watched any television over of the course of the past year, you’ve probably seen several corporate faces on the company’s advertising campaign serving up healthy doses of humble pie. In a series of commercials, Brandon Solano, the company’s VP of brand innovation, and CEO Patrick Doyle readily admit their original product is inferior and a change was needed … so they made it happen.

The result? Not only the public’s attention but also that of media watchdogs as well. Could such a public mea culpa actually have negative results? And how would the franchisees take it?

“I was a little bit nervous at what the reaction was going to be from the time they saw it until the time we launched. How were they going to react without kind of seeing the outcome?” Doyle says. “What was most interesting to me was (that) I expected a much more mixed reaction on the launch plan than what we got. Our franchisees looked at the advertising and said, ‘You know what? I get it. I’ve been a franchisee for 20, 25 years and I’ve heard this criticism before. It’s not like this was out of the blue.’ ”

Honesty, it seems, is the best policy. The commercials air the criticisms from consumers and focus groups and hold little back. After the rollout, Domino’s tracked down some of its critics and urged them to try it again. Haven’t tried it yet? The company plastered three regular Joes’ hometowns telling them to give the new pizza a try. They did,with cameras rolling.

“Minds don’t change overnight,” Doyle warns. “While I’d love to change everybody’s minds, what it really means is as we continue to build credibility for the quality and taste of all of the food that we sell at Domino’s, it’s going to continue to change people’s perceptions of the brand over time. And that improvement in percentages over time means sales growth over, hopefully, a long period of time.”



Domino’s created a separate Web site, www. pizzaturnaround.com, which features actual focus group feedback, a live Twitter stream and corporate employees looking, well, dejected as they listened and read the comments. Doyle and his corporate team then walk viewers through the new pizza process. They’ve also adopted a new tagline: “Oh Yes We Did,” which answers the question: Did we actually face our critics and reinvent our pizza from the crust up?

Russell Weiner, Domino’s chief marketing officer, says the company changed its advertising techniques to a more honest and organic approach in an effort to connect them to the brand on a personal level. “What we were doing is evolving our brand positioning,” he says, adding that consumers are connected via mobile devices and through the Internet but are connecting personally less.

“We didn’t walk away from (focusing on) delivery. We walked away from making ourselves only about delivering,” he adds. Because Domino’s Pizza arrived at the door so quickly, consumers often had a negative image about the preparation of the food. Connecting consumers with the food was critical for the advertising campaigns –– and, essentially, the rollout of new products –– to work.

“One of the things that we do as a marketing team is (that) we want to do marketing in a time machine,” Weiner says. “We want to create five to seven years of progress in one year. To do that, we wanted to do things in a break-through way. And, not just break-through for break-through’s sake. … It was more about if we’re going to put real people in our ads, and people want real connections, then you’ve got to be honest with them. And that’s what we did.”

Following the launch of Domino’s Pizza’s new Oven- Baked Sandwiches line in 2008, it conducted an independent taste test comparing it with QSR sandwich giant Subway. Domino’s claims that its sandwich line beat Subway 2 to 1 took to the airwaves in a bold advertising campaign aimed at securing the sandwich delivery segment.

Soon after, Subway issued a cease-and-desist letter that questioned the validity of the taste test. Domino’s answer? Then- CEO David Brandon stepped up Domino’s game by “oven-burning” the letter in a commercial. After all, Subway had attempted to enter the pizza market in the past and turnabout is fair play.
“We were confident in the data,” Weiner says, adding that his experience working with The Pepsi Challenge (comparing the beverage to its competitor, Coca- Cola) helped. “You can’t run a claim advertisement on national television without showing the backup to the networks.”

The company posted that ad on YouTube the weekend before the Super Bowl and it generated 1.2 million hits. “People responded, and we really started to realize that if your food is great –– which ours was –– and you’re willing to stand behind it and put your face to it, and telling the truth, it seems to work,” Weiner says.

During the launch of the American Legends line, which features all-American dishes brought to pizza, the company put its franchisees in the ad to argue for their respective locales. “What’s to make you think that that’s a great pizza more than having the guy who makes it in” a commercial, Weiner says, adding that it was a “home run” for the company.

Another winner was Domino’s Big Taste Bailout Package, which offered $5 pizzas. Its advertising again featured its own CEO, was filmed in Washington D.C. and aired as corporate leaders descended on the nation’s capital asking for their own bailout. “This was a bailout that was costing us money,” says Weiner, “so it was real, and it was true, and that’s why it worked. … That was one of our best windows last year.”

The advertising campaign for Domino’s newest dessert, its Chocolate Lava Cakes, pitted the company’s accountants (the cakes were given away free with the purchase of a Pasta Bread Bowl) against the chefs who created the dish over who should be given credit for the deal. Again, real people and real food, Weiner adds.

Internally, the company believes in “delivering the ‘Wow’,” and that doesn’t just involve its corporate office. “Whatever you’re doing, whether you’re doing an ad, you’re prepping a new product, you’re doing an interview, it needs to deliver the ‘Wow’,” Weiner says.

“You have to get people’s attention,” Doyle adds. “But at the end of the day, it’s about getting people to try the pizza. If we can get them to try the pizza with the knowledge that this is something very new and different than you’ve had from Domino’s in the past, we win.” ❖

The YouTube Incident



In April 2009, Domino’s Pizza made national headlines, but it wasn’t for a new product. Instead, a viral video featured two employees at a North Carolina franchise abusing customers’ orders before they were delivered. The result was a public relations nightmare.

“We found out about the video within 45 minutes of it being posted from external sites as well as our own monitoring team,” says Tim McIntyre, vice president, communications. “This was one of those incidents that just felt different. … The people (in the video) were so brazen about what they were doing that this one felt really bad.” Security and operations teams pulled still photos from the video immediately and emailed them to franchisees within hours of the postings looking for the pair, which McIntrye likened to looking for a needle in a haystack.

By 10:30 that evening, company officials had identified employees Kristy Hammonds and Michael Setzer. He received an apology e-mail from Hammonds at 1:38 a.m. (which was released to the public verbatim).Police, the local health department and the franchisee were contacted, and felony charges were fi led.

“Our fi rst priority was to fi nd them,” McIntyre says, “and if the food they were tainting had actually left the store.” (McIntyre says it was a hoax and the food was never delivered, as the small-town store wasn’t busy and the manager was in the back office reading a newspaper.)

“Secondly, we began to communicate with YouTube. We communicated with some other sites like The Consumerist that had reposted the videos. … We didn’t feel compelled to issue a press release or hold a press conference. That would have been akin to putting out a candle with a fire hose.” They issued a statement the next day on the company’s Web site telling consumers they were aware of the videos as management searched for a way to handle the negativity.

Winthin 48 hours, Domino’s issued a rebuttal featuring CEO Patrick Doyle on YouTube using the same search terms as the original videos. Find those, and you’d also find the corporate video. “We let people know on YouTube, where this thing originated, that we know this video is out there, it’s a hoax and we’re sorry for what these people did and how they’re portraying our brand,” McIntyre says.

