After a long summer of pizza highs and lows the summer season is drawing to an end and big decisions need to be made..... I am going to have to buy a new razor as the old one is really starting to chafe; I have been told that I am getting 'manly' stubble these days so the razor replenishment will have to upped.
After much thought regarding pizza making some serious changes are in the pipeline. Our setup at present restricts us to shows and the like; of which half this year are worth going back too. And assuming we get a lot more shows to fill the gaps a decent profit will still be a hard thing to turn in order to support the wife and 5 kids.
So with Eds 8 illegitimate children around the country to support changes are afoot. Better to keep one eye on the past however; we had a great summer and met some different and entertaining people that we can learn from in all sorts of ways. It is a lifestyle job that if you can make pay definitely has it's benefits; so it's time to invest the big bucks to enable us to sell more pizzas. Any ideas on how to invest these big bucks are more than welcome.
I almost forgot to mention the new introduction to the family; our pizza base rolling machine which is called 'Jessie' in homage to the staff that it replaced. Jessie is happily re-housed as a PR flyer hander outer babe when we need her- pulling the in the punters nicely! Well I've gotta go now as am off to the Opera.
I shall inform the general public of our decision regarding next years trading A.S.A.P. for my sake as well.
Over and out,
Ryan
Oh....
A big thanks to Laura who helped us out at the Weald and Downland Steam fair- thanks!
Friday 16 September 2011
Monday 25 July 2011
Pylewell Park Food and Drink Festival
The late afternoon sun was drifting hazily between the lazy July clouds as the pizza boys, Jesse wedged between like a rose between two thorns, chugged their way to the New Forest and the Pylewell Park Food Festival. Ed back at the helm as you will have notice from the exquisite prose and excellent metaphor, not to mention the witty quips yet to come.
We followed the sat nav which did an excellent job in delivering us to the post code, a large country house and hustle and bustle of a festival rising from the estate paddocks nowhere to be seen. Wrong postcode. Ryan's handwriting parallels the oldest and most uninterested General Practitioner in the land. With the only tools to hand, namely a smart phone, Jesse had us pointing in the general direction and soon we picked up the scent, a clearly marked AA road sign guiding us home. This was an encouraging start, the event being a first timer and we were once again unsure of how busy we would be, but the warm familiar burnt orange of the AA sign calmed us. We thundered up the tradesman's entrance with the enthusiasm of a teenager in his first Renault 5 (showing my age - not sure what the kids drive these day!?) This was going to be a good one!
Set up was good. We looked professional, felt professional and were gearing up for a big day, when fellow traders got wind of a visit from the Environment Officers. The rumor was true and we watched the Officer work his way round the other stalls like a 1950's bad ass headmaster, glancing nervously as we prepped. we had nowt to worry about. We're ligit- he was impressed with our up to date records, hygiene certificates produced on demand and Ryan's belligerent use of our HACCAP's and safe systems of work. I didn't even know we had that stuff - nice one bruv!
Trading went well, sold out both days which was actually a bit frustrating. Good to get the kudos of selling out, word spreads fast, but annoying that we let some customers down and more importantly missed the chance of making some money at last! We ran out of mushrooms and basil and had to buy some more from other traders at the event; always good to put trade past the traders I suppose!
The weekend ended with a cracking pint of somerset cider at the Crown and Anchor in Dell Quay. http://www.crownandanchorchichester.com/history.html We watched the sun go down and talked through the highs and lows of the weekend. You should too if you are ever down this way. Lovely little spot.
Sorry about the quality of the photos - dodgy blackberry camera as I forgot my good one.
We are looking for bookings in October now if you fancy hosting a cheeky autumnal wedding, party or bar mitzvah!?
Much love
Ed x
We followed the sat nav which did an excellent job in delivering us to the post code, a large country house and hustle and bustle of a festival rising from the estate paddocks nowhere to be seen. Wrong postcode. Ryan's handwriting parallels the oldest and most uninterested General Practitioner in the land. With the only tools to hand, namely a smart phone, Jesse had us pointing in the general direction and soon we picked up the scent, a clearly marked AA road sign guiding us home. This was an encouraging start, the event being a first timer and we were once again unsure of how busy we would be, but the warm familiar burnt orange of the AA sign calmed us. We thundered up the tradesman's entrance with the enthusiasm of a teenager in his first Renault 5 (showing my age - not sure what the kids drive these day!?) This was going to be a good one!
 |
| Setting up - dominating other stands! |
 |
| Dough making into the night |
 |
| The festival from behind! |
The weekend ended with a cracking pint of somerset cider at the Crown and Anchor in Dell Quay. http://www.crownandanchorchichester.com/history.html We watched the sun go down and talked through the highs and lows of the weekend. You should too if you are ever down this way. Lovely little spot.
Sorry about the quality of the photos - dodgy blackberry camera as I forgot my good one.
