2010 Independent Pizzeria of the Year, Tutta Bella

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2010 Independent Pizzeria of the Year:Tutta Bella

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Since it showcases our annual Independent Pizzeriaof the Year, I always carry a little extra enthusiasm forour August issue. After all, running an independentpizza business to the highest of standards and successlevels is the crux of what Pizza Today is all about.

That said, it is with great pleasure that I introduceto our readers the 2010 Independent of the Year:Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria in Seattle, Washington.Founded in 2004 by former Starbucks executive JoeFugere, Tutta Bella was the first pizzeria in the Pacific

Northwest to receive certification from theAssociazione Verace Pizza Napoletanta

(VPN), the watchdog that ensuresits American pizzeria members

live up to the traditions andstandards of the original pizzacrafted centuries ago in Naples,Italy. I have personally visitedTutta Bella four different times

over the years, and Ive neverleft any of the companys four

locations without feeling absolutely

blown away by the superior food quality,service, attention to detail, ambiance you

name it. This might well be the perfect pizzeria.

Seattle residents obviously agree. Tutta Bella willtop $10 million in sales this year.

To learn more about Tutta Bella and what makesit so special, see our coverage beginning on page 58.If you take nothing else away from this issue, dontfail to absorb Fugeres passion for his business andthe way he has set it up to succeed by demandingexcellence in every facet of it. By cultivating atalented staff and then empowering it, he has fostered

an environment in which every employee takesownership and works to ensure customer satisfactionremains high. Fugere doggedly pursues perfectionfrom every angle, ranging from the wine list or theway an espresso is pulled to the way the cornizione(the pillowy rim of the finished crust) must lookbefore the kitchen can send a pizza out to a table.But while hes driven by excellence, hes inspired andguided by authenticity. Essentially, he wants tore-create the quintessential Neapolitan experience inhis four Seattle pizzerias each and every day. Its a lofty

bar, and Tutta Bella reaches it.

Congratulations to Fugere and the rest of hisstaff. Youll meet many of them in the pages of thisissue. People like executive chef Brian Gojdics;beer, wine and spirits manager R.C. Jennings; coffeeprogram manager Jeff Perini; director of operations

Joyce Morinaka; training program manager KelliPhelan; sustainability program manager Erik Cainand facilities program manager Jamie Sprott. Thesepeople are at the forefront of one of the nations mostsuccessful operations, and Pizza Today is proud to

cover their success stories.

Best,

Jeremy White, [email protected]

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The Neapolitan Way


3/1358 Pizza Today www.pizzatoday.com AUGUST 2010

e RealingOur 2010 Independent of the Year Tutta BellaNeapolitan Pizzeria in Seattle is as authentic as it gets

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By Jeremy White

Photos by Josh Keown

Joe Fugere effortlessly stridesthrough the open kitchen at theWestlake location of his four-storeindependent operation, Tutta BellaNeapolitan Pizzeria. Weve been with

him for an entire day in Seattle, drivingaround the city and visiting each ofFugeres stores, which will collectivelytop $10 million in sales this year. Thehighlight reel has been seeminglyendless: Tutta Bellas employees haveimpressed us with their knowledgeand passion; the lengths Fugere goes toin an effort to ensure authenticity andquality dazzles us; the beauty and effi-ciency of the stores are indisputable. Nowonder we named Tutta Bella the 2010

Independent of the Year!Fugere watches as Executive Chef

Brian Gojdics plates a Margherita piefor our cameras. It looks perfect, andFugere proudly points out the crustsdefining characteristics: flame-black-ened blisters on the cornicione, a creditcard-thin center, a patina of crunchwhen you bite into it, which yields toa light, fluffy interior. It all starts withthe pillowy crust the cornicione explains Fugere. Thats where mostimposters go wrong.

Were storytellers here at TuttaBella, asserts Fugere. Pizza is aboutsharing, about coming together oversomething simple, yet wonderful.There are so many stories to tell ourcustomers: about the crust, about thetraditions of Naples or Italian culture ingeneral, about the ingredients that gointo our pizzas.

We want and encourage our

people our servers, our baristas, ourbartenders to understand and sharewith customers these great stories. Theyprovide context and enrich the experi-ence. They give our customers a betterunderstanding of what theyre eatingand what it is thats so great about it.

Gojdics is quick to chime in with astory about the essential elements ofTutta Bellas Regina Margherita: Its aclassic, he says. The ingredients arefresh, honest, simple. Were using fresh

mozzarella, fresh basil, tomatoes thatare grown in the richest soils in theworld.

