Pizza Today - March 2020 - 76

"Our mission was to become one of the ten
hottest beer bars in San Diego," Vivian says.
"Nine months into it San Diego Magazine's
reader poll voted us runner up for best beer
selection. About a year later the Zagat Guide
said we were one of the ten hottest beer bars.
"The idea to test was, 'is there a niche for an
authentic American pizzeria with authentic
American craft beer that's constantly changing
and constantly rotating?'" he says. "We have 32
taps, two of them are nitro, 28 of them are CO2
and two cast conditioned beers. On that menu
24 are home to a certain style of beer and every
time a beer keg kicks or runs out, we replace
that beer with the same style, different brewer.
It's always changing."
Regents takes its beer prowess very seriously.
"Anyone who touches our taps are Cicerone
certified because we want authenticity," he says
of the beer expert certification program. "You
can't fool San Diego guests about beer. They are
extremely knowledgeable. All of our bartenders
have been here since we've opened. They have
very deep knowledge of beer styles and the
beers that are on tap."

daypart," he adds. We don't think about the
business as a whole only. We think about
each segment of the business."
Authenticity of its menu runs through its
staff and guests. "The single most important
thing to us is quality and authenticity in our
food and our guest experience," Vivian says.
Pizza is 65 percent of food sales
with New York outselling Chicago two to
one. "But surprisingly Chicago in Southern
California is very popular and that's driven a
lot by our slice business," Vivian says. "Our
most popular slice is the Chicago Meat
Market. Each slice that we sell of Chicago is
14 ounces. The New York's are around a half
of a pound."
Regents offers a full menu of appetizers,

7 6 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / M A R C H 2 0 2 0

pastas, sandwiches, salads and desserts.
"Pastas run about five percent," Vivian says.
"Salads run a little higher at around 15.
Appetizers are at about 10 to 12 percent and
that includes our wings that are about five
percent of our sales.
"We go through a menu refresh about
once a year and we've just completed one,"
Vivian says. "Maintaining our prime cost
at 60 percent is always a challenge so
our latest rounds of increases have been
relatively small at three to five percent.
And we chose to not increase any of the
prices of our whole pies but we did increase
where we thought it was appropriate in the
marketplace."
The beer program was a major emphasis
in the development of the new location.

The entire crew is well educated on
their positions. "We have 23 job levels each
with its own salary range, each with its own
list of skills that have to be mastered for that,"
Vivian says, giving dedicated crew members the
opportunity to advance in the restaurant. He
admits that the restaurant is very managementheavy by design. "We feel that to deliver
this concept, we have to have more people
watching it," he adds. "Every day, we will have
a floor manager that watches every plate that
comes out of the kitchen. We have a service
manager that makes sure that our service staff
is achieving their expectations. On our busiest
nights we will have a manager managing our
delivery and takeout side and we will likely have
a manager in the kitchen."
In the end, Vivian says Regents' people drive
its success. "We do something that lots of us
talk about, but very few of us do, and that's that
we are an employee-centric company - so
that means we focus on the happiness of our
employees." Q
DENISE GREER

Today.

is Executive Editor at Pizza
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - March 2020

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