We are looking for bookings in October now if you fancy hosting a cheeky autumnal wedding, party or bar mitzvah!?
Much love
Ed x
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Slick Runnings
Hi All,
Ed wrote half a blog about a week ago then got distracted (turning in to your parents?)- so here we go. We are finally getting the hang of this pizza malarkey; not one pizza was binned due to mistakes in any department on Saturday; as is often the case. Pizza making was fairly slick and by the end of the night we were in the VIP area drinking champagne with the other celebrities due to our all round performance.
On to more practical matters. We want to build a metal structure for our pizza ovens so that we no longer have to move it every time we set up. Anyone have any amazing welding and fabrication skills they want to lend us? We should probably have done this before the biggest couple of weekends we are doing are coming up; a true test for us which we are hoping will take us beyond hobbyists and in to big time players.
A short blog today as I have to get off to work on blinging up the stand. Reflective things and general bedazzlement are the order of the day as the wood fire just isn't enough!
Any ideas on how we should present the pizza better are welcome!
Also any ideas on what we should bolg about are also. Pizzas are getting old hat.
Oh someone asked if we were mobile the other day; just thought I should mention that.
Word to all your mothers,
Ry
xxx
Ed wrote half a blog about a week ago then got distracted (turning in to your parents?)- so here we go. We are finally getting the hang of this pizza malarkey; not one pizza was binned due to mistakes in any department on Saturday; as is often the case. Pizza making was fairly slick and by the end of the night we were in the VIP area drinking champagne with the other celebrities due to our all round performance.
On to more practical matters. We want to build a metal structure for our pizza ovens so that we no longer have to move it every time we set up. Anyone have any amazing welding and fabrication skills they want to lend us? We should probably have done this before the biggest couple of weekends we are doing are coming up; a true test for us which we are hoping will take us beyond hobbyists and in to big time players.
A short blog today as I have to get off to work on blinging up the stand. Reflective things and general bedazzlement are the order of the day as the wood fire just isn't enough!
Any ideas on how we should present the pizza better are welcome!
Also any ideas on what we should bolg about are also. Pizzas are getting old hat.
Oh someone asked if we were mobile the other day; just thought I should mention that.
Word to all your mothers,
Ry
xxx
Monday 4 July 2011
Private Parties and Jims' Retirement
Hi All,
It's the fantastic me writing the blog this time so expect a better standard than that heathen Edward who seems to think he is some sort of Thomas Hardy. Our little gig on Wednesday came about after a late decision to call in caterers to feed forty farmers talking shop and comparing the sizes of their tractors in a field near Stone Henge. Once there we nearly lost Jessie to a hippy drum circle at the Henge, fortunately the smell of our pizzas lured her back thereby conquering and assimilating Piu Pizza with alternative types- adding another string to our bow and banishing prejudices.
The organizers late decision and a good word from a Piu Pizza convert swung the deal; there is always a slight skeptical air about our pizzas until we serve a few and that tends to silence people. If we didn't have to shrug off the bad image of all the other imitators on the high street every time we sold ourselves we would definitely be cruising our way to our first million pizzas by now. People acting so surprised when they taste our awesomeo pizzas is definitely starting to become a custom for us- one which we still love; although the farmers were generally just very quiet which is much the same thing. Organizer was more than happy.
As we took a few days off we took our time heading on wards to Norfolk and the various delights to be had there. We recommend Cookies Crab shop on the Norfolk coast for fresh honest and cheap sea food chiming bells with the Piu Pizza philosophy. Although they haven't sold out after 3 generations of trading and jacked the prices for tourists and Londoners which we most probably would have; not really we are in it for good food for everyone philosophy. After some laying around we realized we were there for Jims retirement party. It is Piu Pizzas belief that retirement should begin at 40- that is the plan; poor old Jim had to work until 60 what with being a teacher and all. A few decades of public service celebrated a good Saturday night was had by all with the Pizzas topping the bill.
Unfortunately there are no pictures to be shown as Edward has left his camera and shoes behind. Generally a sad state of affairs all round with that boy.
A big thanks to Ed's parents for putting up with Edward for 28 odd years and for hosting us for a few nights.
All in all a great success proving that we can do the glitz and the glam, the poor and the plush: but we don't hang around we want any money in a rush.
Sunday 26 June 2011
Cosham Food Festival
A spotty teenage Business Studies student can tell you that in order to be successful you need to get the 'four Ps' of marketing right. Product, excellent pizza, check. Price, with the introduction of a mini margherita, check. Promotion, big wood fired oven and free tasters, check. Place, Cosham Food Festival, epic fail. The student looks on smugly as he goes about being another one of the masses who can talk good business, but doesn't have the 'huevos' to go and do it.
