I feel like I have a lot to talk about this week. I figured its time to sit down and pen this digital paper and catch everyone up on whats goin’ on with Fist of Flour. I’ve heard from several people that this blog is somewhat entertaining, so I will try to adhere to some sort of standards while writing. Here goes it.
We do a lot of catering, festivals and whatnot during the summer, and sometimes, when the free moment appears to sit down and blog, I’m not all there. I try to write with fluidity, which usually comes from one too many Racer 5’s. This past weekend and subsequent residual feelings of exhaustion are no exception. To answer the question of the hour, “how is the business going?” I say quite well. But it’s tough keeping up.
The Doughjo has been open for 6 months now, and our fan/customer base is consistent, and or growing just a little. We’d love to see more people buying pizzas earlier in the week, or earlier in the shift, but when you call us, our team of pizza making experts are ready to make you some pizza, no matter what. People need dinner when they need it, not necessarily when we’re ready to make it. I get that, but its kind of crazy how people all order between 6:30-7:30pm. Be forewarned, you’re not alone and there may be a little bit of a wait for your order at that time.
The biggest bit of news is that we’re excited to be featured on a local T.V. show, Food rush with chef Ryan Scott , and you can check out the episode by clicking here. The show originally aired on July 20th, and features several of our good friends in the biz, like Roland Robles of Fivetenburger, and of course, Ryan’s new sometimes KGO radio sidekick, Tina “Tamale” Ramos, plus I got to show Ryan how to make our soon to be famous, craziest pie, the Blueberry Hill! The folks at Food rush were kind enough to Post the recipe on their site, so you can try to make this one at home!
So needless to say we were pretty excited that this was happening. They came in early June to film the episode, it seems like so long ago. The crew was in our shop for a little over 4 hours on a Monday when we were closed. It’s amazing how a 5 minute segment takes so long to shoot. I heard from Tina that the editors were struggling to get the show into a 1/2 hour format. They had so much footage of good stuff it was rather difficult to squeeze all that Oakland into a tiny time slot.
Despite how it looks on screen, I was beyond nervous. I’m not talking cute little butterflies, I’m talking polyphemus moths flying up in my tummy. I spent about 30 minutes on my moustache and made sure it was perfect for my closeups! On the Sunday before, we stayed well into the night cleaning, organizing, polishing, and drinking lots of beer, which didn’t make the morning any easier. Turned out Ryan also spent the night drinking heavily, as most chefs tend to do on their nights off, but he was amazingly chipper once the cameras were rolling. He kept saying off camera, “I really need a beer this morning.” Unfortunately I was so tense and nervous I decided we would not have any beer on hand, I really wanted to keep my head clear and stay on point. I felt I had one chance to shine, so dimming my lights wasn’t happening. As soon as it was over though, we headed straight out to celebrate.
in addition to the TV show, we were also recently featured on a local food blog called Foie Gras and Funnel Cakes. You can get the whole story of my coming up as a new Pizza chef and entrepreneur right here! So I’m hoping the business will grow with all this recent buzz. I know we’re busy, but we can always be a little more busy! Come see us soon and try the Blueberry Hill!