Jump to content

      



























Photo

Fernwood Pizza Company


  • Please log in to reply
58 replies to this topic

#1 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 09 February 2018 - 07:33 AM

I think it's up and running regular hours now.  2009 Fernwood, right behind the Fernwood Inn (same ownership).

 

http://www.fernwoodpizzacompany.com/

 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook...acompany/about/

 

639f05ca-fpc-circlewebdark_04h05604h0560


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#2 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 09 February 2018 - 08:22 PM

Went tonight after a meeting.  Very good.  Place was buzzing with staff and customers.   We were warned before we ordered it might be up to an hour.  And it was.  But nothing good conversation and a few Hoyne's could not help pass the time on.


  • Matt R. likes this
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#3 Star Dust

Star Dust
  • Member
  • 274 posts

Posted 10 February 2018 - 12:22 AM

Went tonight after a meeting.  Very good.  Place was buzzing with staff and customers.   We were warned before we ordered it might be up to an hour.  And it was.  But nothing good conversation and a few Hoyne's could not help pass the time on.

 

Drove by it last week, and was wondering about it.  Pizza is a strange thing in the fact that so many Pizza places operate in one city at any given time.

 

And to be successful in the pizza business, you have to some how make your pizza different from all the other guys in town. And on top of that, you have to make it so good that people keep coming back.

 

I know a guy that used to own a pizza place in town. He said that it's around 700% profit because all the toppings were cheap to buy, with exception to the Cheese which costs the most. He told me he could buy a sack of flour for $8 dollars and make 60 pizza's out of that. But in the end, if your pizza isn't extraordinarily good or it doesn't have that extra something special that makes it unique....you won't be around for that long.

 

For me, Pacific Rim Pizza on Pandora about 15 years ago was the BEST thing going at the time. They made this pizza called "Porky The Greek" and Holy smokes was that a Holy Grail! It simply consisted of Ham, Black Olives, and Fetta.........nothing else. But it was LOADED! As in I watched the guy one night and he literally had to use both of his hands to hold all all the black olives he put on. And Then two hands to hold all the Fetta Cheese. and the Ham, it wasn't that cheap stuff all pre-cut into cubes. They sliced it right on sight on a meat slicer and folded it over and over on the pizza their was so much of it. 

 

Unfortunately the owners decided to retire and sell the place. It was bought by some new people who for some stupid reason decided to change everything about what made the place such a success. The Pizza was literally unrecognizable within one week. All the toppings changed, the pizza dough changed, the cheese changed etc. Within 6 months....GONE. out of business.

 

Lesson to be learned.....Don't fix what isn't broken when taking over an successful eatery.



#4 Matt R.

Matt R.

    Randy Diamond

  • Member
  • 7,861 posts

Posted 10 February 2018 - 12:37 AM

20kg sack of flour is about $21 now, more if you get the 00 caputo.

Matt.

#5 Star Dust

Star Dust
  • Member
  • 274 posts

Posted 10 February 2018 - 01:04 AM

20kg sack of flour is about $21 now, more if you get the 00 caputo.

Matt.

 

Well the guy I knew.....this was going back probably over 10 years ago. So he was paying 8 Bucks a sack back then. Prices have gone up as they always do.



#6 Mike K.

Mike K.
  • Administrator
  • 83,155 posts

Posted 10 February 2018 - 07:37 AM

Almost 20 years ago now!

I used to frequent Pacific Rim back in the day. It was indeed awesome.

Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.


#7 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 10 February 2018 - 08:03 AM

I ordered a medium pepp and mushrooms.  $15 and I was unable to finish it.  I ran into Mike C. who I think is one of the owners and executive chef (for the Inn and Pizza?).  Anyway, he was keeping the staff motivated and on track.  


  • Matt R. likes this
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#8 johnk

johnk
  • Member
  • 1,608 posts

Posted 11 February 2018 - 11:29 AM

I know 2 people had pizza businesses. They said it was a tough buck to make, fierce competition. BTW the Domino's on Foul Bay at OB Ave has been delivering by electric bike since opening. Good move butnot-so-good pizza IMO.
  • VicHockeyFan likes this

#9 Bob Fugger

Bob Fugger

    Chief Factor

  • Member
  • 3,190 posts
  • LocationSouth Central CSV

Posted 11 February 2018 - 05:48 PM

I ordered a medium pepp and mushrooms.  $15 and I was unable to finish it.  I ran into Mike C. who I think is one of the owners and executive chef (for the Inn and Pizza?).  Anyway, he was keeping the staff motivated and on track.  