In fairness we need to be getting out to any event that will have us, and on paper it didn't look too bad. A food festival, close to home and a modest stall fee. The writing was on the wall though as we rocked into Cosham in the big red van. Pound Stretcher, Bingo hall, pawn shop were predominant on the high street. Bacon and bean slice from Greg's, yum yum. Freshly made wood fired pizza made with love and fresh ingredients, not so much. Now a well oiled unit we are beating other stall holders in setting up which gives me a huge amount of satisfaction. Growing up with three brothers has over inflated my competitiveness somewhat, but it's no mean feat setting up a working kitchen complete with wood fired oven in less time than it takes someone to put up a flimsy gazebo and enough trinkets to make a stallholder in the souks of Marrakesh jealous.
The lunch rush was brief. We sold some pizza, but not a lot. Got some great feedback, nver getting bored of it - we need to turn fantastic comments in to hard dollar. I shouldn't be so harsh, we gave out quite a few business cards and made some good contacts with other stall holders and event organizers. If we keep making a consistent and quality product the sales will come. James made his first appearance of the summer as front of house and con-seeded that he prefers to sell to people who ring you up everyday to place an order. It's hard graft on the streets and we all now have a gnats toe of more respect for the idiots on the apprentice.
In fairness we need to be getting out to any event that will have us, and on paper it didn't look too bad. A food festival, close to home and a modest stall fee. The writing was on the wall though as we rocked into Cosham in the big red van. Pound Stretcher, Bingo hall, pawn shop were predominant on the high street. Bacon and bean slice from Greg's, yum yum. Freshly made wood fired pizza made with love and fresh ingredients, not so much. Now a well oiled unit we are beating other stall holders in setting up which gives me a huge amount of satisfaction. Growing up with three brothers has over inflated my competitiveness somewhat, but it's no mean feat setting up a working kitchen complete with wood fired oven in less time than it takes someone to put up a flimsy gazebo and enough trinkets to make a stallholder in the souks of Marrakesh jealous.
The lunch rush was brief. We sold some pizza, but not a lot. Got some great feedback, nver getting bored of it - we need to turn fantastic comments in to hard dollar. I shouldn't be so harsh, we gave out quite a few business cards and made some good contacts with other stall holders and event organizers. If we keep making a consistent and quality product the sales will come. James made his first appearance of the summer as front of house and con-seeded that he prefers to sell to people who ring you up everyday to place an order. It's hard graft on the streets and we all now have a gnats toe of more respect for the idiots on the apprentice.
Tuesday 14 June 2011
Open Farm Sunday
Having completed the 'Open Farm Sunday' outing in howling rain and wind we are now considered hardened outside caterers. Jessica was back again to help and she of course did a sterling job although it was so cold the tractor wheel nuts weren't only on the tractors! The Bogris bunch are made of stern old stuff so with a rod inserted up Edwards backside we carried on and produced some pretty special pizzas..... much to the surprise of everyone there who seemed to think that Eds' hobby wasn't going to feed everyone so had ordered in a Hog Roast as well to cater for the sub 50 people that turned up to the actually quite well organised event. I think the idea was in the competitive spirit of the supermarket supply chain (the Farm are beaten upon regularly) translating that philosophy to their local village open farm style event.
Luckily for us it was so cold and miserable that most people ate both things; the pizza most definitely trumped the hog roast people who seemed to be as much in the dark as us about two caterers being arranged. It also helped that Ed had pre-empted a potential wash out and organised pizza tokens with the event oranisers for farm staff who were helping out. Pat on the back for Edward!
It's always nice to receive genuine amazement at how good our pizzas are but so far it hasn't yielded repeat customers as we tend to leave the place of retail and never come back. The benefits of a retail shop start to become apparent. Never the less we are going to continue to put out a quality product regardless of the fact that repeat custom is rare in the vain hope that someone will actually want to hire us for an event or see us again. Accountant friends have suggested that we put out the cheapest pizza possible as we are never going to see most customers again; we want to make the world a better place though so twiddles to them!
A big thanks to Langmeads for having us at their event and Jessica for being a faith full little helper.
Friday 10 June 2011
Thursday 9 June 2011
Becoming a 'Man with a Van'
Taking the plunge and buying a van was not an easy decision. We knew we need a van for the business, but the most cost effective way of running one while keeping all parties happy was a puzzler. In the end the writing was on the wall for the Punto and I traded it in to become the proud owner of a Fiat Scudo 2.0l JTD. Ryan says the JTD was invented by Alfa Romeo, and I for one believe him, so technically I drive an Alfa Romeo. Still get some funny looks though when cruising to work in shirt, tie, glasses and a big red van. I don't care, I've got a van. Already I've noticed the massive respect I get from other highway users, compared to the Punto anyway. And you can cut people up and they just put it down to 'van drivers' generically rather than thinking that me as a person is a bad driver. Not that I am, but was pretty surprised that the insurance is less when I put Ryan 'no points, no crashes' Noble as a named driver. Result.
