Forgoing the typical "lose weight" resolution, John Schnatter, the founder of Louisville, Ky.-based Papa John's, posted on Instagram on New Year's Eve that he planned on eating 50 pizzas in 30 days in 2020.
The pledge is a jump from his previous pizza binge, in which he claimed to have eaten "over 40 pizzas in the last 30 days," adding, "it's not the same pizza."
That claim, which the former CEO made during a local television interview, sparked an onslaught of memes and tweets from users incredulous over the sheer amount of 'za.
During the November interview, Schnatter reiterated his belief that members of the pizza chain's board of directors conspired to force his resignation as chairman in July 2018 following a report that he used a racial slur during a conference call.
Taste test: Papa John's CEO says recipe hasn't changed, isn't focused on Schnatter's 'not the same pizza' comments
In his Tuesday Instagram post, Schnatter writes that his New Year's resolution is "to try 50 pizzas in 30 days."
"Yo! Papa here, feeding the team. New Year's resolution for 2020? Fifty pizzas, 30 days. Fifty pizzas, 30 days," he repeats. "Happy New Year's!"
Time will only tell if Papa succeeds in his pizza quest.
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Police say a woman was attempting to park her car in front of Big Apple Pizza in St. Lucie West when she accidentally accelerated and drove through the front of the restaurant causing extensive damage.
No one was injured in the incident.
The woman was transported to a local hospital for evaluation and the business remained open.
It’s all about the dough for these Big Apple entrepreneurs!
An enterprising Midtown Domino’s pizza restaurant is cashing in on the Times Square ball drop — hawking pies to ravenous New Year’s Eve revelers and flipping them for a serious profit.
“I have a lot of orders. I’m very busy,” delivery guy Ratan Banik told The Post while juggling a large stack of pizzas on Tuesday afternoon, speculating he’d sold about 25 pies.
Banik was running the pizzas for the Domino’s franchise on 40th St. and 7th Ave., which has been doing this on New Year’s Eve for 15 years.
The man was hawking pepperoni, ham and cheese pizzas for $30 — nearly double what a regular $14.49 large cheese pie costs at Domino’s — and was still run off his feet.
A woman at the store said they’d be delivering pies to Times Square until midnight and said it was such a roaring success that other restaurants in the area had also gotten in on the act.
New Year’s Eve revelers, from left, Amit Zanwar, Saloni Ladha and Pooja Bharadiya share a pizza they purchased from a Domino’s delivery man.
By 6 p.m., the franchise had sold more than 50 steaming hot pizzas, she said.
Banik ran between the parlor and Times Square, balancing a stack of hot pies on his head while touting his cheesy wares — some hungry revelers tapping him on the shoulder to ask his price.
“Pepperoni, cheese, onion!” Banik called before being mobbed by starving tourists waiting in giant holding pens in Times Square, many having camped out overnight.
“He is our Santa,” said Amit Zanwar, 31, from New Jersey, who was with two friends for the spectacular and didn’t pack any food. “He came a little late [for Christmas], but we were happy.”
The man saw Banik and called him over before immediately forking over $33 for a cheese pie.
“It’s absolutely worth it. It was hot. It seems like it just came out of the oven,” he added. “If he comes back, I will buy some more.”
The tens of thousands of tourists who decided to ring in the new decade in Times Square arrived as early as Monday evening and were not allowed to leave once they were in holding pens — meaning many were employing rather degrading tactics to last the distance.
It’s no surprise, then, that the inflated prices didn’t bite.
The traveling salesman repeatedly sold out of fresh pies before running back to the nearby Domino’s for more stock.
“He probably sold about seven pizzas in less than two minutes,” said Francisco Patalano, who was in town for the first time from Fort Polk in Louisiana.
He also laid down $30 for the pie but said, “It was totally worth it.”
“I’m going to ration it out until midnight between me and my wife,” he added.
