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Pizzeria Raises $9,000 for Student Hit by Bus
According to an article from Philly.com, "A Bucks County pizza shop sold between 800 and 1,000 pizzas in its marathon sale to raise money for Ashley Zauflik, the Pennsbury High School junior critically injured when a school bus rolled over her this month.
The pizzeria owner stated in the article, "We went through the dough so fast, it was hard to keep track of how many pizzas we made," said Suzanne Matarese, who owns Original's Pizza in Morrisville with her husband, Sal. They also went through more than 39 dozen rolls for sandwiches."
The report said, "They had planned to donate half the proceeds to a fund for the family, but that night, as they counted up the $12,000 in sales, they increased the portion to 75 percent. That $9,000, plus $2,500 that customers stuffed into a donation jar on the counter, will be presented to the Zaufliks next week." In the report, Matarese said, "The community was so wonderful. Some people waited two hours for their order, and there are more donations coming in.
Pizza Patron Goes ‘Dual Currency' & Sees Staggering 4th Quarter Sales
Same-Store Comp Sales Increased More Than 34% Over Previous Year DALLAS, TX – Pizza Patrón, the premier Latino pizza brand, which goes by the slogan ‘Mas Pizza. Menos Dinero,' announced in January that it would be accepting Mexican pesos as well as U.S. currency at each of its 59 locations nationwide. The Pizza por Pesos™ program was scheduled to run until the end of February 2007.
"Many of our customers travel back and forth to Mexico regularly, and sometimes they end up with pesos left over," said Ernesto Alonso Hernandez, director orrestaurant operations for Pizza Patrón Inc. "We have always welcomed our people, and now we also welcome the currency of our homeland." Pizza Patrón announced that fourth quarter same-store sales rose 34.55% over the previous year, as an average for the 60 store restaurant chain.
"Our fourth quarter numbers are off the chart at more than 34%", says Guillermo Estrada, the company's director of business development. This increase came after the company's third quarter same-store comparative sales increased more than 24% over the previous year. "It is a result of a number of factors," Estrada continued. "Our Lista® (ready now)program is in full swing and our franchisees have been working very hard to improve store level operations."
Antonio Swad, the company's founder and president acknowledged that "these kinds of numbers are going to be hard to continue as we grow, but it speaks to the relevancy of the Pizza Patrón brand. The fourth quarter sales increase came prior to the much-publicized "Pizza por Pesos™" initiative, which was implemented system-wide in January.
Dutchess County Pizzeria First to Ban Trans Fats - Pleasant Valley, NY
According to AP sources health officials approved a ban on artificial trans fats in the Big Apple's thousands of restaurants December 6, making New York the nation's first city to outlaw the ingredient linked to heart disease and other illnesses. The ban is likely to send ripples nationwide as cities consider restrictions and large fast-food chains move away from the man-made fats, which are found in everything from French fries to doughnuts. Carlo D'aquinni owner of local restaurant, Amore Pizzeria & Café welcomed the change. D'aquinni stated, "I made the change a few weeks ago, given the facts about the health concerns it's something I wanted to do. It made good sense all around; we only use the freshest and healthiest ingredients we can buy".
"It is very significant," said Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard University School of Public Health. New Yorkers overwhelmingly welcomed the action to get artificial trans fat out of their restaurants. "At this point we have no government regulations in our area", said D'aquinni, "So instituting this change on our own, even though it was a little costly was the right thing to do. We didn't want to wait till we were regulated into making this change". D'aquinni reports an added food cost of about 25%. Most artificial trans fat is in partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, which is used for baking and frying and is found in many processed foods. Those trans fats also are in margarine and some shortening. This means New York restaurants will have to use alternatives as they serve everything from fried chicken and pies to hamburger buns and pizza dough. D'aquinni's menu will see changes in French fries, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, jalapeno poppers, toasted ravioli, chicken fingers, fried calamari.