What wasn't a result was the lack of radio/cd player when faced with the 4 hour trip to Hay. I even contemplated borrowing Millsy's Best of Meatloaf tape for the journey, but it didn't take much contemplation. Listening to the voices in my head would be much better. Actually, after the first ten miles I ran out of Dizzee Rascal lyrics to rap to and did start to listen to my mind wandering. Pretty inane stuff really and not much worth writing about. I did discover why tramps often suddenly shout stuff randomly. It is born out of complete and utter boredom, as cruising at 50mph behind Ryan and the pizza oven led me to shout out occasional random statements. "Oh, we going to eeebizza!" was a favourite. Worryingly.
The other thing about going at 50mph was the time you have to watch stuff going on around you. A kestrel was spotted, swerving between haulage lorries as it eyed up it's lunch. At 50mph we got to see it hover and dive, nailing it's prey right between the barriers of the central reservation. Which got me thinking about why it would choose to hunt on a motorway? Perhaps it used to be nice countryside until we tarmacked it. Then I thought about it chewing on the carbon monoxide poisoned lungs of the mouse it had bagged and that a nice country mouse would be so much tastier.
Luckily we reached Ryan's ancestral home before I went completely insane.
Note to self: Get down Argos and get yourself a car stereo.
What wasn't a result was the lack of radio/cd player when faced with the 4 hour trip to Hay. I even contemplated borrowing Millsy's Best of Meatloaf tape for the journey, but it didn't take much contemplation. Listening to the voices in my head would be much better. Actually, after the first ten miles I ran out of Dizzee Rascal lyrics to rap to and did start to listen to my mind wandering. Pretty inane stuff really and not much worth writing about. I did discover why tramps often suddenly shout stuff randomly. It is born out of complete and utter boredom, as cruising at 50mph behind Ryan and the pizza oven led me to shout out occasional random statements. "Oh, we going to eeebizza!" was a favourite. Worryingly.
The other thing about going at 50mph was the time you have to watch stuff going on around you. A kestrel was spotted, swerving between haulage lorries as it eyed up it's lunch. At 50mph we got to see it hover and dive, nailing it's prey right between the barriers of the central reservation. Which got me thinking about why it would choose to hunt on a motorway? Perhaps it used to be nice countryside until we tarmacked it. Then I thought about it chewing on the carbon monoxide poisoned lungs of the mouse it had bagged and that a nice country mouse would be so much tastier.
Luckily we reached Ryan's ancestral home before I went completely insane.
Note to self: Get down Argos and get yourself a car stereo.
Sunday 5 June 2011
Food Fair
With our new found confidence from the Hay festival weekend we entered the Petersfield food festival with high expectations and a general feeling that we were invincible- like James Bond. Consequently we hiked up our prices and arrived with lots of dough and sauce of which we sold under half! Compounding problems were my rather soggy batches of dough (trying to copy Jesses proficient effort the week before); our new super woman Nick managed to flour them up with great effort so we could make a few pizzas at least, Ed then decided that a quarter of the volume demanded a half effort; pizza quality was emerging somewhat varied and at times the oven was not being stoked to the required heat by my good self. Front of house Liv was popping pain killers willy nilly for the board em but failed to stave off the outer appearance!
Petersfield food festival turned out to be a strange one with punters perversely not really in the market for food; instead opting for the 'cake shake' or an ice cream once they had tried all the samples along the stalls. The idea of a cake blended with ice cream and milk was to good an opportunity to pass up so everyone in the stall par toke; myself opting for the black forest gateau! This, coupled with the competition selling lack lust-re cheap food, was the general vibe of the festival. It was with little sorrow that we decided to pack up at 7.15 having pulled a 12 hour day of not doing a lot and being on our feet all day; just as the live music picked up and a little atmosphere started to enter the arena!
On reflection we have surmised that like an F1 car we struggle going at half speeds without encountering problems. As a result we are going to make 60 pizzas an hour regardless at any event and sell them on an open market based system. Liv is going to be our floor trader and adjust prices according to market demand. Bartering each pizza out at a min of £2 to shift units and a maximum of £10 when folks can't get enough. She'll get paid on a percentage of the sales she makes. Boom! It's all going 80's style go gettem pizza making at Piu Pizza.
Wise thoughts:
When one has a dish washer instead of putting plates on the side put them straight in to the dishwasher.
Petersfield food festival turned out to be a strange one with punters perversely not really in the market for food; instead opting for the 'cake shake' or an ice cream once they had tried all the samples along the stalls. The idea of a cake blended with ice cream and milk was to good an opportunity to pass up so everyone in the stall par toke; myself opting for the black forest gateau! This, coupled with the competition selling lack lust-re cheap food, was the general vibe of the festival. It was with little sorrow that we decided to pack up at 7.15 having pulled a 12 hour day of not doing a lot and being on our feet all day; just as the live music picked up and a little atmosphere started to enter the arena!
