The National Restaurant Association Show, the country’s largest restaurant industry trade show, took place May 21-24 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The PMQ team was there, looking out for some hot new products and services that could add to your bottom line or maybe even revolutionize pizzeria marketing. Here’s what they found:
Tom Boyles, Account Executive
RestaurantGeofencing.com
Drive foot traffic and sales to your pizza restaurant through geofencing with RestaurantGeofencing.com. They specialize in equipping restaurant advertising with advanced location-based advertising for maximum results. Their campaigns help clients generate new and return customers; show ads via streaming TV, mobile apps and browsers; attract customers from other pizza restaurants and competitors; find new employees; and more. The best part? It’s totally trackable, with measurable results at your fingertips. Their transparent reporting lets you gauge conversions to quickly measure the efficacy of your investment. Geofence marketing captures the attention of mobile-first customers. Affordable pricing packages make geofencing feasible for any budget without the need for long-term commitments.
Daring
We saw a lot of plant-based products this year, but a few stood out for flavor and texture, and this is one of them. Daring offers its Plant Chicken for chicken lovers. A true swap for chicken in any dish, Daring sizzles, tears and shreds just like the real thing. With a short, simple list of only six gluten-free and non-GMO ingredients, Daring is also a swap your diners can feel good about. Whether you’re using Daring as a pizza topping or as an alternative to boneless wings, this product is the perfect addition to any menu. Original and Breaded Plant Chicken Pieces are available. For a free sample, email foodservice-pmq@daring.com.
Orders.co
You can consolidate all of those delivery apps into one platform for effortless fulfillment and utilize the Orders.co Master Menu suite for one-and-done updates. Orders.co offers a simple way to tackle online ordering and is equipped with all the tools pizzerias need to save time, reduce errors and increase online revenue. Launch a commission-free, Google-optimized ordering website and sell directly to your customers. All websites come with the option to use Orders.co’s delivery fulfillment partners without needing in-house staff. Complete with a reporting suite to review sales, platform performance and top-selling items, it’s all available for one monthly fee.Â
855-500-1070, orders.co
Fiero Forni
Fiero Forni has generations of experience fabricating high-quality, high-performance Italian ovens designed to deliver true artisan-style pizza. Restaurateurs can choose from mobile and rotating floor models and traditional wood-fired, gas-fired or electric fuel types. Fiero’s robust selection of Italian pizza ovens includes diverse designs and pizza-baking styles with countless customizable options to choose from. Fiero Dough offers the latest, most innovative technology in dough tools to increase productivity and consistency anywhere that artisan-quality dough is valued.Â
844-683-6462, fierogroup.com
Steve Green, Publisher
ElectraMeccanica
I love this one-person vehicle from ElectraMeccanica. It’s stable, safe and insurable. The car is priced at $18,500, and it comes with a perfect triangular spot for a pizza-slice graphic or logo. Watch the video on their website to see the car in action.
POS Integration
Two of the busiest booths at this year’s show were Chowly (chowly.com) and ItsACheckmate (itsacheckmate.com). Both companies offer go-to solutions for technology integrations with third-party platforms like DoorDash. If you want all your orders to go directly into your POS system, these companies can help.
Pickup Lockers
To meet the demand for contactless carryout orders, pickup lockers were introduced by many new and old companies this year, including Hatco (hatcocorp.com), Middleby (middleby.com), Apex Order Pickup Solutions (apexorderpickup.com) and ONDO from RPI Industries (rpiindustries.com). Â
