North Jersey pizza shop owner blazes new revenue trails

In North Jersey, Salvatore Reina is getting a slice of the ultra-competitive pizza market.

As the owner and operator of Francesca Pizza & Pasta , Reina knows all too well the importance of setting his business apart from the pack. With an estimated 2,000 pizzerias in New Jersey, specializing in everything from tomato pies to Sicilian pies to thin crust tavern style to deep dish slices, it can be tough space to survive.

In fact, when Reina first opened 16 years ago in Glen Rock, he wasn’t sure if it would succeed at all. “I was a 26-year-old kid, winging itFor the first three, four years, I was just trying to stay alive and I really didn’t think I knew what I was doing,” he said. “But I’ve always been a proponent of offering the best service, being kind to people and always being involved in the community.”

After graduating with a degree in business management from Stony Brook University on Long Island in 2007, Reina took a desk job at a major financial institution in Manhattan.

“I thought, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Put on a shirt and tie and go work in New York City, my older brothers did it. I was doing great and after three and a half years, I was promised this promotionThen, all of the sudden, they were like, ‘we’re going in a different direction’ and I said to myself, ‘I’m never going to let anyone ever control me again,’” Reina said.

Reina, who had worked in the restaurant industry since he was 14, decided to team up with one of his brothers, Gino, and start their own business. Named in honor of their Sicilian grandmother, Francesca serves genuine wood-burning brick oven pizza, pasta and fresh salads made to order.

Since then, Francesca has added a second shop in Elmwood Park in 2016 and has about 40+ employees across both locations.

Reina has also brought on additional partners Adam Vuksanic, Jeff Lucca and Edward Kim and successfully expanded in recent years into several new revenue streams, like dine-to-donate fundraisers, do-it-yourself pizza kits and a virtual brand.

The latest a school lunch program is expected to generate over $250,000 in annual revenue for the business, according to Reina. After piloting Francesca Lunch Box for the past two years at two schools, Reina is officially launching the offering this fall to six area schools.

Besides bringing in additional sales, Reina believes Francesca Lunch Box benefits the community by way of providing kids with wholesome meals they enjoy, making parents lives easier and giving schools a reliable partner for lunch deliveries. For the program, Francesca teamed up with SchoolBitez, an online ordering platform that allows parents to log into a dedicated portal and order their child’s meals.

When it came to developing a menu for youngsters, Reina said, “I like to say I think I know what people like. I have two kids and I’ve been serving children for over 16 years now. I also talk to a lot of moms and dads that I’m cool with about what their kids like to eat.”

“I also looked up menus from big and small companies that service schools. And then, just going by my own gut and instincts. What’s nice about the menus is that I create them month to month. So, we’ll look at the bottom two things that don’t sell as well and put two new ones in every month,” he explained.

The menu ranges from eight to 12 choices daily of freshly prepared wholesome and customizable meals that cater to a variety of dietary needs, like vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free and allergy-friendly options.

The lineup includes kid-friendly dishes like chicken fingers, pasta, pizza bagels, mac & cheese, grilled chicken quesadillas, French toast sticks, pancake bites and grilled cheese sandwiches. All meals also come with a fresh fruit or fresh vegetable on the side to help balance it out.

For Francesca Lunch Box, Reina sees an opportunity with daycare centers, preschools and private academies because most don’t have kitchens. If those institutions team up with Francesca, families there have an option to pre-order and pre-pay for the delivery of meals directly to their school.

Currently, there’s three employees assigned to handle the six participating schools. At Francesca kitchen in Elmwood Park, two workers will freshly prepare between 200 to 260 meals for an average school day.

A third employee will assist with organizing, labeling and packaging orders in specially designed boxes that can keep food at temperature for four hours. He’s also in charge of delivery, which, Reina said, will take about an hour and 40 minutes since the schools are within a 10-mile radius.

Reina and his business partners pitch in too, helping with backend logistics, communications with the schools and whatever else needs doing.

Every kid's favorite day

The idea for Francesca Lunch Box originated with partnerships the restaurant has with a few local schools to do weekly “Pizza Days” and “Pasta Days.”

“It’s been going on four about three, four yearsand it’s been going so well. We worked out whatever kinks and made some improvements. I kind of just wanted to prove that this was something here that we could do,” he explained.

When Reina pitched the idea last fall of becoming a dedicated provider of student lunch services, the staff was on board.

“It doesn’t interfere with lunch or dinner because those meals are out the door by 10-ish,” he said. “It’s just like having a big catering order every morning. So, you’re starting off that register before 11 a.m. with some money in the till.”

Last spring, the business sent out roughly 600 four-page mailers to every daycare, preschool and school in the area letting them know about the services.

From there, Reina said they received four responses and closed those deals, paving the way for Francesca to become the dedicated provider of student lunch services for six schools altogether starting in early September.

Another unique part of the program is the option for built-in fundraising. Reina explained, “We can offer it to be a daily fundraiser, whether it be for the schools, HSA, PTA or PTO. When I’m pricing the menu, I’ll ask the school, ‘Would you like to put an upcharge on it for your fundraiser?’That’s up to the school, some may do a dollar, some may do only 75 centsAt the end of the month, I’ll cut them a check for what was raised. It’s really nice for the schools to have this automatic fundraiser every day.”