People eating Domino’s pizza as they arrive to celebrate New Year’s Eve in Times Square.Getty Images
“That was awesome,” said his wife Maria Patalano. “We were getting hungry. We’ve been here since 12 p.m.”
We all know southern Dallas could use more restaurants, and it could absolutely use grocery stores selling fresh food. I like to think we have people working on it (and I’ll just keep passive aggressively mentioning it in stories until they do).
But there are some places serving good food, and we’re going to do our best to share more of those with you. To get started, I focused on South Dallas/Fair Park, and asked my friend and councilman for the area, Adam Bazaldua, some of his go-tos.
One of those took us to MLK Jr. Boulevard, not far from Fair Park and just a few blocks away from the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center. The wide street doesn’t have all that much traffic, with small businesses on one side and houses on the other with large “Voting is Power” signs sitting in front lawns.
I’ve been in productive meetings at the community center and those houses, but this was my first time to step into Black Jack Pizza.
The pizza won't blow your mind, but anything with that much cheese can be fairly satisfactory.
Taylor Adams
The name of the place had us ordering a pizza, going with some sausage, pepperoni and jalapeño slices — that’s the dealer’s choice (a large with sausage and pepperoni, $14.99) with the added heat. It’s perfectly fine, a thinner crust that crisps well on the bottom edge while allowing a softer top to house the ingredients sunken into cheese.
“This is what pizza used to taste like,” said one tablemate, referring to pizza shops she visited in the early 1990s that were yet to be commercialized and scaled to a larger production.
We have plenty of local pizza places, of course, each offering its own spin on a pie. This one’s perfectly fine, and we welcome spots that offer pizza by the slice, which they do here for $4 each.
But what we’ll happily return for is the burgers.
A thick patty cooked right in the middle of medium is topped with still-melting cheese and the expected crisp red onion, pickles, tomato, shredded lettuce and plenty of mustard. The allowance of so much mustard along with meat from a well-used griddle produces a flavor I haven’t had since my grandmother was around to cook small cheeseburgers during my childhood summers.
Here, these ingredients are sandwiched in a bun that’s griddled: There’s not too much bread to overtake the more important aspects, and the top is cooked to a just-enough greasy crispness.
Black Jack Pizza is a small spot, one you can easily miss if you're looking for it while driving.
Taylor Adams
There are other things on the menu, from spaghetti to chicken salad and a chicken sandwich. Our next visit will have to include the black beanry, a bowl of red beans and cornbread ($4.45).
Next time, we’ll also remember to bring cash, because this spot doesn’t take credit or debit cards. But for that tangy, griddled burger, a stop at the ATM is worthwhile.
Black Jack Pizza, 2536 MLK Jr. Blvd. Open 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday; noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday.
The first shot in the 2020 pizza wars has been uncorked by Domino’s Pizza CEO Richard Allison, who in a recent interview took aim at one of the industry’s biggest brands.
Allison’s target happens to be a wounded veteran that’s trying to pick itself up from the battlefield and proudly soldier on. That would be none other than Papa John’s.
“I think they did a nice job over there,” he added — referencing the company’s turnaround efforts in the wake of ousting its founder John Schnatter.
“Papa John’s third quarter I think stabilized the business a bit, but they are still down about ten points [on sales] from where they were two years ago,” Allison said.
“It’s a brand that certainly has I think some equity out there in the marketplace...[but] the biggest problem they are going to have in the near-term is getting their franchisees back to the level of profitability where they get excited again about investing in the business,” the CEO told Yahoo Finance.
“I know they are planning to continue to subsidize their franchise system in 2020, which if I was sitting in Louisville [Papa John’s HQ] I would be doing the same thing most likely,” Allison said. “I think getting their franchisees to a level of profitability where they can take them off the subsidy drug that will be the real turning point to that business if they can get to that place.”
A Papa John’s spokesperson didn’t return Yahoo Finance’s request for comment for this story.
