Can you list your 5 biggest non pizza items? When I open I want to have a simple menu that i am able to exicute well from the start. Then build from there. Im imagining wings amd breadsticks will be 1 and 2 but who knows? And GO!
Before you read my list, please understand that we have a huge lunch business (140-180 checks per lunch) and that we have been open for 57 years.
- Stromboli
- Subs
- Wings
- Salads
- Fries
These are listed in order of highest sales. I would have drinks in there but everyone sells them. Our take and bakes out sell our salads and fries but that is pizza and you asked for non pizza.
If you want a simple menu, remember to utilize your ingredients to the fullest. For instance…We have a taco pizza so we make a taco Stromboli and a taco salad too. Having a simple menu is good. I see a lot of places try to offer too much and they end up offering average or less than average menu items.
Wings = 10% of sales
Salads = 6 %
Bread stix and cheese breads 4%
Drinks = 2%
Thanks pizza of the month. Question about your take and bake. Were i am I can take food stamps for take and bake. After the sale is rung up I can legally charge a seperate “cook fee” as lomg as that os paid in cash i can cook it. Even if the “cook fee” is just 1 penny. How do food stps affect your take and bake?
We don’t have many non pizza items but here are ours in the order of biggest sellers:
Salad
bottled soda/water (never will do fountain drinks - too messy)
chocolate chip cookies
Cannoli’s
garlic knots
pepperoni rolls
How do you make your Garlic knots?
Warren: Unfortunately we keep our recipes secret. Take care. Walter
We also do bread and bakery goods (cookies, brownies, danish etc)
1 ) Bakery treats (sweet stuff)
2) Boneless wings
3) Pizza bread
4) Wings
5) Drinks (Pepsi - cans/bottles and old fashioned soda like Boylans)
I havent given a whole lot of thought to the cookie brownie thing. Do you make from scratch ? Or buy premade dough for them? Also do you do desert pizza? The fact that they outsell cheese bread and wings shocks me.
We do scratch made chocolate chip cookies with a recipe I have developed over the years. They run off the shelf. For us it all about scratch made everything with top of the line ingredients. That is what will set you apart from the chains and shops that make pizzas like chains, which is the overwhelming majority of pizzerias in our country. Walter
I will litterally be the only independant that delivers in a market of over 200k i figure ill have 6 stores withim a few years of opening cus people will be so overjoyed to have an option. There are 3 independents that dont deliver.
It sounds like you have a great plan Warren. I have been approached several times already about expanding. We will stay a 1 shop pizzeria as we are not of the make up to run multiple shops. I talked recently with a very successful artisan pizza maker who has more than 1 shop and he said consistency issues are the biggest challenge and are ongoing. That reaffirmed my instinct to stay a small mom/pop shop. If we ever do expand it will be to train the owners in our methods of pizza and hiring people with disabilities and then they are on their own. I would have to let go and let them do pizza as they see fit. Walter
Hey walter, looking at your profile pic. It looms like you have blodgett ovens as well. If so what model? I have a pair of blodget 1000s and yes consistency will be a huge issue its why the big boys all went conveyor. If I ever do make it to multiple stores. I will return a large portion of profits to each stores managment teams. Good people arent cheap. Minimum wage here is 9.62 an hr and goes up anually so good people are really expensive.
By revenue:
- Salads
- Calzone/Strombolli
- Wings
- Cheezy bread
- Bread Sticks
Note that all those except salad and wings use pizza ingredients.
We do not have food stamps in my area.
I run 1000’s and have for over 40 years. I love them and they are easy to work on too. Walter
well, I’m not trying to be a smartass,
we are primarily a BBQ place, so Pulled Pork, Beef Brisket, Ribs, & Wings
Pizza is a secondary item that is gaining popularity rapidly, and I’d love our pizza revenue to exceed or BBQ revenue some day
We push bakery - its a good upsell. We buy cookie doughs but aside from that everything is made from scratch. No dessert pizzas. But we also track and push noting what customers like… telling them whats fresh etc. Sampling as well is a big one for weekend sales. Its a lot of impulse purchasing which is great as it tends to bulk up the ticket price. Also get people who only want goodies - we sell locally roasted coffees as well and those are often purchased with bakery goods. We probably sell more cookies than brownies but we sell a lot of both. We’ve got 3 kinds of cookies, brownies, danish, cinnamon buns (I’ve seen some AMAZING prefab cin buns with awesome price points)
I tried Upper Crust stuff at pizza expo and want to check them out at my local food show in April - people love new things and I love easy things 
Garlic knots, meat lasagna, spaghetti with meatballs, chicken fettuccine alfredo
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We use a 23 oz. dough ball stretched out to a 16 inch pie. I then form it into a rectangle and I cut strips lengthwise and strips across I try to yield 21 3 to 4 inch strips of dough that are 1 inch wide. Ivan tired and a simple knot and place on my screen. The key is to put all of your knots so they touch together keeps the edges from drying out when the cook. I pass through my conveyor oven 5 1/2 minutes at 375°. I take them out after they are cool and break them apart, I coat them with our special season garlic sauce, and again the key is to put them into a Ziploc bag to keep moisture out. When a customer orders garlic knots I put them in a small tin lined with parchment paper I squirt butter over it and it’s in the oven for maybe 30 to 35 seconds At 475°. I serve it with a 2 ounce cup of pizza sauce for dipping.
I won’t tell you how I make my garlic sauce but I found using real garlic and butter Parmesan cheese and parsley flakes makes a great tasting recipe. You just have to experiment with how much you add in every time. I’ve been told that our garlic knots are better than Pizza Hut or dominoes! Hope this helps love to hear of your success