At Saint Leo’s School in Elmwood Park, the Catholic elementary school’s principal, Mark Schutlz, gave a glowing review of their experience using the service.

“Francesca has consistently demonstrated a commitment to delivering high-quality and nutritious meals to our students. Their online menu is thoughtfully crafted and regularly updated, offering a diverse range of options that cater to various dietary preferences and restrictions,” he said. “The freshness and quality of the ingredients used in their preparations have always stood out, ensuring that our students receive wholesome and delicious meals.”

Eventually, Reina would love to grow the program to the point where he can work with public schools so they can offer students options that are tastier and healthier than the standard lunchroom fare.

Some third-party school lunch provider contracts typically run for the bulk of the school year, which Reina said leaves local restaurants with an opportunity. “Schools in a position like that, they may be looking for ways to cover the remaining school days. That’s an excellent way for a local business to get its foot in the door. What school wouldn’t spring for a weekly, locally catered Pizza Day for example?” he said.

Getting ghosted

Another source of revenue has been a ghost kitchen focused on Detroit-style pizza. Since Squared began two years ago, it now accounts for between 18% to 20% of annual sales.

The idea was born out of a conversation with Vuksanic about virtual concepts and whether there was a way for their business to participate in the trend. Reina suggested doing something with Detroit-style pizza, which is a deep-dish square pizza known for being crunchy and cheesy.

“And, since it’s not really a heavy presence around here, I thought we could do something with the ingredients we already have. We don’t have to add anything else to our order list it’s literally the same exact toppings and ingredients. We just needed to buy pans,” he said. “There was barely any training because the rest of the menu on Squared is items from Francesca.”

“It was the most streamlined, efficient, amazing decision we’ve ever done. And it’s brought in a really nice revenue stream for us,” he said. “It’s great because it did two things. People will walk into Francesca like, ‘Am I in the right spot?’ and grab a Francesca menu, too. It also gives something new and exciting for current customers, because it’s almost like a little secret because there’s no real signage or anything like that.”

As part of Squared’s launch, Reina said they “went heavy on social media” to get the public excited and invited influencers to come try the new pizza.

“Those have been good relationships and good networking. It’s helped spread the word. We now have more followers for Squared on Instagram than we have for Francesca,” he said.

DIY pizza kits provide another revenue source for Francesca. When in-person dining closed after the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, Francesca began offering them as a way to make take-out fun for families cooped up at home.

The $12 kit contains all the ingredients needed to make a pizza on your own dough, sauce and mozzarella cheese. Extra toppings, like pepperoni, ham, meatballs and mushrooms, can be included for an additional cost.

“We sell them day-to-day, but mostly through school fundraisers. I can say last Valentine's Day we did heart-shaped pizza kits and sold over 1,400 heart-shaped pizza kits,” Reina said. “That was awesome because for us that brought in over $15,000 just on that one fundraiser alone. That was our best yet.”

Off-premises catering also continues to be a strong revenue stream for Francesca, he said. “We deliver regularly to homes and places or venues where there is no food supplied like Knights of Columbus or VFW Halls where people have functions. We also regularly supply and donate to a shelter feeding 200-250 meals at dinner time about 3-5 times a month,” Reina said.

Reaching out

Reina is also known for his outreach. In fact, in July 2020, he was presented with a Hometown Hero award, an annual recognition by U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer for citizens that give back to their community. Reina was honored for stepping up and doing whatever he could to help frontline health care workers as well as his fellow business owners during the early days of the pandemic.

Grateful to be able to stay in business, Reina was inspired to do what he could to support other stores that could not open their doors due to New Jersey’s restrictions under the shelter-in-place order. Part of that effort included sharing menus and offerings from other local eateries on his social media pages. Reina also purchased gift certificates from them to help ease the loss of revenue and then raffled them off on his Facebook page, raising $13,000.

He then used the proceeds to purchase over 250,000 pairs of gloves for healthcare workers at nearby hospitals. Reina also donated pizzas as a way to thank them.

“My favorite community outreach is all of it,” he said. “Whether it's sponsoring youth sports teams, reading a book to the kids at elementary schools, donating gift cards to local fundraisers or feeding others in need regularly it all really means a lot to me and I always will continue to do so. There's been a lot of amazing moments over the years.”

He’s also more than willing to chat with other business owners to share ideas of programs that work and don’t work. “I’ve had pizzerias reach out asking about our school fundraisers with pasta. There was a guy in Texas who wanted to know more about our DIY pizza kits and how we did it as a fundraiser. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with him. Then, a month later, he texts me and said he sold 80-something kits for a school fundraiser. He made $10 a kit and the school made $2 off eachSo he was like, ‘This was so successful.’ I was so proud of that. What do I care if some guy in Texas wins? Why not? We can all do well, so why shouldn’t we help each other?”

Reina went on to say, “I’ve learned that the younger generation of the pizza community at these expos and shows I go to wants to share ideas and talk to each other. It’s not like back in the day in the 1970s where people were ripping off the labels of their cans before throwing it in the dumpster. I’ll tell you what cheese I use or what’s in my dough.”

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