Joe Fugere

Owner, Tutta Bella



A truly authentic Neapolitan pizza

is a thing of unmistakable beauty,

and Fugere instantly recognized

that the first time he had one. Itwas a defining moment in the affableentrepreneurs life at the time he wasan executive at Seattle-based Starbucks,

a high-profile and rewarding job fromwhich one does not easily walk away.

While the intense flavors of Nea-politan pizza made Fugeres taste budsgiddy, there was more to it than that.

Above all, he was inspired by the pas-sion and historical importance of thepizza scene in Naples, Italy. Touchedby that passion, Fugere set out to fullyreplicate it, in earnest, with his ownpizza concept in the Jet City.

For help along the way, the TuttaBella founder turned to the Associazi-one Verace Pizza Napoletana (VPN), agroup that certifies Neapolitan pizzeriasthroughout the world and verifies theauthenticity of their products. In 2004,Tutta Bella opened its first location andbecame the first VPN-certified pizzeriain the Pacific Northwest.

Its an art and a science at the same

time, Gojdics says of cooking Neapoli-tan pizza. At Tutta Bella, the pies arebaked in a wood-burning oven at 800 Ffor roughly 90 seconds. You dont havemuch of a margin of error. You can turnyour head, then turn back and see thatyou have burned three pizzas.

Gojdics says one of his most impor-tant functions is to stay focused onauthentic Neapolitan pizza. At TuttaBella, authenticity isnt a buzzword its a mandate.

But theres more to Brian and hisposition than that, says Fugere. Healso has the responsibility to developpeople. Hes a leader, and it shows. Hesresponsible for cultivating people andinstilling in them our culture.

Therein lies the mastery that epito-mizes Fugere. An effective leader anddeft at delegation, he is an unrivaledtalent developer. He sets lofty goalsfor his employees, but then supportsthem by arming them with the toolsthey need to succeed. Case in point arethe coveted Italian tours he sends staffmembers on annually. Sure, Fugereexpects his baristas to be authorities on

the art of the Italian espresso so hesends them to Italy to tour coffee plantsand meet with the manufacturer of theespresso machine used at Tutta Bella.He sends Gojdics and other membersof the kitchen staff to see the flour milland the tomato harvest and taste pizza

in Naples; he sends his wine programmanager to the Italian vineyards wherethe grapes that will end up in the winesserved at Tutta Bella are cultivated.These tours are immersive and edu-cational and they create plenty ofemployee loyalty.

Speaking of employees, Train-

ing Program Manager Kelli Phelan

has been with Tutta Bella for nearly

five years. She recently led a serversummit with the intent of bringingall our servers together to get on thesame page and make sure we haveconsistent service across all levels. Wetalked about what our expectations areand what we want each of our gueststo get out of their experience here. Wefocused on teaching them how theirservice multiplies out and how they

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impact the business with their servicein either a good or bad way. We talkedabout what it takes to be a great serverat Tutta Bella.

Phelan says Tutta Bella has approxi-mately 70 servers. These individualsare the front line ambassadors for thebrand, and their accessibility makesthem the companys primary storytell-ers. They are the people most likely to

interact at length with customers, theemployees best suited to take a minuteto tell the story about the fior di latte

Tutta Bella uses, or the Grana Padano,or the reason all employees wear a SanMarzano tomato pin on the lapels oftheir uniform.

Cultivating successful servers startsduring the interview process, saysPhelan.

The screening is very important,she says. Thats where we try to findout if they are genuinely nice people.

One of the questions I like to ask themis who they look up to, who theywould like to emulate.

Says Fugere: We use the interviewas an opportunity to educate. We giveall our applicants a free pizza cardwhen they leave the store so that theycan come in and see what the pizza islike and get a little bit of a feel for whatwere about through the product.

Phelan says the goal is to havelongevity with new hires, so its moreabout their personality than their

experience. We want it to be a good fit,because we will train them to meet ourstandards.

We want and encourage our people our servers, our baristas, our bartenders to understand and share with

customers these great stories. They provide context and enrich the experience. They give our customers a better

understanding of what theyre eating and what it is thats so great about it. - Joe Fugere

Brian Gojdics

Executive ChefKelli Phelan

Training Program Mgr.Joyce Morinaka

Director of Operations

R.C. Jennings

Spirits Program Mgr.Jamie Sprott

Facilities Program Mgr.

