Pizza Today - April 2021 - 31

L

ightning has struck, and
you've come up with a great
new menu idea. You've tried
it out, tweaked it a few times,
and you know that it's pretty solid.
You've had people that don't mind
offending you tell you they love it too.
When this happened to me I'd think,
" It's a great item, so let's put it on the
menu right now; let's do it tonight,
right? Let's get it out there as fast as
possible. Every second that we don't
have it on the menu, we're hurting ourselves. We'll sell it as a special, and it'll
be great, and people will love it. "
This shotgun approach was my
original path to a new menu item. The
problem is that every time I executed a
new menu item this way, with nothing
else, the menu item would fall on its
face and land flat. Operationally it was
a nightmare, the staff was confused,
and the customer had no reason to
care about it. The team didn't have the
wherewithal to sell it, and the whole
thing was a cluster.
This thud of a rollout would especially sting when I put a lot of thought
into the menu item. Sometimes sourced
ingredients specifically for this item to

make sure it was perfect; it was heartbreaking not to see it succeed. I realized
if I wanted to give these items the best
shot at success, I need to invest more in
the process and roll out, or else it was
all for nothing.
Making a great product is
expected; that's the price of entry.
Keying into the process of how to
launch it SUCCESSFULLY is how
you translate that work into sales. Here
are the four fundamental principles to a
great, well promoted, and operationally
successful rollout:
1. Item locked down. This one
most people get right. They key in on
the item and test it to make sure it
tastes great and represents the restaurant well. Even testing it with multiple
people who will give honest feedback to
ensure the item is legit and tastes excellent to various palates. It's easy to get
excited here, write it on a chalkboard,
plop it into the point of sale system, pat
yourself on the back and call it a day.
The problem is more work still needs to
be done.

2. Process set up for success.
Once the item is locked, it needs to be
documented in a format that all staff
can quickly get to and review no matter
the shift or location. Once the card is
made, it's time for the kitchen to show
it off to the servers, so they know how
to make it, and servers know what it
tastes like for selling it. The kitchen's
order guides and pars could potentially
change as a result of the new items
on the menu, be prepared for that and
make sure your vendor is ready as well.
If you just added a quail egg pizza,
don't assume your vendor will be rolling
knee-deep in quail eggs if this item is a
success.
3. Menu unified and correct.
Does the menu item have a story to
the name, something fun but not so
off-kilter no one would know what it is?
Along with that, does the description
match the rest of the menu in terms of
verbiage and descriptors? For example,
it's not written in the first person, while
the rest of the menu is written as purely
nouns, no adjectives or full sentences.
Does the price make sense and reflect
the item's worth, meaning the most
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3/9/21 9:54 AM
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Pizza Today - April 2021

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