Business Opportunities Weblog

June 24, 2009 by Dane Carlson | 1 Comment

Necessity really is the mother of invention. Do you wish you could fit more tables in your pizza restaurant but are held hostage by the size of the pizza tray? The owner of Formaggios Pizzeria Restaurant in Tampa, Florida was, until he came up with the idea for the Pizza Butler. Here’s his story:

Six years ago my family and I moved to Tampa, Florida where for the first time in my life, I got involved in the restaurant business. As the owner of an extremely well known and popular 80-seat restaurant called Formaggios Pizzeria Restaurant, I quickly realized that owning a restaurant was a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week business that demanded tremendous attention.

One Sunday evening at Formaggios I saw one of my waiters struggling to balance an 18″ pie with one hand while trying to reposition items on the dinner table with his other so that the additional pie would fit. I have 42″ square tables yet my wait staff still had difficulty finding room for two pies on the table. This was a regular occurrence.

That particular day while watching my waiters jockey for table space, I was struck with an idea for a space-saving tray. It was a vision I knew I could produce back in New York at my business, Hi-Tech Metals, which manufactures high-end metals. So I flew back first thing Monday morning, quickly designed and fabricated a prototype, and shipped it back to Florida the next day. As soon as we tried it in our restaurant, we all knew the headaches of our space issues were over. I immediately pulled it from use and went to a patent attorney.

This little “Z” pan was perfection. I decided to call it “THE PIZZA BUTLER.”

I have already changed the tables in my restaurant. I switched all my two top, six top and four top tables, which were 42″ in depth to 30″ which has allowed me to successfully add 5 more tables to my restaurant. I am now turning over 22 tables instead of 17.

In Food, Inventions | 1 Comment