Erik Cain

Sustainability Program Mgr.



New hires go through an orientationin which they shadow various posi-tions, starting with the host or a busstation. Then they put on a chefs coatand stand alongside the pizza cutterbefore talking with the chef to learnmore about the products used to make

Tutta Bellas menu items.They taste a raw tomato, taste the

fresh mozzarella, says Phelan. Then,the next day is when they start theirservice training by shadowing a server.Theyll start taking tables with help onthe second day, then theyll be on theirown and get four tables on the thirdday.

In all, the entire orientation processlasts five days. At the end of each day,the new hire sits down with a manageror trainer for a meal.

Director of Operations Joyce

Morinaka is a prime example of

Tutta Bellas dedication to providing

employees with growth opportuni-

ties. After living in Italy briefly, Mori-naka started as a server at Tutta Bella. Alittle less than a year into the position,Morinaka was moved into manage-ment. Now, she oversees operations at

all four Tutta Bella stores.Im an example of our guidingprinciples, she states. Its excitingthat we can provide people with thesetypes of opportunities. Were creatingsomething really great here, and thatsexciting.

Fugere, in fact, has taken many ofthe business principles he learned atStarbucks and modified them to helpmold the culture at Tutta Bella. Whatwere trying to do here, he says, is

build a world-class company on a locallevel. We know we have a great prod-uct we have Naples to thank forthat. But above and beyond that, wehave the opportunity to build a greatcompany.

Weve adopted a lasting mentality,Fugere continues. We have a 100-yearmentality. We havent built this com-pany to sell in 10 years. Were buildinga lasting business.

Those arent hollow words, either,

says Morinaka. Fugere is dedicated tothe long-term success of his businessthrough investing in the long-term suc-

cess of his employees and custom-ers in the community. Since Morinakashares Fugeres passion for communityinvolvement and charitable events, ithas fallen on her plate to help overseethe companys donations.

One of the unique things about thiscompany is that we are often givenadditional roles that match our inter-ests, Morinaka says. So even thoughIm the director of operations, Im alsothe program manager for donations.

Fugere says Tutta Bella never says noto a request from the Seattle commu-nity. Its all part of the aforementioned100-year mentality. And that, saysMorinaka, is part of what makes thecompany remarkable.

Joes feeling of generosity is reallytouching, she says. We dont have anadvertising budget. We get involved inthe community instead. Our ColumbiaCity store is in a true inner-city neigh-borhood. You dont see many of thoseany more. Its fun to get involved withthe neighbors, to bring the kids in and

do tours with them or to donate pizzasor $40 gift cards to schools. Every timewe build a Tutta Bella, the donationprogram is a big part of it from the verybeginning.

As you may have noticed, thephrase program manager is used

a lot at Tutta Bella. It goes back toFugeres employee development anddelegation prowess. Though handson, Fugere fully capitalizes on thestrength of his key people by reward-ing them with a chance to showcasetheir own entrepreneurial talents. TuttaBella doesnt simply serve espresso, forexample it has a dedicated coffeeprogram with its own manager. Ditto

for other areas of the operation.Meet Jeff Perini. Hes responsible for

the coffee program, which accounts fora surprisingly significant percentage ofTutta Bellas sales. Since each Tutta Bellaalready has a coffee bar where profes-sional baristas hand-pull fresh espres-sos, it makes sense that this portion of

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the business could be used to attractrevenue during a daypart that doesnt

traditionally find a pizzerias doors opento the public.

Weve got employees here in themorning anyway, and we have thisgreat coffee bar, and were located rightin the middle of neighborhoods andcommuter zones, so it really seemedlike a good fit to open in the morningduring the breakfast shift, says Perini.It has worked out really well. We havequite a few people stop in for theirmorning coffee and maybe a biscotti

before work. Weve managed to trans-form what would be a dead period intoanother source of revenue.

Since the coffee bar at the ColumbiaCity store is housed in a separate roomadjacent to the main dining area andhas its own external entrance, Fugerehung an Attibassi espresso sign to givethe appearance that a standalone coffeeshop exists next to Tutta Bella.

I think it gives it a nice feel, almostlike a separate business, he explains.

Having its own door really helps,because we can keep people fromwalking through a dark dining room on

their way in to get an espresso in themorning.

On the morning we visited, baristaGiovanni Rogano was manning the cof-fee counter. Our cameras caught himpulling espresso after espresso adroitly.He explained to us that Tutta Bellatakes great pains to be authentic to theexperience one would find in Naples.

