When Nancy and Jeff Roskin moved from Connecticut to Scottsdale, Arizona, they felt the pizza of their new house left one thing to be desired. In order that they made their very own.
“We made up our minds to open up for the reason that pizza right here used to be disgusting,” says Nancy, a straight-talking East Coaster who labored as a paralegal and an inside dressmaker sooner than changing into a restaurateur. “The meals total used to be nice, however the pizza wasn’t any just right in any respect. The realm wanted a just right pizza eating place. We didn’t transfer out right here to open a cafe. We didn’t transfer with that during thoughts.”
In June 2000, 3 Tomatoes & a Mozzarella used to be born. In spite of the truth the Roskins didn’t have eating place possession enjoy below their belts (Jeff used to be in actual property, even though he had owned companies prior to now), they knew a just right pizza could be welcome in Scottsdale.
“We employed a specialist to get us began and that used to be a profitable funding,” says Nancy. “And we had a marvelous chef. She used to be 24 and we were given her from the Scottsdale Culinary Institute. She used to be a up to date graduate and she or he ran the eating place. She used to be superior.”
Sadly, the chef grew uninterested in the lengthy hours this {industry} calls for and moved on. “She sought after to have a existence,” Nancy explains. “It’s the character of this trade that you must paintings numerous hours, but there’s numerous down time, too. And you’ve got to be right here on nights and weekends and vacations.” “You must be open when everybody else is off paintings,” Jeff provides. “That’s probably the most diffi cult issues about foodservice.”
Just like the Roskins, the pizza recipe at 3 Tomatoes & a Mozzarella in reality got here from Connecticut. Understanding they sought after a product very similar to what they used to consume again at the East Coast, the Roskins made up our minds there used to be no sense looking to mirror a longtime style thru timeconsuming trial and mistake. As a substitute, they opted to buy recipes and procedures from a grasp baker in Hartford.
“He helped us create our pizza,” says Jeff. “We paid him $5,000 and he gave us our dough recipe and taught us find out how to make it.” The dough is some distance from the one factor made in-house. In truth, except in reality boiling down tomatoes into sauce, the whole lot at 3 Tomatoes & a Mozzarella is scratch made. Certain, it’s hard work in depth. However it additionally supplies the eating place with a high quality symbol and a direct level of distinction from different eateries.
“We in reality do make the whole lot in our shops,” Nancy says. “I wouldn’t have it another means. We make our personal breads, even: focaccia, sandwich bread, wholewheat crust. The whole thing. We make our personal cannoli shells, tiramisu and cupcakes, too.”
For the sauce, the three Tomatoes kitchen body of workers begins with canned beaten tomatoes and makes additions to it from there. “We make two other sauces,” says Nancy. “Our Margherita is a conventional sauce and our Neapolitan is a chunkier tomato sauce.”
The menu at 3 Tomatoes covers the bases however is some distance from exhaustive. As a result of the whole lot is made in dwelling, Jeff says it’s necessary to not move overboard with the decisions. Too many choices, he explains, would merely be too taxing at the kitchen team.
“After we fi rst opened, we didn’t need to have any pasta in any respect,” he says. “We simply sought after to do upscale pizza, panini and salads. It’s now not in reality our center of attention, and we didn’t essentially have the entire apparatus to drag off a bigger menu. However we ultimately broke down and created fi ve pastas — and so they all promote rather well. We additionally perform a little soups now, too. Selfmade, after all.”
Provides Nancy: “I’m in reality fussy about what I serve. I received’t serve what I received’t consume, and I received’t consume processed meals.” Does the three Tomatoes buyer base know the lengths the Roskins and their body of workers undergo to menu really recent meals? “A few of them do,” says Jeff. “The longtime shoppers who’ve been coming in for years now and who we’ve gotten to understand have a horny just right thought.”
Nancy consents, however provides that “I don’t assume maximum of our shoppers understand the level of what we undergo, in reality. I imply, it’s imaginable to shop for the whole lot premade and run a cafe with out ever having to make anything else your self. It’s disgusting, and there are many puts that do this.”
So, why now not inform that “high quality” tale on their menus? It’s one thing Jeff admits he’d cherish to do, however the distinctive bodily dimension of the three Tomatoes menu and the surprisingly dear menu holders they use leaves little house for anything else rather then the nuts and bolts of meals pieces, descriptions and value.
“I’d love to be inventive and let other folks know our tale,” he says. “And I believe that’s one thing other folks really revel in studying. However we’ve were given nowhere to place anything else like that. We paid $50 every for those (menu holders), so we’re going to be the usage of them for moderately a while. Perhaps I’ll do a print out someday to inform our tale that means, one thing I may insert into the menu.”
Nancy says she’d like so as to add extra pastas to the three Tomatoes & a Mozzarella menu as a result of they transfer so smartly. It’s a distinction to the early days of operating the eating place, when The united states used to be locked in a short-lived love affair with a low-carbohydrate vitamin.
“The low-carb craze lasted all of 3 months,” Nancy laughs. “I’m satisfied it didn’t move on any further, as a result of some other folks had been in reality entering it and numerous pizza and pasta eating places were given fearful. I consider other folks including all varieties of low-carb pieces to their menu and serving such things as crust-less pizza and sandwiches without a bread. It’s now not what we’re about and now not the best-tasting factor, so we didn’t get an excessive amount of into it. We added a few issues that may meet that call for if shoppers requested for it, however that simply wasn’t one thing we had been in reality going to get into.”
These days, as is all the time the case when the economic system sours, pasta gross sales are robust industry-wide. However don’t search for 3 Tomatoes so as to add a brand new lineup of them any time quickly. There’s that loss of menu house placing over the Roskins heads. Plus, they need to stick true to their authentic streamlined idea. “I so respect In-N-Out Burger for what they’re ready to do,” Nancy says of the West coast chain that provides simplest burgers, fries and milkshakes. “They maintain it easy and so they’re unbelievably busy.” 3 Tomatoes & a Mozzarella is busy as smartly. But even so the Scottsdale location and every other company-owned retailer in close by Peoria, a franchised retailer in Las Vegas is bustling.
“They’re busy up there in Vegas,” Nancy says. “I assumed it could take slightly longer to construct it up, as a result of they’re in an underdeveloped house. However they’re doing $20,000 per week in gross sales.”
Issues are so just right {that a} 2d Sin Town location will open quickly in North Las Vegas. In the meantime, the Roskins are searhing for a purchaser for his or her first franchised location, which opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and did smartly sooner than the franchisee closed it. “It used to be our fififi rst undertaking into franchising and we’ve discovered so much from it,” says Jeff. “We simply didn’t have the best individual in position. He looked like a just right fififififi t, he used to be younger and ran the shop smartly at first. That retailer had gross sales over $800,000, however he were given uninterested in it and sought after to transport directly to one thing else.” The Roskins are in a position to get that retailer again on line, and so they’re additionally excited to debut a brand new idea they have got within the works, 3 Tomatoes Pronto. It’s a scaled-down, counterservice model of the present 3 Tomatoes & a Mozzarella logo.
“That’s the place the fad goes in eating places at this time,” explains Jeff. “It may be constructed out for much less cash, which makes it more uncomplicated to franchise or to provide marketplace construction programs.
Clearly, the fewer it prices, the extra you’ll promote.”
Jeremy White is editor-in-chief at Pizza These days.
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