Behind the Slice

Pizza Making Party Grows

We just had another pizza making party which had over forty children. Since we first started to do this a few years ago we have grown the event over the summers. We plan close to a two hour period for the party.  Prior to the group arriving we placed wooden bread boards on all the tables to use as a base for stretching dough. The tables are set with pizza sauce, mozzarella cheese, and pepperoni. There is a demonstration of how to make a pizza and afterwards all the children start to do their own.  The chef hats are labeled with each child's name as this make it easier for us to label the pizzas when they go in the oven.  The most difficult part is trying to get each pizza to the right person while getting out of the oven without them falling apart.   Many of them stick in the oven as they either have too much sauce or holes in the dough. There are also a large amount that come out fantastic.

Now the fun part is everyone gets to eat their own pizza.  They really seem to be proud to see what they have done and start eating.  For desert we provide fresh baked cookies along with frosting,sprinkles, and chocolate chips for them to decorate. The final touch is that we provide a pizza making kit for everyone to take home.  This is a small added gift that is cost effective. In a pizza slice box we: give a small ball of dough, two 3 1/2 ounce containers with one filled with pizza sauce and the other with shredded mozzarella, and instructions for making a pizza at home.  This time we also took individual pictures to post on Facebook in an album.  This way the parents can look at the event. Overall, they all seemed to have a great time! We are looking forward to next time.

The Heat is Up!

The weekend is here and this particular morning I was working the counter.  It seemed to be particularly hot in the restaurant today.  Though with our pizza ovens set at 500 I thought at first it was only my imagination as it is usually warm in the kitchen.  We have two separate thermostats set at 78 and there are two separate units. As I looked at the thermostat following was displayed.

We were up to 82 so we checked to see what the temperature was set for and if the battery was operating. From previous experience we knew that we just may need a new battery.  Now it was time to call for service.  Since it was a Saturday we were just hoping to get someone to arrive quickly.  Two hours passed by and we were at 97 on one thermostat and 85 on the other.  At this point I was warning guests about the heat prior to them ordering.  Most of the orders were togo and a few tables decided to leave which I completely understand.  Luckily, Maricopa AC arrived about three hours after we called. It was already 99 in the restaurant.  At this point now we just hoped it would be quick and not costly.  A few years ago we had used someone who was highly recommended.  Well a few visits later with close to $2,000 in repairs we realized we were mislead.  The way we found out was that a friend of ours went up to check the unit for us when we it stopped working. He fixed it quickly and noticed that the bills we had with receipts were not actually done on the unit and it also did not need to be replaced within a year as we were advised.  We were surprised that someone would do that and we learned to carefully supervise all repairs. 

Within an hour we found out it was a dirty coil and there would be $92 charge. The temperature would be back to normal within a few hours. We were so relieved.  Finally we started to cool down and it turned out to be a great Saturday evening at the restaurant. Hopefully we will go through the Arizona summer with no more problems. 

Small Gifts of Appreciation for Staff

 

The summer is here and this tends to be a slower season of the year in Arizona. We tend to utilize the time to reorganize areas and experiment with new recipes.  There is more time for staff to take vacations and for me to spend time with my boys. For the month of July I wanted to pick up a small gift for the staff for the 4th of July.  Fireworks are not allowed for use here in Arizona so I ended up trying to come up with a quick solution. While grocery shopping with my kids I thought why not just get some snacks gor gifts.  So I filled a cart with the items below.

 

 

I brought this home and with the help of my twins we began to individually put together sets for each person at the restaurant.  There was a bottle of Powerade, a bag of Poore Brothers chips, Goldfish Smore's, and a box of Sparklers (I couldn't resist).  We wrapped them with ribbon and attached a star with "Happy 4th of July Thanks for all that you do!"  This probably took us an hour and a half while I was surprise that they just cost around $2.88 each since most of the items were on sale. 

 

 

This brought about a nice response from the staff.  Sometimes we think gifts of thanks can be costly and we may just decide not to do it.  But there can be ways to show appreciation with any type of budget.  If you plan to do continuous gifts of acknowledgement going with smaller cost items can be beneficial. Do you have any other ideas of small gifts to give others?

 

Offering Something Very Different

We recently had a few of our former employees and our son who also works at the restaurant participate in a community service project to build homes in El Salvador.  The group of close to sixty  people which included high school kids and volunteers had worked for months collecting funding to donate for the project along with each person individually paying for their trips.  The town of Fountain Hills really embraced the group and supported them in many ways.

 

 

As they were away the students would write daily blogs about what they were doing along with sending updated pictures of the trip.  Food was often mentioned as a topic especially traditional Salvadoran dishes.  One of these dishes was pupusas. They are made of thick hand prepared corn tortillas that are usually filled with cheese, meat, or beans.  Reading about this gave us the idea of making our own version at the restaurant and we started to experiment with it.  We prepared a corn tortilla mixture and filled them in with black beans while providing  it with a side of cotija cheese, green salsa, and cilantro.

   

We posted it on Facebook and offered them free to any one who had a family member who went on he trip.  We were not sure how it would sell but thought it would be an interesting combination with the trip.  Surprisingly we were averaging around fifteen to twenty a day. We are still running the promotion and probably will stay with it for another week.  It just showed us that you can never be sure of what would work until you it give a try.

Back on Track with Pizza & More

 

 

We are approaching our ten year anniversary of being opened.  it really has been a journey of growth with some bumps along the way but so worth it.  In this type of business you really need to love it and I defineatly do. To get ideas for our ten year celebation we attended the Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.  Everything pizza that you can possibly imagine along with staying in Las Vegas is just such a great combination.  The focus seemed to be social media and getting back to the basics in term of cooking and marketing.  One of the best things about attending is just being around others who are really excited about being in the restaurant business.  You can tell the focus was of growth and improvement.  Most likely we will be ordering special shirts and having different events throughout the year to celebrate our tenth anniversary.  Starting the implementation now is not too early since it takes time to get things coordinated. We plan to get input from both the staff and customers. Facebook has been wonderful and most likely we will ask customers what type of promotions they would like to see.  Overall it has been them along with staff and our community that has kept us in business so long.