Michael Colwill is the General Manager of both the Fernwood Inn and Fernwood Pizza Company.  The Executive Chef is James Wolfe, most recently (i.e., pre-2007) of Sauce Restaurant.

 

Tonight marks the debut for both a rotating daily special and ice cream service.  Rotating beer taps have been there from the start and pizza by the slice started last week.  Hours have been extended to Sun-Thus 3-8PM, Fri & Sat 3-9PM.  Lunch service will begin hopefully by the end of the month.  Delivery by electric assist bike, which was envisioned in planning, may/may not happen by summer.  Logistics of it are not simple.  20ish seats inside with another 20-25 covered patio spaces, weather permitting.



#10 lanforod

lanforod
  • Member
  • 11,232 posts
  • LocationSaanich

Posted 11 February 2018 - 08:23 PM

^ yeah, they bought a bunch of Juiced U350 bikes. Those things are awesome.


  • VicHockeyFan likes this

#11 Mike K.

Mike K.
  • Administrator
  • 83,155 posts

Posted 12 February 2018 - 08:16 AM

Michael Colwill is the General Manager of both the Fernwood Inn and Fernwood Pizza Company.  The Executive Chef is James Wolfe, most recently (i.e., pre-2007) of Sauce Restaurant.

 

Tonight marks the debut for both a rotating daily special and ice cream service.  Rotating beer taps have been there from the start and pizza by the slice started last week.  Hours have been extended to Sun-Thus 3-8PM, Fri & Sat 3-9PM.  Lunch service will begin hopefully by the end of the month.  Delivery by electric assist bike, which was envisioned in planning, may/may not happen by summer.  Logistics of it are not simple.  20ish seats inside with another 20-25 covered patio spaces, weather permitting.

 

Fugger's back!

 

I'll have to check this place out. If there's one thing I wouldn't dare give up it's pizza...


  • Matt R. likes this

Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.


#12 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 12 February 2018 - 08:19 AM

Michael Colwill is the General Manager of both the Fernwood Inn and Fernwood Pizza Company.  The Executive Chef is James Wolfe, most recently (i.e., pre-2007) of Sauce Restaurant.

 

Tonight marks the debut for both a rotating daily special and ice cream service.  Rotating beer taps have been there from the start and pizza by the slice started last week.  Hours have been extended to Sun-Thus 3-8PM, Fri & Sat 3-9PM.  Lunch service will begin hopefully by the end of the month.  Delivery by electric assist bike, which was envisioned in planning, may/may not happen by summer.  Logistics of it are not simple.  20ish seats inside with another 20-25 covered patio spaces, weather permitting.

 

What percentage of orders would be delivery for a place like FPC?  Or is it too early to tell?  What's the delivery radius?

 

I bet the logistics of the bike delivery are tricky.  But I also bet at the same time if you had a guy or gal that was a real keener (these are very few and far between to find), they would make that thing pay returns big time.  If this keener knew that every time they rode up a street they were quite literally a roving billboard for the company.  Like an ice cream truck.  Let's face it, the closer your deliveries are, the more efficient your delivery operation is.


Edited by VicHockeyFan, 12 February 2018 - 08:22 AM.

<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#13 Bob Fugger

Bob Fugger

    Chief Factor

  • Member
  • 3,190 posts
  • LocationSouth Central CSV

Posted 12 February 2018 - 08:34 AM

What percentage of orders would be delivery for a place like FPC? Or is it too early to tell? What's the delivery radius?

I bet the logistics of the bike delivery are tricky. But I also bet at the same time if you had a guy or gal that was a real keener (these are very few and far between to find), they would make that thing pay returns big time. If this keener knew that every time they rode up a street they were quite literally a roving billboard for the company. Like an ice cream truck. Let's face it, the closer your deliveries are, the more efficient your delivery operation is.


We’ve definitely had inquiries. When I helped business plan this back in 2015, I printed up a map of Victoria and pinned all of our competitors. It became obvious that all of the pizza places that served Fernwood were on its periphery or beyond. FPC is smack in the middle of pizza no man’s land. So using that as a guide, I would assume our borders would be Hillside, Pandora, Cook & Oak Bay Ave? Sorry, not looking at a map right now.