Initially, views of the original videos spiked then waned. “Social media has a short attention span. We kind of ruined it by letting people know that we knew about it. … It was only attractive when people thought it was real.” Soon after Doyle’s response hit the Internet, mainstream media picked up the story. By that time, the story was less about Domino’s food being tainted and more about the company being victimized by two rogue employees and how other companies should protect themselves. Subsequently, the franchisee was not able to sustain his business and has closed.

“What this allowed us to do was to be open and honest about our anger,” McIntyre says. “There were a lot of victims here. The brand was a victim. This independent business owner lost his pizza stores because of what they did. Fifteen or 20 people who worked for him lost their jobs. “A year later, the brand not only survived, but it thrives. … To me, it speaks to the power of the brand.” ❖

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor at Pizza Today.

Over the years, I’ve written a number of articles on using baker’s percent to express a dough formula, but it never hurts to give a refresher course for those who have recently joined our ranks. A lot of time I hear: “Why can’t you just give me a dough formula with the weight of each ingredient shown?” I would if it were just that simple. In order to do this, I would need to know how much fl our you want to use in making your dough, and I’m betting that everyone isn’t using the same weight of fl our, so then I’d get another request to give the formula again, but this time with the correct ingredient weights for a different fl our weight and so on. By expressing a dough formula in baker's percent, the formula can be easily manipulated up or down in size, based on any fl our weight, and the dough formula will always be in correct balance.



The only tools we’re going to need here are a sharp pencil, a pad of paper and our trusty, hand-held calculator. Here’s a typical pizza dough formula presented in baker’s percent.

Flour: 100 percent
Salt: 1.75 percent
Sugar: 2 percent
Olive oil: 3 percent
Instant dry yeast: 0.375 percent
Water: 58 percent

The only rule you need to remember is this: Flour is always equal to 100 percent. What this means is that whatever fl our weight you elect to use will always be equal to 100 percent, so, just write down your fl our weight next to that 100 percent figure.

Let’s say you opted to use 40 pounds of fl our for making your dough. Keep in mind that the weight of each ingredient will be expressed in the same weight units that you express the fl our weight in (pounds, ounces, grams, kilograms, etc.). Tip: Look at your ingredient scale to see how the weights are shown, for example, some scales will show actual pounds and ounces to the nearest 0.2 ounces (for example: 11 pounds 3.2 ounces, or 3.4 ounces, etc.); other scales might weigh to the decimal fraction of a pound such as 11.3 pounds, or 11.4 pounds, etc.; some might even weigh to a fraction of an ounce such as 11 pounds 4.25 ounces, or 4.5 ounces, or 4.76 ounces, etc. My least favored scale is the one that only weights in single decimal fractions of a pound such as the above 11.3 pound example. The reason for this is because of its inaccuracy in weighing smaller amounts of ingredients. Each 0.1 pound is actually equal to roughly 1.5 ounces, or another way of looking at it is, this scale is capable of weighing your ingredients only to the nearest 1.5 ounce measurement. This can be a problem if you need an ingredient weight of 1 or 2 ounces. Try to show your fl our weight in the same weight units that your scale weighs in. Most of the time we can get away with showing the fl our weight in ounces without any problems.



Ladies and gentlemen, turn on your calculators!

1) 40 pounds of fl our will be expressed in ounces, so our ingredient weights will also be expressed in ounces. 40 x 16 = 640 ounces of flour.

2) Enter the fl our weight (640) in your calculator, then press “x” followed by the ingredient weight you want to find. In this case salt is 1.75 percent; so enter 1.75 and then press the “percent” key, and read the answer (weight of salt needed) in the display window: 11.2 ounces. Since we’re not making rocket fuel here, we can round this off to 11.25 ounces if desired.

3) Going through the rest of the ingredients, the math looks like this: 640 x 2 (press the “percent” key) and read 12.8 ounces of sugar in the display (round to 12.75 ounces).

4) 640 x 3 (press the “percent” key) and read 19.2 ounces of olive oil in the display (round to 19.25 ounces).

5) 640 x 0.375 (press the “percent” key) and read 2.4 ounces of IDY in the display (round to 2.5-ounces).

6) 640 x 58 (press the “percent” key) and read 371.2 ounces of water in the display (round to 372.25-ounces or divide by 16 to get the weight in pounds. 371.25 divided by 16 = 23.2-

Let’s do the math one more time. This time we’ll use 25 pounds for our fl our weight, with the same dough formula.

1) Flour: 25 pounds or 400 ounces fl our weight (25 x 16 = 400).

2) Salt: 400 x 1.75 (press the “percent” key) and read 7 ounces of salt.

3) Sugar: 400 x 2 (press the “percent” key) and read 8 ounces of sugar.

4) Olive oil: 400 x 3 (press the “percent” key) and read 12 ounces of olive oil.

5) IDY: 400 X 0.375 (press the “percent” key) and read 1.5 ounces of IDY.

6) Water: 400 x 58 (press the “percent” key) and read 232-ounces of water (or divide 232 by 16 = 14.5 pounds of water).

If you want to convert an existing dough formula into one expressed in baker’s percent, all you need to do is to divide the weight of each ingredient by the weight of the fl our and multiply by 100. Here’s an example:

Flour weight is 25 pounds or 400 ounces.

The weight of the olive oil is 14 ounces. What is the baker’s percent of the olive oil?

14 divided by 400 x 100 = 3.5 percent.

The water weight is 12 pounds. What is the baker’s percent of water? 12 divided by 25 x 100 = 48 percent.

Do this for each ingredient and you’ve got the dough formula converted into baker’s percent. Now you can manipulate the size of the dough up or down as you wish, knowing that it is always in correct balance.

Remember, you can only work in weight measures. You cannot do baker’s percent in volumetric measures such as cups, teaspoons, tablespoons, etc.

Cut this copy out, or photo copy it and save it for the next time you come across a dough formula given in baker's percent, or when you need to convert your own formula into baker’s percent so you can adjust the size of the dough without fear of your formula getting out of balance. ❖

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

If you’re looking for new ways to create revenue or just want to fi nd out about the latest industry trends and products, then International Pizza Expo, March 1-3, 2011, is the show for you! International Pizza Expo is the only event where you’ll find over 80 industry specific seminars, workshops and demonstrations, not to mention nearly 450 exhibiting companies and 1,000 booths. Throw in the best networking event in the pizza industry, the Beer and Bull Idea Exchange, as well as all the great contests and competitions, such as the World Pizza Games, International Pizza Challenge and the $20,000 Mega Bucks Giveaway. It’s no wonder Pizza Expo is now one of the Top 200 tradeshows in the country.

I know the economy is not the best, but in times like these, you’ve got to do more than just create a great pizza to be successful. Now more than ever, you have to understand your customers’ needs and wants to grow your pizzeria. Attending your industry trade show – even during an economic slowdown – can be the best way for you to obtain new knowledge, insight and ideas that can help position your product and pizzeria for future growth.

Ask anyone who’s attended a past Expo and they’ll tell you if you’re looking for new ideas, products and techniques to improve your bottom line, then International Pizza Expo is the place to be. At International Pizza Expo you’ll have the ability to negotiate great programs and deals right on the show floor by taking advantage of show specials and incentives being offered by our exhibiting partners. These could be products that you are currently using or something completely new that caught your eye. Remember, on the Pizza Expo® trade show floor, you can find everything from marketing programs to POS systems that will drive more business to your pizzeria.

