How This Maine Brewery Launched a Pizza Program That Helped Grow Their Business Faster Than Ever
“The Good Crust pizza dough has made an immediate and very measurable difference in sales across the board, in customer time on site across the board, and the percentage of positive reviews we receive transactions have also gone up.”
Nate Wildes | Owner & Managing Partner, Flight Deck Brewing
Brunswick, Maine
Why the Good Crust Dough Is Totally Worth It for Flight Deck Brewing
200% increase in non-alcoholic beverage sales
6x number of high chairs needed for families
40% greater proportion of repeat local customers
180 days to build/launch a new pizza program
More traffic during lunch, and other previously slower times
Higher percentage of positive reviews shared by customers
Decreased prep time and space needed to cook pizza
Heard enough? Get in touch with us to set up a demo in your brewery or restaurant’s kitchen. Or keep reading to learn more about how locally sourced, high-quality dough can make a difference to your community and your bottom line.
The Brewery
Flight Deck Brewing has provided greater Brunswick with a destination brewery, casual social gathering space, and a family-friendly venue since 2017. Flight Deck offers a constantly evolving tap list, wood-fired pizza, regular live music, and plenty of space to hang out with your dog (and/or human kids, too).
The Challenge
Adding Pizza to the Menu—and Making It Taste Just As Good As the Great Beer Customers Are Used To
In 2021, Flight Deck Brewing had built its reputation in the greater Brunswick community for great beer, a family-friendly space, and a focus on sustainability and locally grown ingredients.
But they were ready for a new challenge: Rolling out a pizza product to accompany their already well-loved tap list, so they could add value to their community and to their business.
“We're in a growing community and region, and the amount of quality food offerings in the area is pretty limited,” explains Nate Wildes, Owner & Managing Partner of Flight Deck. “Brunswick has some really great dining experiences, some decent food-to-go options, but there's not a lot in between that has great value, that is family accessible, and that is made with and from things that actually contribute back to the community itself.”
Flight Deck wanted to fill that gap. They knew that if they did, it would be good for the community — and good for business, too.
Flight Deck needed a consistent food product to be successful. Customer expectations have evolved dramatically over the last five years, and product consistency is more important than ever.
“To meet those increasing customer expectations, we really thought it was important to have consistent food service — not only to seize a new opportunity but also simply to maintain growth,” Nate says.
In 2021, Flight Deck Brewing had built its reputation in the greater Brunswick community for great beer, a family-friendly space, and a focus on sustainability and locally grown ingredients.
But they were ready for a new challenge: Rolling out a pizza product to accompany their already well-loved tap list, so they could add value to their community and to their business.
“We're in a growing community and region, and the amount of quality food offerings in the area is pretty limited,” explains Nate Wildes, Owner & Managing Partner of Flight Deck. “Brunswick has some really great dining experiences, some decent food-to-go options, but there's not a lot in between that has great value, that is family accessible, and that is made with and from things that actually contribute back to the community itself.”
Flight Deck wanted to fill that gap. They knew that if they did, it would be good for the community — and good for business, too.
Flight Deck needed a consistent food product to be successful. Customer expectations have evolved dramatically over the last five years, and product consistency is more important than ever.
“To meet those increasing customer expectations, we really thought it was important to have consistent food service — not only to seize a new opportunity but also simply to maintain growth,” Nate says.
“Consistent food service in the brewery environment is critically important for both business growth and customer experience — and we had data to prove that.”
The Process
Testing dough options and launching a new pizza program with The Good Crust.
“Evolving a brewery from a business serving only beverages to one offering food as well is a huge undertaking. Logistically and financially the lines of business are completely different, and it’s a delicate process to grow an existing team into food service while maintaining your culture,” explains Nate.
Flight Deck started by testing different dough options, in search of the product that would make the most financial sense. They were surprised by how hard it was to find a dough that tasted great and performed consistently.
“Some people might say, ‘How hard is it to screw up pizza dough?’ Well, I would have said the same thing before we tested a lot of products that turned out to be very different every time you use them.”
Some suppliers provide dough balls that, while cheap, are just too low-quality to positively contribute to the customer experience.
Others ship bulk dough that you have to spend time and effort to divide up yourself.
And others send dough balls that are a little different each time, whether in shape or quality, making handling a challenge.
Dough-ball quality and consistency matter, not only for customer experience but also for efficiency in the kitchen.
The pizza team at Flight Deck knows this because they’ve measured it.
“The prep time required to use a Good Crust dough ball is much less than many other dough balls we have tested,” says Benedict Cassie, Director of Pizza.
“Even if other dough balls come frozen and individually wrapped just like The Good Crust dough balls, the handling experience is much more forgiving, so the time involved in preparing a pizza is greater. The true cost of an ingredient is not just purchasing it, it’s also the cost of using it.”
The financial consequence is simple: The longer it takes to cook a pizza, the fewer pizza sales you can make in a night. And in a high-volume environment like Flight Deck Brewing — where they’re routinely maxing out the throughput of their oven — prep time makes a significant difference to their bottom line.
Beyond the cost of using the dough, Flight Deck considers the cost to customer experience.
“You can save money with a cheaper ingredient, but if the experience of the customer goes down, it may be costing you more than saving.”
Flight Deck never stopped testing — because that’s just smart business. But thus far, they haven’t found any products that compare to The Good Crust.
Benedict says that every Good Crust dough ball they’ve received has the same level of quality in terms of shape, ingredient consistency, and cooking experience.
“From a consistency of quality perspective, there is no comparable product that we have seen—and with 100% freshly milled grains from Maine, we have not found a better value product out there.”
Flight Deck Brewing had a short window to launch its pizza program before summer traffic arrived. Having high-quality dough helped make that happen.
