There’s a particular place for individuals who order their pizza to go, and that place will be the takeout window, the entrance counter or a separate entrance. As supply and carryout proceed to achieve recognition, pizzeria homeowners are designing pickup areas that make it simpler for carryout prospects, dine-in friends and supply drivers to all peacefully coexist.
Carryout and supply have at all times performed a job in pizzerias’ success, and third-party platforms have made takeout much more important. One vital facet of designing this customer-facing space is to ensure it stays inviting and uncrowded.
Maintain the Entryway Clear
You will need to stop supply drivers from crowding the house the place prospects are ready to be seated or to select up their very own orders. Establishing two counters – or two level of sale techniques on one counter – might help. Have clear signage directing folks to the right line, and prepare workers to have interaction with prospects.
At Pizza Scrumptious in New Orleans, the counter has two strains. One is for purchasers ordering on the register, and the opposite is for purchasers who ordered pickup through telephone, on-line or by way of DoorDash or Uber Eats. “We don’t need folks to get tousled,” says Mike Friedman, co-owner of Pizza Scrumptious. “We inform folks on the telephone, ‘Come to the register on the correct.’”
The restaurant reinforces the message with signage, and workers name out or movement to prospects to make clear who goes the place. On-line orders are pre-paid, whereas telephone and in-person orders are paid on the counter, so the objective is to get the pre-paid orders out the door shortly. When a supply driver exhibits up, the workers shortly arms over the order to clear the best way for purchasers who’re inserting their very own orders or eating in. That course of takes some communications talent to handle expectations.
“I believe folks might get annoyed in the event that they notice they’ve stood in line and waited longer,” Friedman says. “We would have to inform folks, ‘Oh that’s only a driver; we’re making an attempt to get them out.’”
Present a Separate Entrance
When Glide Pizza moved to its present location in Decatur, Georgia, the pizzeria was designed to stop a number of the congestion points it had confronted in its earlier location. “We had been doing loads of to-go orders, and we had been having drivers simply type of stand in the course of all the things,” says proprietor Rob Birdsong. “They had been congesting the world, and we actually wished to keep away from that.”
The brand new location has a separate entrance for supply drivers, who’re instructed to make use of the facet entrance – particularly the purple door. Drivers open the door and see the window, warming field and kitchen, a structure that makes it straightforward for them to select up orders and exit with out ever coming into the eating room. Clients who order instantly from Glide on-line (not by way of third-party supply providers) can also use the pickup window, which is straightforward to entry as a result of Glide Pizza is on a nook lot. “It’s probably the most direct method out and in of the constructing,” Birdsong says. “Pizza is a type of meals folks wish to seize and get again within the automobile and go the place they’re going.”
The pickup window is a well-recognized setup for Glide Pizza, which opened a walkup window at its Atlanta location throughout the pandemic – a pivot from Birdsong’s authentic idea: a lunchtime eatery in Midtown. The walkup window is on the Beltline, a loop of city trails frequented by cyclists, walkers and different out of doors lovers working up an urge for food.
A 3rd Glide Pizza location, deliberate for a 2026 opening in time for the FIFA World Cup, can have a devoted pickup window and a courtyard. “Home windows have at all times been a part of our DNA, and we are going to maintain it that method,” Birdsong says. “We attempt to maintain it environment friendly and easy and clear and clear.”
Leverage Know-how
Communication is vital, and never simply when telling folks which line to make use of for carryout. Futuro Pizza in Indianapolis texts its prospects when their pie is prepared. That method, prospects can strategy the counter when the pie is scorching and recent as an alternative of hovering. “That is the mannequin we’ve used since we opened, and we’re on our fifth 12 months now,” says proprietor Luke Tobias. “It respects folks’s time.”
Even prospects who order on the counter are requested for his or her telephone quantity and get despatched a textual content. Often, folks don’t wish to share their actual telephone quantity, or they don’t obtain (or learn) the textual content message they’re despatched. Clients in these cases would possibly arrive at Futuro Pizza when their pie has been sitting for a number of additional minutes. However Tobias calls such cases “pretty rare.”
The true problem is balancing the textual content mannequin with the shortcomings of supply platforms. With DoorDash, Tobias says, the system has a default prep time the pizzeria can not change. If a big order is available in, Futuro can not talk to prospects that their order will take longer than anticipated.
The answer is to show off DoorDash on busy Friday and Saturday nights. “Fridays and Saturdays are my bread and butter, and I can’t have drivers making an attempt to place their telephone in your brow,” Tobias says. “We ended up turning it off as a result of there isn’t a center floor.”
Prepare Employees
When Invoice Harrigan opened his franchise location of Jimano’s Pizza close to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he knew he wished to give attention to supply and carryout. The situation opened in January 2025 and has three tables however no desk service. Clients order from one among two cashiers, and Fridays, Saturdays and Wednesdays (when pies are 50% off) are very busy, so orders take longer to finish.
Clients who ordered earlier within the day anticipate their pizzas to be prepared when the system predicted, believing they gave Jimano’s sufficient lead time to arrange their order. “There isn’t a purpose we will’t do it when somebody offers us six hours,” Harrigan says. “They’ll say, ‘I positively am not going to depend on you for an enormous occasion.’”
Harrigan’s answer is to coach workers in regards to the correct timing for prep work, when to place pies within the oven and different particulars. “For probably the most half, we maintain the circulate going,” he says. “I get most of my complaints if it takes longer than 25 minutes. I simply come out and apologize.”
Nora Caley is a contract author who covers small enterprise, finance and life-style matters.
