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Selling More Pizza with Entertainment and Fun
Even though 35 year old Jeremy Wladis has a degree from Hilton Hotel University of Houston Texas he can't stand hotel restaurants. "When I go somewhere, I want great food first but I also want atmosphere. I want funky. I want character. If someone wants a quiet intimate atmosphere let them light a couple of candles in their kitchen." With this kind of mind set it is not surprising that his Firehouse Pizza is enjoying it's 10th year of a great business run on Columbus Avenue in Manhattan.
The Firehouse theme is hot and the food is great. This theme works well because it is fun, interesting and it reinforces the reason customers come here... to get hot and tasty food that is eaten with other patrons who have a common appreciation for a creative eating atmosphere.
The house specialty is wings. Hot Wings! And the name keeps the Hot Wings at the top of everyone's mental list. They also sell pizza. Want a great name for a hot pizza? How about "The Inferno"? ( I had one and it was amazing. Very different, very hot, and very good.) This pizza is Jeremy's personal favorite. The pizza is made with bleu cheese, celery, carrots, cayenne and habenero peppers, Frank's Red Hot, Tabasco Sauce and is so unique and yet good, it allows Firehouse Pizza to own-the-best-of-this-category pizza, even in the super competitive New York Pizza Market.
The success of Firehouse was the inspiration for another Wladis endeavor that made the front cover of the Fall 99 issue of PMQ. The Fuel Pizza Cafe Concept, of North Carolina. It too, has a well matched theme with great food. In Charlotte food critics give his Pizza Cafe a 3 1/2 star rating. Not bad quality for a two dollar slice of pizza. "The three existing Fuel Pizza Cafe's are going great and more are on the way." But Wladis complains, "I only wish I had a good operations manager. I could really use the help". (If any one is interested his number is 212-787-3473).
Jeremy has gone into cities like Rochester, New York City, Charlotte North Carolina and others and has built one successful restaurant after another. How does he do it? When asked what his success formula was he really gave us two answers. The first was the following literal answer to the question and the other answer was simply indicated by his level of excitement and love for what he is doing.
The Jeremy's Wladis Success Formula
"When going to a new area we search the market for the best at what we are doing," Wladis said. "If we don't have a superior product, we won't do it. Good food is a must as well a continuous process. We test food everyday."
For example he mentions his recent success with the Fuel Cafe Concept.
"We had our customers tell us how great our crust was...how great our cheese was...how great our toppings were...how great our pizza was," Wladis said. "But, what bothered me was I didn't hear anyone say how great our sauce was. After a year of testing and research we ended up increasing our sauce by about 30% until we heard the right balance of compliments. Now we are happy, but not finished."
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