Edwardo's pizza struts its 'stuffed' with no-waiting option

Nation's Restaurant News, Nov 30, 1987 by Carolyn Walkup

Edwardo's pizza struts its "stuffed' with new no-waiting option

Edwardo's Natural Pizza Restaurant is bringing stuffed pizza to new markets with a new twist for an upscale operation: faster service.

The 2-inch-deep pizza with a top and bottom crust, the signature item of the nine-year-old chain, takes 35 minutes to bake. So customers who eat in, take out, or request delivery must wait longer for their orders than for the thin-crust varieties, which are baked in eight or nine minutes. Now, however, in some of Edwardo's 14 units, customers satisfied with a choice of two varieties baked continuously can cut waiting time in half.

Shorter waiting times should prove especially advantageous in Edwardo's newer markets, currently Minneapolis and Milwaukee, where its reputation is just becoming known. Longer waits have not been a problem in the Chicago area. Customers there are more familiar with the peculiarities of stuffed pizza, according to Russel Lubliner, Edwardo's director of marketing.

In new markets in which pizza chains, such as Domino's and Little Caesar's, have set standards for speedy service, people "aren't used to the wait,' Lubliner said. Edwardo's attempts consumer education on its menus with this request: "Please allow 45 minutes when ordering stuffed pizza or ask if there is a no-wait stuffed pizza ready now.'

The reception to the no-wait pizza has been "tremendous,' Lubliner said. Although the chain's intention was to offer shortened waiting times as a service to regular customers, managers are learning it also is attracting new customers.

Some Chicago stores currently offering the no-wait alternative have a time guarantee of 30 minutes for delivery, 15 minutes for take-out, and five minutes for table service. If delivery times are missed, the charge is half-price.

Lubliner does not expect the time guarantee to become a chainwide policy because of longer traveling distances in suburban locations. "We are not Domino's, and we don't want to be,' he said.

Edwardo's is not the only expanding regional high-end pizza chain to climb on the fast-service bandwagon. In Minneapolis, Edwardo's newest market, Green Mill Restaurants, a five-unit chain specializing in Chicago-style deep-dish and stuffed pizzas, is about to open its second Green Mill Express.

By having some pizzas ready to go at all times, Green Mill Express is able to offer quick service for in-restaurant, take-out, home delivery, and drive-thru orders. In addition, it is studying the operational possibilities of adding quick-service options for whole pizzas to its full-service restaurants, said Christopher Bangs, president of the Green Mill division of U.S. Communications.

Edwardo's is not advertising its no-wait pizza capability in Minneapolis but is concentrating on acquainting that market with stuffed pizza. New customers tend to order thin-crust varieties, Lubliner said.

A new customer in Minneapolis said in an interview she was not aware of the no-wait option but was prepared to "plan ahead' when ordering an Edwardo's pizza. She had not noticed much Edwardo's advertising except for a highway billboard.

Optimistic about the potential of its products in the Minneapolis market, Edwardo's has started construction on a second site in suburban Bloomington. The chain also will soon open its second Milwaukee area unit in Wauwatosa, Wis., and its first in Madison, Wis., the headquarters of Rocky Rococo, a larger Midwestern regional chain specializing in deep-dish pizza.

Rocky Rococo does not have stuffed pizza. Pizza slices account for half of the sales of a major franchisee, Pizza Slices Inc., based in Milwaukee, according to Manzoor Pervez, the president. He considers his restaurants to be in the "high-quality instant pizza' niche and said Edwardo's is more upscale and not really a fast-food restaurant.

Minimum delivery time for a Rocky Rococo pizza is 30 minutes, Pervez said. Delivery, however, accounts for only 6 percent of sales at his 15 units, 14 of which have drive-thru windows.

Introduction of Edwardo's no-wait pizzas has not resulted in much wasted product, Lubliner said, indicating units are accurately gauging the demand. After baking, pizzas are held in special warming ovens for a limited time.

Keeping the pizzas uncut helps them retain their just-baked qualities, Lubliner added. Pizza cutter knives are included with deliveries of whole pizzas. (Individualsized whole pizzas are the chain's version of pizza slices.)

Delivery and take-out are taking longer to catch on in new markets, Lubliner noted. While the two services combined account for 55 percent to 60 percent of sales in Chicago, they make up only 20 percent to 25 percent in Minneapolis and Milwaukee.

Green Mill customers are accustomed to telephoning ahead to order deep-dish pizza for take-out as well as eating in. "Customers are willing to wait extra time for it,' Bangs said.

The higher prices charged for stuffed and deep-dish pizzas are not an issue with customers, according to Lubliner. Edwardo's most expensive pizza is a deluxe stuffed pizza with four ingredients for $14.25. Its spinach-stuffed or "souffle' pizza is $9.10 for a regular size and $12.05 for a deluxe.