Courtesy of Gelatiamo

When we bought Pagliacci over 10 years ago, our first order of business was to learn the business. Our second order of business was to fill the dessert void in our menu. Dorene had searched for years to find the perfect dessert to complement our pizzas. We both had a checklist and the ideal dessert had to hit all points. Gelatiamo’s artisanal gelato and sorbet fit the bill as we went through that list.

People visiting Italy rave about gelato even more than the coffee, pasta and pizza. It was a natural fit.

Gelatiamo’s passion for gelato matched our passion for pizza. Not only do you taste it in the gelato, you feel it when founder Maria Coassin talks about her product. The very name Gelatiamo best expresses her passion – “I love gelato!”

Gelatiamo takes the time to develop a unique recipe for each of their gelatos and sorbets so that the end product is perfectly balanced, smooth and incredibly rich in flavor. While Maria specializes in traditional Italian flavors like pistachio, rice and cappuccino, her business partner Skyler Locatelli brings in a new flair, which has resulted in creations like Whopper Gelato (reappearing on our seasonal menu Thursday, September 9th).

To celebrate this 10-year partnership, take advantage of our current Frequent Pie-er offer and try a new flavor. Buon appetito!

We asked Maria at Gelatiamo to develop the sorbet to accentuate these flavors. Hesitant at first to stray from traditional Italian gelato flavors, she gave it a try. It turned out fantastic and the sorbet was a huge hit! The berries Gelatiamo uses are locally grown by the Sakuma Brothers in Burlington. They are delicious and produce a perfectly rich dairy-free sorbet.

Commissary managers Todd Weyand (left)
and Edgar Bobadilla (right) with
Alan Lehman (center).

When Alan first submitted his application to become a dishwasher at the Broadway Pizzeria, he never realized Pagliacci was a place he’d call home for a quarter of a century. After spending 11 years at the Capitol Hill location, he transferred over to the Commissary and has a hand in consistently creating a key component to everyone’s Pagliacci experience – the dough. Alan’s mild manner and humble smile are a staple at the Commissary and our dough making operation.

So what do you get a guy to celebrate such an amazing milestone? We surprised Alan with a MacBook and printer along with a plaque and cake. His new tools will come in handy to keep up his passion for creating art, photography and music. We expect he’ll only break long enough to keep up with all of the Seattle sports teams – M’s, Storm, Hawks and Huskies. Congratulations Alan!

Ballinger's Tyrone Fabroa with fiancee Erin,
Magnolia's Justin Wehrell, Driver Manager
Sasha Mitronovas and Edmonds' Adria Ferris

From time-to-time we hold a contest between all of our stores. This helps to keep us sharp and gives crew and managers something to focus on.

This year we pushed on crew development as well as product quality, resulting in one of our most competitive contests to date.

Tyrone shows his skills on the surf board.

With such a tight race, Ballinger Way’s victory was sweet. Their win earns a party for their crew. While they get an extra vacation day to go have fun, the operations staff will take over their store making sure pizzas get out to Shoreline’s hungry customers.

Sasha, Justin, DM John Clifford, Adria, Erin,
Tyrone, Pagliacci Support Central's Audrey
Middleton and Sand Point's Brandon Steele

Managers from the top performing stores get a reward too – a vacation with their peers. It’s a good thing they all get along so well! Recently the General Managers from the top four stores (Ballinger, Edmonds, Sand Point and Magnolia) all went to Hawaii for a little fun in the sun and surf.

The group enjoyed some amazing snorkeling (yes, we saw sea turtles!), surfing lessons and a scenic drive around Maui.

Dinners were mixed between Hawaiian fare and barbequing fish and octopi caught on snorkeling/spear fishing excursions.

All of us who went had a great time hanging out with each other and weren’t even bothered when our flight to Seattle was cancelled and we had to stay an extra day!

Next up, the winning Associate Managers trek down to San Francisco to spend some time by the Bay. They’ll be flying off in a few short weeks. Check back to see how their trip went.

West Seattle's Mike Niznik was one of many volunteering pictures of pets. Here is his Yorkie, Sophie.

Over the past year or two it seems like our crew has gone pet crazy. Person after person after person has mentioned getting a new pet. So we decided to focus on that phenomenon in our summer newsletter, making it a pet issue.

Sometimes the greatest challenge for our newsletter is determining which of our wonderful crewmembers to feature.  If we are looking for crew with particular talents and interests, I usually put out a call to managers to help me find the right people. Sometimes the list falls short of the usually 10 slots I’m trying to fill. That wasn’t the case for this issue. Plenty of people volunteered themselves and their pets. But we were only able to shine the spotlight on a few.

We hope you enjoy our latest newsletter, which can be read here.

This year we bought a new double deck oven and put it on wheels. We took it for a test drive at the West Seattle event last weekend, knowing we could always fall back on our full set of ovens in the kitchen.

It was a smooth ride. Now we’re ready to take it on it’s first solo road trip to the Bellevue Arts Fair on July 23-25. Hope to see you there!

While the weather was nothing like what we’ve experienced the rest of this week, we faced the cooler temps at Golden Gardens, grilled a bunch of proteins and put on our annual Pizzalympic games.

Who folds the fastest box in all of Pagliacci? Emory Liu from Miller Delivery Kitchen. Who tossed the fastest 17” pizza? Adrian Aramburu from Bellevue Pizzeria. Who tossed the biggest dough in 45 seconds? Brady Madsen from 85th Street. What location rocked the teamwork in our crazy relay race? Ballinger Way Delivery Kitchen. What location muscled their way to tug-of-war champs? Lake City Way pulled out the win and will reign supreme until next year.

This cool summer weather foiled our plans to start our popular Crostata when we wanted to.  Despite valiant efforts on the part of the grower, Walla Walla Gardeners, the famous onion just wasn’t ready to come out of the ground.

While waiting for them we tried those old wives tales to induce delivery.  Caster oil.  Herbs.  Walking a lot.  Nothing worked.  We had to patiently wait for the onions to arrive in their own sweet time.  When they finally did arrive, we pulled out our “It’s a Walla Walla” cigars and rejoiced.

While we’re up and running with the Crostata now, our experience reminds us that our seasonal pizza start dates are at the mercy of the crop we are trying to promote.  And much to the dismay of customers and crew, our seasonal start dates must continue to be vague.

We’ve been a fan of Peppadew Piquante Peppers for years and often talked about topping our pies with them.  When we combined them with Salumi’s rosmarino salami on our Salame Picante, we knew we had something pretty special.  The sweet heat of the pepper paired perfectly with the rosemary-seasoned salami.

So what’s the World Cup got to do with Peppadews?  Since World Cup is hosted in South Africa, it felt natural to offer up the sweet yet spicy South African pepper as a free topping.  That’s right, these culinary treasures are proud to be South African and rooting for a victory from their team!  We’d like to see a strong showing from them too.  And while our loyalty is to USA, we’re also rooting for Italy… and Mexico… and Spain… and Brazil…

Fortunately, the World Cup games are not interfering with our nighttime business.  With so many soccer fans within the Pagliacci ranks, we would face major challenges filling our shifts due to World Cup conflicts.

The story of Peppadew International is interesting.  Just as we aim to support our local community whenever possible, Peppadew International works in South African communities that are disadvantaged.  They’ve created more than 4,800 agricultural jobs in their country and work with farmers to develop their land.

To learn more about them, visit peppadew.com.