The long and short of it is there’s always something new to learn or see at Pizza Expo that will improve your pizzeria. In fact, I guarantee it. If you’re not satisfied with any aspect of the show, simply put your thoughts and concerns in writing to me and I’ll send you a prompt refund of your registration fee. Last, but not least, International Pizza Expo is a tax-deductible working vacation.

It’s all pizza and it’s all for YOU!

Sincerely,
Bill Oakley Executive
Vice President

When I was a young pup 25 years ago, my landlord approached me. I had been renting my restaurant from him for five years or so. Ray was retired from the phone company and wanted to sell his local real estate properties and buy a retirement place in Florida. I was the de-facto landlord anyways. When he hit me with his asking price I got a serious case of sticker shock. When I brought this up to my trusted accountant he was optimistically enthusiastic. I didn’t think it was possible to ever own a shopping plaza and 135 feet of prime US-23 highway frontage. I was thinking how tough it was to scrape up the rent in the middle of winter. Chuck, my accountant, was looking at the opportunity for a long-term investment. His advice to me was: “Buy the place. We’ll make the money work. You’ll thank me when you decide to retire.” I also asked the advice of a real estate guru friend and my banker. They all gave me the green flag.



I discussed the possibility of counter offering 10 percent less than the asking price and was out-voted by my group of advisors. Every one of them advised I agree to the asking price. They told me that if I started to haggle on price my landlord would withdraw the offer. As it turns out my arch-rival in town was ready to pounce on the purchase. He had money and hated my guts. I’m sure he would have relished the thought of being my landlord. Twenty years later I sold the place to one of my tenants and semiretired, fairly well off for the son of a school bus driver. What sage advice I got from others. Without their counsel I wouldn’t have had the nerve and expertise to pull off the purchase.

During my 30 years of restaurant ownership I have leaned on the advice of 3 accountants and a few close friends who were very successful in their businesses. What my friends lacked in college degrees they made up for in business sense. My wife and life partner has enough degrees for all of them and is my final advisor. I married up.

Back then, in the mid-eighties, I was driven to succeed. If you tried to sell pizza in my town, I was your worst nightmare. I had graduated from the school of hard knocks and had mastered pizza making, leadership and defined and refined many guerilla marketing tactics. I was learning the ways of business one bitter and expensive lesson at a time. Until I went all in and purchased the real estate, I was mediocre at best in things money and financially related. In fact, it seemed that every time I dug myself out of a debt hole, I dug a new one. I think I was a glutton for punishment. If I were one of The Donald’s apprentices, I would have fired myself. The time had come for me to stop playing restaurateur and start being one.

This is the time I created my loose group of advisors I called The Old Grizzlies. These veterans had more battle scars and business smarts than I would ever have. I called a group meeting as situations arose and traded lots of pizza for priceless advice.

Until I became a land baron, I wasn’t required to account to anyone. If I had a profitable year, life was good. If I had an unprofitable year, we just went without the spoils of success. Chuck, my accountant, was about to give me a wakeup call. He assured me that he would make the numbers work if I decided to buy the place. He failed to tell me at the time that he would start questioning my every expense. He would challenge me to run a tighter and tighter ship. If 33 percent food cost was the norm, he challenged me to shave 2 percent off. When you zero in on every controllable expense item, your numbers will get better. Since he was not biased or grounded in the day-to-day operations of a restaurant, he put everything under the spyglass. After a few months my bottom line was on an upswing. We didn’t have any problem meeting my mortgage obligation. My tenants were happy and profitable. No whining, attitude or tardiness on the rent.

I can’t stress enough how much money was wasted weekly by free throwing toppings on pies. I shudder to think that if I had been as diligent when I made the first million pies as I was the last million, my financial outcome would have been significantly better. The cheap and simple act of pre-weighing cups of cheese and placing a scale on the make line saved me over $400 a week. I’ve seen many 5-8 percent improvements in food cost when working with owners who get it once they see it with their own eyes. I also decided to buy all of my groceries from one primary supplier. In today’s jargon it’s called Prime Vendor Agreement. When I implemented it 25 years ago it was called buying at Cost Plus.

Chuck, the bean counter, now had me zoom into the next highest expense: labor. Controlling this line item is trickier than portion controlling by far. It’s harder to control people than things. The first step was to establish a baseline labor expense percentage. This percentage was calculated two ways. The down and dirty percentage I was shooting for on a weekly basis was computed by my POS system: hourly and salaried wages divided by hourly and daily sales. This amount was 22 percent. After the hidden soft costs are added in, like matching employer social security, unemployment and workers’ comp insurance — plus any employee benefits — the true labor cost averaged at 25-26 percent. My manager’s bonus was directly tied to labor cost and he monitored it like a hawk. Every hour he would print a real time labor cost report. This report was accurate to the minute and made the decision to send someone home early very easy. Prior to setting a ceiling on labor we were generally overstaffed during slow shifts and understaffed during rush hours. We also graphed daily and hourly sales versus labor for the slowest days of the week (M-T-W-Th), as well as the busy weekend days.

During the slow days, we couldn’t hit low labor because we had to minimally staff. We made up for it on the weekends when we had just enough people to take care of business with very few low-productivity hours. We often hit 15 and 16 percent hours. The only way we could do this is to have cross-trained everyone so they were proficient in what I call the “Make It, Bake It & Take It” functions. It was not uncommon to see cooks delivering and drivers answering phones and preparing orders. We were able to pay more per hour by developing high-sense of- urgency crew members. We had pretty much removed all the fat from the schedule. One lightning cook can produce two to three times the volume of a slow cook. We did a time study on everything and knew exactly how much time it took to perform a function. Our best times were legendary. We could hand toss, sauce and cheese a 14-inch pizza and get it in the oven in 23 seconds. We could chop and box a pizza in 10 seconds. We could politely and professionally answer the phone and take an order, then repeat it back for accuracy and quote a price and delivery time in 44 seconds. Everything that is measured is improved.

A well run and managed pizzeria can achieve a food and labor cost of 60 percent. Big Dave’s ran at 55 percent more than 10 months a year. When I see an operation running at 65 percent and more Prime Cost, I know they are close to being unprofitable. That’s when a serious intervention is in order, ASAP. Get your prime costs in order now. If you do, you probably won’t fail to make money. ❖

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.

Patty Phillips owns and operates California-based Patty’s on the Run. This take-and-bake delivery company offers a complete line of pizzas, sides, sandwiches and desserts. The company also offers a wholesale line of pizzas for the commercial market and recently reduced its real estate by closing its store and moving online.

Q. How does the “Patty’s on the Run” concept work?

A. With the way the economy is heading and the high rents in California especially –– we were on a high-end boutique street in Santa Monica which is kind of like the Beverly Hills of Santa Monica –– about 30 to 40 businesses had gone out. The landlords weren’t lowering the rent. I had this idea instead of having a brick and mortar location, I’d take it virtual, since we have loyal customers. People can go to our Web site … and order online and we are delivering it to them for free. It was a way to deal with the challenging environment for businesses today. I brought everything into my wholesale facility and we carved out a niche. We deliver throughout west L.A.

