Anika's Pizza?

[dpg]

What's the story with Anikas across from the Old Country Store in Moultonborough? Whenever I'm up their usually closed and just seem to randomly open a day or two now and then. But anyway, has anyone every tried them?

[TomC]

Originally Posted by dpg

What's the story with Anikas across from the Old Country Store in Moultonborough? Whenever I'm up their usually closed and just seem to randomly open a day or two now and then. But anyway, has anyone every tried them?

Not sure how that places stays in business with such sporadic and infrequent hours... How do they keep food fresh? Its a running joke with my wife every time we drive by there.

[thinkxingu]

I've been twice and spoke to the owners the first time I was there. They are very nice people who have struggled to find reliable help, both in terms of cooking and keeping hours, etc. I do appreciate that it's very easy to tell if their open or not and definitely feel for them as they truly care.

I don't love the pizza, but many people do—I'd totally give it a try if in the area and open.

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[adsyoung2015]

I think half their battle is not establishing consistent hours. Finding reliable help in the kitchen is like winning the lottery. Short of seasonal help, who would apply with such questionable and inconsistent hours? IMO they need to set a firm schedule people can learn and market from that. Wish them the very best, never enough pizza choices!

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by adsyoung2015

I think half their battle is not establishing consistent hours. Finding reliable help in the kitchen is like winning the lottery. Short of seasonal help, who would apply with such questionable and inconsistent hours? IMO they need to set a firm schedule people can learn and market from that. Wish them the very best, never enough pizza choices!

See my post, above—it's the opposite way around. Because they can't find reliable help, they can't set a reliable schedule.

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[adsyoung2015]

If I am not mistaken they haven't had any schedule consistency since day one. Do they have multiple businesses they are obligated to?

[thinkxingu]

They do not, but I believe they're "retired" and they have a daughter, Anika. If I remember correctly, this is a second, "fun" career that they were always interested in trying out.

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[Hawley]

We tried it last week on a Friday night. We too have been waiting to try it on a day when we are around and they would be open. We were very disappointed. We ordered at 5:30 on a Friday night, when we thought the pizza would be fresh. It was not good. Dry and looked it had been reheated. I did call and they said it had been freshly made when we called and offered us another one. We are less than 10 minutes from them, so I highly doubted that it was freshly made. Anyway, we declined their offer and threw it away. We may try again another time, but not sure.

[dpg]

Sounds like this place is pretty much a hobby for them... I'll keep driving right past.

[phoenix]

I have always wanted to try but usually when i go by its not opened. Not sure how it survives especiallyin winter. By the way Gusto’s has great pizza

[Flotnjr]

We went once about a year ago- they were open on a whim when we were driving by. Super nice people- pizza was ok. Canned garlic and mushrooms. I'd give it another try. Noticed on their new sign (not the one that says "closed today") that they are open Friday and Saturday nights. Maybe a more consistent schedule might help...

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Hawley

We tried it last week on a Friday night. We too have been waiting to try it on a day when we are around and they would be open. We were very disappointed. We ordered at 5:30 on a Friday night, when we thought the pizza would be fresh. It was not good. Dry and looked it had been reheated. I did call and they said it had been freshly made when we called and offered us another one. We are less than 10 minutes from them, so I highly doubted that it was freshly made. Anyway, we declined their offer and threw it away. We may try again another time, but not sure.

First if that was your experience, I'm sorry. I make all pizza at Anika's Pizza and I would never knowingly serve a dry Pizza. That doesn't make sense and is not in line with the normal ordering experience. Why I would say it's fresh is because I don't serve pizza that isn't fresh. However, accepting your account of this, I will explain the possibility of a few things could have happened... I might have made pizza for slices that's out there, and accidentally gave you that box instead of the box I made for you. Another thing that could have happened, which I always try to protect against, is somebody ordering a dozen or so pizzas, telling me they're going to be there at one time, but they get there an hour or so late... That happens almost every day that we are open. So the problem is, I'm constantly rotating pizzas around to keep them warm on top of the pizza oven, and sometimes a pizza from that order could get mixed up with someone else's order. That's why I always open the pizzas on the counter before handing them to someone. Even then, I wouldn't expect there to be a problem with the pizza in that short amount of time. My assumption here is that you got slices that had sat there for a while. I don't even like making pizza for slices, but we have people who want a quick bite, and slices are usually not as good after an hour or 2 in my opinion. I usually toss them and remake them, but I usually don't have slices after 5:00, so most likely these were slices that you got by accident, and they would have been fine if I had reheated them, that's the only thing I can think of.

