Switching Cheese from Grande

[UncleNicksPizza]

@Cdino

We ended up making the switch from Grande to Bacio after several blind taste tests that were overwhelmingly in favor of the Bacio. Better melt, creamier taste, cheaper cost, was a no brainer.

On an unrelated side note, and forgive the bluntness, but I’m always suspect of someone whose first post on the forums is to dig up a couple month old post to chime in on a brand. Screams sales rep to me, but I could be wrong.

 

[gmac42]

there might be a couple of other ways to look at cheese and the “acceptability factor”.

1. Perhaps different areas of the country develop different taste preferences. That is certainly true for other types of food. Years ago I was associated with a restaurant chain. In California their chili was over the top accepted and favored. Worked in a few other states as well. A location opened in Texas and that chili drew big time laughs. The chili recipe was changed to meet “Texas” standards.
2. What about a person who grows up in a certain area eating pizza that would not be very acceptable in other parts of the country? His cheese may be of a a lower quality but it is the cheese he grew up with along with his neighbors. If one of us “cheese experts” went to his area we would most likely be quite disdainful of the local pizza. Pizza shops in the area would probably be serving somewhat the same grade of cheese because that is what the locals like. (this theory gets discarded in a large city somewhat). What would happen if this person above went to a more “sophisticated” area would he like the prevailing cheese choices and that would undoubtedly even cost him more money? Why would this person opt to spend more money for a product that he perceives as not being better? His taste buds would mostly likely not appreciate the difference.
3. Many years ago I remember reading an article about Mexican food as it was introduced on the East coast. This article put forth the theory that Taco Bell was the first Mexican food place of consequence to enter the market. For a time subsequent Mexican restaurants serving higher quality Mexican food were not wildly accepted because Taco Bell had set the bar for Mexican cuisine. Of course it did not take long for people to find out Taco Bell was the low rung on the ladder.
4. I am in Southern California. We have pizza places galore here. We have one place up the street that really has some (in my opinion) poor cheese along with the appropriate pairing of a poor crust (again, my opinion). There are a significant number of people buying their product. Our concept is on the higher end and is more costly. I do not expect any of the customers from this other pizza place to ever be our customers. They would not appreciate our cheese or the quality of our other ingredients so they should not waste their money on our product. Different taste buds.
5. I cannot serve something unless I believe it is excellent quality. Our customers recognize that, and show up to buy in significant enough numbers to make us very happy. Do we think we have the best pizza you can possibly make? No, we don’t. There is a next level of better pizza with extraordinary cheese, ingredients, etc. at a higher price of course, and can be found in Los Angeles and Newport Beach. Some of our customers venture out to try this next level pizza but they all come back when its back to their regular eating routines.

I think the point of all this is that not only do we have to determine what the best cheese is for us via testing or whatever, but we have to also carefully assess the potential customer base in our selected area of operation. Ultimately the customer is going to tell us what the best cheese is in their opinion. We might get half way there in determining the best cheese with our own experienced perceptions but the other half of the determination is going to come from what the customers decide is the best cheese. In this particular location of ours we are right in the middle of a wealthy area, a strong middle class area and a low income area. We get enough business from the wealthy and the middle class to make for a successful picture. Strangely enough we also get occasional visits from the lower income group when they are looking for a special occasion meal. I figure we have a shot at the three main groups of people in our area. We figure we have excellent cheese that has broad acceptance at a price people with any kind of taste buds will like, that people with more expert taste buds will like and those with taste buds not so sophisticated will like.

 

[pizzapirate]

Yeah, the only times Grande was anywhere was anywhere near being the winner in our tests was on a plain cheese pizza, as soon as topping were added it was all over the place.
Maybe if you have room you could have Grande for your plain cheese pizzas, and something less expensive for topped pizzas.

Agree here. A cheese only pizza is the biggest difference. And since most pies are not cheese only . . .

We top more heavily than most shops, so Grande just would not make sense economically no matter what.