We had a franchise called Figaros in our town for a short while…a VERY short while.
It was TNB but also, you could eat it there if you wished, baked by the staff.
Honestly, it’s quality was about that of a Red Baron baked…except not as crispy.
I think one of the big reasons it folded was because the prices weren’t that far off from our other chains who did cook their pizzas exclusively…and they never offered any specials beyond the $1.00 off a medium, $2.00 off a large “grand opening” offer.
Hubby and I went twice, and the main complaint I would hear in the line as new customers were waiting was that “if I am going to have to bake it, it should cost at least half of what I pay for “real” pizza”.
For some reason, at least in my market, people think “make it themselves” is synonymous with “not good” pizza. The owner should have listened and done marketing to counter that like some of you folks here have that have successful TNBs.
They never took food stamps…but in my area, I can see where that would be a GREAT market, as my town does have a lot of FS customers, just judging by usage I see in my grocery store.
I always wonder, though, how they can use FS, and then load their groceries into their Cadillac Escalade. :roll:
I’m looking forward to next year’s class Tom,I’m sure it will be even better than this years,:).
On another note,I would like to say that I have experimented with my first Take N Bake,from my own restaurant. And,I have to say, that it came out damnnnnnnn great. I was flabbergasted,that a home oven could produce proffesional retailer like results. I can honestly see now why this concept is taking off. Mind you,I used one of my own all ready seasoned/worked pizza trays, it has been blackened through years of use, I dont know if this made a diference. But with a 15 year old General Electric oven,the results were phenomenal.
Obviously,it is not practical to give aluminum pizza trays away with every order,so my next question is,what kind of pizza trays are usually used in TnB,and where can i get me some,? 
Two companies producing T&B trays are Pactiv <www.pactiv.com> and Menasha <www.menashapackaging.com>. Skip the dark colored trays, our tests show that they don’t bake any better than the lighter colored ones. You are correct about the dark colored aluminum pans baking better in a home oven. Wehe we have a pizza party, I always manage to show up with one of our commercial baking pans. Some time ago I cane across some pizza pans at Walmart, they were black on the inside and silver on the outside. ??? I have never figured out what this was supposed to accomplish as the silver color reflected the heat away from the pizza! Simple solution, I just seasoned the OUTSIDE ofthe pan with salad oil until it took on a nice, dark color. Now they bake reasonably well.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
Again,thank you veyr much for your reply Tom. I will order some of those paperboard trays from both companies and see which will work better.