Mad Fun in Madison Park

I stopped in our Madison Park location for lunch yesterday and while I always expect to have a good experience, I was impressed that that good experience quickly turned into a great experience. I had some fun too - "Mad Fun".

I walked through the door, the music was providing just the right vibe, and our team was particularly good about adding to that by being what I like to call "Mad Performers" with their guests. You can't beat the feeling you get when you can see that your guests are really enjoying the experience they are having in one of your restaurants.

The great smell and taste of a freshly baked hand tossed pie is always expected, but I was proud of our team for adding to what was already becoming a great experience by really going the extra mile to get their guests to smile. It is always my hope that our guests who come into the restaurants get this kind of experience each and every time, but if they don't we have a place that they can go to get our attention - http://www.tellmadpizza.com/ We all need to be "Mad Performers" and have some "Mad Fun"

A great week

We had a great week at Mad Pizza last week. From a sales perspective, we were able to have a nice increase. From an organizational perspective, we launched on-line sales at two locations and our new website. Thank you to Chris and team for the detailed work at making this new channel fully functional. And a great big Thank you! to our Starfire Staff for their awesome weekend. It is great to see how much value we provide to customers in that environment, and how appreciated we are.

Italian hot spot in Tacoma

Living in the shadow of Seattle, Tacoma has had a hard time convincing people that it has some great eateries. This last year however, it has seen a rebirth as a formidable city for great food and wine.

Recently I had dinner at IL Fiasco, a charming little Italian Bistro located in the 6th ave business district, just a stones throw from my house in the near North end. It was the best Italian I have had in the Northwest. I prefer my Italian food to be simple, but robust. While I could have had the roasted duck breast with a current and port reduction, I opted for the very simple and full flavored Rigatoni Boulognaise - freshly made and cooked to order rigatoni pasta with a sweet Italian sausage ragout. While the sauce was delicious, it was the hotness of the rigatoni noodle that caught my attention. It was piping hot, but still aldente! I had the house greens with this dish which consisted of the perfect ration of dressing to fresh greens. One of my friends had the braciola di cinghiale, wild boar rib chop with marsala and wild mushroom demi-glace - let me just suggest to you that we were wild about!

Paired with two great bottles of wine, a 2001 Costello Di Bossi Chianti Classico and a 2005 Cloudy Bay New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, our meals were pallet satisfying. But beyond the food, the atmosphere was warm and inviting, which lent itself as the perfect setting for my friends and I to have a very intimate evening in the midst of a host of other diners, yet still we felt like the only ones there.

If you have a sweet tooth, might I suggest the canoli with a little espresso - the perfect end to a perfect meal.

Literally translated IL Fiasco means The Fiasco - it was anything but.

Piacere! (Enjoy)

Lunch at Skillet

I enjoyed lunch today at the roving lunch truck named Skillet. Today it was in SoDo, so I took in the excitement. Lemongrass Pork Sandwich with fries. The Lemongrass Pork was very good. I liked the set-up, though I have to say that Skillet has chosen the most industrial spot in the city of Seattle for its SoDo locatoins. Lots of recycling going on down there. But lots of fun.