In Italy, the drink matches the mug.So we put our espressos in a three-ounce mug, our cappuccinos in asix-ounce mug and our lattes in a nine-ounce mug, he says.

Later that night, wed find ourselvesat a different Tutta Bella bar. There,we sipped refreshing and inventivelibations and talked about their originswith Beer, Wine and Spirits ProgramManager R.C. Jennings.

Jennings has been with Tutta Bellasince nearly the beginning. He enteredthe equation as a store general man-ager and wrote the companys trainingmanual. Among other things, Jenningsis in charge of putting together Tutta

Bellas wine list, which changes twice ayear.

We also have a new wine special

every time we have a pizza special,Jennings says. In Italy, wine is food,

and its enjoyed with every meal. Wewant the experience here to be asauthentically Italian as possible, so theone thing Joe requires is that all of ourwines be Italian. What I try to do is geta good mix from every region.

When we visited Tutta Bella in Mayfor this story, Jennings had 14 wines onthe menu 10 reds and four whites.

All were priced below $40 for thebottle.

My focus the last year or so has been

Italy Accessible, Jennings explains.All the wines are $40 and under, andtheyre available by the glass. And Iwant to make it as simple as possible[to sell the wines], so I actively promoteto customers that they can taste thewines and try them if theyre inter-ested.

Jennings says he evaluates the lineupand makes changes every six months.Right now, he says, hes really focusedon building value. Since wine accounts

for 20 percent of our overall sales, wereable to really have a lot of fun with it.

For wine to be such a large part of


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the sales mix, Jennings says it takes aknowledgeable and proactive servicestaff. It all goes back to Phelans earlierassertion that the servers have a rippleeffect on the entire business.

I encourage our servers every nightto pick something about our wines to

focus on that night, says Jennings. Ifthe servers arent behind the wine, thewine wont sell.

Thats where Fugeres storytellingculture comes in. Its a simple, effec-tive way for servers to subtly educatecustomers about Tutta Bellas wineofferings. And considering that Italianwines are on the upswing in terms ofcurrent popularity, there are lots ofstories about them to be told.

I dont like to get bored, and I dontlike the servers to get bored, says Jen-nings. One of the positives is that Ivedefinitely seen a surge in the last fewyears. Italian wines are hot again.

Aside from the wine, Tutta Bella

is also known for its innovative

spirits menu. While Fugere originallyrequired that Italian grappa be usedas the base, he has since softened hisstance and allowed the use of vodka or

gin as well. Thats because he realizedwe were missing out on a lot ofoptions when we werent offeringvodka or gin, says Jennings. Still, de-spite the programs expansion, Jenningssays the spirits menu that is typicallyengineered by co-worker BrandonHamlett (who could not be present forour interview) remains rooted in theItalian basics.

When we build a menu, we like tostart slow and simple and let things

expand from there, he says. Like thewines, we want our menu to be acces-sible and have people taste the drinks.

While creativity runs rampantthroughout the organization, the factof the matter is that the spirits menuallows for more experimentation thanany other avenue its ingredientsand combinations arent dictated by athird party such as the VPN. On ourvisit, which prefaced summer, the focuswas on cool, refreshing cocktails that

cleanse the palate, such as lemon andcucumber. Jennings says the inventive-ness of the wine and spirits program is

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a result of the freedom Fugere allowsHamlett and him to have.

Whenever we launch a new pro-gram, cost is never the first consid-eration, he says. First, its creativity,authenticity and simplicity.

Those were the guiding principles,as well, when Gojdics teamed witha local brewery to formulate a TuttaBella-branded beer, which was blendedspecifically to match the flavors foundin a traditional Neapolitan pizza.

Tutta Bella Amber Ale is madespecifically for us, Gojdics says. Overthe course of the last couple of years,I was always on Joe about addinganother beer. And then we started hav-ing all kinds of problems with the beerin terms of delivery. So we wanted totailor a beer specifically for us.

Gojdics found a Seattle microbreweryby accident. He explains it this way: Ipicked up a (local) magazine with KurtCobain on the cover, and in the back

I found an article about a new micro-brewery. I saw many parallels betweenus and them. Their mission statement

could have been written by us.So the chef approached the brewers

and arranged for some pairings. Whatthey discovered, says Gojdics, is thatambers pair well with Neapolitan piesbecause theyre less hoppy and moremalty. And we discovered that onething thats in this particular amber thatmay not be in others is a black malt,and that matches the roasted character-istics of the cornicione.

