Article
How Davanni's 'we'll try anything' attitude created a pickles + pork pizza
Pickles. Pork. Pizza. Together? That is indeed the combination that one longtime Minnesota pizza brand is using to pull in the profits.
February 19, 2020 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group
Although much of the attention in the pizza sphere revolves around the industry's biggest brands, any astute business person knows that inspiration and lessons in success — particularly in these crazy, tech-accelerated times — can come from everywhere. So when Davanni's, a Twin Cities-based regional pizza chain relayed its success with an offbeat pizza concoction using pork and pickles, Pizza Marketplace wanted to know more.
Just from some of the basic details, it sounded like one of those instances where a proverbial pizza "David" might have something to teach all those mega-pie-producing "Goliath" brands out there.
We were not disappointed.
During a previous interview about recruitment with Davanni's, we realized that the 21-location Minnesota regional chain also had a story to tell about its menu ideation and testing process, which included the aforementioned pickles and pork pie.
Officially, the pork carnitas concoction is simply called the Cuban, but the brand is calling it a success since it's driving traffic and sales. It's just one byproduct of Davanni's well-honed testing process.
To learn more about how the 45-year-old brand developed both the Cuban pizza and Cuban hoagie as well as its elaborate testing system, we dug a little deeper with Operations Supervisor and Training Director Jennifer Kaufmann as our guide. She said both menu innovations launched last September after a vetting process that all Davanni's LTOs and menu additions go through that takes a "we'll try anything as long as it makes sense in our world" mentality.
From airline pizza to menu innovation
It's an approach that was born when the brand took advantage of a chance to acquire a bakery near one of its stores in the 1990s. It used that acquisition to serve pizza onMinnesota-based Northwest Airlines flights. Delta eventually acquired the airline, and the pizza contract ended after 9/11 when food services were cut. That meant the bakery wasn't needed to churn out flight-borne pies, but Davanni's made the facility its culinary innovation hub.
"That gave birth to what has proven to be a strong partner for us in controlling and being able to test — frankly with quick turnaround — any type of product that we might want to add to our menu," Kauffmann said. "So there's a synergy there."
In the case of the Cuban's development, the brand's leaders said they were actually kind of late to the "Cuban craze" party when they opted to take a crack at the flavors. And even then, they were thinking of the flavors just for hoagies.
To get some great takes on how best to source and blend the key ingredients, they leaned on their foodservice partners at Hormel and other food brokers in the area to brainstorm ideas. But they did not rush it.
"Cuban sandwiches had hit Panera, hit Jimmy John's and had hit in this market long before we landed on what we were proud to serve to our customers," Kaufmann explained. "So we were a little bit behind, but then, you've got to admit those products, you know — Carnitas pork — who knew? …
"But, it can be made so many different ways and it's a very different product when it's put in a hoagie oven versus a pizza oven versus whatever type of equipment you have. So we learned a lot in that process for how we wanted it prepped beforehand, we figured that out. Then we had to figure out the professional recipe. And believe it or not, pickles, is not an easy decision!"
In a pizza pickle
In fact, the pickles alone (sour, sweet, salty, etc.) took three weeks to settle on but was worth the wait.
"To this day, it is one of the most successful menu rollouts we've done," Kaufmann said. "So the phenomenon that typically you see with (newly introduced) pizza or hoagies is that the smaller portion is ordered first — so it's solo pizza or half-hoagie for a new menu item usually.
"But that didn't happen with the Cuban. People were all in. I think that's because they trust us and also because our employees went bonkers. We know we've got a home run when you're standing at the counter and somebody says what do you recommend and they (employees) say, 'You know what? We just added a Cuban that is out of this world!' The marketing just took off on its own, just word of mouth. So we knew we had a winner."
Monday on Pizza Marketplace, we'll summarize the components of Davanni's testing process, and consider some of the challenges the current turbulent employment market and pizza sector competition pose to its future.
Photos: Provided
About S.A. Whitehead
Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.
