Kids Welcome

You’ve devised a well-thought out kid’s menu with enough variety and nutritional value to keep kids and parents happy. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

Try this: Invite a few families with babies, toddlers, and young children that you know personally to dine at your restaurant. Let them evaluate how suited your place is for kids. Their feedback will be filled with issues and solutions that you never would have thought of.

Remember, providing a family-friendly environment speaks volumes to parents with an abundance of dining options. But you have something on your side — kids love pizza. How your team interacts with kids goes a long way in parents’ minds when selecting a restaurant?

Clicking here for tips to make your pizzeria a more inviting destination for kids.

Consider Catering?

Catering is a completely different industry from running a sit-down or takeout and delivery pizzeria.

Before you jump into offering a catering menu, ask yourself a few questions? What kind of catering do you want to do — on premise or off premise? What kinds of events do you want to cater—birthday parties, meetings, weddings and family gatherings? Do you serve platters, buffets or plated meals? If you want to do off premise, how will you transport food? How will you cover the cost of catering — delivery fees, clean up fees, etc.?

If you are full steam ahead to offer catering or already provide the service, the next question should be how can you make a profit or more of a profit?

Michael Attias of www.RestaurantCateringSoftware.com says a catering operation can add anywhere from 10 to 20 to your top-line sales. An added benefit, you are marketing your product to event participants in hopes they will also visit your restaurant.

Learn more about maximizing catering profits by clicking here.

Retain That Crispy Crust

Maintaining a crispy crust is a common problem. Fresh out of the oven, the pizza might be picture perfect, but they can soon turn soft and chewy. What is your course of action?

Find the problem. Dough Doctor Tom Lehmann narrows the potential issues to three possibilities: • Use of sugar or other browning agent, such as milk or eggs • Baking temperature • Flour

Find out how each of these affects the crispiness of dough by clicking here.

Employee Scammers

It is difficult to think of people preying on your business for their own monetary gain. It’s even worse when the theft comes from someone who you have hired and entrusted to handle money flowing through your restaurant.

The register is one of the most vulnerable areas for theft since the transaction requires honesty on the part of the employee and monitoring on the part of management. There are dozens of ways that scammers have come up with to steal from the till, like memorizing the after tax cost and leaving the drawer open between transactions.

Big Dave Ostrander offers tips to slow the loss. Click here to read more.

Featured Recipe — Roasted Pepper & Tomato Pizza

As peppers and tomatoes in gardens across American are taking shape, the time has come to feature specials with fresh summer ingredients. The roasted red bell peppers and plum tomatoes can bring the taste of the season to your customers.

Roasted Pepper & Tomato Pizza

1 12-pinch pizza shell
½ pound shredded Asiago or fontina cheese (about 2 cups)
6 (3/4- 1 pound) large fresh plum or Roma tomatoes, sliced crosswise 1/4-inch thick

For the rest of this delicious recipe, click here.