On reflection we have surmised that like an F1 car we struggle going at half speeds without encountering problems. As a result we are going to make 60 pizzas an hour regardless at any event and sell them on an open market based system. Liv is going to be our floor trader and adjust prices according to market demand. Bartering each pizza out at a min of £2 to shift units and a maximum of £10 when folks can't get enough. She'll get paid on a percentage of the sales she makes. Boom! It's all going 80's style go gettem pizza making at Piu Pizza.
Wise thoughts:
When one has a dish washer instead of putting plates on the side put them straight in to the dishwasher.
Thursday 2 June 2011
The aftermath
A fair wind blew us all the way to the Puckshipton asparagus party early Saturday morning; resulting in significant fuel savings and a feeling of general good times to come. After pilfering some wood fuel from the Noble estate our new lady helper proved we could set up and prepare the dough for the evenings asparagus party in ample time; giving us time to pontificate about the onslaught to come- and lash down the tent against the 60 m.p.h gusts shimmying the tent left right and center.
With everybody suitably fashionably late; the young age units were the first to drip the trendy buffet style pizza provided by us all over our table and their persons- one such item described our oven as 'magic' as the pizza went in uncooked and came out finished; we agree. Adults as well were suitably over awed by the magic, so much so that they liked to stand in front of our oven and feel affronted when they are asked to move- by the end of the night I had managed to not upset or bash anyone along with surviving flighty winds and lashings of rain. To bed at 1:00 a.m. having made 130 od pizzas and packed up ready to leave for Haye at 6:30 a.m.
Picking up a hungover helper unit on the way to the place of books we were soon set up in the shadow of Hay castle and before we knew what was happening had an onslaught of people demanding pizza and asking how we could prove it was wood fired. Pretty soon there was chaos amongst the various clowns, circus types and live music circulating the stall translating in to chaos in the pizza arena; pizzas sticking and burnt, orders muddled and finally dough running low. Fortunately lady Caroline had rode her trusty steed all the way from the Harrods PR department; arrived, exercised her steely feminine strong will to inform punters that we were shutting down the operation to take stock/ re-stock and re organise for an hour. This we did and under a watchful eye we progressed seamlessly from there on- chucking out pizzas till the cows came home. At about 7.00 ish.
With hospitality provided by the Shepard's Ice Cream (super lush and healthy) empire we were to bed and out cold suitably early having sold just under 200 pizzas! The next day we rolled in at 10:00 a.m. to find it lashing with rain and miserable- you're never dry in Hay-on-Wye; feeling pretty gloomy, people coming in dribs and drabs, we thought we would sell nothing; with the Shepards shop opposite doing a roaring trade as usual. People emerged however and by one we had a large cue as per the day before; without our PR guru we had her prodigy Liv who with her crash course training (and refreshed self) oiled the front of house machine that kept the cogs turning beautifully; inspiring comments that we were all far to 'calming and angelic like'. Finishing the day with a similar turnover we packed up exhausted and ready to go home at 8:00 p.m. and decided to head home once Ed has taken his pills of the 'man up' variety.
All in all a very successful weekend with lessons to be learnt and heart to be taken! We thank a heroic effort from Jessica for showing Ed how to do his job, a front of house masterclass from Caroline, Liv for handling the second day effortlessly by herslef and making everyones jobs a breeze, and Juliet and the Shepard's crew for being a rock of support.
On to the Petersfield food festival on Saturday; we're featured in the Petersfield post! Keep the good times coming!
Quote of the weekend
Punter: 'Bonjourno'
Liv: 'Errrr. It's not French actually. It's Italian' (said in a west country teenage don't you know way).
With everybody suitably fashionably late; the young age units were the first to drip the trendy buffet style pizza provided by us all over our table and their persons- one such item described our oven as 'magic' as the pizza went in uncooked and came out finished; we agree. Adults as well were suitably over awed by the magic, so much so that they liked to stand in front of our oven and feel affronted when they are asked to move- by the end of the night I had managed to not upset or bash anyone along with surviving flighty winds and lashings of rain. To bed at 1:00 a.m. having made 130 od pizzas and packed up ready to leave for Haye at 6:30 a.m.
Picking up a hungover helper unit on the way to the place of books we were soon set up in the shadow of Hay castle and before we knew what was happening had an onslaught of people demanding pizza and asking how we could prove it was wood fired. Pretty soon there was chaos amongst the various clowns, circus types and live music circulating the stall translating in to chaos in the pizza arena; pizzas sticking and burnt, orders muddled and finally dough running low. Fortunately lady Caroline had rode her trusty steed all the way from the Harrods PR department; arrived, exercised her steely feminine strong will to inform punters that we were shutting down the operation to take stock/ re-stock and re organise for an hour. This we did and under a watchful eye we progressed seamlessly from there on- chucking out pizzas till the cows came home. At about 7.00 ish.
