Pizzeria da Laura proprietor’s dream a very long time coming

Laura Meyer minimize her enamel within the pizzeria business. Operating for acclaimed pizza Chef Tony Gemignani since she was once an adolescent, Meyer is the proud proprietor of Pizzeria da Laura, which opened in March 2023, in downtown Berkeley, California, a block clear of UC Berkeley.

Laura Meyer. Picture: Pizzeria da Laura

It is been a protracted street to proudly owning her personal eating place. She went to paintings for Gemignani full-time following faculty in 2011, conserving a kitchen supervisor place at Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco. She moved round in Gemignani’s manufacturers, operating as a regional chef and as a instructor in Gemignani’s pizza college.

But it surely was once whilst collaborating in a focaccia pop-up out of doors the eating places, all over the pandemic, that she started to actually believe opening her personal eating place. The pandemic was once a slower time, so she had the risk to go searching for a location, selecting a 5,000-square-foot development.

“It indisputably developed through the years,” Meyer mentioned in a telephone interview. “In the beginning when I used to be occupied with it, it was once going to be tremendous small, it was once going to be manageable. It did not wish to be grand. After which as I began taking a look at places, and hire and simply factoring in all of the issues, it indisputably grew into what it’s as of late.”

The eating place has 120 seats and serves a number of pizza types.

At the menu

The place Meyer made up our minds to place right here eating place, pan-style pizza did not exist, so she had the marketplace cornered.

“The place I used to be, it simply made sense to function the issues that I used to be absolute best at, and that was once the pan types, and do it in some way that was once slightly bit other,” Meyer defined. Visitors can select their crust genre from a number of pan types, in addition to toppings.

Maximum eating places handiest be offering a couple of sorts of pizza, however Pizzeria da Laura provides Grandma, Detroit-style, Sicilian and New York.

“In my subject there may be a large number of pizza, however there is not any pizza like mine,” Meyer mentioned. “Nobody’s doing pan genre pizzas. Everybody’s doing their model of a spherical New York pie. Having pan types actually units me aside as a result of it is one thing that no one else has. The truth that I be offering a couple of genre but in addition that mix ‘n match possibility (of toppings), it attracts other people in as a result of there may be choices for everyone. … I would like with the intention to be offering selection.”

Meyer mentioned Sicilian and Detroit are the highest promoting pizza types. Maximum the entirety is made in area, from dough to sauces. Greens are minimize on-site. She tries to supply as a lot in the community, or a minimum of from California, as imaginable, and makes use of Corto olive oil and Stanislaus tomatoes as a result of they are each from the state. Even the beer program makes use of California breweries over the large names. (The eating place has a complete liquor license.)

“The Bay-area people are very acquainted with top quality and just about having what they would like to be had to them always,” Meyer mentioned. “That crowd is usually a little difficult, however they love the thicker-crust pizza. I promote out of that genre pizza virtually on a daily basis.”

For events and big orders, the New York-style is all the time a success as a result of it may feed a crowd. “You get slightly extra bang in your dollar in that sense,” she added.

Pizzas are baked in electrical deck ovens.

Picture: Pizzeria da Laura

Operations

Now that the eating place has reached its first 12 months of operations, Meyer mentioned she maintains consistency through being on website on a daily basis.

“By means of me being right here on a daily basis and dealing with my workforce, it implies that I am instructing them no longer simply tips on how to make the pizza but in addition the finer information about cooking (and) about stretching. I am looking to educate them first hand no longer simply what my expectancies are however in truth tips on how to make and prepare dinner nice pizza.”

When staff reduce to rubble an order, Meyer would quite have the workers make the order once more and be told from their errors quite than push out unhealthy pizza or the fallacious product. ‘Ensuring they are hanging out the proper high quality is indisputably an emphasis for me, whether or not they’ve to remake it or no longer,” she mentioned.

Demanding situations

The bodily construct out of the eating place went easily, however Meyer had selected a development with a large number of the paintings already carried out. She simply needed to make it hers, equivalent to development the bar.

Staffing has been Meyer’s greatest problem, similar to different restaurateurs. “Ensuring we are development the proper workforce with the proper personalities — discovering the individuals who care is difficult,” she mentioned, “and no longer simply who care however who’ve the proper {qualifications}.”

Discovering the proper control and retaining them has been particularly tough, Meyer mentioned.

“There is simply no longer a large number of individuals who need to paintings on this industry anymore, particularly in terms of higher control,” she added. “It is been exhausting to seek out control, so I have been doing a large number of it by myself.”

Coaching is essential, and Meyer mentioned it is the handiest means to verify longevity within the business.

The pizzeria engages with consumers up to imaginable whether or not it is by the use of social media or thru eating place critiques. Meyer responds to each and every eating place evaluate left for the logo. Individuals who widespread her eating place need to really feel hooked up, and tasty with consumers is crucial.

“Individuals who are available in to this eating place do not notice there is a actual ‘Laura’ in the back of Pizzeria da Laura,” Meyer mentioned. “It is not only a identify. There is a actual particular person operating in the back of this, and I believe other people actually gravitate towards that.”

Recommendation

Now that she’s were given years of operating within the pizzeria business, Meyer mentioned she would counsel somebody pondering of opening their very own store to first in truth paintings within the industry through getting a role at a pizzeria.

“There is such a lot to this this is unseen to the buyer’s standpoint, and it isn’t simply the hours of operating,” she mentioned. “There are hours ahead of the eating place is even open.

“There is the folks part of operating along with your workforce and what that involves. There are such a lot of transferring portions to a cafe, without reference to whether or not it is a small slice store or a full-service eating place, that the general public does not see. You actually need to have your middle on this if you wish to do that and achieve success.”