Hello folks. I decided it's time to let everyone know about some changes coming to Fist of Flour Pizza starting in early June. Let me just say this was not an easy decision for us as we all know everyone is struggling right now. It's not all bad, however!
The good news, is that starting Wednesday June 5th, we will be reopening the Doughjo for Dinner Service only, from 4-8pm, and the following weeks, we'll be open Tuesday and Wednesdays from 4-8pm, or until we sell out, plus our regular hours Thursday through Sundays. Of course, we also run a catering business, and we will have a handful of shop closures throughout the summer months until we can bring on a few more people to manage both events and running the shop. This is our ultimate goal, but hiring has been a difficult task for us and we are still running with a skeleton crew, compared to pre Covid activities.
For those who don't know, or don't remember, back in late 2019, my father was very sick, and I had to be ready to bounce to L.A. whenever things got bad or my mom couldn't handle it alone, so we dropped Tuesdays and Wednesdays to give me a little more flexibility with my schedule. Then of course, the Covid lockdown was right on the heels of my father's passing on March 1st 2020, and well it just didn't make sense to bring back those days. I wanted to limit my staff's exposure to the public, but we solidly remained open through the worst of times without those days. And we did allright. Everyone had to order takeout or brave the world to do the weekly shopping, so we rode the wave. And what a wave it's been. Kinda like a bad year at Maverick's for the restaurant industry, but that wave has outlasted the virus. In the wake of the destruction that the Pandemic has caused in our industry (and many others), this brings me to the bad news.
I wasn't sure if I should even write this out for everyone, since we are all going out, buying stuff, driving to and from, and really feeling the economic burden placed upon us in every aspect of our lives. Everybody knows, life in the Bay Area is not cheap anymore, and Pizza, as ubiquitous as it is with its built in traditionally good margins, and relatively low food costs is also taking the hit. In case you haven't guessed where I'm going with this yet, I'm talking about the inevitable raising of our prices. Yes, I have avoided this as long as I could, we have absorbed the rising costs of our basic materials: flour, water, electricity, oil, meats and produce for the last two years. Not to mention the giveaway items like pizza boxes, parmesan and pepper flakes, and to-go containers. The last time i adjusted our prices was in January of 2022, for real. And I felt bad about that.
I sucked it up and watched 2023 become the worst year in my 14 years doing this. Let me be clear here, I did not start this business in 2010 thinking I'd make it rich, I simply love making good quality pizza in an area that really didn't, and still doesn't have too many offerings. I am not extravagant, I try to live a simple life, and somehow, some way I've survived on making pizza. Most restaurants fail within the first year, but our unique location, and what I think is a quality product has lasted for 10 years as a brick and mortar. That says something to me, and it says something about our super loyal customer base, we're doing something right here. I still want to be here!
A friend of mine who used to run a kickass food truck and had mad skills joked with me, she said I didn't know who else to call about getting some items wholesale a few months ago, she said you're the last one standing from the early 2010's. It's true, shopping at the wholesale supply place used to take extra long because there were so many people I'd run into and shoot the shit about all the things. Now, I see maybe one or two people every couple of months because everyone else has tapped out, moved on, etc.
I digress. The short of the long here is that following our expanding hours, our prices across the board will be going up, in an effort to keep us competitive, and to keep us open. Our prices will remain the same (albeit higher than now) across our online platforms, and our in house pick ups. Some restaurants have higher delivery service prices to help offset the 15-30% cuts those services take from us with every order. (YES you read that right! but read that again).
We won't do that to you. We know you love your convenience and your apps, so go ahead and keep using them if you must. Just know that these companies that provide you with that instant gratification are merely modern day grifters looking to make a fast buck for providing a service which they neither care about or contribute to. They just take, from my end and yours.
Pick up that phone in your hand and give us a call (510-531-6367), make an order for takeout. Usually it's ready within 10-20 minutes, hot and fresh, and not mishandled by an underpaid delivery driver with no hot bag, and probably as least one or two more orders they've already picked up in their car from neighboring restaurants. Why let your pie die in someone else's car?
Sincerely James Whitehead,
owner of Fist of Flour Pizza Co. LLC. 2010 till???
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