High hopes for Lynch
Papa John's President & CEO Rob Lynch poses for photos at the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, before ringing bell Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
To be sure, expectations are running high on Wall Street that Papa John’s new CEO — who arrived in August — can drive a successful turnaround in 2020.
Papa John’s stock has surged 57% year to date on the back of excitement surrounding the well-regarded Lynch, who many restaurant insiders credit with the revival of Arby’s through the use of clever marketing and better tasting sandwiches.
Further igniting the stock price has been the ongoing involvement of activist investor — and restaurant turnaround pro — Starboard’s Jeff Smith. After injecting $200 million into Papa John’s in February, Smith is now chairman of the company, and helped lure Lynch to the team.
Up until Lynch’s arrival, Papa John’s stock and financials languished as it dealt with the furor stemming from Schnattner’s use of a racist epithet on a company conference call.
Smith and Lynch have worked hand in glove since the summer to develop a turnaround strategy for Papa John’s, which includes installing a new management team — something Lynch told Yahoo Finance in an interview was designed to get better ideas for the brand out into the open.
Another strategy has been to continue to offer royalty relief to Papa John’s franchisees, which is expected to continue in the near term. Many are dealing with weak sales and profits due to the consumer reaction to Schnatter’s comments. Some of Papa John’s franchisees have closed stores as a result of the profit pressure, in turn hurting the parent company’s financial statements.
Lynch is no stranger to dealing with franchisees, and one of his first acts as Papa John’s CEO was to tour the country and listen to their concerns.
He told analysts on a November 6 conference call that franchise owners were “very energized very excited and very committed to working with us collaboratively to get the system where it needs to be.”
And one of the next elements to Papa John’s turnaround is to drive some product excitement in 2020. Adding some “wow” to the chain’s menu has taken a backseat recently, as execs dealt with the crisis stoked by Schnatter’s presence.
Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Lynch teased that new products are likely on tap next year.
“Pizza is a dinner business, and I think there is an opportunity for us to leverage our innovation to create business in times of the day where our restaurants are under-utilized,” the new CEO said.
“I think we are going to conquer lunch first and then we will start thinking about breakfast. We think there is an opportunity for us to meet a broader array of customers for lunch,” he added.
Hickory, NC, USA-21 June 18: Papa John's Pizza is an American restaurant franchise company, being the 3rd largest take-out and pizza delivery restaurant chain in the U.S.
Papa John’s has no plans to launch breakfast anytime soon, a company spokesperson said. But sandwiches — utilizing Lynch’s experience from Arby’s — appears a highly probable as a way to create business during lunch hours.
Ultimately, Wall Street will want to see a more serious pickup in Papa John’s sales in 2020 than what has transpired this year.
Papa John’s North America same-store sales rose 1% in the third quarter, a marked reversal from the 5.7% drop in the second quarter and better than Wall Street’s estimates. At the time, Lynch cited better traffic trends to its restaurants helped the brand.
Adjusted operating profits for North America company owned restaurants improved to $7.4 million, up from a slight loss a year ago. For North America franchised restaurants, operating profits increased to $20.4 million from $9.3 million a year earlier.
And international same-store sales rose 1.6% — the segment’s profits fell to $4.1 million from $4.5 million a year ago and in-line with forecasts.
While a welcome turn in trends this year, Papa John’s sales have lagged pizza rival Domino’s Pizza and are well below gains achieved by McDonald’s U.S. and Burger King.
Considering Papa John’s sells affordable family friendly fast food, the brand has more potential than modest quarterly sales gains.
Now it’s up to Lynch to reignite the business, and return fire to Allison (and those at Pizza Hut) in 2020.
Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor ofThe First Tradeat Yahoo Finance. Follow him on Twitter@BrianSozzi
Google - Labeled for Reuse Is there pizza delivery on New Year's Eve and Day, 2019-2020? The answer depends on which pizza restaurant you are trying to order from.
