Lately, I used to be visiting a pizzeria and discussing its menu with the proprietor. He does a New York type hand tossed pizza, and he does it nicely. It’s the workhorse of his menu and he’s very pleased with it. When the dialog turned to his appetizer record, he grew to become dismissive. Although he acknowledges appetizer gross sales are pink scorching proper now, he insists he needs to be recognized for his pizza.
As nicely he ought to. However, at what worth? In right now’s market, having nice pizza might not be sufficient. The operator I used to be talking with appeared to agree with that time to a small diploma. He had a whole menu, however he appeared to deal with the nonpizza gadgets as undesirable stepchildren. Working example: I requested him about his hen wings.
“Oh,” he mentioned, “these are simply on there as a result of folks anticipate us to have them. However we don’t actually promote a lot of them.” “Hmmm,” I replied. “Most locations do. Have you ever tried having your servers push them just a little?”
“It wouldn’t matter,” the operator responded. He then named a competitor up the road. We’ll name the place Dave’s Pizza for this commentary. “Dave’s has significantly better wings, so folks go there when they need these.”
I requested what made Dave’s wings higher. The operator answered that they have been bigger and simply fl at-out had higher taste.
I couldn’t assist however ask why he didn’t improve his wings to be extra aggressive. He roughly dodged the query and mentioned he was considering of taking wings off his menu altogether. I couldn’t imagine what I used to be listening to. For those who attempt actually laborious to promote a product and simply can’t transfer it, then, by all means, take it off the menu. However this was a unique story altogether. The operator in query admitted he was serving an inferior product and he didn’t care as a result of he had nice pizza and that was sufficient for him.
As for me, I imagine that an operation ought to try for perfection on each menu merchandise. Positive, you need the perfect pizza on the town. However you additionally need the perfect wings, the perfect hoagies, the perfect carrot cake … you title it. For those who’re going to serve it, do it proper. In any other case, don’t do it in any respect.
Finest,
Jeremy White, editor-in-chief