The problem with deliveries is that you have to staff accordingly for it. If you overstaff - which you will a lot of nights- you’re wasting labour. If you understaff and pizzas take 90-120 minutes to deliver, you’re wasting customer goodwill.

As it stands at the moment, we don’t really need the delivery business. Neighbourhood support and therefore sales have been amazing thus far. We sell out constantly. Early on that was a function of being new and figured out par levels, but last night, for example, we made enough dough for a typical Saturday night, given that it was the Sunday of a long weekend. We ran out of Mediums and Larges by 6:45PM and Smalls by 7:10PM. I suspect that might be partially a function of Standard Pizza taking a long weekend themselves. I do think that we benefit from their limited hours, as I would say that they are our closest competitor, in terms of ingredient quality, dough and target market.

#14 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 12 February 2018 - 08:45 AM

When I was young I did pizza delivery - for one shift.  Ya, you need to find stuff for the drivers to do while not out.  Skip the Dishes might be a solution to that problem, their guys are like Uber, they do not get paid while they wait for calls.

 

Or you could have stationary bikes hooked to electric generators, so they ride the bikes to keep the lights on, or feed back to the grid when not on a call.


<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

#15 Bob Fugger

Bob Fugger

    Chief Factor

  • Member
  • 3,190 posts
  • LocationSouth Central CSV

Posted 12 February 2018 - 08:57 AM

When I was young I did pizza delivery - for one shift. Ya, you need to find stuff for the drivers to do while not out. Skip the Dishes might be a solution to that problem, their guys are like Uber, they do not get paid while they wait for calls.

Or you could have stationary bikes hooked to electric generators, so they ride the bikes to keep the lights on, or feed back to the grid when not on a call.


Definitely something we considered. I confess that I fail to understand the economics of Skip the Dishes - they charge a delivery fee to the customer and then take 25-35% of the cost of the menu item from the restaurant. We all know how narrow margins are. Every delivery item would be a loss leader. I also understand that the local STD rep is pushy and unpleasant, much like my run in with the Open Table rep was. I’m detecting a theme.

We were hoping to hook up with Accio - they mark the menu item up for the customer and then only takes 5% from the restaurant. Unfortunately for us, Accio decided to stop taking on new restaraunt clients to focus on their new The Kitchen concept right as we opened. We were prepared to hook up with them.

#16 Bob Fugger

Bob Fugger

    Chief Factor

  • Member
  • 3,190 posts
  • LocationSouth Central CSV

Posted 12 February 2018 - 08:58 AM

Or you could have stationary bikes hooked to electric generators, so they ride the bikes to keep the lights on, or feed back to the grid when not on a call.


I mean personally I prefer ERGs, as rowing in servitude just seems that much more Biblical (I am rather old school in that respect). But I like how you think.

#17 Bob Fugger

Bob Fugger

    Chief Factor

  • Member
  • 3,190 posts
  • LocationSouth Central CSV

Posted 12 February 2018 - 09:02 AM

Fugger's back!

I'll have to check this place out. If there's one thing I wouldn't dare give up it's pizza...


Not sure if the worldwide HQ of VV/Citified is looking for a new home, but there’s a lovely little brand new office space for rent in the building just behind the pizza co., featuring end-of-trip cycling facilities and a neighbourhood sporting a caffe, pubstyle restaurant, irascible South African grocer, yoga studio, hair salon, kilt shop and more.

#18 Mike K.

Mike K.
  • Administrator
  • 83,155 posts

Posted 12 February 2018 - 09:16 AM

Thanks for the info.

 

I'm not sure why your posts need to be moderator approved. I have no idea why that's happening. Bear with me for a little bit.


Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.


#19 Mike K.

Mike K.
  • Administrator
  • 83,155 posts

Posted 12 February 2018 - 09:16 AM

Ok, I think the problem may be solved. Can you check?


Know it all.
Citified.ca is Victoria's most comprehensive research resource for new-build homes and commercial spaces.


#20 VicHockeyFan

VicHockeyFan
  • Suspended User
  • 52,121 posts

Posted 12 February 2018 - 09:23 AM

What the hell is that building going up behind the Fernwood parking lot?
<p><span style="font-size:12px;"><em><span style="color:rgb(40,40,40);font-family:helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">"I don’t need a middle person in my pizza slice transaction" <strong>- zoomer, April 17, 2018</strong></span></em></span>

You're not quite at the end of this discussion topic!

Use the page links at the lower-left to go to the next page to read additional posts.
 



0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users