Have a Pizza Problem

[wagge]

Its just a mental illness I suppose, but it has something to do with real old fashioned homemade cooking. Not just good commercial franchise stuff but the real deal as it was meant to be. There are many genre but the jist is the same. It seems that I would love to see more Mom and pop shops that produce outstanding pizza, I would like to be one of them but in Houston people are more into cheap franchise junk.
I have a great location at 2700sqft @.90 sqft, parking not great but OK, access is good. I would love to build a real oven ( wood fired ) I am not sure you can convince Houstonians to embrace the idea.
We started a coffee roasting business ( Hopsoncoffee) but have only managed some Internet sales, Houston of 4 million is not much of a coffee town.. I would offer some baking and espresso in the AM but its not sitting in the right position for traffic which you need lots of to have a successful coffee shop, but I do like the combination ( Italian theme, espresso and pizza) anyway back to my wishful thinking.
Bill

[james]

Bill,

I keep thinking about starting a take out and delivery pizzeria that makes great wood fired pizza. It doesn't go with your espresso theme, but is there a viable business model competing with Dominos in your neck of Houston?
James

[wagge]

We have only one Pizza place close by, its Fuzzys, they do have great pizza, though not wood fired. I think the dough it very tasty although the crust varies at time. They use somewhat upscale ingredients. I had lunch with George Bush Sr. the other day, its his favorite pizza place. They have 3-4 locations around Houston and do a good business. They are not cheap nor are the sides. They are in a strip center that run down, however that might change because I-10 west is under major renovation ( 20 lane freeway ) and all the old business along the freeway are being knocked down for new.
I have some food experience, mostly fundraising or charity events. I just finished burger cookout for 2000 last month and will do several of these a year. I have a BBQ trailer and grill system. I would love to build pizzas with my BBQ Chicken, Pork, Sausage.
I have been in Electrical construction for 25 years and build several restaurants ( Dennys, Fijata Willies, I-Hop ) and have designed a commissary for city approval.
So I am not new to the business, and realize it is very hard to make a profit in the business, franchise or not.
I think if you are a mom and pop shop you have to stand out to be successful, I always will look for these however most of the time I will have a referral before venturing in. I am much opposed to the franchise takeover but I am as much opposed to poor M&P shops and can clearly understand why franchises are succeeding.
The first question I ask myself, how much money do I want to make? I am not sure about Pizza but 10-15 net is probably close maybe 20% if you work it right. I would need to gross 500k min. That's a lot of pie, 114 per day at 7 days and 138 at 6 day weeks. That's also paying me to be manager so there still not any real profit. I think it takes thousands of customers to sell that much.
I still think this area is in need of this style of Pizza, its only a matter of time.
Bill

BTW roadfood.com is a great resource for M&P cafes and restaurants