Looking for a good place to open a family pizza place (food, businesses)

[Mike_1010]

Thank you for all the responses, I've been doing this for over 10 years and been successful and not looking to change my receipes and style. The thing I wanted to know was specific areas that would be a good fit. Im from southern california and the only time I've been in Minnesota was 2 months ago making sure this was were my family wanted to relocate, I want a better lifestyle for my kids along with a strong school system as well as plenty of other things which is why we choose Minnesota. When I was out there around the Chanhassen, Eden Prarie, Minnetonka area I noticed that there werent many sit down comfortable pizza places. Lots of Take n Bake and just carry out n delivery joints but nowhere you can take the fam, your team whether for parties or just to hang out. I will be offering delivery as well along with a wide variety of food from fried ravoli's, stromboli's, baked ziti, chicken parm subs and italian canolis. I strive for the best customer service to go along with a great product at a reasonable price.. Every pizza is hand tossed from thin crust to thick and made to order so as long as we have it we can make it

[golfgal]

Originally Posted by Mike_1010

Thank you for all the responses, I've been doing this for over 10 years and been successful and not looking to change my receipes and style. The thing I wanted to know was specific areas that would be a good fit. Im from southern california and the only time I've been in Minnesota was 2 months ago making sure this was were my family wanted to relocate, I want a better lifestyle for my kids along with a strong school system as well as plenty of other things which is why we choose Minnesota. When I was out there around the Chanhassen, Eden Prarie, Minnetonka area I noticed that there werent many sit down comfortable pizza places. Lots of Take n Bake and just carry out n delivery joints but nowhere you can take the fam, your team whether for parties or just to hang out. I will be offering delivery as well along with a wide variety of food from fried ravoli's, stromboli's, baked ziti, chicken parm subs and italian canolis. I strive for the best customer service to go along with a great product at a reasonable price.. Every pizza is hand tossed from thin crust to thick and made to order so as long as we have it we can make it

I still say you will have a better experience in smaller town. You will find that more of the locals will be at games, supporting teams, etc. Sponsor some rec league teams, offer some good coupons and you will be very busy. If the food is good, the atmosphere is family friendly, you will do well. I said earlier, we have 2 sit down places (well 3 if you count Pizza Hut-I haven't actually been to Pizza Hut in the almost 6 years we have lived here). I have been to the one sit down place once and won't go back because the service was HORRIBLE. The other place we go on occasion because the pizza is better than anything else in town and they offer more than just pizza.

The problem is the area you are looking into isn't a "let's go get pizza after the game" type area. They are more "let's go to a fine dining establishment" after the game. They aren't areas where supporting local businesses is a priority. You need to move further out to find communities like that, places like Jordan, Belle Plaine, Delano, St. Michael/Albertville, Rogers, Rosemount, Farmington, Hastings, Northfield type places.

[GBCommenter]

Chanhassen, EP, and Minnetonka would definitely be areas with disposable income and generally family-oriented areas. Do note those areas are also very car-oriented, so my first guess would be somewhere that is visible to auto traffic and relatively easy to get to in terms of traffic patterns. I wouldn't suspect you'll have as easy a time getting the business you need otherwise. Of course, that might be similar to southern CA too, so maybe this is all something you're familiar with anyway. There is a local chain, Davanni's (www.davannis.com), that I believe is in all these cities. They're not quite the same as the concept you describe, but somewhat close. You might want to see areas they are in to get an idea of traffic flow patterns and see why they selected the locations they did select (and, incidentally, decide how close or far away from their locations you want to be).

[Mike_1010]

Thank you, I'll look into some of those areas..

[Mike_1010]

Thank you again, I love competiton and being somewhat close to it. I feel that what I have to offer will bring other customers to my location. Everyone has a different taste for pizza so I dont mind if people dont like my product as long as they've tried it im okay with that. The one thing in the restaurant business is that you cant please everyone and if you try to cater to different needs all the time you will fail.. I wont do square cut slices unless asked for them..lol.. Location with traffic is very important and being in a big shopping center with some anchors is probably what I'll look for.

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by Mike_1010

Thank you again, I love competiton and being somewhat close to it. I feel that what I have to offer will bring other customers to my location. Everyone has a different taste for pizza so I dont mind if people dont like my product as long as they've tried it im okay with that. The one thing in the restaurant business is that you cant please everyone and if you try to cater to different needs all the time you will fail.. I wont do square cut slices unless asked for them..lol.. Location with traffic is very important and being in a big shopping center with some anchors is probably what I'll look for.

For what it's worth, if I saw a pizza place in a big shopping center or strip mall I would automatically assume (unless proven otherwise) that it was not the kind of community place you describe. I would assume mall or mall-like location means franchise or chain.

I tend to agree with Golfgal's suggestions on this one.

[asitshouldbe]

You need to have good pizza to make it here, there have been quite a few pizza place's going out of business in the past few years. Totino's has been around for years and they are closing this Sunday. Good luck!

[GBCommenter]

Originally Posted by Mike_1010

Thank you again, I love competiton and being somewhat close to it. I feel that what I have to offer will bring other customers to my location. Everyone has a different taste for pizza so I dont mind if people dont like my product as long as they've tried it im okay with that. The one thing in the restaurant business is that you cant please everyone and if you try to cater to different needs all the time you will fail.. I wont do square cut slices unless asked for them..lol.. Location with traffic is very important and being in a big shopping center with some anchors is probably what I'll look for.

Mike - Embrace the Midwest and do the square cut! LOL...

I'm somewhat impartial one way or the other on the square cut...but I wish you luck in general. As I suspect you know having been in the biz for 10 years - find your demographic and then find a location that matches.

[ozzie679]

Originally Posted by asitshouldbe

You need to have good pizza to make it here, there have been quite a few pizza place's going out of business in the past few years. Totino's has been around for years and they are closing this Sunday. Good luck!

How does Davanni's make it?

[uptown_urbanist]

Originally Posted by ozzie679

How does Davanni's make it?

Davanni's has been around for years. They're not exactly new to the business.

Not sure about Totino's, but I think they had a change in ownership in recent years.