With hospitality provided by the Shepard's Ice Cream (super lush and healthy) empire we were to bed and out cold suitably early having sold just under 200 pizzas! The next day we rolled in at 10:00 a.m. to find it lashing with rain and miserable- you're never dry in Hay-on-Wye; feeling pretty gloomy, people coming in dribs and drabs, we thought we would sell nothing; with the Shepards shop opposite doing a roaring trade as usual. People emerged however and by one we had a large cue as per the day before; without our PR guru we had her prodigy Liv who with her crash course training (and refreshed self) oiled the front of house machine that kept the cogs turning beautifully; inspiring comments that we were all far to 'calming and angelic like'. Finishing the day with a similar turnover we packed up exhausted and ready to go home at 8:00 p.m. and decided to head home once Ed has taken his pills of the 'man up' variety.
All in all a very successful weekend with lessons to be learnt and heart to be taken! We thank a heroic effort from Jessica for showing Ed how to do his job, a front of house masterclass from Caroline, Liv for handling the second day effortlessly by herslef and making everyones jobs a breeze, and Juliet and the Shepard's crew for being a rock of support.
On to the Petersfield food festival on Saturday; we're featured in the Petersfield post! Keep the good times coming!
Quote of the weekend
Punter: 'Bonjourno'
Liv: 'Errrr. It's not French actually. It's Italian' (said in a west country teenage don't you know way).
Friday 27 May 2011
The Boys Go Pro!
It's been a long time coming, but tomorrow it all becomes very real. This weekend is our first 'big one'. We are doing three days on the spin and hope to serve well over 500 pizzas. If we do we will be off and running, ready to take down Pizza Express in no time. If we don't, major rethinks could well be in order.
The lead up to this weekend has gathered pace over the last few weeks. A house warming pizza party last weekend confirmed that we have a great product. If we can get the production right this weekend we'll be onto something. Doing the sums on 600 pizzas has brought home some realities, so we have taken the plunge and bought a van! I traded in my trusty Fiat Punto, friend and companion for the last 4 1/2 years and am now officially a van man. Just need to get a copy of The Sun and a Big Mac wrapper and the transformation will be complete. After loading it up this evening with two fridges, 48kgs of mozzarella and 500 pizza boxes, we wondered how we thought we could ever cope without one. Hopefully it will serve us well this summer.
More good news and excitement today when our first catering size delivery of ingredients turned up. After many a long night searching for suppliers we finally found one we were happy with. They make their own mozzarella everyday in London and deliver down to the south coast so we are delighted. However, after simply phoning through an order and promising cash on delivery we really were wondering if all our stock would turn up. But it did, and we are currently the proud owner of over 50kgs finest Italian pizza flour, a full fridge of mozzarella, 10kgs of meat products and litres and litres of tomatoes. All we have to do now is turn it all into hard cash. No worries.
So at 9:30pm I'm writing this with a glass of red to take my mind of things with a trailer, car and van all loaded up and ready to go. We leave at 8am tomorrow morning, for a weekend that really could shape the rest of our lives...
The lead up to this weekend has gathered pace over the last few weeks. A house warming pizza party last weekend confirmed that we have a great product. If we can get the production right this weekend we'll be onto something. Doing the sums on 600 pizzas has brought home some realities, so we have taken the plunge and bought a van! I traded in my trusty Fiat Punto, friend and companion for the last 4 1/2 years and am now officially a van man. Just need to get a copy of The Sun and a Big Mac wrapper and the transformation will be complete. After loading it up this evening with two fridges, 48kgs of mozzarella and 500 pizza boxes, we wondered how we thought we could ever cope without one. Hopefully it will serve us well this summer.
More good news and excitement today when our first catering size delivery of ingredients turned up. After many a long night searching for suppliers we finally found one we were happy with. They make their own mozzarella everyday in London and deliver down to the south coast so we are delighted. However, after simply phoning through an order and promising cash on delivery we really were wondering if all our stock would turn up. But it did, and we are currently the proud owner of over 50kgs finest Italian pizza flour, a full fridge of mozzarella, 10kgs of meat products and litres and litres of tomatoes. All we have to do now is turn it all into hard cash. No worries.
Sunday 8 May 2011
A Local Fundraiser
Piu Pizza had to move. Our house in the dodgy estate, was too close to the pikey caravan site and we couldn't risk 'losing' any of our gear over the summer. In actual fact in order to get the trailer out of the garden we had to take the fence down, which wasn't ideal, and was boring the second time let alone doing it all season.
The move was scheduled to be from the 5th, over a smooth two days followed by a short trip to Petersfield rugby club to sell some pizzas to the walkers and supporters of the 'Walk for Dreams' event, a twelve hour charity walk. Ryan got us off to a flier announcing that he has got the dates wrong and we actually only had a day to move. Not ones to back down from a challenge, and with a lot of help from friends we nailed the majority of the move in an evening. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it meant that we could prepare for the event at a leisurely pace on the Saturday morning.
