Pizza Today - July 2020 - 31

dominate the market and menus change
on a dime. Months long processes have
been instituted in a day.
This moment has created a time of
reflection to streamline business and
institute operational strategies that will
help them be more efficient and effective
long term. We reached out to five highperforming pizzeria owners from around
the U.S. to find what they are taking
away from this crisis.
Jon Bortles of Woody's Wood-fired
Pizza in Golden, Colorado, has used
this time to advance his pizzeria. "We've
been in business for 27 years," he says.
"This pandemic has taught us that we
cannot rest on our laurels. The motto 'if
it ain't broke, don't fix it' has been turned
on its head. We are now in a perpetual
state of 'fix,' or evolution, which stands
to raise the bar for us all."
As the state of Colorado instituted
restrictions, Bortles and his team had
to act quickly to help compensate for
its 80- to 90-percent dine-in business.

"Among the most beneficial of changes
we made were technological in nature;
utilizing handhelds for curbside order
taking and payments, adjusting prep
times for online orders in real time,
integrating third-party deliveries with
our POS, and developing an expo system using our Kitchen Display Screen
(KDS) were all game changers for us,"
he says. "We are a volume-dependent
business, so these efficiencies are crucial."
Once full dining capacity resumes,
Bortles says, "Honestly I don't see any of
these new systems going anywhere. To
echo an over-used term, this is indeed
the 'new normal.' Whereas before maybe
we could afford to lose a few covers during peak times, now we need to capture
as close to 100 percent of orders to compensate for sales we've lost elsewhere."
Adding text messaging has been
pivotal for Back Road Pizza in Santa
Fe, New Mexico and Cheshire Pizza
and Ale in Cheshire, Connecticut.

Both pizzerias added the service to free
up their jammed phone systems.
Piper Kapin, who owns Back Road
Pizza says, texting and curbside pickup will live on at the pizzeria after
the pandemic subsides. "We switched
quickly (before dining got shut down)
to a 100-percent no contact curbside
pick-up system with a text # for folks to
send their name when they arrive. The
text line has opened up our phone line,
which was impossible to get through
when this all started with everyone calling when they were there to pick up."
Cheshire Pizza co-owner Dimitri
Magriplis says they "send out automated
text messages to customers once their
order is ready to be picked up, which
has mitigated the long wait times due to
high volume. High volume during peak
hours has been the biggest issue most
pizza places have had to face because
of COVID-19 (resulting in disgruntled
customers)." Automated texts will definitely remain, he says.

J U LY 2 0 2 0 / P I Z Z AT O D AY. C O M / 3 1

030_PIZ_0720_OPcrisis.indd 31

6/9/20 10:04 AM
https://www.speedlinesolutions.com/online-ordering-audit https://www.speedlinesolutions.com/online-ordering-audit
Pizza Today - July 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pizza Today - July 2020
