No Pizza Background: Now Has Two Pizzerias (How To Do It)

this is Rick Rick owns oakcraft pizza and he's going to show us around his kitchen and also tell us how much it costs to operate and own an oakcraft pizza and if he was starting all over again how much would he have to invest plus all of the expenses and everything that goes into running the business so let's go into oakcraft pizza and take a look thanks for having us yeah thanks for coming we are at Oak craft Pizza uh in Salem New Hampshire I love doing these podcasts when I come to visit the pizzeria cuz you've been on the podcast before I forget what number it was but it was a while ago before this location opened and we were talking about like how you going to franchise or that's the model you wanted to do you worked at Duck Donuts you're doing this Chipotle style of Pizzeria and um I love to actually after visit the Pizzeria and be like all right show people what we talked about because it's good to talk on the podcast and listen but like seeing what you're doing and what you're talking about is the best thing I think yeah absolutely it's really cool because when I was on the podcast it was like a week before we opened here I think and I think you recorded the podcast in here yeah I was in here I was sitting right there with this kind in the background and uh yeah then a few weeks later we opened and so now to have you come back it's been just about a year that we opened so it's pretty cool yeah that's awesome so for people who are watching who didn't listen to that describe the business like where what what what kind of business is this yeah so just like Bruce said it's just a you know Chipotle Style Pizzeria so you walk down the line choose your sauce cheese and toppings you throw it in the oven uh all the pizzas are one size uh roughly 12 in and uh cook in roughly 3 minutes so it's pretty easy pretty good quick lunch you know easy for the family to all kind of get whatever they want for dinner so they're not fighting over things and uh just a simple operation and uh that's kind of how we always planned it because we wanted it to be franchisable repeatable Etc so you set it up you have a Dunkin Donuts background right you worked at Dunkin Donuts and operated Dunkin Donuts franchises correct so you set this business up to eventually franchise yeah so from day one it was just about how do we create this that we can repeat it and so uh franchising was always in in the plans I just think it's great for somebody to have an opportunity to jump into a business uh even if they don't have a huge business background or they don't have um a pizza background like I didn't and be able to run a business and you know have the benefit of somebody else's kind of trial and error so when someone if someone like when you set this place up you're like all right I need a dough machine I need an oven I need you know you have the oper primum machine which is like the machine that pounds it out I'm sure we'll show people that in a minute dough mixer do you have like a divider rounder we do yes so you have a whole list of equipment that you know if we open another location this is everything we need exactly yeah tomorrow we're ready to open tomorrow make one phone call really yeah that's great oh so we're in Salem New Hampshire this is like an upand cominging area I think the last time I was here there wasn't much here now it seems like it's you know construction everywhere there's tow houses over there there's a Market Basket over there is it expensive to be here yeah so we are kind of on the outskirts of what they call tusin Village so the main area of Tuscan Village is just kind of down there just redeveloped it's beautiful they've done an amazing job on it they're still working on it still growing yeah um we're in what's called Tuscan Village North so actually Market Basket is our landlord okay um so we're we're like $35 a sare foot uh which how manyet is this for this is only 1,200 squ ft total yeah which a little small for what we want our our first location in Nashville was the same and I signed this least like 6 months later so kind of a little naive um but uh as we go forward we'll we'll we'll take on bigger spaces uh however it works for us and yeah I would say it's like in the middle upper tier of what's to be expected in Southern New Hampshire but it's it's uh it's reasonable given the growth in the area what so you say 1,200 ft is small for you like what would be your ideal square footage uh so we're looking at a site right now actually for a third location for us that's right around 2500 so that's probably more along the lines of what we're doing we want to maximize kind of throughput so get you know second oven here and we want to be able to offer more seaing we do offer beer and wine so to increase those sales we want to have more space for people to hang out so so is that oven like during fry night cuz that cooks a pizza in what 3 to four minutes correct are you like at capacity like is it like people are waiting for two longer than you'd like them to wait yeah we have our moments where definitely it's just a little too long uh so you know and then there's also just things with ovens right like recovery and all that that we don't give the oven the opportunity to recover then we're not going to be able to give out the consistent consistent that we want to be a that's what happens with those like gazi and uni ovens when you use them at home you make one pizza it's like oh that one pizza is great but then if you have 10 people at your house and you want the next Pizza tast like the Bottom's not cooked good it's always about that heat making sure like it's ready to go for the exactly yeah this is just a big version of that yeah I love it it's a nice oven over there we yeah we love it so what does it cost to like if you had to like open another one like what does it cost to open a place like this yeah so this location cost roughly 400,000 um that's all the equipment all the equipment everything all the build out everything um so yeah I mean as we kind of go forward we'll see what the you know things change every day inflation and uh cost of doing business but it's like you grow right so your cost cuz like as time goes on things get more expensive right but sometimes you're buying power the bigger you are yeah we've already seen it with you know things like pizza boxes and you know pepperonis like we get a better price today than I did a year ago two locations CU we have two locations and all those kind of Cu individual pizzer is always talk about oh we should always get our get together as a group and like use our buying power even though we're not one business use our buying power to lower the prices but no one ever really does that it's a conversation I've had with people and it's same like you're saying just doesn't really happen um I think the only one place I know does it there's a