By Rick Hynum
Freeze your pizzas, sell them in grocery stores and expand your restaurant’s reach: It sounds easy enough, but, of course, it’s not. Moving into the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) segment of the retail market is fraught with problems. But the master pizzaiolos at San Francisco’s highly acclaimed Flour + Water Pizzeria don’t care for that word.
Problems, schmoblems. As Ryan Pollnow, Flour + Water Pizzeria’s culinary director and co-chef, told PMQ Pizza in a recent email interview, “We view these early challenges as lessons learned versus problems.”
At the same time, Pollnow admitted that CPG is “an entirely different beast than serving guests in a busy restaurant.” If you’ve got your eye on it, he said, you’d better do some hardcore homework first.
Following in the footsteps of independent operators like Anthony Mangieri and brands like Tutta Bella in Seattle, Flour + Water Foods added frozen pizza to its growing CPG line last month, and it’s off to a fast start—without getting in a hurry. Twelve Whole Food Market stores in the Bay Area now stock the pizzas, along with Rainbow Grocery and Woodlands Market and community favorites like the historic neighborhood market Dolores Deluxe in San Francisco and specialty grocery store Of All Places in Berkeley.
Related: Meet the Self-Styled Dough Nerds Behind Flour + Water Pizzeria
Flour + Water Pizzeria and Flour + Water Pizza Shop are part of the larger Flour + Water Hospitality Group, whose restaurant portfolio also boasts Flour + Water, Flour + Water Pasta and Penny Roma.
Yes, that’s a lot of plus signs, but Pollnow plus fellow co-chef Thomas McNaughton equals a powerhouse pair. Eater San Francisco named Flour + Water Pizzeria one of the best in the city this year alongside famed spots like Tony’s Pizza Napoletana and Pizzeria Delfina. Pollnow and McNaughton also were featured on PMQ’s cover in the January-February 2024 issue. And their frozen pizzas are crafted using the same time-tested techniques that have made Flour + Water Pizzeria such a mainstay in the Bay Area.
Not to mention that the frozen pizza line—featuring the Margherita, the Pepperoni and the Cacio e Pepe—further expands Flour + Water Hospitality Group’s portfolio, which also includes bronze-die, organic dried pastas.
Informed by McNaughton and Pollnow’s obsession with perfecting and reinventing the classics, the 13” round pies reflect a modern West Coast style characterized by conscientious sourcing, a slow-fermented dough, and pizzas baked longer and at a lower temperature, frequently in electric deck ovens.
Related: Keep an Eye on Katie Lee: She’s About to Become a National Brand Through CPG
Here’s how Flour + Water Pizzeria describes the approach to making and freezing the pies: “A four-day process, the slow-fermented dough is formed with meticulously sourced North American wheat to create the Pizzeria’s signature airy texture. Before adding sauce—and each pie’s respective toppings and fior di latte cheese—a thin layer of dried mozzarella is applied directly on the dough to ensure the crust stays perfectly crisp. The pies are par-baked in the Pizzeria’s high-heat, electric deck ovens, and then immediately flash-frozen to preserve structure and quality. The frozen pies are subsequently hand-delivered to local markets and retailers throughout the Bay Area.”
But there’s still more to it, so PMQ Pizza checked in with Pollnow via email for additional insights in the Q&A below.
PMQ: We know you’ve already had experience with a line of dried pastas. What convinced you to start freezing your pizzas and getting into the retail pizza side?
Ryan Pollnow: As operators with limited dining room seats in our restaurants, CPG is an outlet for us to connect with more people through culinary products that we’re passionate about—initially with pasta and, now, frozen pizza. Our entire pizza operation, which is centralized at our flagship Flour + Water Pizzeria in San Francisco’s North Beach community, is grounded in the idea of inspiring pizza parties both inside and outside of our restaurant. Having a voice in the frozen space allows us to offer an exceptionally high-quality pizza that emulates what you’d experience if you joined us in North Beach. It’s the same promise that inspired our dried pasta line. We want to bring the restaurant home to you.
Related: Winning the Cold War: How Anthony Mangieri Conquered the Frozen Pizza Segment
Additionally, by growing our CPG division, we’re able to deepen our impact for Zero Foodprint and their efforts to restore the climate by teaming up with farms transitioning to regenerative practices.
(Editor’s note: Through Flour + Water’s partnership with Zero Foodprint, 1% of proceeds is used to partner with farms and ranches transitioning to regenerative agriculture practices.)
PMQ: What kind of problems did you encounter when you first got started with frozen pizza? Were there any significant or unexpected challenges involved?
Pollnow: We’re new to CPG, so we view these early challenges as lessons learned versus problems. When we began our testing and product development, we quickly discovered that frozen pizzas require more sauce than our fresh pies, because the moisture in the sauce will be absorbed in a freezer environment.
A critical lesson we learned early on was also the importance of freezing the par-baked pizza as quickly as possible to minimize the development of ice crystals. We installed a blast freezer in our restaurant that allows us to take a pizza straight from a 600° PizzaMaster electric deck oven, transfer it to the freezer, and have a completely frozen-solid product in 10 to 15 minutes.
Additionally, as our restaurant is in operation from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., daily, we’ve learned to be strategic about our production schedule to ensure our Dough Room can accommodate the volume of dough we’re producing for the Pizzeria, our satellite Mission Rock Pizza Shop, and, now, this frozen line. We introduced early morning bakers’ shifts and are staying vigilant about documentation, as the needs of our Dough Room will only increase as we ramp up frozen production and prepare to open our next Pizza Shop in Oakland.
Related: How Flour + Water Nailed Its Recipe for a Gluten-Free Sicilian Pizza
PMQ: More and more independent pizzeria operators are eyeing the CPG frozen pizza segment. What’s the best piece of advice you can offer to them?
Pollnow: Research, research, research. Speak to experts who understand the nuances of entering the CPG space, whether consultants or experienced team members who can guide you through the process to get your product to market. It’s an entirely different beast than serving guests in a busy restaurant. We are fortunate that our Flour + Water Foods CEO Dan Nestojko has nearly 30 years of experience in the CPG space, so he has been a north star for us.
Second, don’t underestimate the amount of storage that manufacturing a frozen line requires. As this is an entirely new form of production for us, we’re piloting the program with a small initial run in our Bay Area backyard. Our internal team is overseeing every aspect of the execution, which has been a really critical way for us to learn and grow. But it does mean we had to build a walk-in freezer and packaging room in our Pizzeria that’s dedicated to frozen. This is without taking into consideration storage for the volume of paper goods between our packaging sleeves and cases.
Last, remember it’s a marathon, not a sprint. Embrace failure and all the moments of trial and error, because each of those moments will guide you toward a better, higher-quality product.
Rick Hynum is PMQ’s editor in chief.
