recently I attended a food show in florida. I got a chance to sample La Nova Wings. I went to the web site to check out the prices and I found that they costs $1 a wing. How do youmake money on that type of food costs. you certainly can’t charge $15 for 10 wings. I don’t have fryers and the wings I have tried to bake just don’t cut it. Idea’s or comments?
I think you’re a bit confused about the prices you saw online. They retail wings through their website, but this is not the product or the price you will get through your food distributor. LaNova wings will sell through a food distributor at about $3 per pound and will yeild about 11 pieces per pound.
They also retail pizzas through their website but you’ll have a hard time reselling a $70 pizza for a profit!
Or maybe with fuel prices so high, the shipping from Buffalo is just that high!
I use La Nova, my cost is about .32 each we use the oven roasted type and add our own sauces
Our philosophy on wings is we may not make a killing on them, but at least we get the sale.
We used to NOT sell wings and found a lot of customers got their pizzas elsewhere cuz they wanted wings. So we added them to get the pizza sale.
Our food cost is high around 40% on wings. But we usually sell a pizza with it and get the sale.
Maybe keep that in mind. And yes, I think your figures are a bit off. They are probably 35-50 cents a wing, not a dollar.
We don’t use fryers either, we bake em.
Kris
As an added note I agree that your not going to make any better than 40-45% food cost but this is what I did. I added a Boneless wing option to our menu. I can sell 1lb of bread to order boneless wings with the sauce of their choice at 20% food cost. If you butcher your own breasts as we do you’ll find that a pound of boneless wings is a huge portion, and when you bread them to order they really are juicy on the inside and as crisp as you want them outside. I use seasoned flour, but don’t use salt use garlic salt and pepper in your flour, salt tends to burn up your oil too fast. The end result is once you have wings on your menu you will get a % of people who will buy the boneless, thus it will bring the average food cost of both items to a desired 30%. Hope that helps, good luck and have a great day!
WilliLove the description of the value of this product to your shop. 20% food cost s phenomenal. I wanted to double-check, though . . . . isn’t garlic salt just salt with a little garlic powder added? I am missing something about how that is less damaging to the oil than straight salt. I am slow thinking today.
Banana,
I sell 1000 lbs of tenders a week. What is you price for a pound?If you use bre*sts you must be trimming them,what is you yield on 40lbs.I use fresh clipped tenders , no waste. Are you charging for b/c & celery? What kind of takeout packaging are you using?My food cost is 35%,but my order of 100 puts $40.00 gross profit in my register.Thanks What
The cost for mixed fresh breasts this week is 1.49 a pound, sauce .03, take out .12 (45% of my orders are take out), flour .04 I sell an order for 6.95 which brings me in at about 24%. As for the salt item, I’m “assuming” that by adding the garlic salt rather than straight salt there may be ( and I can only assume because I haven’t had the time to actually test it properly ) a lesser effect on the oil. As with a lot of things on this forum I will now pay more attention to this issue in practicle use rather than what people have told me. I’m a FOH guy who now has restaurants lol so I’m learning, what I post are opinions as are most of the posts I read and use them as such. I’ve found now that I’m actually cooking and serving my own food LOTS of things are different than what I was told or even had seen before. From now on I will try not to post opinions but more tested and proven methods and ideas. This is why I joined boards like this so I can grow. Thank you all, have a great day.
WilliBanana,
Your sauce at .03? If you use the cheapest sauce say $5 gallon and don’t add anything else to it ( no butter) and you put 6oz.–which is not alot for a pound of tenders , your cost would be .23. I’m not trying to beat you up but check this food cost. Your are not going to get 100% yield from a case of bre*sts because you need to trim the fat.Qings & tenders are one of the most under priced items I see on menus.What
Willi,
I love the steel drum music on your web site! Now, no harm-no foul on the salt thing. I know garlic has all sorts of mysterious and magical powers, so I’m easily convinced it protects oil from salt damage.
As for the pound of breaded chicken boobie pieces, I am on board with having a big wad of sauced up chicken for people to eat with a good, cold beer. Are you selling by the pre-cooked pound or the after-cooked pound? I get $7 for a 7 oz (pre cooked) portion with garlic pita, sauce toss and dressing. My COF is about 29% using a pre-breaded product. I do not at all propose to know your market, but you might be able to squeeze a bit more out of a pound of fried chicken.
I’d actually be ordering there a couple times a week for myself back in the days I didn’t own a place 
Your menu and concept looks appealing from what I saw on the website. Don’t feel pushed by us (if you do, just push back). Your outlook will change once you get the doors open and food flying. Your experiences will still be different from mine, and that’s what makes you an asset here. The world view changes in restaurant life (in my experience) month to month and year to year. We refine our understanding and find our raging blind spots . . . makes it something new all the time.