Home based pizza delivery

[Happy7Farm]

Has anyone ever thought about or tried to make and deliver pizzas from your home? I've thought about it several times over the past two years. I think it would work for us as a family business. We live in a rural area where no one delivers too. We have alot of Amish around us as well. For awhile we worked as a taxi service for the Amish and many times they would just hire us to drive to town to pick up pizzas or other things for their supper. If they could get pizza delivered without hiring someone to go pick it up who knows how many we might sell just to the Amish.

I worked for 7 years in pizza and have come up with my own recipe which I think is better than the Domino's and Little Caesars in our area. But exactly how to start is what I'm up against.

If anyone has any input it would be appreciated.

Thanks, Happy

[WhiteWillow]

I have always thought that to be a great idea in certain rural areas. I know I would be a frequent customer!

I fear the rules & regulations regarding cooking in your home would be nightmarish, if even possible. I don't know anything about food service regulations.

Best of luck though.

[Alice In TX/MO]

You can not use your home kitchen to make and sell commercial items. It is just the way our government works.

Do a Google search for "commercial kitchen regulations kentucky" and you'll get the requirements.

[plowjockey]

Sound's like a great idea.

Sometimes following health codes, is not as difficult or expensive as some make it out to be. Check into it tough to make sure you are covered.

Good luck.

[Ken Scharabok]

Check with both your county health department and county ag agent on what the requirements would be for a separate kitchen. Say you had a garage you convert into a pizza preparation and cooking area.

As noted above I'm also about 99.9999% sure you couldn't do it in your home kitchen.

On the other hand you might do it on the QT, but still run the liability risk.

Could you work a deal with a pizza shop in a nearby town to where you purchase from them prepared but cold pizzas and all you do is to store and heat?

Just curious. How would the Amish contact you to make a run for them?

[Oldcountryboy]

Around here we have what called Minanites. Something close to Amish, maybe the same!
Anywho, they're not suppose to believe in vehicles except tractors and carriages pulled by horses.

So couldn't you just imagine the delivery boy driving up on a tractor carrying your pizza?

[Maura]

There are Mennonites in our area. They drive the Amish around.

You need a separate kitchen for commercial purposes, but could do this in your garage or a pole barn. Contact your local health department and just ask what is required. Your "approved" kitchen could be used to make jam or bread or other things, as well. You might also consider selling pizza that is made but not baked (fresh or frozen). Personal sized frozen pizzas may be a popular item in an area such as yours.

[texican]

Pizza ovens cost big bucks... a high school friend lost his shirt in the pizza business and still has his mixers and oven in his barn... Thought having a pizza oven might be nice, so asked how much he wanted for it... just what he had in it... ~7K. Sorry I asked.

Most folks are peculiar... if city folks can have their pizza in 30 minutes or less, backwoodsmen think they should get their's in 30 minutes or less, too. So, you have to have your dough ready to roll, throw it out, bake it in ?7? minutes, put it in the delivery vehicle and burn rubber.

Don't know how much fuel is there, but if I had to deliver more than 15 miles, it'd cost me ~5$ just in fuel (round trip). Insurance agent might have some concerns, if your delivering with the family car...

good luck...
I'd love some delivery pizza right now... but I live down a muddy dirt road, 5 miles further than anyone in their right mind would want to go down.

[Lizza]

Gosh, you know us rural folks would love someone to deliver us food! The downside of course is the reason no one delivers us anything (including cell phone service or DSL) it just doesn't pencil out on paper, not enough people to support providing the service. By the time you buy all of your necessities to do business, you'd have to make so much $$$ per day or it wouldn't be worth it to stay in business. You'd have to really map out how long it would take you drive to homes and how you would do a route. Like Texican said, how fast can you get them the pizza when everyone is so spread out?

I sure wish some nights I could order a pizza though.

[Ken Scharabok]

Locally it is no pizza delivery outside the city limits. You are welcome to drive in for a pick up.

I suspect as a minimum you would need a solid floor (paiinted concrete might be OK), washable walls, stainless steel double sink, commercial dough mixer, stainless steel preparation counter, refrigeration units and a separate utilitity room with a deep sink for floor cleaning. On such, including a pizza oven, visit a seller of used restaurant equipment in a larger city.