guy in chire Pizza he messaged me okay he's in Connecticut and um I think he said he has a Greek pizzeria and he has like a lot of people who have similar businesses to him I think they have done that in that area but that's the only one I've ever seen actually do it just talk about it yeah it's good I mean I think so some I think the old way was to look at it as everybody was competition and the new way is like let's collaborate this is much better this way is way better 20 years ago when I first started no one would allow me in their Pizzeria and be like hey how much is this the rent how much does it cost to open this no one would tell me that stuff right they'd be like I don't know if I want to talk about that exactly now it's like about sharing and collaboration that's how you grow exactly 100% now you're going to show us this offer premium machine from Fierro Group which kind of pounds out the dough for you right yeah so it's a great machine so obviously there's a lot of dough presses and stuff out there that uh have you know heat and all that so this thing literally just simulates 16 fingers hand stretching your dough for you so uh which I the thing that I saw was kind of fascinated by this on is there's no heat or any spray or anything yeah it's um very low maintenance to be honest now it's not cheap it's not cheap it is very expensive very expensive but it does I guess take the place of one employee at least right yeah the way I look at it is the the kind of skill of stretching dough is not that easy yeah uh so taking one of your better people on a Friday night and putting them on the dough is tough and I know a lot of places have to deal with that and so our best people are facing our customers and making pizzas and um spending time talking to our you know our customers and and and and working on the oven so I don't have to worry about that basically just that light where it is you just get the pizza dough right just beyond that light and then close it take it'll take about 7 or 8 seconds there you go perfect yeah like on a Friday night you just have someone just feeding that I just have somebody yeah just standing there feeding it honestly sometimes I'll just I may even have somebody taking them out just depends you know I mean if we're doing 200 pizzas in a couple hours then we're going to need the volume so it's Friday night the busiest night Friday Saturday Sunday like Friday Saturday yeah and then Sundays you know have their moments um so yeah Fridays and Saturdays though for sure Friday nights just like everyone else right 4 7 48 so when you have like a busy workflow here what's the flow like how many people you have working yeah I mean we sometimes we have eight or nine uh we're working on kind of what that could look like long term but basically this uh we'll have two people on dough kind of one helping shift some of that dough over to what we consider like our small online station that we use we'll open up on Fridays and Saturdays and then uh three up here so two two three and then another two at the oven so maybe like eight or nine yeah total and just kind of cruise through and everybody's got a their own little job so simar to Chipotle has when they have like just a flow of line people going through the line yeah exactly you know the difference between us and probably a lot of other pizza shops too is just that we welcome like the conversation so we do have you know maybe one extra person who has to be here in front because everything for us is about the display versus a closed Kitchen where you just kind of get back to work and take a ticket and just bang it out right so that's that's probably the biggest difference but it's it's probably similar to what a lot of people are doing all right Rick let's make a p show me how you guys do things let's do it all right someone comes into the counter they just stand here and they they order yeah so we basically we introduce them and we bring them up here so um again just in that Chipotle Style kind of way all your everything right here right so obviously we sauce first then all our cheeses um we do a little more stretching just to make sure and then we grab their name ask them if it's for here to go I like the one siiz pizza too that probably makes it a lot easier so you don't have to last sizes all you got to do is worry about toppings makes everything easier and then when it gets busy like I can't even tell you how much easier it gets you just pump out the same SI just pump out the pizzas right so um yeah so we just kind of stretch it out yep and then you get to kind of choose so for instance we'll just make our hot pep which is just like one of our more popular uh it's a spicy red sauce what kind of sauce do you guys use uh we make our own so we um we Crush Italian imported tomatoes in house and then add our own kind of seasonings and things to it very nice um but we import all our tomatoes I um we've always focused on getting the quality right I mean we just got to focus on all the good stuff we usually do have a measurement tool here but we're winging it we're winging it I think I've made enough pizzas that if I still need that measurement tool there's something wrong with me we always just toest people be like all right don't use the measurement tool let's see how let's see what Happ thing right uh so in this case we'll just do our hot B just spicy red sauce our shredded Ms mix and then um pepperoni we finish it off with hot honey and a little fresh grated parm do you use the hot honey after like when it we do yeah after we bake it so just do that and then we toss it in but obviously people you know go nuts right so occasionally they'll you know add whatever they want and the beautiful thing about pizza too it's it's meant to be customized like everybody likes their Pizza the way they like it so uh you know we we introduce them as in generous individual size um we definitely get people who share but we also just have people who you know house a pizza like you or I probably house a pizza you know what I mean but some people would need to to share so then yeah just take it tosce it into our oven what kind of oven is this it's a Fiero um twister and uh it's wooden gas assist or gas and wood assist how long usually take the cook in there about 2 and 1/2 minutes 3 minutes yeah pretty quick that's really quick yeah and then it comes out it's ready to go comes out ready to go just just pizza here pretty much just pizza we do have a a great order of Meatballs that you can get cheesy garlic bread uh we have a couple of uh toast like a ricotta hot honey toast and um and uh capre avocado toast are really good but for the most part we try to keep it simple that's awesome yeah so if you had to do the next location like what do you wish You' do differently so we would first of all it would be a bigger location sizewise right so that's straightforward same menu same kind of menu you do