Q. How did you initially start your wholesale business?

A. Like anything in life, sometimes you just kind of fall into things. I had a chef come in into my shop back in 1989 and said ‘you have the best pizza I’ve ever had. Can you make them and deliver them to me?’ … Eventually, I got (hotel contracts). It’s been one hotel at a time, one pizza at a time. We got large enough so that we could have a separate wholesale facility.

Q. What is the allure of take-and-bake pizza?

A. It takes a while for people to understand the concept of take-and-bake pizza. We explain to our customers that studies have shown that pizza deteriorates after it’s cooked within 7 minutes. It’s getting cold; it’s getting soggy. With a take-and-bake pizza, you get it fresh to your door, and when you’re ready, you put it in the oven to bake. It only takes 15 minutes to cook. It’s fresh, hot delicious pizza right out of your oven.

Q. How does the delivery aspect of take-and-bake work for you?

A. It’s getting there. It’s a brand new concept. We just started this in March. It’s getting people used to (the fact that) we’re not located in Santa Monica, but they can get the pizza and get it delivered.



Q. Have you considered baking in-house?

A. We are toying with the idea of offering cooked pizzas. We’re not sure if we’re going to go that route. When you get a fresh pizza delivered to your door, it is so much better if you can put it in your oven. You don’t have to have it there at a certain time. You can have it delivered at 5, knowing that your guests are going to be there at 7. It is more convenient for people, if they think about it.

Sixteen years of owning a pizzeria is quite an education. I’ve been self-employed since college, yet marketing a pizzeria requires a set of tools that are not transferrable business skills. Pizza marketing is like no other — the coupon-driven business can be a rude awakening to any operator.



Time and again I see talented persons with great recipes who can’t turn their passion into profits. They are oversold on the false concept that pizza sells itself. These men and women come into the pizza business with a lack of perception of who they are, and therefore a lack of means to communicate or market that concept to others. Let’s face it: you can’t be all things to everyone. Getting into the pizza business requires that we define ourselves with a solid business plan that includes a conceivable marketing plan. I am bewildered when I see a menu or Web site that has multiple USP’s, or features built-in discounted pricing. Are we selling a culinary experience or a commodity?

Will you be the authentic Italian pizza, the price-is-right guy, the fresh ingredient pizzeria or the destination dining experience? Answering these types of questions determines who you are and how you market your product — and even if a market exists for you.



For example, a tendency among operators is to play follow the leader with couponing. An operator with a quality product, and thus a slightly higher food cost, will quickly find himself in a vicious cycle because there is no way out other than to keep reducing the quality of your product so that you can afford to sell it at the couponed rate. In effect, this operator devalues their own product and allows consumers to assume, by the operator’s marketing tactics, they never have to pay menu price because it is really not worth it.

It boils down to communication. Can you communicate your dream of being a successful pizza operator into a profitable business plan? Can you communicate to your market why your product is priced as such? What ways will you use to communicate to your market? My advertising costs in my previous business consisted of buying business cards every other year. Nearly every contract I took on was thru referrals. I was just a consciencetious guy doing a good job. Suddenly I find myself in a pizzeria and that is not good enough. I am a stressed out Dad with my kid pizzeria asking me why, why, why – that is when he does talk to me.



Following the leader did not work for me. It made me work harder for less. I had to analyze my pizza and see where I fit into the big scheme of things and then ask myself ‘where did I want to be?’ Once I found that answer I now had the seemingly overwhelming task of re-positioning myself. I had to communicate what was unique about me and why I was worth the menu price. And, yes, I had to find someone who would listen!

Ask my wife … I am not the world’s best communicator. But I do have 24 years of marriage under my belt to show that I can adapt. I can learn from my mistakes. I attended the school of hard knocks, took a few calculated risks and a few leaps of faith. In my pizzeria, I learned that I had to leave my ‘safe zone’ and communicate in ways I was unfamiliar with. That meant learning new techniques and constantly refining them. Never let someone question who you are. Whether it is your menu, Web site, USP or your pizza, let it consistently convey your message clear and understandably. If you develop your business plan honestly, your market will respond. ❖

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

Few pizza chains –– or restaurant chains, for that matter –– have generated the buzz that Ann Arbor, Michigan based Domino’s Pizza has over the course of the past 12 to 18 months. With the launch of several new products, to a new president, a viral video scandal and a groundbreaking revitalization of its core product –– not to mention increased store sales –– Domino’s Pizza has rightfully earned the title of 2010 Chain of the Year. In the next 10 pages, you’ll find out exactly why.

Although Domino’s Pizza won’t actually celebrate 50 years in the industry until this December, it has come a long way since 1960 when two brothers borrowed $900 and opened a pizza shop in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Today’s Domino’s encompasses 9,000 domestic and international stores with sales topping out at more than $5.6 billion. Even better, the company reports its domestic sales increased 14.3 percent in the first quarter of 2010, while international sales are up 4.2 percent.



Overall, the company saw same-store sales rise 4.8 percent in 2009. It closed 97 franchise stores and 23 company owned units, but opened 346 internationally.

Nearly 50 percent of sales come from the company’s international division, says Jenny Fouracre, director, investor relations and legislative affairs, and that number is rising. “Probably in three to five years, international will be bigger than domestic. We’re in over 60 countries, and if you think about it, those are very immature pizza markets. There’s a lot of opportunity, and a lot of store growth potential.” The company has seen 16 years of same-store sales growth at the international level, and it grew 4.3 percent last year.



“We’ve concentrated on our top markets, especially our top 10 markets,” Fouracre says. Studying growth rates in those markets is key. Outside of the U.S., the company relies on master franchise models. “What we do is we find a really well-financed local family or local business person. They are Domino’s Pizza for that country or region,” Fouracre says. The stores are either corporate-owned or sub-franchised, depending on country. Unlike domestic franchisees, international Domino’s owners are allowed to own other concepts. The company opened its 9,000th store in India last spring, the company’s largest growth market.

In all, there are 4,461 franchised stores and 466 company-owned stores. “Our franchisees are really the heart and soul of our system,” Fouracre says. “We’ve got a little over 1,100 franchisees. We’ve got a great long-term relationship with them. Many of them have been here over 30 years. … They pay royalties weekly and we’ve got a 99 percent collection rate on our royalties.” Most of the company’s franchisees own three to four stores with its largest operating 143.

Aside from Domino’s domestic and international stores, it also owns and operates its own dough manufacturing and supply chain facilities. It is in these 17 units that the company’s fresh dough is made, vegetables are processed and its thin crust is produced.

The company has undergone a number of changes in the past 18 months, from the resignation of its CEO, David Brandon, who left to serve as athletic director at the University of Michigan, to a revamp of its menu capped by a whole new pizza from the crust up. (For more on Domino’s new products, see page 62.)

“The change we made with our pizza –– I mean, it’s our core business –– is something we’re going to talk about for a long time,” says CEO Patrick Doyle. “There’s an evolution of how we’ve talked about it.” There’s a level of excitement about the brand at the corporate and local levels despite the focus group criticisms that fueled its product revamp and a viral video scandal that led to negative sales in the second quarter of last year (see page 70). This is a whole new Domino’s Pizza, figuratively and literally. “Look, it’s pizza. We can’t take ourselves too seriously,” Doyle says, “and we don’t want the consumer to. Pizza is fun. It’s a different occasion for families when they order in pizza. Rules are broken. First of all, they all gather for the pizza. There’s no forks and knives, and maybe not even a plate. It may just be a napkin. It is a fun experience, and so you see that from us –– and frankly you see it from the whole category.”