Benedict says that having high-quality, consistent dough already taken care of also helped remove a lot of the time, effort, and headache involved in launching a pizza program in the first place.
They decided to run Flight Deck’s pizza operation out of a food truck because it’s both economically and logistically more efficient.
“We get 80% of the throughput of a restaurant in 20% of the space in the food truck, in part because The Good Crust is a reliable, consistent ingredient. In order to make our own dough, we'd have to quite literally triple the amount of square footage that we have for prep.”
And beyond prep time and space required, having a quality base ingredient taken care of allowed the Flight Deck Brewing team to focus on the creativity and skill that make their pizza unique and delicious.
“When employees cook with The Good Crust, they're focusing on their speed, their talent, their dexterity, and on tossing the dough and topping,” says Benedict. While with other products they’ve tested, employees have to spend more time just figuring out how to cook consistent pizzas out of inconsistent dough balls.
“The reason that our pizza is unique and award-winning is because our team has had more time and energy to focus on things that we have the creative ability to influence, like the toppings that go on it, the cooking experience, and the serving experience. These are the things that we know have the biggest impact on our business model,” says Nate.
For Flight Deck Brewing, when it comes to quality, consistency, and efficiency, no other dough made as much business sense as The Good Crust.
“You get what you pay for,” says Nate. “The Good Crust checks all the boxes.”
The Good Crust won out in Flight Deck’s product testing — despite being a higher-priced option — because:
Consistency: It’s easy to handle on a prep line because every dough ball performs the same.
Ingredient quality: There are zero compromises in terms of the quality of the ingredients and overall taste.
Social and community impact: It’s locally sourced here in Maine by a business committed to a mission that matters.
“In real terms, The Good Crust’s consistency has real business value to us. The local ingredient quality has real business value. The social impact has business value … So, we have not found a better value product out there.”
The Results
A High-Quality Pizza Offering That Led to More Sales, More Customers, and Positive Reviews Across the Board.
Nate says The Good Crust dough is so good, that even the traditionally least-ordered pizza flavors — like spinach — became popular.
“It doesn't matter whether it's vegetables or meat or something else. Customers tell us, ‘man, that dough is really good.’”
The broader Maine community noticed, too. In May 2022, Flight Deck Brewing was awarded Best Outdoor Dining Experience by Maine Magazine. Nate attributes this in part to their new pizza program.
“We now have a woodfired pizza operation that is made with and sourced with local ingredients — that is a differentiator. This is not a fast food-style pizza. This is a high-quality product.”
And while Flight Deck Brewing has always offered non-alcoholic options, Nate says that adding high-quality pizza at great value helped reinforce their family-friendly vibe.
“It became a key communication piece to our community,” explains Nate, “because folks were able to latch on and say, ‘oh, of course, I can bring my kids there — they serve pizza.’”
And beyond excellent product quality, communication, and brand building, Flight Deck Brewing is seeing results in their bottom line.
“The Good Crust makes a measurable difference in revenue because we are able to prep that many more pizzas within the timeframe that customers are willing to wait.”
In addition to revenue from time savings, these are some of the results Flight Deck has gotten from launching their new pizza program with The Good Crust:
They’ve seen more sales across the board and more customer time-on-site
The percentage of positive reviews left compared to transactions has increased because people are more interested in leaving reviews than ever before
Nonalcoholic beverage sales have increased by 200% because of all the additional family customers
They used to keep just one highchair in the restaurant at a time—now they keep six highchairs to accommodate all those families
They’ve seen more traffic outside of traditional happy hour time because folks are coming in just for pizza at lunchtime
Not only does the overall number of customers continue to grow, but the portion of their customer base made of local returning regulars has increased by 40%
And getting those repeat regulars make a huge difference. “Our biggest growth area is not in tourism. Our biggest growth is in repeat visitors from the 207,” explains Nate.
“Our business has grown faster than ever. The year we launched pizza, we grew more and faster than any other year in our existence.”
Nate says that rapid growth speaks to the importance of having consistent food available. He also attributes the growth in part to having a pizza product that matches the quality of the beer product that people expect from Flight Deck Brewing.
And when it comes to pizza dough, he appreciates having a supplier that Flight Deck Brewing can really depend on.
“The team at The Good Crust genuinely cares. They’ve gone out of their way to ensure product consistency and that the hands-on experience of our employees is a positive one. And that has been a great support for us. We know that we've got a supplier that understands what's important to our business model.”
Nate’s advice to breweries considering pizza dough providers: “Do your own testing with your customer base to see if your customer notices a difference. Our experience has been that customers are willing to pay more for a product that authentically enhances their experience..”
“Consider your business model. If you are trying to produce a quality product, then let The Good Crust speak for itself and test it.”
He says breweries should also consider the reliability of their supplier options. “If pizza dough is a side hustle, it's worth considering how important that side hustle is to your supplier. If it's not a core component of their business, then that's a risk that has to be priced into the product,” explains Nate.
“We like investing in a partner that checks all the boxes for the product. And we have a level of confidence which is going to serve our supply chain needs moving forward.”
Nate says that breweries who are specifically focused on quality, customer experience, and community impact should shop for pizza dough based on value, and consider The Good Crust as an option.
“The Good Crust is in the pizza dough business. We like working with people who are passionate and focused on what they do best.”
Here at The Good Crust, we feel the same way.
“The Good Crust makes a measurable difference in revenue. Because we are able to prep that many more pizzas within the timeframe that customers are willing to wait. We like investing in a partner that checks all the boxes for the product, and we’re confident they’re going to serve our supply chain needs moving forward.”
SELL OUR CRUST. EARN MORE DOUGH.
Talk to a Good Crust team member about how locally sourced, high-quality dough can make a difference to your community and your bottom line.