Pizza is not all Games

There are conferences for a variety of topics in how to learn to implement one's business better or to join fellow members of a certain area of expertise. So there is also a pizza expo that takes place yearly.  As we mention this to others we always get such shock as to what a pizza conference would be like and there is valuable information given along with an opportunity to learn from others.

Two months ago we attended the Pizza Today Pizza Expo given in Las Vegas. This is a great event for  Italian and pizza restaurants to gather new ideas and learn from others on marketing practices and new current trends. We were able to see how many operators were using facebook and twitter to communicate with their customers. There was a wide range of sampling foods, attending seminars, and yes even a dough tossing contest. This is a wonderful event to attend and we are incorporating some of the things we learned in our restaurants.   

Lunch and Go Daddy

     As a business owner one can spend much of their time running daily activities and not sit back to evaluate where they are at or look into ways for further growth or learning. I have found it difficult at times to be able to educate myself on related areas within my field. One of the best things that I have been involved with is the Business Leadership Institute that is a part of the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce.  The program was designed to provide participants opportunities to explore extraordinary management and leadership practices through forums, renowned speakers, and filed trips. Beverly Belury who created the institute explains how "everyone in business, especially entrepreneurs, needs to take time to work "on" their business, not just "in" their business if they want to be remarkable.

     I have gained so much insight since I joined the institute.  The speakers and experiences have been very memorable. On our latest field trip we went to Go Daddy. Our group listened to great speakers who discussed the company  while answering our questions. The amount of passion and commitment to excel can be seen along with the appreciation for the staff. I could see how they continue to improve and look for ways to provide the best services for their customers. They are focused and driven while maintaining their uniqueness. This was such a great lunch session that was followed by a tour of the facility.  Below we took a picture prior to leaving. You can see how delighted we all were to be there.

Pizza Slices and Giving Thanks

   
 

     We just participated in the Fountain Hills annual Thanksgiving Parade that is actually the only parade of it's kind in Arizona.  This year there was eighty marching bands, floats, and dignitaries including Santa. There are a variety of entries with some that really prepare for many hours to decorate .  The parade last about and hour and a half and is one of the things that really makes this town so special. This will be our sixth year participating in the parade.We mainly decorate a car with magnets and have pizza slices (our sons and staff) walking around passing out candy.

     As we prepare for the parade I noted some items that I am thankful in regards to our business. Here is what I listed:  Our forties music and chatter from customers, our great salads, my staff for always helping me out, the smile on a customers' face, our marinara sauce, my supportive family, our town, small talks with our staff and customers, being able to shop for produce, happy children, and my sons for being pizza slices for the parade without complaining.  These are just some of the things I am thankful for when I think of our restaurant. I am so grateful for both of our restaurants and being able to serve others a variety of Italian food.  It is great to do what makes you really happy. I feel like I am living my life's purpose.

     This year we made six hundred treat bags with over two thousand pieces of candy to give to the children along the route. Usually we just pass out loose candy but I thought to make treat bags instead. For an added touch we placed gift cards in all the bags that were for a free slice of pizza. My sons were up late getting the bags ready and we thought we had more than enough. During the parade we ended up running out of candy bags about two blocks prior to the end of the parade and our back up of six hundred extra loose candy also ran out. We discovered that the bags were much more easier to throw than the loose candy which were hard for my sons to toss far.  For next year we now know to double the amount of candy. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

A Slice as a Treat!

     Today we had a large number of children hand in their gift certificates for a free slice. Just recently we have been getting these back in larger numbers. They were passed out last Halloween as part of our goody bags that we gave during our town's annual "Halloween on the Avenue".  It is a great event that provides an opportunity for children to start trick or treating at 5:00pm along the town's main avenue.  Most of the businesses set up a table in front of their store and pass out candy.  Our restaurant is not located there but we set up a table and participate as well. Sami's Fine Jewelry is wonderful to work with us as we set up in front of their store. Here we are all dressed up and setting up our table.

     The preparation this year was to make four hundred goody bags and we are fortunate to have enough help between our staff and twin sons.  We started out a few days earlier to make the bags. Our sons dressed up for the part of passing out the candy.

     This was the first year that I decided to add a gift certificate along with the goody bag that we gave. The certificate is for one free slice of pizza that would be good until the end of the year. We passed all of them out and had an enjoyable time.

 

     Most of the certificates have been coming back this week rather than a right after Halloween. We are also noticing more new customers coming in with them and trying our pizza.  This seems like it has been a great way to give children a small treat plus market our pizza in a different way.

   

    

Wow Free Spaghetti Gets Remembered

Our local museum The River of Time Museum in town was holding their annual dinner fund-raiser. We were asked to place a bid on providing the catering for the event.  Since all the proceeds would be for the museum and the theme was a "Spaghetti Dinner" we decided to donate our contribution of food.  It was a wonderful evening with a silent auction and buffet of  spaghetti with meat-sauce, cesar salad, and garlic knots. The attendance was at a record high as we needed to go back to our restaurant for more food.To our delight at the end of the event we were presented with a plaque for our donation of the evening.

We still till this day get comments on that dinner. We have received new customers who will mention how they really enjoyed our marinara sauce or our homemade cesar dressing. Our act of kindness has continued in the response we have seen and received from others. We have already committed to donating the event next year and this time we are planning to hopefully double the attendance and help raise more funds for the museum.