Pizza plain, pizza fancy

Nation's Restaurant News, Feb 3, 1997 by Pamela Parseghian

And at Lombardi's Atlanta store, black bean, smoked chicken, asadero cheese and cilantro pizza. $8.95, is the preferred choice. Pesto, pancetta and Gorgonzola pizza with house-roasted plum tomatoes reigns supreme with Lombardi's Dallas crowd.

Clearly, knowing your market is essential. Plain pie sells best at Cucina! Cucina! Italian Cafes in the Northwest, California, Colorado and Arizona but new items - such as puttanesca pizza with chili-spiked tomato sauce. prawns, scallops, capers, calamata olives and rosemary oil, $6.96/$9.75 -- are tested constantly.

Nevertheless. some inventive pies flop. A Thai peanut pizza with pickled vegetables and chicken "was a great pizza, but it didn't move," Cucina's Nye says. "We blend in a couple new pizzas each year, and they are usually real popular in the beginning. But I think people have to identify with them in order for them to be long-lasting."