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How long have owned your business?
Two years. Shoreline Pizza & Family Restaurant is a little pizza place hidden away on the beach with a beautiful view of the lake. We're located on the beach and there was a previous owner, who ran it as a pizza place. It was very run down when I bought it. We cleaned it up quite a bit. We've done very well with it. I have two full-time employees, two part-time employees plus myself. Our restuarant seats 25 people. We work with a delivery service. Because we are in such a small town, the job is contracted out. We don't pay the delivery service, and we don't make anything on them, we just offer the service. The customer pays for the delivery. We also get a lot of support from local civic clubs and other community organizations.
What non-pizza items do you offer on your menu?
Classic pizza's and other family favorites like hot wings, homemade fries, burgers, salads, our famous clubhouses and pesto bread are just a few of our menu items. All of it is homemade. The hot wings are by far the biggest seller. These items are all new. We change the menu pretty often. Whatever is working we keep, and we drop what's not selling. We don't have much of a demand for different kinds of crust, just thin. Once our pizza is cooked we brush our homemade garlic butter on the crust, and that seems to work out great. Salads such as our Caesar and Greek salads are popular. Our patio dining is also very popular.
How do you deal with order problems?
It doesn't happen very often, but when we do get complaints, we try to address them. For the most part if we get an order wrong, we'll offer to redo the pizza, or we'll offer a gift certificate.
What kind of advertising do you do?
We run ads in the local newspaper when we have a special coming up. I've also advertised on the radio. I do a lot of faxing - any special we may have or our menu - to a lot of local businesses. We also place brochures in local hotels and other venues, and we participate in a number of local events. Word of mouth tends to be our best advertising.
What would be your advice to someone thinking about opening a pizza restaurant?
Make sure that you're willing to put in the time. I don't spend a lot of time at home. I don't think I was prepared for it at first. Make sure you have time to devote to it, and make sure you're willing to devote that time.
- PMQ -
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