Regardless, I don't care, if you truly had that experience, I want you to be happy. I will gladly give you your money back, and you can walk away and never have to look back again. Or I will remake your pizza and you can see why we're the best around.

[BrianD]

Without writing a book I wanted to dispel some myths, respond to some of the comments I've read here, and generally on social media, and explain a few things in general so you can understand things from my point of view.

1. We are open. Even if we are only open to the public 2 days a week, and we were to get no other orders, that's at least 20-24 hours put in those days, not including prep work, ordering, shopping, etc that occurs other days. So even if we are only open two days, we have a minimum of 30 hours a week dedicated to these 2 days, not to mention the days we work 7 days because of private events, etc. We would of course prefer to be open 7 days, but that leads to the other points...

2. Early on we would get calls for doing a certain number of pizzas for a camp order, or wedding reception, etc. the amount of pizzas and food was often equal or more than an entire day's worth of food that we would sell anyway, and you can't make 50 pizzas for an event and be open to the general public if there's only one pizza cook. So the choice was made to focus on those orders. Obviously if we're working for 4 hours to do a big event, and going to make the same money or more that we would make it for open 10 hours that day, we are going to choose 4 hours (it's capitalism). Who would choose to work more hours and make less money? There are days we do this 7 days a week even though we are only open to the public Fridays and Saturdays. We have easily put in 80 hours on weeks we were only open 2 days.

3. This is NOT a hobby for us, we purchased this 3 years ago with the intent of opening a year or two later, but due to insurance rules we had to open up within 90 days of taking occupancy of the restaurant so we weren't charged a rate for it being abandoned. We weren't ready, so we had to hurry and open up a minimum number of hours in order to be considered occupied. Then of course we've had issues with staffing, which leads to what is going on now...

Someone made a great point which I've understood the whole time, if we're not open regular hours who's going to want to work here? If I was a worker looking for a job, I wouldn't feel confident and working for someone I had no idea if they were going to continue being open. Anyway, we did open up spring of 2022, and my wife and I did this 6 days per week, working well over 70 hours per week and we did not find good staff, we opened up again spring of 2023, doing the same thing, and had the same issues with staff.... People coming in high, people not doing their job, people refusing to wear gloves, people flooding our bathroom and ruining our floors after spending thousands to remodel, leaving refrigerators open so we had to replace a few commercial refrigerators which are thousands of dollars... we just have not found the right people.

Ultimately, me and my wife ended up working full time 6 days a week at the restaurant, a few months the past few years, and sorry, unhappy wife does mean unhappy life. So we do it we can handle, which is two full days with the public, and the rest of the week open for various events and private orders. So, again, this was never a hobby, it was the expectation we would work lunches and dinners and hire staff to be here other times. We preferred working lunches to meet locals, when we were doing lunches on weekdays we had the best times with regular locals, rather than the rush of weekend evenings. Unfortunately, no staff, we have to focus on the days that makes us the most money, which is Friday and Saturday, and focus the rest of the week doing the things that make us the most money, which is private events and deliveries. Again, it's capitalism and good business to focus on what makes the most money.

4. Whenever I see someone commenting about food freshness, honestly it just seems like a joke. We literally have a big truck pulling in front of our restaurant every Friday and by Saturday evening we are usually out of most things, unless we place a bigger order for camp or event orders during the week. Also, Pizza is literally refrigerated cheese, dough, and sauce, so I don't understand the mention of freshness, all the toppings come frozen, and we buy fresh basil every week. So I really do not get the question about freshness at all. We don't sell sushi or arugula, or whatever some new residents might be used to in their home state... Though I do like the idea of adding arugula to one of our pizzas. The point is, food never lasts longer than a week for us, we do extremely well when open, and it's always difficult for us to keep up and by Saturday evening we are exhausted and have to start over and place an order again for the following week... Either way, it's literally Frozen or refrigerated, so the freshness comments or without both merit, and any sort of logical reasoning.

Try our restaurant or not, but don't not try it because of assumptions.

[thinkxingu]

Brian, thanks for the info and clarification—it seems a consistent sticking point here, and in conversations with others in my association, is your schedule. Maybe it's worth posting a sign indicating "opened Fridays and Saturdays" outside?

I know Google has your hours (I just checked) but hadn't before because we were so used to random open signs when driving past.

I'm jazzed to hear you're doing well otherwise!

