Hilton Head-based Pino Gelato is expanding availability of its popular Crispycones pizza cones with two new store openings in the Haywood Mall in Greenville, South Carolina and in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Pino Gelato first offered pizza cones at its flagship store in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and demand quickly soared due to rave reviews and coverage on the Food Network’s television program “Unwrapped”. Pino Gelato expanded the offering to its Dublin, Ohio and Roanoke, Virginia locations, and expects to serve Crispycones in more of its locations soon.

StoreFrontBackTalk.com reports, “Domino’s Pizza is trying to take social media to the next level.”

“The nation’s biggest pizza brands have deployed multimillion-dollar ad budgets on deal- and value-focused national commercials, but brand-building touting more than price points also has broken through with consumers in 2011,” reports Nation’s Restaurant News.

The Wall Street Journal Reports, “Domino’s Pizza Inc.’s (DPZ) second-quarter earnings rose 12% as the company’s international expansion continued to drive sales and margin growth.”

Portion control is a tenet of healthy eating, and it appears that consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of managing the portion size of the foods they eat, according to The NPD Group, a leading market research company.

With four successful units and a fifth location under construction, SPIN! Neapolitan Pizza has added a new Sopressata and Calabrian Pepper Pizza as well as a Classic Arugula Salad to its menu.

ReadySetWork announced today the launch of a nationwide contest in search of the “Craziest Work Schedule in America.” The contest, aimed at increasing awareness among hourly shift-working employees and their managers that technology exists that will decrease the “craziness” of scheduling.

According to D Magazine, “For Paolo Cavalli, making pizza is just continuing the work started by his great grandparents. For the rest of his family running Cavalli Pizzeria Napoletana it is also the continuation of the family work.”

NZHerald.co.nz reports, “Domino’s Pizza last night pledged $10,000 to children’s charity KidsCan to fill the void left when a competitor, Hell Pizza, reportedly refused to pay the sum it promised to donate during a telethon.”

According to MediaPost.com, “California Pizza Kitchen is launching a new campaign highlighting 10 new menu items.”

“The out-of-home campaign is the first work to break from West Hollywood, Calif.-based Dailey, which California Pizza Kitchen appointed as its advertising agency earlier this year. Dailey is handling brand strategy and creative for California Pizza Kitchen; digital duties continue to be handled by Red Interactive Agency, based in Santa Monica, CA. The Chicago office of draftfcb, Dailey’s sister agency, handles California Pizza Kitchen’s frozen pizza business. The campaign kicked off this week in key markets, including Los Angeles, Atlanta and St. Louis, and will be supported by a digital effort led by Red. Additional creative elements are expected to roll out in the coming months.”

Boston-based restaurant owners and managers are invited to join three local marketing technology companies, WHERE, Constant Contact & Textaurant, for an informative workshop and catered networking event on August 1st 2011.

Duke Marketing LLC©, an integrated marketing communications firm, announced today the launch of LSM-U™, “Local Store Marketing University™”, an educational program devised to enhance restaurant marketer’s ability to understand, create and implement local store marketing strategies to increase sales and awareness.

Sterling Heights, Michigan-based, 200+-unit Jet’s Pizza® announced this week that the company has approved the SpeedLine point of sale software for use in its company-owned restaurants and franchise locations.

For a limited time, July through September, Pizza Patrón is offering the Toluqueña pizza, featuring a three-meat combination of pepperoni, ham and the company’s new chorizo.

Pizza Fusion co-founders Vaughan Lazar, CEO, and Randy Romano, president, have taken the reins in expanding the brand’s identity by launching and announcing several new company initiatives.

Which sandwich meat is most popular? What breads are customers scrambling to buy? How much more will guests pay for a branded condiment? Staying abreast of the latest, most important industry news can be a daunting challenge. But when it comes to sandwich news, you now have a one-stop resource in SandwichPro.com, powered by Unilever Food Solutions. The site features insightful tidbits based on the company’s years of experience and product offerings, making it easy to find the sandwich information you need right now!

At the start of the 2011 tomato processing season, Olam Spices & Vegetable Ingredients opened the doors to its new Olam Global Tomato Innovation Center in Lemoore, Calif. The first of its kind, the Center serves as a resource to the company and its customers to incubate ideas, generate solutions to product opportunities and develop new concepts and processes.

Most people can’t finish an entire pizza, therefore they put the box with remaining pizza into the refrigerator and waste space. An inventor from Temperance, Mich., created a prototype of the CMR PIZZA BOX to solve this problem. “I was sleeping after eating a pizza and for some reason the idea came to me,” recalled the inventor. “I designed my invention to store leftover pizza in a smaller container for convenience.”

Put away the grill; there’s a new way to enjoy the nation’s favorite foods this summer – with CiCi’s Pizza’s American Classics Line. To launch the ongoing featured pizza category, CiCi’s is rolling out its new Cheeseburger Pizza to all of its restaurants nationwide this month – the first of four signature pizzas.

Examiner.com reports, “Mario Batali’s eighteenth restaurant and the first in Connecticut held a preview opening pizza party for the press last Saturday. It opens to the public this Tuesday, July 19. The restaurant is in the Saugatuck area of Westport, at 30 Charles St, just around the corner from a number of other popular local restaurants. Most recently, Bonda and Abandonza occupied this space: Bonda has moved to Fairfield. At one time, this long building may have been several shops, but it has been reconfigured into a single light, airy space with huge glass windows, some open to the street in this weather.”

According to AZCentral.com, “Avril Lavigne has a pizza named after her.”

Villa Enterprises Management Ltd., Inc. (and its affiliates, Villa Enterprises), the global multi-concept restaurant franchisor, announced today the grand opening of a Villa Fresh Italian Kitchen in Katy, Texas.

Burke Corporation, a leader in fully cooked meat products, announced that Asia Haack has joined the team as a Food Technologist in the meat manufacturer’s Research and Development Department.

According to MediaPost.com, “Dennis Maloney, vice president multimedia marketing at Domino’s, told the Association of National Advertisers’ social media conference in New York Thursday about how the pizza chain reinvented itself.”

Bloomberg.com reports, “Asia’s growing appetite for pizza and cheeseburgers means the U.S. is exporting the most cheese ever, boosting commodity costs for companies including Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT) and Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST).”

Bloomberg.com reports, “Yum! Brands Inc., owner of the KFC and Pizza Hut restaurant chains, said second-quarter profit gained 10 percent and boosted its earnings forecast for the year as customer traffic increased at restaurants in China.”

More than 700 students from Hyde Park’s campus at The Culinary Institute of America rallied around six teams who showcased their tastiest pizzas during
the First Annual Pizza Cook Off, presented by Saputo Cheese USA Inc. on Sunday, May 1.

ThirdFactor.com reports, “DigitalPersona has announced that it has deployed the U.are.U Fingerprint Biometrics solution to Rage Inc., a Pizza Hut franchisee, to be incorporated into a biometric time and attendance solution.”