If you’re looking for a slice of pizza to hold you over on New Year’s Eve, or if you just want something easy for dinner on New Year’s Day, you might be in luck – most pizza delivery restaurants and popular pizza chains will be open on both New Year’s Eve and Day, 2019-2020. However, dozens of restaurants also close their doors to allow employees a day to spend the day with family, which raises the question – which pizza restaurants are open today? And which places deliver?
Since pizza is typically a very popular craving during holidays like New Year’s Eve and Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day, many pizza chains such as Little Caesars, Pizza Hut and Domino’s Pizza often remain open in order to accommodate the high demand of people ordering out. However, some places may have limited hours on New Year’s Eve and Day, so we always recommend calling ahead to be sure of the hours before making the trip.
Here’s what you need to know about pizza delivery on New Year’s Eve and Day, 2019-2020:
Little Caesars, Pizza Hut & Domino’s Pizza Will be Open on New Year’s Eve & New Year’s Day This Year
Google – Labeled for ReuseIs Little Caesars open or closed on New Year’s Eve and Day, 2019-2020? Read on for information on holiday hours, specials and menu options for the pizza restaurant.
Although many restaurants close on major holidays, most pizza chains remain open during big, celebratory holidays like New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Memorial weekend, the 4th of July and Labor Day weekend. After all, pizza is a go-to for many celebrations during those holidays, so it wouldn’t make sense to close down and lose out on the big sales that those weekends bring.
All three pizza chains generally only close for a full day on Thanksgiving, Christmas Day and sometimes Easter Sunday, depending on the restaurant and location.
Some Pizza Chains May Have Reduced or Extended Hours, or May Open Later on New Year’s Day
Google – Labeled for ReuseIs Domino’s Pizza open or closed on New Year’s Eve and Day, 2019-2020? Read on for information on holiday hours, specials and menu options for the restaurant.
Although the restaurants typically remain open on New Year’s Eve and Day, some locations may have reduced hours, or even extended hours to accommodate the holiday. Some may also open later on New Year’s Day to allow employees to get some sleep after working late the night before. Since Domino’s, Pizza Hut and Little Caesars are all chain-operated, the hours may vary depending on your location, so it’s always in your best interest to callahead before stopping by or placing an order.
“Store hours are up to each local franchisee to determine,” a Domino’s Pizza rep said of the chain’s holiday schedule, according to Country Living. “So some stores will be open regular hours, some will be closed, and some will be open limited hours.”
Regular business hours will resume for all three restaurants on Thursday, January 2, 2020. Domino’s is generally open from 10:00 a.m. until midnight or later, and Pizza Hut is open from 10:30 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. or later during regular business hours. Little Caesars is usually open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. during weekdays, and all three pizza joints are also often open much later on weekends, usually 1 a.m. or until just after bar close. Again, various restaurants might have different hours, depending on the location. You can look up your local Domino’s hours by clicking here, Pizza Hut here, and Little Caesars here.
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – Pizza Hut said a Lexington delivery driver was fired for sending threatening and disrespectful text messages to a customer.
The customer, Shirae Bledsoe, said on Facebook everything fell apart after she accidentally left nine cents as the tip when ordering pizza online for the first time.
- Advertisement -
In a Facebook post, Bledsoe said the driver called and said the pizza wouldn’t be delivered, also allegedly including disrespectful comments to the customers.
The customer then said she instead had to drive to the Waller Avenue Pizza Hut to get her food.
She said the delivery driver continued to harass them via text and said the pizza had been spit on.
The post has over 600 comments and nearly 2,000 shares on Facebook. Some commenting to report the Pizza Hut to the health department.
On Monday, Lexington Health Department said there were several complaints and it sent an inspector Monday to the Waller Avenue Pizza Hut.
The inspector didn’t find anything wrong and said everything was up to code.
The Health Department said the managers are well informed of the complaint and are aware of people’s concern.
A Pizza Hut Spokesperson said the driver was fired the same day as the incident, releasing this statement Sunday:
“We were shocked by the driver’s text messages but have no reason to believe anyone’s food was actually compromised. Nevertheless the driver’s threats and language are completely unacceptable and she has been terminated as a result.”