same kind of menu um we would do you know we get it for us honestly it's more just like getting a second oven it's more like an operational thing for us uh more seating just cuz I think there are people who would come in here on a Friday night that just know before they even make the decision not to come that there's not enough space so we're not going to come you know especially we're geared like we're really perfect for a young family so you know four-year-old 5-year-old who wants Pizza they get it really quick right I mean I have four kids with my wife and we know so when we go out it's like where can we get food quick and you know keep going plus pizza is always better if you eat it there oh a million times better right cardboard box is probably the worst thing that ever happened to the pizza but um yeah so I think we have uh you know we we would change those things and then uh you know we we have some ideas that we might experiment with but I'm not sure if we would go quite to like a bar or anything like that uh um but you know or expanding the menu adding a few more appetizers or stuff like that you know those are all thoughts that we've had um one of the great things here is we don't do anything fried so I probably would keep that structure I know there's some really great machines now that you can use and um you know friers but for us it just doesn't I I like if you can keep it simple like if you can survive and make money and Profit just doing pizza maybe a salad or two right I wouldn't do anything else yeah I mean our setup right now was like literally turn on the oven you know and turn stuff on lights two salads you know like it's it's very simple and then everything else is made to order and it's profitable like and it's profitable it's been great I mean obviously we're franchising so I could share the FDD you know if somebody fills out the FDD they'll see you already have all that stuff done oh yeah everything's done it's it's ready the offering is out there we we've had some really interested people is it local people like people from New Hampshire or people that know you yeah so we've had a few um two specifically right here in town then we've had others in Massachusetts that we've kind of gotten to a point with and we'll see if they kind of come through or not but as of right now um there's two or three that in theory could be ready to go what's the criteria if you wanted to open a franchise like you have to have certain amount of location like money like what's the criteria for opening a location yeah so we want to work with you so if you have the interest in doing it obviously number one um you know just right the the right demeanor more than anything right obviously you need to have some Financial backing cuz you want to make sure that you know getting into a business can be a little daunting and things can come up and you don't want to be in a situation where you can't pay those bills um however you know for us it's kind of about meeting you kind of getting to understand who you are um we have some creative things that we can do if the right person came along too so uh right now we're just kind of seeing who who has the right interest and you know basically we need to be able to get along with each other because we're going to be working together a lot side by side like leading little edge here is that I've been in the other shoes and the other shoes can be really great and they can also be kind of hard to be in uh doing it with Duncan for so long and my family and I still have extended family who are in it uh so so knowing that and seeing that and living that uh I do think it gives me a little bit of an advantage as a franchisor over others because I know how it feels on the other side yeah yeah you B in those shoes yeah why franchise and not just open as many as you can yourself well I think there's you know two reasons one is obviously at some point you're going to be looking for C capital and you're going to have to essentially partner with somebody anyway and number two is um kind of like giving people the opportunity for business ownership I think the American dream is still alive and well and I think that business ownership is still at the end of the day that American dream and giving somebody a bunch of systems that they can go in and they can replicate and they can you know bring their family into and you know create a legacy for themselves is really important and really valuable so business own a business is hard but it's also like it could be lucrative and it's good to have something that's yours absolutely so like you could sell it at one point it's like an own on a house right like at one point like it's a huge investment and you got to maintain it but at some point you could as long as the market goes up which housing usually does right sell it right make your money back right so you know so many people that I know they're like oh I would you know I wish I opened a business oh I I want to open a business and so then for me to say like great let's do it yeah um kind of put them on the spot a little bit but at the same time um it does give people the opportunity to do what I'm doing every day and to be honest with you if you bring the right people in this is a very simple operation so it's not something that's crazy to do and um just give you know give more people the opportunity yeah all right what what pieza of advice as we wrap up here thanks for having us by the way yeah thanks for coming this has been a great show us behind the scenes what would you give someone who's either looking to like grow their business or even maybe just start a pizza business like what's one piece of advice you would give them uh the first piece of advice I would give anybody who's looking to start a pizza business is Reach Out fill out the franchise Disclosure document we can help you get into uh but in all I like what you did there but in all seriousness um just do your research and really know what you're getting yourself into have a good long hard discussion with the people closest to you they need to understand what they're getting themselves into as well uh and then just be ready to work hard because you just don't know what's going to come you know day one day two anything that you anticipate it's going to be busier uh anything that you expect to go wrong it could go wrong or worse uh so just be prepared for anything and really just don't put anything on that calendar be ready to go work hard right hard I always like to say have a write a business plan but write it in pencil right cuz it's going to change that's right all right thanks Rick thanks so much Bruce e e foreign foreign spee [Music] spee for spe [Music] speech e

Channel: Smart Pizza Marketing

Views: 16,731

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Id: v81G_pCxA18

Length: 20min 40sec (1240 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 02 2024