A few questions for pizza places owner.. and others!!

[Philippe]

Hey guys!

I am currently in the thinking/planning of opening a pizza place. I know that you need to get in and start stretching doughs to understand some things, but I want to do as much planning as possible. I have a few questions that some of you could possibly answer and that would help!

Background. I live and plan to open my pizza place in a 50k people city in Quebec, Canada. Since 4-5 years, there ain’t a lot of good places to eat out. There are dull places, there are overpriced bad food places, there are a few pizza places that all do the Quebec/Greek-style pizza and there are 2 places that have good food, ambiance, staff.

Personnaly, I worked in restaurants 7-10 years ago. I stopped to start a BBQ sauce company that I sold two years ago. I have another business non-food related since then and it was going great before Covid. I have a fair share of experience launching and managing a business. I have a few years of experience in a kitchen. And I love cooking. I cook a lot for a lot of people, do home catering gigs a few times a year. I read french kitchen books cover to cover as if they were novels.

Being a huge Philadelphia Flyers fan for a long time, I visited Philly on a few occasions. Last time, 18 months ago, I went to Beddia. I feel like my life changed that day.  I’ve been doing pizzas for the last 17.5 months trying to understand everything about these pies. I bought a little Ooni oven to practice my recipes.

I’ve known for a long time now that whatever I was going to do in life, I would end opening a restaurant at some point. I have to. It’s clearly what drives me, it’s what keeps me thinking at night, what I end up always talking about.

So. What I have in mind is a 50-60 places restaurant + take-out. I would be open 5 nights/week, something like 4pm-10pm. I want a bar, I want people to have fun, I want people to come eat like they would at a traditional restaurant. Take their time, have a drink, a starter, laugh. I see 4-6 pizzas that change often and 4-6 starter/sides.

The questions I have for you are :

How much did it cost to start the business, outside of building acquisition if there was?

What are the expenses I probably don’t think about?

What is the average a customer spends in your restaurant when he sits in?

If you offer take-out, what’s the ratio of take-out/dine-in pizzas you sell?

How many people do you have in the kitchen on a busy night?

Any other things that comes to your mind reading my (too) long post will be greatly appreciated!

P.S. I’m a french speaking person, I do my best with english, but it’s not perfect. Sorry about that!

P.S. 2. Here is a picture of where I’m at with my pizza skills.

[Yael]

Philippe,

There are many of your questions that I can't answer, but I'll tell you this:
- if not done yet, build up your restaurant ID (is that a bar with a pizza? Or a pizzeria with a bar? etc)
- from there, you'll choose the kind of pizza you want to make (you'll have a beautiful WFO behind the counter for Neapolitan style, a deck oven making 24' NY style pies, or a conveyor oven in the back kitchen); which will also depend on whether you'll have staff or not (a conveyor oven is much easier to learn how to use)
- from there, you'll define the kind of toppings (simple, gourmet...).

The staff you need highly depends on the size of your restaurant. I'd just say some rough numbers : an experienced pizzaiolo can make 30 to 40 classic pizza/hour (last time I read someone making 46 pizzas in an hour). Freshly new pizzaiolo will probably make 15-ish pizzas/hour.

Voilà à peu près ce à quoi je pense...

[Philippe]

What I have in mind is definitely a pizzeria, focused on pizza. I want a bar as I think it really helps creating a good mood in the restaurant.

I want to cook in a deck oven at +/- 700 degrees.

For toppings, I would love to have well-thought combinations already made and not allow customers to change things. That may have to change but that’s my ideal.

I don’t think I would do anything else than pizzas and salads/veggies dishes sides/starters.