In this Post Independent file photo, Anson Lemmer, right, receives the American Red Cross Lifesaver Award from Eric Meyers. Colleen O’Neil / Post Independent |
The Glenwood Springs checks in with the subject of our most-read story of the past decade, which received more than 300,000 page views since it was published in 2015.
On June 15, 2015, Anson Lemmer departed from Uncle Pizza in his 1998 Plymouth Breeze for his final delivery of the night.
“I think one of them was the Italian sausage,” Lemmer said.
However, upon pulling up to the Glenwood Springs residence on Valley View Road, Lemmer was greeted by a life-or-death situation: an unconscious man lying in the gutter as others stood around, evidently not knowing what to do.
Luckily, the 19-year-old “pizza boy” knew exactly what to do.
“I threw the pizzas on top of the car, ran over and helped,” Lemmer said.
After instructing a specific bystander to immediately call 911, Lemmer searched for the man’s pulse, which he could not find. Remaining calm and collected, the young man began administering CPR to the unresponsive and blue in the face man.
“I lost track of time, but it wasn’t very long that I was doing chest compressions before the first responders showed up,” Lemmer said. “The man in the gutter was starting to regain consciousness a little bit. He was breathing again.”
Lemmer does not exactly know how the man ended up in the gutter in the first place. Nor has he ever spoken to the man, who he believed was in his mid-40s at the time.
What Lemmer does recall about that fateful night, though – “I left a pizza boy and came back a pizza man.”
Coincidentally, it would not be the last time Lemmer helped out during a potentially, life-threatening situation.
A few years ago, while on a hiking trip, Lemmer performed the Heimlich maneuver on his friend who was choking on a piece of candy.
“He just started smacking me on the back,” Lemmer said. “I turned around and he was holding his throat.”
After administering abdominal thrusts, his friend expelled the chunk of candy blocking his airway and was OK.
FROM PIZZA MAN TO CANNABIS CULTIVATOR
Today, the 23-year-old Lemmer cultivates cannabis for Roots RX in the highest incorporated city in North America, Leadville.
“I really love the properties of medicinal plants,” Lemmer said. “I’ve always enjoyed and appreciated the aspects of cannabis that are relaxing.”
A self-taught grower, Lemmer hopes to continue studying horticulture in a university setting one day.
Anson Lemmer next to one of his cannabis plants in Leadville. Photo courtesy of Avery Lemmer 20191227_1733592
Lemmer’s love for plants does not end with Indica, Sativa and cannabis strains, either.
When not cultivating cannabis for work, Lemmer grows an assortment of leafy greens out of his own living room.
“I really like sugar snap peas, they’re fun,” Lemmer said. “I like the way that they grow, too. They need a little bit of encouragement and help along the way.”
A HUMBLE AND HOPEFUL HERO
During the last 10 years, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent has reported on countless issues ranging from the Grand Avenue Bridge project to Rocky Mountain Resources’ proposal to drastically increase its Transfer Trail mining operation just north of town.
However, coverage of the largest infrastructure project on the Western Slope in 25 years was not the local newspaper’s most read story of the decade.
That honor belongs to the tale of Lemmer administering CPR while enroute to deliver a few sausage pizzas.
In fact, Lemmer’s heroics led to 360,880 people reading the Post Independent’s original story.
“Wow.” Lemmer said when told about the article’s popularity.
The story went viral and Lemmer’s face found its way onto ‘pizza boy becomes pizza man’ memes all across the Internet.
Lemmer, who hadn’t given the incident too much thought after the fact, simply hoped the story would inspire more people to learn CPR.
“I’ve had people come up to me because of the memes,” Lemmer said. “But, I’ve also had people come up to me telling me that the story actually touched their life.”
Without question, on June 15, 2015, Lemmer, as a result of being trained in CPR, saved a life.
