Winnipeg – A Winnipeg pizza delivery driver is speaking out about racism after confronting a customer who he claims called him a terrorist during a verbal attack. CBC News reports. | READ MORE

Summerside, P.E.I. – A restauranteur in Summerside, P.E.I., is sharing his experience after a recent close call with a small business scam. The Journal Pioneer reports. | READ MORE

Do you struggle with finding and attracting good employees? The Canadian Federation of Independent Business recently hosted a webinar entitled “Getting smart about seasonal hiring” that provided useful tips for improving your chances of hiring great workers.

San Francisco, CA – Technology company DoorDash announced it will expand in the Greater Toronto Area, working with a total of more than 1,000 GTA restaurants.

Toronto – Uber Eats’ delivery service is coming to Lethbridge and Red Deer in Alberta and to 10 communities in Ontario.

Toronto – The Canadian Federation of Independent Business will hold a free webinar on Feb. 28 and again on Feb. 29 to update businesses on new communication trends and walk through some of the tools and software you can use to communicate smarter with staff and customers.

I am sure you have seen it happen every year – your pizzeria business slows down after the holiday rush. Your pizza counter lineups may have been long during the holidays, but when January hits you may not have the same number of customers.

Reading about predictions and trends for 2018 got me thinking about the actions we must take to be competitive.

Craft beer has risen in popularity in recent years and demand for unique beers isn’t showing signs of slowing down. I often have patrons ask me for something locally brewed.

Vancouver – Paying for cooks to attend culinary school and implementing averaging agreements that allow a four-day work week are some of the strategies B.C. restaurants are using to attract and retain staff. CBC News reports. | READ MORE

Toronto – A steep minimum wage increase that went into effect on Jan. 1 in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, has had a rocky start as some employers cut workers’ hours and benefits to reduce its impact on the bottom line. The Financial Post reports. | READ MORE

Gatineau, QC – Canadian small businesses can now apply for federal funding to help hire summer students next summer.

Paytronix Systems has added to its online ordering app new designed to give businesses more control over their mobile experience and to get their mobile apps up and running quickly and cost effectively.

World Centric will debut its tree-free, plant-based, compostable pizza container for pizza takeout/delivery restaurants at the International Pizza Expo running March 20-22 in Las Vegas.

HealthSpace has teamed up with Keboola Data Services and Xotecx Solutions Corp. to make a quality control and customer experience app to improve food safety and customer engagement in restaurants.

Vancouver – Silver Chef Canada's goal is to provide funding and equipment rentals to hospitality businesses to help them grow and reach their potential over the next five years.

Restaurant technology company Ready has a new self-pay payment app that lets customers view their restaurant bill on their mobile device and pay in seconds.

Ardent Mills developed its new Primo Mulino Neapolitan-Style Pizza Mix for making authentic, thin pizza crusts in the tradition of Naples, Italy, where the famous pizza is hand-tossed and baked quickly in extremely high-heat gas or wood-burning ovens.

A new book on restaurant human resources management is designed to teach restaurateurs how to connect with their staff, rebuild relationships, and better manage systems and processes.

FoodPic is a photo-sharing social application available to both Android and iOS users. The app features include personal profile creation of both private and shared uploaded food photos from restaurants and home-made creations.

A new app provides mobile training with the goal of helping bricks-and-mortar stores compete with online retailers.

Looking for a quick solution to satisfying customers during all day parts? SpeeDelight is a new high-speed grill from Electrolux Professional designed with handy features to deliver a variety of tasty grab-and-go dishes three times faster than traditional sandwich presses.

Hobart designed its new Edge 13A automatic slicer for smaller operations that require less than four hours of meat and cheese slicing per day. It includes several features to ensure safety and cleanliness, Hobart said in a press release.

Vancouver – New software from pizza and delivery point-of-sale developer SpeedLine Solutions is designed to help restaurant chains save time and improve brand consistency by letting chains manage a master menu with local variations across multiple units and regions.

Montreal – McGill Pizza of Montreal has been a student favourite since it was founded in the 1960s, and chef and owner Costa Deligiannis is making sure it keeps its nostalgic appeal. The McGill Tribune reports. | READ MORE

Most operators in the pizza business in Canada will tell you it’s hard to find – and keep – good staff. A good employee is like gold.

Wayne deGroot and Jocelyn Morwood-deGroot, the owners of Zen’Za Pizzeria in London, Ont., have been on a health and career journey and ended up right where they should be.

We forget sometimes that pizza is fun. It’s a sentiment not lost on Chip Foster, the Canadian fashion designer known for his premium jeans beloved by the likes of Robin Wright, Sarah Jessica Parker and Beyonce.

Pizza lovers are dining al fresco in rural Manitoba and it all began with a wood-fired oven named Hildegard.

Pizza King of Kamloops, B.C., has been doing its best to boost the morale of citizens displaced by recent wildfires in surrounding areas.

