need some help

[bhenken08]

hey guys im trying to open my own food court subshop but i also want to offer pizza by the slice so i will only be makeing 15-25 pies a day. so i guess what im trying to ask is should i make my own dough and sauce ect? or buy it pre made? qaulity is very important to me

ps how much would you pay for a qality slice of pizza and a drink?

 

[bodegahwy]

Will you have annother use for the mixer? If not, I would not use the space for the machine and add the process for what amounts to less than one batch of dough per day. Rich’s makes a very good pizza dough that comes as a frozen doughball.

Sauce you can do from a can if you dress it up a little.

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

Please take a look at my last article in PMQ on pizza by the slice. If quality is important, this is the way to go. I’ve got a local store doing this and he charges $5.00 for a pizza slice and a soft drink as his lunch special. This slice is getting known as the best pizza in our little town (Manhattan, Kansas). We will be demonstrating this concept at our upcoming Practical Pizza Course in October.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[Tom_Lehmann]

There are also some very good quality par-baked crusts available too, and these are an excellent choice for a slice operation. Buy some in 16 or 18-inch size, lightly brush with a little garlic flavored oil and apply your sauce. slice into eight pieces, then add the cheese and other toppings as needed and bake. Depending upon your oven, you may need to limit the toppings to something like two to four, and you may also need to use grilled, sauteed, or blanched vegetables (think canned). If you follow the article I referenced you can use al lfresh, raw vegetable toppings and the pizza comes out fantastic, but this might be more than you want to get into. Another viable option is to use the par-baked crust and build your fully topped pizzas on them, bake, slice and store in a temperature/humidity controlled display cabinet, like those made by Hatco, when an order is received, just remove a slice of pizza with the requested toppings, place onto a baking tray or screen and reheat for a minute or so. There are a number of slice options that you can go with. I’ve covered them in articles for both PMQ and Pizza Today. A quick check through the archives should access them for you to see what all of your options are. What ever you opt for, remember to keep it simple. If you wish, please feel free to call me at 800-633-5137 (ext. 165) and I’ll be glad to discuss options with you.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

 

[bodegahwy]

We use 2-3 Hatco warmers with four 16" pies in each. They do a good job keeping the pies hot and humidified until sold. We feed the warmers with 3 lincoln impinger II ovens that have about a 6 min bake time. When busy we will have plain cheese, pep, saus, CB & pineapple in one warmer and various 2 and 5 topping combinations in the other. when really busy we add the third warmer and fill it with whatever is coming out of the oven. At our peak level, we will make and sell about 180 slices per hour. On really big days, we will run at that level for 4-5 hours straight. There is a certain “have it our way” element to doing this volume. We certainly do not add topping and put slices back in the oven. If we are out of pepperoni, there is one coming out of the oven shortly!

When we are slower, we use the 30-40 minute life of slices in the warmer to good effect. We keep skins tossed out and ready and a couple of basic pies made but not baked so we can get in the oven pronto if there is a sudden run on something. 25 pies is about 150 slices. Assuming this is a lunch business like ours, we would keep 8 different pies ready to serve at all times and make up new ones as they go. With 8 choices, we can please pretty much anyone. An additional advantage is that when the customer is looking at the pies they will often choose the five topping option. Much more often than they would order it on their own. Also, since the slices are ready to go the line moves fast and we only deal with each customer ONCE instead of taking their order and money and then calling them back when it is ready.

We do sell whole pies as well, but the customer has to wait for the pie to be made. If they want a whole pep from the warmer, they pay slice price for it.