But could you use several kitchen electric ranges instead of a pizza oven if you volume will be low.

Likely you would be inspected by the county health department at least twice a year and will be written up for the least little thing, such as employees having personal drinks in the food preparation area. And there had better not find any roaches, insects or mouse droppings.

BIL and son were in area yesterday so I took them out for pizza. From 6PM until we left at about 7:30PM at least six employees were kept hopping. Pizza dough looked like it was purchased looking much like a large uncooked bun. Just too uniform to have been made there.

Saw someone walking out with eight pizza boxes.

Unless you were large enough to interest a wholesaler, you would be buying all of your ingredients at retail.

All-in-all may be more money in simply running an order processing/delivery service. And, if a spread out area, perhaps restrict districts to certain nights. #1 M&Th, #2 Tu/F, #3 W&Sa.

Old joke: Amish says a Mennonite will go to hell behind a steering wheel. Retort: Yup, and he will have an Amish sitting beside him.

[sheepish]

Have you considered the liability insurance on your car? A car used for delivering pizza is impossible to insure for comprehensive, around here. You can just get basic public liability and it costs a fortune.

[Ross]

You'd be opening a buisness with all the regs and costs, but with much less customers to pay for it all. Your property might need a zoming variance and there go your taxes! Here in Ontario you could sell pizzas at the local farmers market with no regs.

[Ken Scharabok]

I suspect if you hire out to drive anyone it impacts your vehicle coverage. Now if you drive them for free, and then they voluntarily chip in on the gas money...

[Gary in ohio]

Your health dept will pretty much control what you can and in most cases what you cant do. As going to most likely need a separate room for all the cooking outside of your kitchen. No wooden cabinets., commercial ovens only , lots of stanless steal fixutures, tile and/or concrete floors. YOu also need to explore insurance cost as well as insurance cost in doing this on your property.

[mnn2501]

I owned a pizza place in large city (St Paul, MN) with a huge customer base and it was hard to make it, with a small customer base and large rural distances, you'd lose your shirt.
Also no state's health regulations will allow you to work out of a home kitchen or use non-commercial grade ovens, mixers, etc.

[garnetmoth]

Ive worked in several kitchens, and the usual is a 3-compartment sink, wash, rinse, and sanitize (even if you have a commercial dishwasher, youd need it in case power went down)

Great idea, regs probably wont allow you to do it....

[MoonRiver]

I've read about cob pizza ovens being used for businesses. Here's some pictures I found doing a search. I also remember reading about a cob oven built on a trailer so it could be moved around. Could provide oven catering at special events or just show up at football games, softball games, etc.

Maybe instead of providing pizza whenever someone calls, you could have specific times you provide pizza. For example, Wed & Fri from 4-8pm and 12-8pm on Sat. That way you know when family members need to be available, you limit the amount of time the oven needs to be fired up, and you minimize the mess that needs to be cleaned up.

[QuiltingLady2]

Didn't read all of the posts - Health department

What are the rules in your state?
Can you cook out of your own home and regular kitchen?
Or do you need a commercial op? These are very expensive to set up btw.

Good idea though. How about a non-food item to deliver?

[QuiltingLady2]

Originally Posted by morningstar

Gosh, you know us rural folks would love someone to deliver us food! The downside of course is the reason no one delivers us anything (including cell phone service or DSL) it just doesn't pencil out on paper, not enough people to support providing the service. By the time you buy all of your necessities to do business, you'd have to make so much $$$ per day or it wouldn't be worth it to stay in business. You'd have to really map out how long it would take you drive to homes and how you would do a route. Like Texican said, how fast can you get them the pizza when everyone is so spread out?

I sure wish some nights I could order a pizza though.

In our small community many, many years ago. One of the locals bought an old telephone switchboard and set up a phone service for the town. It was primitive but as the years wore on it got better and better. Ended up being the phone co. of the area and made that set of families millionaires.

So, if you have needs in your small communities get together, find a small investor, and set up your own needs met businesses.

[WhiteWillow]

Around here the Amish sell all sorts of things, baked goods, jams, jellies, and just recently I saw a sign advertising fresh baked pizzas. How are they able to bypass the regulations?