Pizza E&S: Easy As Pie

Simple ingredients, simple equipment, but quality in both aspects makes the best pizza.

Foodservice Equipment & Supplies - December 2006

By Amelia Levin
Associate Editor

You can pretty much sum up the best things about pizza in three words: bread, cheese and tomato sauce. You can also sum up the key equipment for making pizza in three words: a durable oven, worktables and good refrigeration. Inherent in that simplicity lies the key to pizza restaurants’ increasing popularity.

Sales at pizza chains have been steadily rising, says Darren Tristano, executive vice president for Technomic, the Chicago-based market research firm. The highest performing pizza chains raked in about $17 million last year, according to a Technomic report.

In years past, however, sales at pizza chains have remained somewhat flat due to the low-carb craze and competition from expanding Asian restaurants and bakery cafés, as well as from other independent pizza restaurants providing quality pies on a local level, Tristano says.

To boost profits, more pizza restaurants continue to develop creative product offerings, such as different types of pizzas or multiple pizzas built into one instead of charging consumers for individual toppings. Others have sought to expand their menus to include sandwiches, salads, desserts and other foods, or position themselves as a place for healthier, better tasting pizza amidst an increasingly health-conscious society.

Pizza restaurants have also sought to cater more to families. "Making your interior dining space very family friendly is going to make a big difference," Tristano adds. In addition, pizza restaurants continue to improve the efficiency and execution of the ordering process in order to please customers. Two up-and-coming chains, CiCi’s Pizza and Ledo’s Pizza, both present themselves as friendly, family-centered restaurants offering high-quality, fresh pizza and other foods. Each chain experienced major increases in profits and significantly expanded their number of units in 2005, according to a Technomic report on the nation’s top 500 pizza chains. CiCi’s had a 12-percent increase in unit expansion, while Ledo’s had 6.4 percent.

Robert Beall, chief executive officer of Ledo’s Pizza, says the chain has, in the last couple years, been adding about 12 units annually, with development in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. The original restaurant opened 51 years ago in Adelphi, Md., and in the 1980s, the company began licensing the pizza product to other restaurants. By 1989, the company developed the franchise concept and opened a location in Prince Frederick, Md. Ledo’s now has 80 franchised units, mainly in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions. Ledo’s does not offer delivery services, but carryout accounts for about 50 percent of its revenues. Most stores have about 80 seats for dine-in service.

"Family is a big part of our business," says Beall, who adds that the Ledo’s family spans three generations, and franchises predominantly to family-owned companies.

Beall says the key to drawing in profits is offering a product that is fresh, high-quality, and produced from an age-old recipe that hasn’t changed. Ledo’s makes everything from scratch in-unit, and to ensure the freshness of the dough, staff make new batches every two hours, throwing away what is not used. The other technique behind Ledo’s dough is that it is completely handmade, meaning staff use no mixers. It takes about 10 minutes for a staff member to mix a batch of dough by hand using a 16-quart, stainless-steel bowl.

The crust is then rolled out with rolling pins, gets a sprinkling of sauce, smoked provolone cheese and other ingredients and bakes in a convection oven. Pretty simple, Beall says. But the highest quality ovens are key in keeping up with demand, he adds. At the 2,400-square-foot Ledo’s restaurant in Annapolis, Md., the most important pieces of equipment, the two convection ovens, take up the center of the kitchen. The space also consists of two lines — one for pizza and the second for preparing other menu items such as sandwiches, appetizers and pasta. The pizza line starts with a butcher block area with refrigeration where staff prep and roll out the dough, followed by another prep table for sauces and cheese. The other line includes a steam table; sandwich-making area; flat-top grill for grilling Ledo’s popular steak and cheese sandwich; a fryer for mozzarella sticks, fries and other foods; and a low-range open burner for sautéing and finishing sauces, according to Beall. Next to that is a small reach-in freezer that mostly holds fried menu items. At the back of the pizza line are walk-in refrigerators, grinders for cheese, and slicers for produce. In all, the equipment list runs no more than a page, with the bulk of pieces being simply refrigeration, worktables, ovens and shelving.

