Pizza Today - June 2020 - 37

T

hese past few months
have changed our bestlaid restaurant plans,
culinary directions and
revenue streams. For
some of us, this is a scary
new world, but even though dining
rooms may be shuttered and employees
laid-off, that doesn't mean we should
concede defeat. Customers are still out
there hungering for our proprietary
products. To recapture our own markets'
share of business we must go back to our
baseline revenue streams of pickup and
delivery. The latter holds an opportunity
with items other than pizza. Here are
some facts all of us are staring at and
some cascading opportunities to take
advantage of while using food as a force
for delivery.
Fact: People are staying at home and
cooking more: New product lines for
delivery can make you look fresh and
alive such as oven-ready foods like fries
and mozzarella sticks or ice cream pints.
They offer you the opportunity to introduce new products with less labor.
Fact: People are not going to the store
as much as before: This means your
customers may not have fresh greens in
their fridge so why not introduce a fresh
salad with your delivery.
Fact: Many restaurants and bars are
closed. Some restaurateurs and bar
owners have just thrown in the towel
and opted to not pivot to delivery. Are
these closed restaurants in your area and
which food items did they serve diners
that you can make, box up and deliver?
Bar food like wings, ribs, French fries
and nachos deliver well.
Fact: Fine dining is all but gone:
The high-end culinary restaurants that
charge top dollar for meals are suffering
greatly. Over the past month though,
many intrepid chefs have started with
carry-out bento boxes. These Japanesestyle compartmentalized lunch boxes
can hold anything. You can easily mimic
these bento boxes using aluminum pie
tins with clear lids for only 34 cents
each. Could an appetizer Bento Box of

cheese bread, wings, salad and salami be
in your customers future?
Now that these constantly changing
facts have been brought to bear, you can
look at your menu and items in your pizzeria and find opportunities for delivery.

Make dough with your dough:

One of the best assets for creativity
you have is your proprietary pizza dough.
Stretched, rolled, filled, cut and baked or
fried, it can become that "add-on" that
elevates your revenue with each order.
* Jalapeño Poppers. We've started with
rolling cream cheese, make-line jalapeños and mozzarella and turned them
into creamy, spicy and crunchy heaven.
* Cheese bread with French Fries. Yes,
that's right, oven-ready fries are great
on cheese bread. We sprinkle it with
a choice of wing sauce, pesto or even
white truffle oil and black truffle confetti
to turn truffle fries into a masterpiece of
deliciousness.
* Charcuterie plates with Asiagotopped dough. It is baked and sliced into
strips, paired with Prosciutto di Parma,
Parmigiano, salami, sopressata, mortadella, mozzarella and pickled peppers.
The app can be made and delivered easily.
* Tuscan Pizzette. Who says pizza
appetizers must have a sauce? This
summer, your cheese bread can easily be
enhanced with provolone or Piave Vecchio, sliced cherry tomatoes and pesto or
Asiago and roasted red peppers.
* Mediterranean Mezze Platter. Pizza
dough is amazingly like pita bread,
either topped with za'atar or baked
plain and accompanied by ready-made
hummus or Baba Ghanouj. Surround
the hummus with summer cucumbers,
eggplant, spinach, feta and tomato
accompanied by olives, banana peppers and jalapeño will make this a great
appetizer.
* Sauce is the boss. We serve multiple
dipping sauces with our breads that
combine mayonnaise and sour cream as
vehicles to enhance other items like our
jalapeño-roasted garlic or chipotle pesto.

Freshness matters

Salads with a protein you already have
on hand are a culinary pillar in bars,
taverns, trattorias, cafes and fine-dining
restaurants everywhere. Most of these
may still be shuttered. As America gets
more sedentary sitting at home this
summer, there will be more calls for
salad sales.
* Grilled Chicken or Chicken Wing
Caesar. The possibilities are endless with
your chicken wings, boneless wings or
IQF grilled chicken breasts. It all depends on the flavor you want to present.
* Fresh Tomato and Basil in a Caprese
Salad. Summer is the time for tomatoes.
This stunning salad is best shingled in
a round container with a small spinach
salad in the middle. The pesto could be
cupped and the whole salad is best with
coarse sea salt.
* Fennel Salad. Thin-sliced fennel with
red onion, lemon and olive.
* Greek Chicken Salad. Fresh spinach, olives, tomato and feta make a great
combo with any of your chicken options.
What's the Plan Stan?
Introducing new items may increase
sales, but what about the bottom line?
Food and labor costs are all about
survival, which makes this recipe the
most important of all.
Here is a real-world work-up for a
Chicken Caesar Salad:
Romaine - $0.60
Croutons - $0.18
Chicken - $0.86
Dressing - $0.30
Parmesan - $0.28
Pie tin - $0.25
Pie tin lid - $0.09
Wrapped fork - $0.08
Total Cost = $2.64
If salad sells for $6.99 = 38% cost (or)
$4.35 Gross salad revenue
If salad sells for $7.99 = 33% cost (or)
$5.35 Gross salad revenue
If salad sells for $8.99 = 29% cost (or)
$6.35 Gross salad revenue
Key: None of these are prices are right

J U N E 2 0 2 0 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 3 7
http://www.PIZZATODAY.COM
Pizza Today - June 2020

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