Leamington, Ont. – Dominos Pizza of Canada chief executive Mike Schlater and his wife Lilibeth picked up the tab for the London Health Sciences Centre’s new brain surgery robot, forking over a $500,000 donation Tuesday. The Windsor Star reports. | READ MORE

Los Angeles – Eric Vose launched Vivace Pizzeria from his Los Angeles food truck about a month ago to feed his obsession with leopard-spotted wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas. The Los Angeles Times reports. | READ MORE

The most successful small businesses share an important quality: they make themselves part of their communities. Entrepreneur magazine lists getting involved among its top 25 common characteristics of successful businesses and Forbes says those who succeed long term are often motivated not by profit but by being able to work where they live.

Regina – Among three different sets of owners, west Regina pizzeria Juliana Pizza has always had a Peter. Today, it’s Peter Yannitsos, who bought Juliana Pizza with his cousin-in-law Paul Howie back in September 2006. The Regina Leader-Post reports. | READ MORE

When you talk to Carlo Raillo get ready to listen because you will learn.

Thunder Bay, Ont. – The owners of a new restaurant on the south side of Thunder Bay, Ont. are hoping their business could be part of an entertainment revival in the area. CBC News reports. | READ MORE

Troy, OH – Hobart will give away a Legacy HL662 mixer designed on a craft beer theme at the International Pizza Expo and, in a separate online giveaway, an FP150 continuous-feed full hopper food processor.

Atlantic Canada's Piatto Pizza offers tips on how to make Neapolitan-style pizza, including opening the dough, saucing and topping the pie.

Here is a pizza recipe from Katrina Meynink of Good Food featuring some heat and fire and fresh veg crunch. | READ MORE

Dave Housman, Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria, Edmonton, Alta. www.famoso.ca

Continuing the topic from my last column, vegetarians and vegan folks are the largest growing market for our industry.  

Viva Napoli Pizzeria in Toronto was the setting for an exciting demonstration by a renowned Italian chef whose passion it is to master the traditional techniques and put his own spin on them.

Ottawa – Top Chef Canada winner René Rodriguez shares a recipe for Italian burrata, an item on the menu of his new restaurant Orto Trattoria in Ottawa. CBC news reports. | READ MORE

Geneva, Switzerland – Swiss flavour and perfume company Firmenich has named fig its flavour of the year for 2018 based on its growing international appeal.

Leamington, Ont. – Leamington, a town that’s big on tomatoes, will soon have the tomberry – billed as the world’s smallest tomato – growing in greenhouses. The Windsor Star reports. | READ MORE

December is a busy time for restaurants. It is a whirlwind of holiday office parties, family celebrations, gift exchanges and people gathering in the weeks leading up to Christmas Day and throughout Hanukkah.

Pizza New: A whole new era for the world’s favourite food, by chef Stefano Manfredi includes recipes for pizza rossa, pizza bianca, Roman pizza, and filled, fried and sweet pizzas such as this delicate dessert recipe, “Pillow of dreams.”

Mississauga, Ont. – Nearly two-thirds of Canadians take “cheat days” or “cheat meals” as part of their diet, and half of them crave pizza as a cheat meal, according to a survey conducted by Maru/Matchbook on behalf of Boston Pizza.

Toronto – Digital foodservice orders are growing dramatically, and restaurants can take advantage of this trend by targetting customers aged 20-40, offering deals and focusing on lucrative online dinner traffic, suggests new research by NPD Group.

Cincinnati, OH – Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park Camp-Resorts, which feature playgrounds and pizzerias among its amenties, has added its sixth campgrounds in Pouch Cove, N.L.

Oshawa, Ont. – In this opinion piece, food historian named Giuseppe Nocca shares tips for pairing red and white wines with pizza. DurhamRegion.com reports. | READ MORE

Toronto – As image-sharing platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat flourish, fast-food brands are making their menu items and restaurant locations more photo-friendly. The Globe and Mail reports. | READ MORE

Toronto – So-called ‘grocerants’ – grocery stores with sit-down dining areas and a lineup of ready-to-eat or take-out meals – are becoming more common and competing with the restaurant industry for customer dollars. The Financial Post reports. | READ MORE

Chicago – Consumers are ordering soup and salad at restaurants slightly less frequently now than two years ago, according to a recent report from research firm Technomic.

Every year Canadian Pizza has traditionally reported on key trends impacting food consumption patterns. The trends have largely evolved over time with each year building on the previous one. From health concerns to ethnic influences to the yen for comfort food…it’s generally been about the product itself – the pizza.

The pizza business is competitive, but how well do you know your competition? Canadian city streets are thick with pizzerias offering various combinations of quality pizza and good prices. When you search for a nearby pizzeria on your smartphone, the list is long and top-heavy with the big chains.

Simcoe, Ont. – Clearly, 2017 was a tumultuous year for pizzeria operators, with minimum wage hikes, cheese price hikes, a delivery free-for-all and changing customer demands shaking up this competitive industry. On a positive note, recent reports suggest customers are ready to spend in restaurants in 2018. Here's a look at feature stories you may have missed – stories aimed at helping you compete and thrive!

The Canadian Pizza Show marked its fourth year with a record attendance of 215. The trade event, which is the only one dedicated to the fresh pizza industry in Canada, was held at the International Centre in Toronto on Oct. 16.