As a result of Domino’s splashy advertising campaigns and new products, competitors like Pizza Hut and Papa John’s have had to step up their ‘A’ games as well. That has resulted in a return to the competitive pizza wars of the 1980s. All three companies have slashed prices, with Domino’s offering two medium one-topping pizzas for $5.99 each. Papa John’s and Pizza Hut responded with $10 large pizzas –– including specialty offerings. Since Domino’s New and Inspired recipe is pricier, how are they able to maintain food costs in light of its product upgrade? Doyle says profitability “has to be an ongoing part of how we operate. At the same time, there is definitely a different consumer mindset out there than there was part of the equation. Our view is that the right answer is to strike a balance. Have a balance between value and premium. With the American Legends line that we’ve been selling at $12.99 for a large pizza, it did very well for us. If we can balance that with good price points for consumers who are more value-oriented, as the consumer mindset shifts back a little bit, we’re in a terrific place.”

Pizza continues to be a good value for consumers, but less so than 10 years ago, Doyle says. “I think part of that is why the category was not doing as well as it should going back (several years). We weren’t getting the growth in the (QSR) category that we once were. We think value has to be an important part of that. We think it’s why you saw the category be a little bit softer than all of us would have liked. We think us delivering value, and our competitors delivering value to the consumer, is ultimately a healthy thing for the category.”



The company has a conservative growth plan of raising domestic same-store sales between one and three percent annually, while they believe international sales could top out at 5 percent annually. Longterm goals are to open 200 to 250 new units annually with the addition of new international markets. “International has been an absolute rocket shot for us,” Doyle says. “It’s been doing incredibly well.” Balancing domestic and international operations has actually been a benefit, as new products can be shared, like the company’s newest dessert offering which originated from Turkey. “That sharing of ideas and using other markets’ successes or failures as a place to learn is part of what makes the system work,” says Doyle. “The fact that we have this booming international business is only a benefit for the U.S. business.” ❖

Domino’s Pizza by the Numbers
2009 sales: $5.6 billion

Total units: 9,000 Total number of franchised units:
Domestic – 4,461
International – 4,073

Total number of corporate stores: 466
Average sales volume per unit:
Domestic - $614,000
International – 642,400
Percent delivery: 71%
Percent Carryout: 29%
Number of employees: 180,000 systemwide

Franchise fee:
$0 for existing franchisees
$25,000 for new franchisees
Royalties: 5.5%
Average cost to open a store: $175,000 - $250,000

Domino’s Top 10 International Markets

❖ Mexico*
❖ United Kingdom*
❖ Australia*
❖ South Korea
❖ Canada
❖ India*
❖ Japan
❖ France
❖ Taiwan
❖ Turkey *

These indicate publicly traded companies in their home countries.

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor at Pizza Today.

Barbecue pork pizza falls into the category of specialty pizza. In other words, it should be listed apart and separate (and highlighted) from your other pizza toppings. You’ll also be able to price it higher. If you are going to go through the extra work of making the pork for this topping, then you should make a big deal of it and market it accordingly.

There are a couple of ways to get this pizza going as a signature offering. You can make the pork (it’s not all that complicated, but you need to make the commitment and stick with it) topping yourself, or you can buy pre-cooked, shredded pork.

Should you wish to tackle the pork in-house, here is a recipe for making your own pork to shred or pull and use for a barbecue pork pizza.

Shredded BBQ Pork

1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled
2 teaspoons chile powder
2 tablespoons tomato paste
¾ cup distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon paprika
1/3 cup ketchup
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ cup light brown sugar
3-4 pound pork butt or pork shoulder

Puree all of the ingredients, except the pork, in a blender or food processor until smooth. Put the pureed ingredients and pork in a large pot. Add 1 quart of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer, covered (turning frequently), for about 2 hours, or until the meat pulls apart easily when prodded with a fork. Remove from the heat and cool the pork in the sauce. Remove the pork from the sauce and shred. Should you care to take the time for an extra step, reduce the sauce by two-thirds and mix some of it with a basic bottled barbecue sauce.

Shredded Pork BBQ Pizza
Yield: 1 14-inch pizza (scale up in direct proportion)

1 14-inch pizza shell
6 ounces barbecue sauce (your choice)
1 cup of the shredded pork
8 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese (or 4 ounces each Monterey Jack and cheddar)
Brush the pizza crust with the barbecue sauce. Sprinkle the shredded pork evenly over the sauce. Sprinkle the cheese evenly over the pork. Bake. 

Topping option: chopped red onion. Sprinkle the onion evenly over the shredded pork followed by the cheese. If you want to really jazz up this pizza you can add rings of grilled pineapple or chunks of pineapple. Doing so will give the pizza a Hawaiian Pizza flavor profile, one that is very popular in Latin countries. 

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.

When Domino’s announced it had reformulated its pizza from the crust up, industry officials (including Pizza Today) took note: would the move simply be a bad decision in the form of New Coke, or would the American public embrace the new product? If the company’s 2010 first–quarter financial results are any indication, its new pizza is a hit. Domino’s domestic same-store sales grew a whopping 14.3 percent in the first quarter, while international comps were up 4.2 percent.

“The big thing that happened was we realized that there was no conflict in delivering fast, giving the best service, being known for value and having a terrific menu with great-tasting pizza –– the best available –– and a little bit of breadth to that menu as well,” says Patrick Doyle, the company’s CEO. “That was the big thing for us. We had always focused so hard on ‘we are just going to be the fast delivery, great service pizza chain, and that’s going to be enough.’ We realized that it simply isn’t. So while we always liked the pizza, and on an unbranded basis we did very well in terms of the taste of the pizza, our brand had only been known for being the pizza delivery guys. We realized that was simply too restrictive.”

Following focus groups, product sampling and polls, corporate officials took a hard look at their pizza and decided to go back to the drawing board. “With New and Inspired, that’s our core product. There’s a lot of risk with that. We worked on that for 18 months,” says Brandon Solano, Domino’s vice president of brand innovation (which also earns him the title of head chef in the company’s advertising campaigns).



The most important change was the cheese, but the most visible is the crust. “We didn’t want to make a small incremental change,” Solano says. “We wanted to have a meaningful change, and we wanted to have the best pizza in the category. That was our goal.”

And how was the new product received by the company’s 1,150 franchisees? “They’ve been very much included in this,” Doyle says. “When we were launching the new pizza, the New and Inspired Pizza, we took that out to all of our franchisees. We had four meetings around the country. … They all had the opportunity to come. We laid out the case for them –– here’s why we’re doing this –– and then we gave them a side- by- side taste test of the old pizza and the new pizza, and then we had a vote –– a show of hands. I think there were something like 12 people who raised their hand and said, ‘we prefer the old.’ There was overwhelming support from our franchisees for making this change.”