As far as supplies, Ledo’s uses rectangular baking pans like most pizza restaurants used back in the early 1950s, before circular pans were available. Beall says it’s both a tradition to continue using the old pans, just like the chain has never changed its recipe. The pans also ensure that the portions stay large and generous, he says.

Like Ledo’s, CiCi’s Pizza continues to expand rapidly, according to Robert Kulick, president of JMC Restaurant Distribution, a dealer for the chain. "For a number of years (CiCi’s) sat below the radar," he says. "It’s a regional chain that started 25 years ago or so in the Dallas area and grew quietly. In the last few years, CiCi’s has started getting some notice by moving into other markets such as Washington, D.C., Detroit and Chicago." The chain also has some stores under construction in Phoenix.

For CiCi’s, purchasing equipment that can withstand high volumes and heavy use is key, Kulick says. The reason for this is that the pizza chain operates mainly as an all-you-can-eat buffet with a dozen daily pizza selections plus pasta, salad and dessert, with the buffet rotating every couple of minutes. Weekdays are slower, however, with 15-minute rotations. Still, the volume this operation generates is enormous. Kulick says CiCi’s feeds between 3,000 and 4,000 people a week.

"All of our equipment gets a double workout," he says. "As a result of all the use and abuse, the equipment really needs to hold up well."

Another important quality is aesthetics, according to Kulick. That is, again, because of the buffet setup — customers can see right into the kitchen behind the seven-foot buffet line, so the pieces need to be aesthetically pleasing, which includes not having parts falling off. The chain uses high-quality, clean-looking ovens and dark anondized buffet warmers to enhance the visual appeal of the food.

The cost of the buffet rarely exceeds $5 per person at all locations, Kulick says, noting that the chain is able to keep the price point low through its reliance on only a few key pieces of equipment, and because each store requires no wait staff, just cooks, buffet-line operators and a cashier. While the idea of an all-you-can-eat buffet for less than $5 could suggest a low-quality meal, Kulick says the chain budgets accordingly so that only the freshest ingredients are used. In the summer, operators travel to the tomato-packing farms in California where tomatoes for the sauce are tested for their flavor and quality. Then a manufacturer in California processes the sauce according to the chain’s old recipe, and ships it to the various stores. Another way the chain seeks to overcome negative sentiments surrounding buffets is not only through the fast turnover of the pizzas, but also by training staff to prepare items for customers that they may not see on the buffet.

"The beauty of CiCi’s is that it’s (the kitchen setup) is so simple," Kulick says. "We don’t have all different types of equipment." The key pieces, he says, are just the oven, the mixer, the prep tables and the buffet warmers.

At the CiCi’s in Downers Grove, Ill., customers pay at the cash register and then pick up their food at the buffet. To the right is a salad bar and then next to that, the pizza pans and desserts. Parallel to the buffet is a double-stack convection oven about the same length as the buffet itself. Staff prep the pizzas on worktables in the back of the house and then send the pans through the convection oven where they are picked up at the end, cut on a table and placed on the buffet. It takes a mere five minutes for the pizzas to completely cook due to the oven’s high-speed feature. Kulick says JMC has been working with manufacturers to bring in a triple- or even quadruple-stack oven that can accommodate even more volume.

Staff prepare the pizza dough a few hours before peak mealtimes using a 60-quart mixer. Next, the dough is flattened with a dough press, which Kulick says is a key piece of equipment. Because none of the ingredients are frozen, no freezers are necessary at CiCi’s. A walk-in refrigerator sits at the back of the house along with the dishwasher. The kitchen also features a pasta cooker, which prepares large batches for the buffet. Pasta wells on the buffet warm up and hold the sauces, so customers can essentially make their own pasta, as they can make their own salad at the refrigerated salad bar.

Some of the chain’s desserts also take the form of a "pizza," such as the apple dessert pizza — sliced apples and sweet icing top pizza dough and bake in the same ovens as the pizza. In addition, the chain bakes brownies on-site as well as gooey cinnamon rolls.