Decisions, decisions. Small events are always going to be tough to judge which has given us more determination to get some big bookings. Bringing too much stock to a small events and throwing it all away is not good for the profit and loss account, and is very difficult to stomach for someone who hates food waste. So after a lot of deliberation we settled on bringing enough dough and sauce for around 40 pizzas, with an even split of toppings. Prepped, packed and ready to go in loads of time, things were going well. We even managed to get the marquee into the car instead of tying it to the trailer. Which begged the question "what the hell did we have in the car for the Petersfield market!?". Not ones to dwell on such trivialities and feeling confident we had packed everything we needed we pressed on.
Rolling into Petersfield Rugby Club we were greeted with the astonishing sight of perhaps a dozen walkers doing laps of the pitch. Cheering them on along the sideline were a few gazebos and twenty or more chairs. And a few people. We approached an elderly gent to explain who we were. After a brief explanation it turned out that he had know idea what we were talking about. Wrong person. After a while we found the right person and sat down to watch the action.
After half an hour or so we managed to tear ourselves away from the enthralling pitch lapping entertainment and decided that we may as well set up and fire the oven. It was good publicity if nothing else, and at least we could cook our dinner. Setting up was a breeze and we were in danger of looking professional. Then disaster as the air pump to get the oven going quickly wouldn't work. Ryan took this badly and decided that perhaps he could make the air pump feel better if he didn't work properly as well.
With smoke bellowing out across the playing field we were certainly attracting some interest. Before long the oven calmed down and we were ready to cook. Our first customer came to be promptly ignored by Ryan and walked off. What was up with him? We pressed on and served some pizza to friends. This bought the crowds in and we had orders to meet. In a dreamy state Ryan was serving them out and getting the paying public to make up their own boxes. Turned out that it was worth setting up after all. We sold out of pepperoni in no time and ended up just about selling out of everything. We even felt good enough to donate some of our profit to the charity. Well actually if we were paying ourselves a wage we wouldn't have made any money, but it feels good to give, and I guess one day it will come with some good tax benefits.The heavens opened as we began to pack up, but we discovered that we can pack up pretty efficiently without getting too wet. Another good learning. And another positive event. Plenty of business cards given out and interest for a wedding and a christening. Positive feedback from nearly everyone bar an "I thought pizzas were supposed to be round?" teenager. Not from Piu Pizza they're not, just round enough! So all in all a good afternoon's work. All we need now is to start shifting some volume, and answer the burning question. "What was up with Ryan?" Hopefully the doctor will be able to tell us this week...
A Local Fundraiser
Piu Pizza had to move. Our house in the dodgy estate, was too close to the pikey caravan site and we couldn't risk 'losing' any of our gear over the summer. In actual fact in order to get the trailer out of the garden we had to take the fence down, which wasn't ideal, and was boring the second time let alone doing it all season.
Thursday 14 April 2011
First Day Trading
Despite starting work at 7:30am or earlier for all of my working life, the sound of the alarm in the morning always physically hurts my head. And so it was at 6am on the morning of Wednesday 13th April when Piu Pizza was finally to take off and start trading to the general public. The previous nights sleep had not been too bad, some difficulty in dropping off with thoughts spinning, but on the whole I felt good and ready. After all we have been working on the business for at least 6 months.
The early morning went well, car and trailer loaded efficiently and we were on the road by 6:45, Ryan's check lists the night before obviously paying off. The main aim of the day we decided as we left Osborne Crescent was to have fun. After all, what is the point in starting your own business if you are not going to enjoy doing it? Conversation on the half hour trip was stunted, nervous looks in the mirrors to check that the trailer was still in one piece, dreams of selling out, laughs at what would spell disaster. But we arrived safely at 7:20am, and as we pulled into Peterfield town centre we were greeted with the sight of literally tens of market traders well on the way to having their stalls set up. However, a space free, between the flower sellers and a middle aged man selling china tat to old ladies had our name on it and we were to become market traders for the day.
We new the drill; trailer off, marquee up, oven out and lit, kitchen set up, dough made, make money. In the words of the meerkat, or perhaps Jay from the Inbetweeners depending on your persuasion - simples. Couple of problems, we'd never done it in public before and we didn't have the correct bit of kit for the power source. Never ones to let inconveniences like a lack of power to get in the way, in good farming fashion we ploughed on. Undeterred by the sideways glances by our fellow marketeers as our dominating marquee went up, the set up couldn't really have gone smoother. Ryan used his car to generate some power for the oven lighting system and soon smoke was bellowing out across the town centre causing more strange looks from the locals. We know the early stages of firing the oven creates a bit of smoke, and the reaction to this by other traders has always been a concern, but soon the smoke cleared as the oven got up to temperature and things were looking up. We 'borrowed' some power from the mobile butcher and soon enough had hot water to clean down the surfaces and begin prepping the toppings.