Doyle says the company invested more than 200,000 hours in retraining every pizza maker in the country to ensure a successful rollout. They trained a team of 100 at the company’s headquarters in Michigan before dispatching them into the stores. “There was no plan B,” he says. “You can’t go out and run advertising that says: ‘We recognize that a lot of you said you don’t like this old pizza. We’re listening to you. We get it and we’ve made a dramatic change to respond to your needs.’ You can’t back away from that.” (For more on the company’s bold marketing efforts, see page 67.)



Was there ever a concern that the move wouldn’t work? “No, there really wasn’t,” Doyle says. “We had done so much research on it over the course of almost two years. We had tested it with every possible demographic, with kids –– we had tested it very thoroughly. The only thing that we were nervous about as we were rolling it out was (if) we were going to execute it really well at the store level. We’re proud of the way our stores have responded and the way they’ve executed it and made terrific pizzas and given people a great experience.” The company is launching the new pizza market by market internationally, mainly because cheese varies greatly around the globe (based on cows’ varied diets).

Aside from its new pizza formula, Domino’s has recently unveiled several other new products as well. It took a direct aim at Subway with its Oven-Baked Sandwiches line in 2008, menued after just three months of testing, and rolled out several BreadBowl Pasta varieties that brought it head-to-head with competitor Pizza Hut’s pasta line. The American Legends specialty pizza line took Domino’s menu beyond the plain pepperoni pie. “We started with iconic American tastes,” Solano says, such as buffalo chicken and Philly cheesesteak. Acknowledging that its menu has been lacking in the dessert department, they introduced its high-quality Chocolate Lava Cakes –– looking more like they belong on a china plate in an upscale eatery than in a cardboard box on a coffee table.

“The plan all along was (to) get these new lines out. … There’s a lot of news quality. I think we’re going to surprise people because the food quality is terrific on these new lines that are sort of extensions of Domino’s,” Doyle says. “But at the end of the day, we’re a pizza company.”

Why so many at once? Solano says some were fueled by competitors –– such as the BreadBowl Pastas launch in response to Pizza Hut adding pasta to its menu –– to give Domino’s a stake in those areas. He says it takes on average six to nine months from an item’s conception until it is menued. “My biggest concern was that we were going to overwhelm our stores,” Solano adds. “We need people who can make all of these different things. … Our stores rose to the challenge. This business was founded on pizza and a Coke. The story is that Tom Monaghan didn’t want to add Diet Coke. He was afraid it would complicate operations.”

Taking its menu beyond pizza has proven to have its challenges for the company best known for delivery. “When we design a product, we design it with delivery in mind,” Solano says. “Delivery is still two-thirds of our business, although carryout is growing.” In the R & D test kitchen, there’s a large table for the staff to gather. Every test product is placed in the company’s Signature HeatWave bag and held for 20 minutes before consumption. “That’s a little longer than we would typically need for delivery, but we want a worst case scenario,” Solano says. They check the temperatures after 20 minutes, and take packaging and product design into consideration as well.

With so many new products, have pizza sales been affected? “At lunch, we’re seeing more singles andwich orders, which is what we expected,” Solano says, adding that the line increased lunch business “in a big way.” “It also works for what we call the veto vote,” Solano says. “Say everybody says ‘we’re going to order pizza today’ and (one person declines), in the past you’d have to go somewhere else. They can come to us and we can serve all of their needs.” ❖

Mandy Wolf Detwiler is managing editor at Pizza Today.

Is your pizzeria shouting or whispering? Because the noise a restaurant makes influences a customer’s dining experience, operators need to listen.

“Acceptable noise levels in a restaurant or bar will depend on the type of establishment, its concept and general positioning. Noise control is actually quite rare in restaurants, as to some extent, the greater the noise the more exciting the venue. Indeed, a high level of background noise can be self-aggravating — it makes people speak louder to be heard,” says restaurant consultant Robert Ancill, CEO and managing partner of thenextidea.net. “Of course, this is not the case of all establishments, as noisy spaces can often be off-putting and nonrelaxing.”

Phil Diegelman, president of The Diegelman Group, a restaurant consulting fi rm in Orange, California, reminds operators to “remember the “social part of dining out; more importantly, that a loud restaurant is a busy restaurant.”

When it comes to measuring the noise level in a restaurant, find the range in decibels. “There is no set acceptable noise level; rather there are typical ranges depending upon the atmosphere desired within the space. Higher noise levels from speech and music are used at trendy spaces to lend an enjoyable dynamic environment, whereas in more intimate restaurants, lower noise levels –– set by mellow music –– are more desirable. Lively restaurants can have sound levels in the range of 75 dB(A), often with music having a strong base beat; intimate fi ne dinning establishments can be in the range of 50 dB(A),” says Brian Howe with Howe Gastmeier Chapnik Limited in Canada.

According to Diegelman, “the acceptable noise level for most restaurants is usually at conversation level, 70dB, or at its loudest 80dB (a telephone ring), all at a distance of three to five feet. In restaurants that have a bar, the noise level can be much higher because of the recorded or live music (90 dB or higher), which is the beginning of the danger level to our hearing.”

Dominique J. Cheenne of C&C Consultants Acoustic and Noise Control in Nebraska says: “A pizza restaurant that wants to focus on a quiet-style motif, with lights on the table and a visible cooking area such as wood-fired oven, should aim at less than 70 dB(A) of ambient noise level, and this would mean very quiet background music (if any) in order for the patrons to have private conversation without raising their voices. On the other hand, a more relaxed restaurant catering to college students will opt for an ambient noise level that is noticeably higher [between 75 dB(A) and maybe as high as 80 dB(A)], because they value background music and even televisions as part of the experience.”

According to Brian Smith, INCE board-certified principal of Acoustical Engineering Consultants in Elk Grove, California, “most restaurant spaces should try to keep average sound levels below 75 dB(A). Many of today’s restaurant spaces easily exceed this level. One other thing to keep in mind. If you have restaurant sound levels consistently above 85 dB(A), an OSHA hearing conversation program may be necessary for staff.”

To compare levels, Diegelman says operators can listen to the phone ring — and if it can be heard, the level is perfect. “To become more technical, the operator can purchase a sound level meter online,” Diegelman advises.

According to Cheenne, “accurate measurements of noise levels must be done with sound level meters (SLM) that can provide a statistical description of the levels over time.”

Ancill suggests a non-technical way operators can measure noise levels. “A more typical measurement is controlled customer feedback in the form of surveys, mystery shopper reports, even sales performance at different day parts when noise is noticeably different,” Ancill said.

If a restaurant is determined too loud, operators can adjust the volume in a variety of ways. “The easiest thing to do is look at the customer area. Are the surfaces hard? Glass, wood, drywall and exposed brick are prime reflectors of sound. The more sound there is bouncing around the room, the lower the intelligibility of conversation. Soft surfaces — such as carpet, tapestries, curtains, partitions and padded seating — all help with reverb control. In ceilings you can have higher rated ceiling tiles for sound absorption. Treatments to walls and ceilings can range from foam products to fabric covered panels or diffusers. Most after-market solutions are higher in cost and installation,” says David Soran of Audio Consultant Services Inc. in Denver, Colorado. Smith agrees that specific surfaces can raise the volume.