Tutta Bella Amber Ale went on the

menu 15 months ago, and Gojdics says,we sell a ton of it. Were very, veryhappy with it.

Truth be told, theres very l ittle if

anything going on at Tutta Bella

that its founder and employees

shouldnt be happy with. Tables turnfour times on a busy Friday night (aver-age guest experience is 90 minutes),and sales will climb to an average of$2.5 million per store by the end of

this year. When the dust settles, thatsreally what its all about building asuccessful business in a responsible,

encouraging way.Once again, enter Fugere. Responsi-

bility, accountability and sustainabilityare as important to him as authentic-ity. And just like he found a donationsadvocate in Morinaka, he has found anenvironmental steward in SustainabilityProgram Manager Erik Cain.

We like to lead by example and letpeople discover what were doing, saysFugere. Erik is a perfect example ofliving the message we send he lives

on a boat and rides a bike to work.Cains responsibilities include findingeffective ways to lessen Tutta Bellaswaste and negative impact on theenvironment. Since restaurants aresome of the largest consumers of energyand generators of waste, Cain says itsrelatively easy for a pizzeria to takesmall steps that add up to make a bigdifference.

We recycle and compost all theglass, cardboard and paper we use, he

says. Were getting very close to havingzero garbage. Another thing we noticedis that kids were going through around


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100 plastic cups and lids every fewdays. So we got a reusable kids cupwith recyclable lids.

Those are just a couple of Cainsinitiatives, but theyre already payingdividends for Tutta Bella, says Fugere.

The unexpected consequence andthe reward to some of what weredoing in terms of composting, hesays, is that composting is less expen-sive to have picked up than garbage.But youd be surprised the number ofpeople who recognize and appreciatewhat were doing.

Thats a far cry from Jamie

Sprotts ancillary appointment at

Tutta Bella.While his work as a chefin one of Tutta Bellas locations surely

attracts attention, his secondary taskof serving as the Facilities ProgramManager is one of the more thanklessgigs in the system. Lets not confuselow profile with unimportant, how-ever. Sprotts skill set saves Tutta Bellathousands of dollars annually.

Somebodys got to do it, Fugerejokes of Sprotts responsibilities. Inreality, though, its extremely importantto running a world class company.

Think about it. Whats more damag-

ing to a pizzeria than a major equip-ment failure in the middle of a dinnerrush? What does it cost to get a repaircompany in to fix the problem afterhours, on immediate notice? If theresa Jamie Sprott in the building, life getsmuch easier.

Every day I set aside a certainamount of time where I can do thingsaround the building, says Sprott.Since Im in one store, I have a con-tact person set up in each of the other

three locations that feed me informa-tion.

Sprott maintains a list of all theequipment Tutta Bella uses every-thing from large items down to lightbulbs. His database allows him toimmediately see whether an item isunder warranty and which repaircompany is best suited to quickly fixit. And, in many cases, he can fix ithimself.

We maintain 40 to 45 different ser-

vice providers, says Sprott, becausewe have a lot of specialty equipment.But Im a tinkerer and a do-it-yourself

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type of person its just my nature. SoI will fix something myself if I can. If Icant, then I make sure Im here whenthe service guy comes and I stand overhis shoulder and watch how he fixes itso that I can do it myself the next time.

Sprott and Fugere say that a proper

maintenance schedule goes a long wayas well.

Anything on the line needs to beblown out with an air compressorregularly, advises Sprott. Also, we doa bimonthly cleaning of the grease trapsand exhaust systems. For our wood-burning ovens, they need to be cleanedevery two months.

Coming up with a maintenanceschedule is important. Its really amoney-saving issue to have equipment

serviced frequently. Its much cheaperthan repairing it.

In fact, says Fugere, the FacilitiesManagement Program has reducedmaintenance costs by nearly $2,000 permonth. And as is nearly always the casewith Tutta Bella, theres an additionalfringe benefit to the program.

It affects morale, says Fugere. Youdont want to work in a place thats indisrepair, where the equipment looksbad and doesnt work. Our kitchens are

open, and were proud of what we serveand how we serve it. O

Jeremy White is editor-in-chief ofPIZZA TODAY.

For more information on Tutta Bella,

check our video interviews with Fugere

and his employees on the Video Spot at

PizzaToday.com.

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2010 Independent Pizzeria of the Year, Tutta Bella