Opinions on traditional pizza delivery menu

[Cecillie]

Ds is starting up a pizza making and delivery service from home . I'm encouraging him as he is bored and miserable having lost his job due to Covid .
He has all the business start up , health and safety stuff under control and we are now planning the menu
6 regular and 2 specials each week
I've suggested tray bake type deserts like brownies and choc chip cookies, all homemade,
Also thought option to add bags of popcorn for a movie night deal might work.
Is there anything you might like to see in a menu or add ons for convenience?
Any input appreciated

Definitely some sort of garlic aioli dip for the crusts. I only order overpriced Dominos pizza because the crusts dipped in garlic butter are my favourite part
And I’d pay extra for it if it wasn’t included

@Turnedouttoes
Fab idea , thanks , I'm same re dominoes for the dip but hadn't thought of that

Yes dip pots are good. A spicy one too maybe?

A side salad like a caprese? High mark up I'd think.

Could you do some pic and mix bags if you do a "Netflix and chill" night 🤣

Depends if it's more Italian style or more American style I tjjnk

A couple of nice sides, a homemade coleslaw maybe?

Definitely dips and decent size pot options
Tray bakes would be fab!

Wedges are high mark up and easy.
Use the same pizza dough to make breadsticks, brush melted butter over and sprinkle Parmesan knock off and mixed herbs!

A different choice of drinks around here its Pepsi or coke. Maybe milkshakes, smoothies ?

Some sort of salady slaw side
Maybe olives? Sundblush tomatoes like pizza express? High mark ups
Is he allowed to sell beer and chianti? High mark ups

If you are doing brownies can you do a pot of vanilla ice cream on the side

Garlic bread. Can just be pizza dough.

You guys are fab
Coleslaw great plan, easy and cheap to make and so much nicer homemade.
Love pick and mix sweets plan
Planning garlic bread and garlic cheese bread.
Wedges nice idea
Ice cream, good plan, we have a local ice cream maker that does little individual pots.
Can’t sell alcohol but was thinking some nicer drinks like san pellegrino and maybe zero alcohol beer.
It’s delivery only, rurally so upping the average transaction value is the key.
Like the green salad idea, just get bit freaked about food poisoning from bagged salads but will investigate.

Agree with coleslaw, dip, tray bakes, tubs of ice cream & also the cans of pop. I don't think many people would order salad. However I don't think you want too much more going on. Keep it simple I would say. Good for him trying it out & if it's rural should be popular.

I think keep it really simple, especially to begin with. Pizzas, garlic bread, dessert. Does anyone actually order salad with pizza? Ice cream is a pain as you have to keep the pizza hot and the ice cream cold. Plus not much mark up on it.

I think you could end up with a lot of wastage with salad as it won't keep if demand is less than you expected. I would stick to things like olives and pickles if you want that kind of side.

A relatively easy way to up the average transaction value is to offer added toppings - double cheese, extra meat and so on, that use ingredients you already have.

chicken wings maybe? they’re dead popular at the moment and you can do loads of marinades and dips with them

Chicken wings or dipper goujons is a good one. Chipotle Mayo dip. A pizza that includes nduja sausage-it’s sooo good! Some nice ginger beer maybe included in the drinks.
Popcorn is a good idea for a movie night deal. Our local place sometimes writes a little handwritten message on the box which is a nice touch.

Def yes to coleslaw but that is I would want with pizza unless there were amazing desserts like tiramisu or pannacotta available and they probably aren't ideal for takeaway.

I agree with a pp. You really need to keep it simple when you're first starting out. Your main offering is pizza, so that pizza needs to be fabulous. A couple sweets and a salad would be a good start. Once you find your footing, you can start to offer a more varied menu.

Keep it really simple. Could do vegan and non vegan base and then do a 3 star, 5 star and 7 star special. Do a 9" 12” and 14" base (vegan or non) tomato sauce and cheese (vegan or non vegan) and then 3‚ 5 or seven toppings. Obviously the more toppings the more expensive. Then do garlic bread and your tray bake idea is perfect. Cold soft drinks are adequate if the food is bangin.

Has he thought about the delivery side? It sounds like it could be really inefficient in a rural area, spread out over a large area with long waits if someone in village A which is 5 miles west of you sends an order just as your driver is setting off to village B 5 miles east etc.

Or is he planning to use Uber eats etc? They take a ridiculous commission so needs factoring in to his costs. I'm of the opinion that most people are unwilling to pay what delivery actually costs so it can only be provided by exploiting someone, usually the driver or the food provider. Plus the likes of deliveroo don't actually make a profit, it's all smoke and mirrors.

We've been using a few local restaurants and street food vans including a wood fired pizza place, that have moved from weddings and festivals to takeaways and they generally do preorder and click and collect only and do all their marketing via Facebook and Instagram. You order either by FB messenger for the pizza place or the Indian Street food people have a proper website. Both generally sell out the day before before and you have to say what time you want your food. Both are quite open about how they're doing it this way because if they delivered via Uber eats etc they'd have to charge prices that people probably wouldn't pay or basically be working for nothing as the delivery company would take too big a cut.

For an example of what I'm talking about look for Duke's Pizza and the Funky Indian on Facebook or Instagram. Suggest he follows a few like these to see how they operate.

On the toppings, agree with keeping it simple and don't forget vegetarians. I'm not vegetarian, but despair how most pizza seems to have either chicken or pepperoni on, which I don't want. A menu we get through our door is typical of round here, which has about 15 different versions of processed pork, 6 different chicken pizzas and just 4 which have neither of these and two of these are Margherita and four cheese. Only two have what I call a sensible pizza topping of peppers onions olives etc.

We have a fabulous pizza company near us they travel in their pizza van to local pubs car parks (which don't serve food) and sell wonderful pizza's. They rotate visiting villages and you book a collection slot for the pizzas which works well as they don't have to deliver them. Called Nomadic pizza on facebook they have about 6 standard and 2 specials as well.

The fancy pizza place near us does a crust dip which is a sriracha mayo, with a bit of lemon juice and sugar to balance it out. It's amazing and would be easy to replicate.

T

A few hipster pizza and takeaway places in our city sell 'mac and cheese' as a side order. Toppings....would be great to have more vegetarian and vegan choices using seasonal veg, lighter cheeses and different sauces. On top of your core menu, one really interesting speciality pizza per week at an offer price, to ring the changes and make sure the ingredients are used up. Home made garlic or olive breadsticks sound great. For desserts...I'd like something different on the menu, not just the usual brownies or choc chip cookies. Raspberry blondies or raspberry and white chocolate muffins are very easy to make. Depending on where you are, something with a local vibe like Dorset apple cake or toffee apple cake/sticky toffee pudding type tray bake could go down well - you might be able to freeze and warm, in individual portions and deliver with mini Rhoddas clotted cream pot (long use by dates).

Here's a sticky toffee pudding traybake that freezes!
www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/traybakes/sticky-toffee-pudding-traybake

It depends on what you mean by traditional pizza? Do you mean traditional Italian pizza made in a lovely pizza oven or American style pizza? I would want different sides for the different types.