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[Biggd]

No easy task running any small business today, lots of hours don't always equate to a good hourly pay.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by thinkxingu

Brian, thanks for the info and clarification—it seems a consistent sticking point here, and in conversations with others in my association, is your schedule. Maybe it's worth posting a sign indicating "opened Fridays and Saturdays" outside?

I know Google has your hours (I just checked) but hadn't before because we were so used to random open signs when driving past.

I'm jazzed to hear you're doing well otherwise!

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It's funny you say that, I literally changed our sign last week to say that we were open Fridays and Saturdays 11:00 to 8:00 because I know it's confusing and not everybody uses Google. Plus, I always thought it was confusing if someone was going to the dump at 10:00 a.m., and it said closed, but then we put our open sign up at 11:00 a.m., people would assume we're not open that day.

[thinkxingu]

Originally Posted by BrianD

It's funny you say that, I literally changed our sign last week to say that we were open Fridays and Saturdays 11:00 to 8:00 because I know it's confusing and not everybody uses Google. Plus, I always thought it was confusing if someone was going to the dump at 10:00 a.m., and it said closed, but then we put our open sign up at 11:00 a.m., people would assume we're not open that day.

Saw the new sign today, and it's perfect. In fact, had we not already eaten a few miles up the road, we probs would've stopped!

Again, best of luck moving forward.

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[Billy Bob]

Bottom line, a 2 day a week business is not a serious business, and a restaurant can’t claim fresh food when it’s actually frozen. This is simply taking business away from the restaurants that run actual customer service establishments.
We don’t need a bunch of other establishments only opening peak weekend hours

[BrianD]

I've said a couple times we're open about 7 days a week, I'm not sure how you're not able to read that part and instead you troll us on social media and here. I'm not sure what the motive is. Sorry, I'm unapologetically a capitalist. You're telling me I should turn down a camp that orders 60 pizzas, to make the same or fewer pizzas, be there four times as long, and make less money?
That doesn't sound like someone who understands how business works. I'm not going to sit there for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week, so some guy can order a small cheese pizza. Of course if we have staff, I would love to be open 7 days a week, it doesn't matter how much I pay people, one person made $30 an hour and did nothing. It is cheaper for me to not be open then to pay people 20 to 30 an hour to sit around my restaurant and think about when they're going to get off and get high.

And no, I don't understand your point about fresh food. We do sell fresh food, I've just explained that, and dough sauce and cheese are refrigerated, so that's not just unique with us every single pizza place has dough sauce and cheese refrigerated, otherwise it wouldn't be fresh, it would be moldy. It seems you and your quick haste to make a point, don't really care about a reasonable response.

[Biggd]

Originally Posted by Billy Bob

Bottom line, a 2 day a week business is not a serious business, and a restaurant can’t claim fresh food when it’s actually frozen. This is simply taking business away from the restaurants that run actual customer service establishments.
We don’t need a bunch of other establishments only opening peak weekend hours

You are free to visit those other establishments. Why should you care how he runs his?
There's a small pizza shop in Woburn ma, Louie's Pizza, with very limited hours. It's been in business since 1952, fresh ingrediency every day. They have hours posted but if they run out early, they close.
They know exactly how many pizzas they can make each day and if they are getting close to the end, they just don't answer the phone anymore.
Their pizza is so good that people adjust to their schedule.

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Biggd

You are free to visit those other establishments. Why should you care how he runs his?

I've been very forthcoming and polite and while comments like his are not new to me on FB. Because he's posted the same thing on at least one of my social media posts. I honestly have no idea. I do know some people in this town have told me there are people who are either friends, relatives, or really close to people who own other establishments. I'm not sure why anybody would be that petty to put down a business just because they're friends or family with someone at another business. I'm not saying that's the case here, but I've seen it happen a few times since purchasing this restaurant. At least I was told who the people were by locals who have lived here for a long time.

I honestly don't understand the point, I also don't understand the thought process when I've explained so many times on social media, that we are open 7 days a week, we choose to make more money by doing special events... Of course we would make even more money if we were also open to the public, but it's only me and my wife and our two young children, so I'm tired of explaining that is why we chose the 2 most popular pizza ordering days to be open to the public. People are welcome to not come to our business because just because we are not open 7 days a week 24 hours a day to serve a guy a small pizza, sorry, this isn't Boston with unlimited options open day and night, so please go elsewhere if that's what you expect. I really am tired of the trolling though. It's unnecessary. If I don't want to visit a business, I don't follow them around and post comments on social media and forums, so seriously, I don't understand why some people do.