“The typical problem of noise levels or loudness in restaurant spaces comes from the use of hard sound reflecting room finishes. Other factors may include the space layout, booth/table design, partitions, HVAC system, sound system and kitchen equipment. Here is where the expertise of an acoustical consultant really helps. Even if the only necessary change is adding sound absorbing material to room surfaces, an acoustical expert will determine the quantity, type, placement, and mounting method of sound absorbing materials to meet both the sound level and aesthetic goals of the owner/operator,” Smith says. “In general, carpet is not a good sound absorber. Acoustical treatment is usually recommended for both the ceiling and wall surfaces, with the ceiling typically being the most important acoustical surface in the space.”

If customers’ voices are too loud because of music, Diegelman recommends turning “the volume down incrementally, waiting a few minutes between adjustments. This will quiet them without notice. Most guests will notice the noise level has dropped and speak more quietly, as to not be heard by the table next to them.”

Operators must also be aware of minimizing the sound from machines. “Restaurants need to minimize the impact of sound from exhaust fans and other mechanical systems. A good engineering design would limit noise levels from these sources to about 40 dB(A) so as not to interfere with music and speech,” Howe said. Noise levels in restaurants can tell a lot to a potential customer like “here’s the party” or “let’s talk.” Depending on what you want your restaurant to say, operators need to adjust the volume. ❖

DeAnn Owens is a freelance journalist living in Dayton, Ohio. She specializes in features and human interest stories.

Anchovies have quite a reputation. While most people either love or hate them, the truth is that they are so much more useful than most operators realize. Let’s take a closer look at these magical little gems of the sea to see how versatile they really are. You may be surprised at where anchovies can be found.

First, these little fish are preserved by being salted in brine, matured, then packed in oil or salt. That’s how they acquire their characteristically strong flavor. In Roman times, they were the base for a fermented fish sauce that was a staple of their cuisine.

Due to their strong flavor, most recipes use anchovies in moderation. When used correctly, they blend in well and can offer a rich flavor while remaining unrecognizable. (Many people cook with Worcestershire sauce but don’t realize that it contains anchovies. That’s just one example of how they blend in nicely to your recipes.) Consider buying anchovy paste as opposed to whole anchovies. It will make it easier for you to work with.

I’ve recently shared an olive tapenade recipe with you that includes Kalamata and green stuffed olives, capers, garlic and olive oil all pulsed together in the food processor for about five beats to give a coarse chop to it. Adding chopped anchovies would obviously add texture and flavor. If you wanted to enhance the flavor without the texture of the anchovies, then simply add a little anchovy paste.

Putenesca is a lovely, not to mention healthy, sauce that in a sense can be started with tapenade mixed with tomato sauce and again enhanced with chopped anchovies.

Of course, way back when I was in culinary school, I learned how to classically make a Caesar salad by mashing fresh garlic and anchovies into a paste before adding egg yolks and lemon juice to create the dressing for a Caesar salad — then once the romaine lettuce and Parmesan cheese and croutons were tossed in that bowl, the salad could be garnished with anchovies as well. Whether the dressing was made in house or not, servers would ask guests if they wanted anchovies on their Caesar salad because many customers didn’t want them. Now it’s rare to even find a restaurant that offers anchovies on their salad.

Anchovies are most commonly packed in oil. This helps keep these little guys preserved well. If you buy anchovies for your pizzas and salads, don’t be so quick to discard that oil. As I said, it acts as a preservative, but it can also be incorporated into many of your recipes adding to and enhancing your dishes. Adding anchovy oil will give just a subtle flavor without being overpowering and will not add the saltiness of the anchovies. Think about starting with some of your salad dressing recipes.

Speaking of salad dressing, I remember as a child a popular dressing called Green Goddess. I found out that this creamy, herby dressing was invented at the historic Palace Hotel in San Francisco in the 1920s in honor of William Archer’s hit play “The Green Goddess.” It enjoyed great success, especially in California, for decades. I think it may be making a comeback, and why not be the one to re-introduce it in your neighborhood! Try this recipe:

Green Goddess Dressing

1 cup mayonnaise
1⁄2 cup sour cream
1⁄4 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 tablespoons chopped Italian fl at leaf parsley
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1⁄8 teaspoon cracked black peppercorns

Combine all of these ingredients and place them in a blender. Blend them well until you get a smooth texture and you will find that your greens will give this dressing its nice color as well as flavor. 

Jeffrey Freehof, owner of The Garlic Clove in Evans, Georgia, is Pizza Today’s resident expert.

Bring the Bubbly

It’s summer, and it’s hot! Cool down your wine menu by offering an affordable prosecco. This sparkling wine is all Italian and made from the grape that bears the same name. It is a dry sparkling wine, so you’re going to want to have flutes on hand to serve it. And, it needs to be served cold, so invest in a couple of good champagne buckets. Allow your staff to sample a few and menu one or two of the most loved.

Leave it at Home

We all know that sick workers should stay at home, but what about those who suffer from seasonal allergies? If you’ve got an employee who does, its best to keep him or her off the telephone bank. Customers seek upbeat, attentive personnel when ordering over the phone, not continuous sniffles and coughing. Keep them behind the scenes and put your best foot forward.

Make it Warm

Do you serve breadsticks? Cheese bread? You’re going to want to serve it with a flavorful marinara sauce on the side. But customers won’t appreciate these must-have appetizers if they’re accompanied by a boring plastic container of sauce straight out of the cooler. A quick zap of the microwave will make all the difference, and dress it up! Top the warm bowl of marinara with a sprinkle of grated Pecorino-Romano and serve.



Yeast Longevity

Pizzeria operators often purchase in bulk, when yeast is a live organism and has a limited shelf life. According to The Dough Doctor, Tom Lehmann, the shelf life for active dry yeast, if it is packaged in under MAP (modified atmosphere packaging) conditions, is typically considered to be six months. If it is packaged using vacuum packaging, the shelf life is considered to be one full year. Inactive dried yeast, on the other hand, will always be packaged in a vacuum pack, and it has a shelf life of one full year; however, independent tests have indicated that it might be good for as long as two years (all of this is assumed to be at room temperature storage).

Salami is air-dried Italian sausage cured with salt. Since salt was one of the original preservatives for salami, the word derives from the Latin sal (salt). There are three basic types of salame (the plural): fresh, dry-aged and precooked. Each region in Italy has its salamis, whose flavors differ according to the local pig used, the seasonings, fillers, and the casing used (natural or artificial).

On the subject of salami, let me be clear that salami comes in different grades. For example, one of the salamis I prefer to use, no matter the purpose, is known as Genoa salami (a hard salami that has a more complex flavor than other salamis). I also favor cotto salami, which is cooked and seasoned with garlic and black peppercorns.

Also, some salami, cheaper brands generally speaking, have a very high fat content (you can see the many speckles of fat in a slice –– sometime as much fat as there is actual pork). In other words, Genoa salami is a meatier salami. Some dry salami are made with a mixture of pork and beef (and spices, of course).

The best way to determine which type of salami works for you is to sample and sample some more, then determine how you plan to use it on your menu. And that usage could be part of an antipasto platter, in a sandwich, a pasta salad, or other creative ways. Salami is a versatile product. In fact, I feel that salami is indispensable when it comes to making a great muffuletta. The secret to an especially tasty muffuletta has to do with the olive salad. Also, when the sandwich has been completed, wrapping it in plastic and letting it sit for up to an hour to let the fl avors blend enhances the overall goodness. Check out this recipe for a great muffaletta.

