Pizza Today - July 2015 - 16

A CONVERSATION WITH / SAMMY MANDEL

SAMMY MANDEL
Sammy lets us in on GAPCo's
rebranding and remodel
Greenville Avenue Pizza Company
Dallas, Texas
Since opening in 2007, GAPCo has weathered a lengthy revitalization of
the Greenville Avenue District. The late-night spot had evolved with the
changing area, including a complete remodel and rebranding in 2013.

Sammy and Molly Mandel, owners of
Greenville Avenue Pizza Company

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I opened Greenville Avenue
Pizza Company (GAPCo) in
October of 2007. We are a
pizzeria that also serves hot wings,
sandwiches and appetizers. Many
people say our wings are the best
in Dallas. We are open for dinein and delivery until 3 a.m. on
weekdays and 4 a.m. on weekends.
This is for the surrounding bar
crowd, but we pride ourselves on
the quality of our product. We use
all fresh ingredients and cook all
products in house every day (from
our bacon and sausage toppings
to our mozzarella cheese bites).
Nothing here is easy to make.
What we have created takes the
hardest working pizza makers and
a culture of diligence, energy and
fun. We are a family. Our delivery
business recently became so busy
that we had to add one more
double-deck oven.
We were blessed to meet
Royce Ring and the Plan B
Branding Company in 2013
when we decided to re-brand our
restaurant. The Plan B team created
many logos and inspirational
photo books for our interior
redesign. We basically gave them
our vision and they made it come
to life. Our favorite part about it is
our new logo. It is a phoenix with
a pizza slice. We are in an area of
Dallas that was going down hill
and extremely crime ridden back
in 2008. When the city decided
to re-do the block - Greenville
Avenue - there was lots of street
construction, and only about four
businesses stayed open during
that time. Plan B was aware of the
hardships we experienced and
felt like with the re-branding we
rose from the ashes. This remodel
also came with a new menu in
which all toppings have hashtags
(meatballs: #ballsballsballs;
spinach: #thesailorman and bacon:
#meatcandy).

We currently have plans to
launch a lunch day part. Because
we are open so late at night, much
of our staff is still asleep at lunch
time. We recently added a manager
to our management team to ensure
that we would be able to staff up
for lunch time, without everyone
being overworked and to cover the
mass amount of hours that we are
open. Due to the street renovation,
Greenville Avenue is one of the
most popular areas in Dallas. The
foot traffic is here, all we need to
do is open our doors.
Our slices are huge. They
are ¼ of a 16-inch pizza. The
percentage of slices we sell is 12
percent due to the fact that we
have a full menu, friendly staff
that provide a fun environment
and a great (all Texas) craft
beer selection. The challenge is
serving a fresh slice 100 percent
of the time in our quick-serve
environment. Just because we are
selling slices quickly doesn't mean
the quality of our pizza should
go down. If we are not selling
slices, we are having to throw
away product. But late night on a
Friday or Saturday that is rarely
the problem. In the near future, we
are opening our pizza-by-the-slice
window for a walk-up option.
"Pizza Crack" is our
house-made seasoning that
is garlic based (with other
secret ingredients). When it was
originally created, it was simply a
tasty pizza seasoning. Customers
quickly started telling us how
addicting it was and calling it
"pizza crack." At one point our
"Crack Shakers" were getting
stolen so much, we had to chain
them to the walls. This is when
we decided to bottle and sell the
product. We are currently in talks
with a distribution company to get
it into grocery stores. We also serve
it on our homemade French fries,
which we like to call "Crack Fries."
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - July 2015

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