The Clumsy Interloper

Autumn is here and I’m in high spirits. The Hawk City Pizza venture is moving forward and I’m tracking milestones. Waking up with a side hustle injects so much purpose into my hours. I’ve limited my Instagram time to 30 minutes per day using the Screen Time App Limits. I’m rising at 5am every weekday to work out and meditate. The possibilities are all in front of me and I’m grateful for each and every day. Here is a rundown:

-I am 50% complete with my online ServSafe training. Once finished, I will take the ServSafe Food Protection Manager exam which will then allow me to register for the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) inspection. That is the final barrier to become a prepared food merchant at the Farmer’s Market.

-I’m visiting Tom with Crustworthy Pizza on Wednesday morning at the Bread & Roses commissary kitchen to observe his dough making process and see the spiral mixer at work. It is my aim to utilize this space so I’m also going to check out the kitchen while I’m there. I’m trying to determine if I want to invest in a larger planetary mixer or level up to a spiral mixer. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

-I broke down my COGS (Cost of Good Sold) for the ingredients for just my Sause and Crust. Typically you want your ingredients to be 20%-30% of your sale price. I need to investigate better wholesale pricing for Typo “00” flour and San Marzano tomatoes, the splits right now after cheese and toppings would put me just over $30 for a 9” pie and I want to improve on that.

– I want to use Grande Cheese Company (from Wisconsin) but will need to check into pricing options.  From all the forums online, this appears to be the gold standard but it needs to come at the right price point. In the meantime, I’m going to Chef’s Warehouse and Restaurant Depot to explore and test different options.

-In talks with Jesse at Bellavance Ink to create the logo. Super talented guy. Met up with him at the downtown farmer’s market this past weekend, very excited about this development. I want to keep the EL train overhead as the central focus with my tagline “pie & joy from Illinois” as a play on the Chicago Bears fight song. He suggested a lithographic representation that sounds perfect for the visual tone I’m looking to strike.

-Been listening to a lot of Blues while I’m in my R&D kitchen mode. I forgot how much that music draws you in. If you have the windows open on some warm and breezy Saturday this fall, I suggest you light up some Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, B.B. King or John Lee Hooker and let the guitar sing to your neighbors.