The carryout station sits at the front of the house where the cash register is located. Kulick says carryout orders account for about 10 percent to 20 percent of total restaurant sales, and CiCi’s does not offer delivery. The buffet makes up the rest of the sales. At the 4,200-square-foot Downers Grove location, the dining area hosts 160 seats.

Like Ledo’s and CiCi’s, traditional recipes, simple equipment lists and fresh ingredients are also key for Lou Malnati’s, a Chicago institution for deep-dish pizza, and a small local chain at the forefront of the pizza competition in the city. Outside of Chicago, many pizza restaurants and chains refer to deep-dish merely as pizza with a doughier crust. But in Chicago, Lou Malnati’s deep-dish pizzas are prepared in literally deeper pans and stuffed to the brim with cheese, sauce and other toppings. In fact, it usually takes a knife and fork to eat. The original restaurant, founded in 1971 by Chicago native Lou Malnati, has expanded to 24 units, all within the Windy City.

"Even though we’ve opened up more stores, we haven’t changed how we make pizza — we still make everything from scratch within each store, even in the carryout-only and strip mall locations," says Jim Freeland, Lou Malnati’s corporate chef. "We make all the dough, sauces and dressings on-site — if you eat it there, we made it there."

Like CiCi’s, Freeland travels to California during the picking season to taste the tomatoes for their sweetness and ensure the best quality. Sausage is ground fresh daily, and no matter how expensive cheese has gotten over the last few years, Freeland says the chain has never switched the brand or raised the prices to the customer.

The key to Lou Malnati’s pizza is perhaps simply time. The deep dish-style takes significantly longer to make — about 30 minutes to be exact — and Freeland says the chain makes everything to order and takes no shortcuts. Lou Malnati’s refuses to speed up the process with higher-tech equipment in order to prevent changing the taste and consistency of the product. "Pizza sounds very easy to make but when you get into the nuances like how long to let dough rise, what’s the right temperature for the dough, and the right ingredients, it becomes much more complex," Freeland says.

Even the soup and stock for the soups are made from scratch in a two-day process. As a result, and similar to many pizza restaurants, the equipment is simple. At the River North location in downtown Chicago, deck ovens make up the key pieces of equipment for the kitchen that was renovated three years ago. The location also features a significant amount of refrigeration on-site in the form of refrigerated tables for salad preparation and holding pizza ingredients, walkin coolers, single-door refrigerators and single-door freezers.

Located downstairs at the back of the house sit a steam area, fryers, a stove for finishing sauces, an upright broiler and five doubledeck pizza ovens as well as stainless-steel tables where staff roll out and flip the dough. Cookies, bread and apple pie are also made from scratch at the back and placed in the ovens for baking. Salamanders and cheesemelters toast breads and melt cheese for the restaurant’s three-cheese bread appetizer and baked mostaccioli.

At the front of the kitchen are refrigerated tables, an upright freezer, and prep and hand sinks. Supplies include deep-dish pans in 1/2, 1/4 and 1/8 sizes, clamps, spatulas, knives, thongs, stainless-steel spoons, ladles, rubber and metal spatulas, 15-gallon stockpots, sauté pans and an 80-quart mixer for the dough preparation.

Freeland says the company’s relationship with equipment dealers, manufacturers and service agents is extremely important to its success. The chain specs a lot of custom-tailored pieces to fit its needs as well as a lot of stainless steel to make sure the kitchens stay clean."Sanitation is extremely important to us," says Freeland.

While the equipment is similar at each Lou Malnati’s location, each kitchen has its differences, Freeland says. That’s because they are designed around the building chosen for the location. At any rate, Freeland works with chain managers to determine the most efficient setup possible. "We need to figure out how many feet people are going to have to walk to this and that, and where the pizzas come out of the oven, and where the boxes go," he says. With pizza that takes 30 minutes to finish cooking, there’s no room for time lapses.