Graffiato’s pizza oven will be back in business very soon. Mike Isabella’s seven-year-old flagship restaurant closed abruptly in 2018 in the midst of his sexual harassment lawsuit and rent-related issues. Now the team behind next-door neighbor Daikaya announces it will take over the space for a new restaurant serving Japanese-style pizza and pasta. The name here is very appropriate: Daikaya’s new adjacent sister restaurant will be called Tonari, which means neighbor.
“At first we were a bit hesitant in taking over the space next door but we were also concerned about who might become our neighbor,” says Yama Jewayni, partner at Daikaya Group, in a release. “In a sense, we really wanted to repurpose and recycle the restaurant and that’s how we arrived at wafu Italian pasta and pizza.”
The plan is to bring Japan’s “wafu” pasta and pizza to D.C. (“Wafu” refers to something that’s done in the “Japanese style,” per Eater, as in Japan’s take on Italian cuisine). For this fifth restaurant, Daikaya Group is keeping things authentic by sourcing ingredients for Japanese pizza dough from a flour mill in Sapporo. Pizza toppings will include tuna sashimi and clam and miso, while pasta will feature ingredients like uni.
Tonari is expected to open in Graffiato’s former space this winter.
One of the three Pizza King locations in Appleton will close Tuesday at the end of the business day.
The location that's shutting down is at 800 E. Wisconsin Ave., at the corner of Meade Street, across from Appvion.
Pizza Kings that remain open are at 1717 E. Calumet St., on Appleton’s east side, and 1003 W. Northland Ave., on Appleton’s north side.
Owner Dean and Paula Sosnoski are retiring, and will turn the two ongoing locations over to their son Adam, who has worked in the business for 20 years.
“Business has never been better, but it’s time,” said Dean Sosnoski.
He started the business 44 years ago when he was 20 years old.
Sosnoski won’t step away from the food and beverage business entirely because he still co-owns Cleo’s in downtown Appleton with his three brothers and co-owns two Cinder’s restaurants with his brother Al. Cleo’s and Cinder’s continue to operate normally.
Note: Pizza King's catering number has been changed to 920-734-9996.
Contact reporter Maureen Wallenfang at 920-993-7116 or mwallenfang@postcrescent.com. Follow her on Twitter at @wallenfang.
More: The Buzz: Family Video in Neenah to close
More: The Buzz: Year in Review, Part 2: 2019 closures
More: The Buzz's Year in Review Part 1: 2019 openings
“Celebrated Daikaya Group partners Yama Jewayni, Katsuya Fukushima, and Daisuke Utagawa are thrilled to announce the upcoming opening of their fifth restaurant in the District – ‘Tonari’ – meaning ‘next door’ or ‘neighbor’. Scheduled to open in Winter 2020, Tonari will serve as the first restaurant in Washington D.C. to showcase Japanese-style or ‘Wafu’ pasta and pizza located within the former Graffiato space directly next to Daikaya in Chinatown at 707 6th St NW, Washington, DC 20001.
“At first we were a bit hesitant in taking over the space next door but we were also concerned about who might become our neighbor”, said Yama Jewayni, partner at Daikaya Group. “In a sense, we really wanted to repurpose and recycle the restaurant and that’s how we arrived at Wafu Italian pasta and pizza.”
“When the space ‘next door’ became available the immediate and exciting concept that came to mind was Japanese Wafu pasta and pizza”, said Katsuya Fukushima, Executive Chef and Partner at Daikaya Group. “Then the challenge of conveying what Wafu is kicked in. But for me Wafu cuisine has very much been a part of Japanese culture so I’m excited to have the opportunity to be able to share this special piece of Japan with diners in DC. Ganbarimasu!”