Magnificent Muffuletta
Yield: 6 to 8 servings

I large (1- to 1½-pound) loaf (round if possible) Italian bread, split in half
5-6 ounces giardiniera 2 tablespoons of the liquid from the giardiniera jar 1 cup pimento-stuffed olives, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon oregano
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
¼ Pound sliced mozzarella
¼ Pound sliced capocollo
¼ pound sliced Genoa salami
¼ pound sliced mortadella
¼ pound sliced provolone

If using a round loaf of bread, split it horizontally and pull out some of the bread from the bottom half to form a pocket for the olive salad.

In a mixing bowl, combine the giardiniera, giardiniera liquid, pimento olives, garlic, oregano, crushed red pepper and olive oil. (Can be made hours ahead.)

Spread the olive salad evenly into the pocket of the bottom piece of bread. Layer in the mozzarella, capocollo, salami, mortadella, provolone (in that order) over the olive salad. Put on the top lid of bread and press down gently to seal. Wrap the muffuletta tightly with plastic wrap. Can be kept at room temperature for an hour. Cut into serving pieces (6 to 8, your choice). Garnish each plate with pepperoncini and olives.

Using the same idea as for the muffuletta, consider a sizzling good sub sandwich pizza. To do this, brush a pizza crust with the liquid from the olive salad. Now layer on the cheeses and the meats in the same order given for the muffuletta, except for the provolone. Over the meats, arrange thin slices of fresh Roma tomatoes. Over the tomatoes, sprinkle grated Romano cheese. Now layer the provolone over the tomatoes. Sprinkle some oregano over the provolone. Bake and serve.

Also, to use salami as a pizza topping, try this: cut slices of hard salami (Genoa or Cotto) off the roll into slices about the same thickness as, say, the pepperoni you use as a topping. Now cut each slice into 4-6 pieces (I like to make a triangular cut) and use in the same way as you would pepperoni.

Salami Pasta Salad

This is a delicious summer salad that goes together easily, can be made ahead, and is great for a salad bar item. (The only time pasta is rinsed is when it is being used in a cold pasta salad. It is necessary to get some of the starch off the pasta to enhance how it works with the olive oil used as a dressing.)

Yield: about 8 servings (scale up in direct proportion)

10 ounces penne pasta, cooked until al dente and rinsed in cold water, set aside
¾ cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons each minced fresh basil and fresh oregano (or 1 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano)
2 cloves garlic, pressed
1½ cups cannellini beans
½ cup coarsely chopped fl at-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
½ Pound hard salami (Genoa or cotto), cubed*
¾ cup shredded Parmesan cheese

In a large mixing bowl, combine the olive, basil, oregano, garlic, beans, parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooked pasta and the salami, toss to combine. Sprinkle in the Parmesan and toss lightly to combine (can be made ahead and kept in the cooler, covered, for up to one day. Just be sure to take it out of the cooler at least 2 hours before serving).

* Instead of using the salami as is, you can arrange cubes of salami on a baking sheet or on parchment paper and crisp it up in the oven. This will give the salad the added texture of crunch. 

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.

A soft opening, also known as a Friends and Family dinner or a mock training, is the event a restaurant hosts before the grand opening. It’s the practice session in which the kitchen and the front of the house staff work a shift and feed a full restaurant at lunch or dinner, but the customers pay nothing or very little.

The soft opening has a few goals, says Christopher Muller, director of the Center for Multi-Unit Restaurant Management at the University of Central Florida, Rosen School of Hospitality Management in Orlando. “This is not open your door and let everyone eat for free,” he says. Instead, think of it as a way to accomplish several goals: getting good public relations, alerting the community that you’re open, training staff and building up a list of names that you may contact later for promotions or other communications.

If you send invitations, be clear about how many people are invited. Use phrases such as “You and a guest,” and ask guests to respond by phone or email so you get an accurate count of how many people to expect.

Tony Crosby, vice president of restaurant operations for the 19-unit Johnnie’s New York Pizzeria, recommends also inviting local business people and city officials. Hold the soft openings a few days before opening the restaurant to the public. “You can hold two to three shifts or days of trainings and then have one day in between training and opening to finish any last-minute preparations before you officially open,” he says. Johnnie’s New York Pizzeria is one of the restaurant companies owned by Scottsdale, Arizona based Kahala Corp.

It’s important to control other details too. “You should figure out how many customers you want to serve, how many repetitions of a recipe or station to accomplish, and the amount of practice you want for employees,” Crosby says.

Plan which food and beverages your staff will serve. Give each table a card telling them what items to order, or offer a limited selection to each table, so that all items or stations will get an equal amount of training. “If you do not do this, you might get everyone ordering the most popular items and some recipes or stations will not get practice,” Crosby says. “Be careful as your customers will want to order what they want and not what you want them to. Have a selection for each customer to choose from so you can avoid any upset customers.”

Be sure to limit the amount of food people can order, so that certain extreme value seekers don’t order multiple entrees and walk out carrying four desserts. “It’s a training night, not a free food for everyone night,” Muller says. “The guests are helping you, not the other way around.” Limit each person’s order to, for example, one appetizer, one entrée, and one dessert. Ask people to fill out a short evaluation form at the end of the meal.

Gino Palma Esposito, owner of Facci Restaurant in Laurel, Maryland, says when they held their soft opening in January, they did not offer the full menu. “We did not have the fresh gnocchi because it would take too long to prepare the gnocchi,” he says. He did have the full crew though, working all three nights of the training.

He also charged people half price for food, full price for alcoholic beverages. “We told them ahead of time,” he says. “They knew.”

Muller says you should not charge any money, or if you do, donate the money to charity. Your best bet is to give to a local charity, or a well publicized cause such as earthquake relief.

Palma Esposito says the only problem Facci had was that they expected 30 guests each night, but got 60. The extras came from walk-ins, some of the guests bringing extra guests, and probably from the fact the restaurant had announced the opening on Facebook.

Muller, who owned a restaurant in Maitland, Florida, says it’s important to strictly control the guest list. That means telling each staff member to invite four people and give them a window of when to arrive at the restaurant. “So we would say, Sally you invite four people, so she invites her mother, father, and two roommates, and they get four seats and they should arrive between 6 and 6:30 on Sunday,” he says. “You control the numbers so you don’t stress the kitchen.”

Make sure you have enough trainers on hand to help coach and monitor workers. “The goal is to be able to train in a real life scenario with actual customers for employees to be able to experience what will happen after the doors officially open,” Crosby says. “It’s an opportunity to establish a longlasting relationship, so have owners, managers and shift supervisors meeting and greeting the customers while they are coaching the employees.”

These early guests will likely be more understanding than paying customers. “Since they were friends and they had a big discount they were not looking for perfection,” says Palma Esposito.

Or, as Crosby says, “They will be your first customers once you officially open and hopefully customers for life if you make them feel special during these Friends and Family trainings.” ❖

Nora Caley is a freelance writer specializing in food and business topics. She lives in Denver, Colorado.