[Shreddy]

Keep doing you, Brian. If it works for you and the customers you have, it works. If it doesn't you're going to know based on revenue and expenses. Definitely a different schedule than normal, but if you're accommodating larger orders etc. during the week then don't feel pressured to change a thing if it works for you. I've driven by a lot, I've seen the sporadic hours until the new sign, I tried to get slices one time but nothing (you guys had a bunch of orders to get through which is a good thing for you), I'll give it a shot eventually. Good to know you're doing well and that your business model is working for YOU. Stick with it, I really hope nobody wants to see a business fail regardless of whether they like the hours or quality or not. This is a review page, constructive feedback should be encouraged and personal opinion on quality will always be just that, an opinion. Good luck!

[BrianD]

Originally Posted by Shreddy

Keep doing you, Brian. If it works for you and the customers you have, it works. If it doesn't you're going to know based on revenue and expenses. Definitely a different schedule than normal, but if you're accommodating larger orders etc. during the week then don't feel pressured to change a thing if it works for you. I've driven by a lot, I've seen the sporadic hours until the new sign, I tried to get slices one time but nothing (you guys had a bunch of orders to get through which is a good thing for you), I'll give it a shot eventually. Good to know you're doing well and that your business model is working for YOU. Stick with it, I really hope nobody wants to see a business fail regardless of whether they like the hours or quality or not. This is a review page, constructive feedback should be encouraged and personal opinion on quality will always be just that, an opinion. Good luck!

I hope you come by.
It's difficult not to run at a loss if you're not open 7 days a week. I said it so many times but of course we'd love to be open. But we've been open less this year, only doing Fridays and Saturdays, and we've made more comparable time frames than when we hired people. If you pay someone $25 an hour, and they can make one pizza an hour, which is a net loss for the business, they will make one pizza an hour. They have no reason to make more. They work less and make the same. We tried profit sharing and that was even worse. $32 an hour paid some someone could text all day while we stayed there all day on our shifts and theirs. Not worth it for us to be open with the wrong people.

[SAMIAM]

Originally Posted by Shreddy

Keep doing you, Brian. If it works for you and the customers you have, it works. If it doesn't you're going to know based on revenue and expenses. Definitely a different schedule than normal, but if you're accommodating larger orders etc. during the week then don't feel pressured to change a thing if it works for you. I've driven by a lot, I've seen the sporadic hours until the new sign, I tried to get slices one time but nothing (you guys had a bunch of orders to get through which is a good thing for you), I'll give it a shot eventually. Good to know you're doing well and that your business model is working for YOU. Stick with it, I really hope nobody wants to see a business fail regardless of whether they like the hours or quality or not. This is a review page, constructive feedback should be encouraged and personal opinion on quality will always be just that, an opinion. Good luck!

Couldn’t agree more. You’re not in business to provide a public service and many weekdays are losers financially. You save a ton of money and avoid all the crazy and restrictive labor laws by doing it yourself. Fri and Sat are the money days but Sunday would be big with football coming up

[Mr. V]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I've said a couple times we're open about 7 days a week, .

Oh?

If this is true then what is the problem?

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by BrianD

I've been very forthcoming and polite and while comments like his are not new to me on FB. Because he's posted the same thing on at least one of my social media posts. I honestly have no idea. I do know some people in this town have told me there are people who are either friends, relatives, or really close to people who own other establishments. I'm not sure why anybody would be that petty to put down a business just because they're friends or family with someone at another business. I'm not saying that's the case here, but I've seen it happen a few times since purchasing this restaurant. At least I was told who the people were by locals who have lived here for a long time.

I honestly don't understand the point, I also don't understand the thought process when I've explained so many times on social media, that we are open 7 days a week, we choose to make more money by doing special events... Of course we would make even more money if we were also open to the public, but it's only me and my wife and our two young children, so I'm tired of explaining that is why we chose the 2 most popular pizza ordering days to be open to the public. People are welcome to not come to our business because just because we are not open 7 days a week 24 hours a day to serve a guy a small pizza, sorry, this isn't Boston with unlimited options open day and night, so please go elsewhere if that's what you expect. I really am tired of the trolling though. It's unnecessary. If I don't want to visit a business, I don't follow them around and post comments on social media and forums, so seriously, I don't understand why some people do.

The one thing that is unquestionably good about owning your own business is that you get to do things your own way. Rock on, brother