Wafu pasta, meaning Japanese-style pasta (dishes) is a widely loved and well-established cuisine in Japan today. The origin of Wafu pasta dates back to 1953 at a tiny restaurant in Tokyo called Kabenoana (Hole in the Wall). At the time there were only three restaurants serving pasta in Tokyo, one of which was at Imperial Hotel. Kabenoana was serving a plate of pasta at 100 yen, Imperial Hotel’s was 960 yen. From the start Kabenoana aimed to serve wider audiences. As such, the chef of Kabenoana was open to ideas from his regular clients and started using Japanese ingredients to create new pasta dishes. Now classic Wafu pasta ingredients such as Tarako (cod roe) Uni (sea urchin), Shitake, Nori, and dashi emerged as a result of many dialogues and trials between the chef and the customers. In Japan today, there are many Wafu pasta restaurants and the menu items are still evolving incorporating Japanese sensibilities in creating new pasta dishes.
Pizza is also an extremely popular dish in Japan, and there are a wide range of pizza styles and options to choose from. Some pizzerias in Japan have even been known to rival traditional pizzas from Napoli. Some even began to create their own versions with pizza Kaiseki-like service. At Tonari, the team began their journey by working to create a pizza that had a distinctive Japanese flair. The team specifically sought inspiration from Japanese bread, which features a distinct sweet smelling, soft, fluffy, and chewy texture.
To ensure top-notch quality in all of Tonari’s signature pasta and pizza options, Daikaya Group partners called on Yokoyama Seifun, a flour mill in Sapporo which supplies flour to Nishiyama Seimen Co., Ltd. to make their exclusive custom ramen noodles, to assist them in developing their Japanese style pizza dough mix. Yokoyama separates wheat grain in to 70 different components, and they are also extremely passionate about bread making, so Jewayni, Utagawa, and Fukushima realized that partnering with Yokoyama would be the perfect collaboration in developing their Japanese pizza dough. During one of the team’s R&D visits to Yokoyama’s test kitchen, one of the pizzas they tested was a pan pizza using 100% Hokkaido flour and rice oil. The flour helped the dough to rise to that fluffy Japanese bread texture they were looking for, and the combination of the pan and the rice oil shortening created a toasty, almost tempura-like crust. When they tasted it, everyone at the test kitchen thought that it was extremely Japanese and distinctive, and they unanimously agreed it would be their official signature pizza dough and that making their pizzas in a pan was the way to go.
The pasta selections at Tonari are slated to feature both classics such as Spaghetti Napolitan with a sweet tomato-based sauce more similar to ketchup rather than a traditional marinara, and for more creative Japanese-inspired pasta options Chef Fukushima and team have plans to offer an Uni pasta, Natto Bolognese, and Mentaiko Spaghetti, just to highlight a few. Traditional and Japanese-centric ingredients will be also be showcased on some of the signature pizzas such as Corn and Crab Pizza, Tuna Sashimi Pizza, and a Clam and Miso Pizza, to name a few. Daikaya Group’s mission is to utilize Tonari to continue to experiment with Wafu pasta and pizza in Washington D.C.
Following multiple in-depth R&D trips to Japan, Daikaya Group partners teamed up with prolific DC-based design guru Brian Miller of edit lab at Streetsense once again to bring the one-of-a-kind design for Tonari to life. The two-level space will feature 3,600 square feet – 1,800 on the ground floor, and another 1,800 on the 2nd floor, with seating for around 110 total, including seats for 50 in the main dining room and bar area on the ground floor, as well as horigotatsu seating for about 60 on the 2nd floor.
“Inspired by the contrast of eating pizza alongside the Philospher’s Path and pasta in Kyoto’s train station, we wanted the design to lean as traditionally Japanese as the food leans Italian”, said Brian Miller, Senior Design Director at edit lab at Streetsense. “We stripped out the old acoustic ceiling to uncover the building’s wooden roof structure, and added handmade Japanese wallpaper sheets, horigotatsu seating on the 2nd floor, and a moss garden to slow things down to Kyoto’s pace. The music is the most typical Japanese restaurant soundtrack we could construct – a collection of American jazz.”
