ok so im back in the pizza game, i left the Beartooth after 8 years, due to being offered a job as head chef for a bowling alley that me and my wife bowl on leagues at, and we owned the small snack bar there as well. the new owners of the bowling alley bought us out of the snack bar for twice what we invested into it 1 year prior and asked if i wanted to help them start a restaurant there, after a few months of BS dealing with a GM who didn’t know food past flipping eggs at dennys and had never actually ran a bowling alley just been a pin chaser. I finally get my go at rebuilding the old kitchen and starting the new restaurant. my goal is good comfort food/bar food, so Pizza, burgers, a steak or 2, some pastas, standard bar apps, wings, cheese sticks, mozz sticks, ect. the owners have never ran a restaurant or retail business, they own storage lots, banks ect. so they are a bit slow to wrap there head around the whole thing, but willing to learn, and even willing to jump in if needed.
volume wise we have 34 lanes, every night but sat night we have almost 30 lanes full for leagues(2-4 ppl per lane) plus there families, sat night is all night open bowling/neon bowling. few daytime leagues, plus 5 different school teams 3 days a week. i figure 200-400 ppl a day just league bowlers on weekdays, friday night im about 500 between bowlers, pool tournament, and bar patrons. its counter service, but we deliver the food. we tried waiting on the lanes like a normal restaurant, but the bowlers didn’t like that they had to be stuck with one server, they wanted to be able to order from whatever server/cocktail waitress was near them. and couldn’t understand why we wanted to serve them when for the past 30 years no one had(it amazes me how stuck in there ways ppl can get).
im figuring ill start with a double deck Blodgett, its the oven i know well, and lots of local service/parts available for it. although a roto-flex looks like it would be nice too, but i don’t want to be the only guy in AK running one, and the only one parts are getting shipped up for. going to make our own dough, start out small 10lb batches a day, maybe 8. im shooting for a 10 inch and a 14 inch to start, few pizzas by the slice, no more that 10 total pies to start. im still in the planning stage hope to be up and running with pizza by jan 1, already doing the rest of the food now.
just thought i would post a update, as i will be asking more questions soon. Tom especially, because at the beartooth, there were only 6 ppl that knew the actual dough recipe, 2 of which were the owners. even as kitchen manager i wasn’t entitled to it.
sheb
volume wise we have 34 lanes, every night but sat night we have almost 30 lanes full for leagues(2-4 ppl per lane) plus there families, sat night is all night open bowling/neon bowling. few daytime leagues, plus 5 different school teams 3 days a week. i figure 200-400 ppl a day just league bowlers on weekdays, friday night im about 500 between bowlers, pool tournament, and bar patrons. its counter service, but we deliver the food. we tried waiting on the lanes like a normal restaurant, but the bowlers didn’t like that they had to be stuck with one server, they wanted to be able to order from whatever server/cocktail waitress was near them. and couldn’t understand why we wanted to serve them when for the past 30 years no one had(it amazes me how stuck in there ways ppl can get).
im figuring ill start with a double deck Blodgett, its the oven i know well, and lots of local service/parts available for it. although a roto-flex looks like it would be nice too, but i don’t want to be the only guy in AK running one, and the only one parts are getting shipped up for. going to make our own dough, start out small 10lb batches a day, maybe 8. im shooting for a 10 inch and a 14 inch to start, few pizzas by the slice, no more that 10 total pies to start. im still in the planning stage hope to be up and running with pizza by jan 1, already doing the rest of the food now.
just thought i would post a update, as i will be asking more questions soon. Tom especially, because at the beartooth, there were only 6 ppl that knew the actual dough recipe, 2 of which were the owners. even as kitchen manager i wasn’t entitled to it.
sheb
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