Indeed, a couple of phone calls to friends that came to our rescue and soon after 9:00am we had our own power supply. It's safe to say that by 9:30 we were good and ready to sell some pizza and the highs and lows of a trading day began. No custom. Lots of interest, but no custom. To be expected that early in the morning I suppose, but the realities of the day had set in. How much dough to make? Realistically were we going to sell more than 10? An hour or so of making ourself look busy, stunted conversation with the 'tat' seller and out of the blue a genuine, bone fide customer! Someone who until five minutes earlier did not know of our existence had decided that they wanted to exchange money for our product. Mild panic set in. I had to actually make a pizza. Ryan had to cook it. And make it and cook it we did. A perfect pizza came out of the oven, delicious smells flooded the market place and we were off and running. What is more is that the customer was interested in booking us for a party. This was not something we had considered, and the sales pitch was fragile at best, but she took our details and we felt good. Should we make more dough, we're going to sell out, this time next year we'll be millionaires! Or not, as another hour went past with the only sales to friends and relatives.
Smattering of sales came our way, and indeed we experienced what to a rookie pizziola could be described as a 'lunchtime rush'. The pizzas were coming out of the oven looking great. Customers eating them immediately were giving great feedback, and a few more inquiries for parties and events came our way. We were selling pizza to the public and it felt great. With the last pizza of the day served at 3pm, we were packed up by 4pm and home, washing up in the sink, aprons on a hot wash and exhausted on the sofa at 5.
Had we made any money? Well we hadn't lost any, but it was the most poorly paid job i'd ever done. But we had set up a business, taken it to a market, sold our products to the general public and what is more people had liked it. One had come back for more. One had thought we were good enough to cater for his daughters wedding. The adventures of two pizza boys had just begun...
The early morning went well, car and trailer loaded efficiently and we were on the road by 6:45, Ryan's check lists the night before obviously paying off. The main aim of the day we decided as we left Osborne Crescent was to have fun. After all, what is the point in starting your own business if you are not going to enjoy doing it? Conversation on the half hour trip was stunted, nervous looks in the mirrors to check that the trailer was still in one piece, dreams of selling out, laughs at what would spell disaster. But we arrived safely at 7:20am, and as we pulled into Peterfield town centre we were greeted with the sight of literally tens of market traders well on the way to having their stalls set up. However, a space free, between the flower sellers and a middle aged man selling china tat to old ladies had our name on it and we were to become market traders for the day.
We new the drill; trailer off, marquee up, oven out and lit, kitchen set up, dough made, make money. In the words of the meerkat, or perhaps Jay from the Inbetweeners depending on your persuasion - simples. Couple of problems, we'd never done it in public before and we didn't have the correct bit of kit for the power source. Never ones to let inconveniences like a lack of power to get in the way, in good farming fashion we ploughed on. Undeterred by the sideways glances by our fellow marketeers as our dominating marquee went up, the set up couldn't really have gone smoother. Ryan used his car to generate some power for the oven lighting system and soon smoke was bellowing out across the town centre causing more strange looks from the locals. We know the early stages of firing the oven creates a bit of smoke, and the reaction to this by other traders has always been a concern, but soon the smoke cleared as the oven got up to temperature and things were looking up. We 'borrowed' some power from the mobile butcher and soon enough had hot water to clean down the surfaces and begin prepping the toppings.
Indeed, a couple of phone calls to friends that came to our rescue and soon after 9:00am we had our own power supply. It's safe to say that by 9:30 we were good and ready to sell some pizza and the highs and lows of a trading day began. No custom. Lots of interest, but no custom. To be expected that early in the morning I suppose, but the realities of the day had set in. How much dough to make? Realistically were we going to sell more than 10? An hour or so of making ourself look busy, stunted conversation with the 'tat' seller and out of the blue a genuine, bone fide customer! Someone who until five minutes earlier did not know of our existence had decided that they wanted to exchange money for our product. Mild panic set in. I had to actually make a pizza. Ryan had to cook it. And make it and cook it we did. A perfect pizza came out of the oven, delicious smells flooded the market place and we were off and running. What is more is that the customer was interested in booking us for a party. This was not something we had considered, and the sales pitch was fragile at best, but she took our details and we felt good. Should we make more dough, we're going to sell out, this time next year we'll be millionaires! Or not, as another hour went past with the only sales to friends and relatives.
Smattering of sales came our way, and indeed we experienced what to a rookie pizziola could be described as a 'lunchtime rush'. The pizzas were coming out of the oven looking great. Customers eating them immediately were giving great feedback, and a few more inquiries for parties and events came our way. We were selling pizza to the public and it felt great. With the last pizza of the day served at 3pm, we were packed up by 4pm and home, washing up in the sink, aprons on a hot wash and exhausted on the sofa at 5.
Had we made any money? Well we hadn't lost any, but it was the most poorly paid job i'd ever done. But we had set up a business, taken it to a market, sold our products to the general public and what is more people had liked it. One had come back for more. One had thought we were good enough to cater for his daughters wedding. The adventures of two pizza boys had just begun...
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