The Four Days Only Dining

 The four day work week took hold duriong the pandemic. It's not a bad way to work with more time devoted to home and family. Yet would this concept work for restaurants. That's what many are asking.

New contributor Regan Stephens ,  who alsow rites for Conde Nast and Food and Wine magazine wrote this intriguing piece for yesterday's New York Times Food section. It's a question many restauranteurs are asking themselves. Can they run their places on a four day work week? While many other businesses are getting back to the five day work week some chefs feel it's better to just work four days. Ir does create for a better work-life balance. For New Jersey chef Dominic Piperno it does work. He closed his famed Collingswood New Jersey eatery Hearthside  for a four day work week during the pandemic in 2020.He has kept it three years later. It means that employees receive a more sustainable schedule while drawing wary veteran workers back into the workforce.The change had an immediate impact on its' pastry chef, Kelly Bradley who got to spend more time with her twelve year old daughter Makenzie, They get to do more things like roller skating together.The days may be longer , eleven hours as opposed to eight but the benefits are great.

Yes, it can be difficult. There should be a plan in place to fit schedules and delivery times. According to Hudson Riehle, the senior vicepresident of research at the National Restaurant Association.if an operator wants to close for a four day week  they've put very specific thought into the need to do so and create a business plans that works.A four day work week has alway be been floated around the US but never actually put into use. Some workers want , almost demand, a five or seven day work week. There are headaches too. Patricia Howard and Ed Szymanski have faced their share of difficulties with both their Manhattan restaurants, Dame and Lord's. They wake up to texts  about broken equipment , ingredients that didn't arrive and employees calling in sick. Yet if a shortened work week  makes most of the workers happy so be it.Leina Horii one of the owners of the Nashville  based Japanese cafe Kisser has noticed nothing but plusses instead minuses. They only open on weekdays for lunch. The shortened working hours have provided them with amazing employee retention while allowing her anbd her husband Brian Lea to be people outside the restaurant industry.

Will four day restaurants be a standard or just a fad? If the trend means happier workers and better food then let the eateries have their shortened work weeks. It can only be good for both the staff and the customers.

Pizza With A Spicy Spin

 Can pizza be improved? Yes, especially when given a Mexican twist. Philadelphia pizzarias are creating a new fusion food that's taking off like crazy.It's a new and international spin on a Neopolitan favorite.

Regan Stephens,a freelnace food and travel writer wrote about this in yesterday's New York Times Food section.It's not just a fusion of different cusines but of cultures. South Philly's traditional Italian neighborhoods have now been welcoming Mexicans since the early 1990s. This means  Mexican restaurants and groceries are also coming in with this new wave.It comes as no surprise that Italian dishes will be influenced by them. The pizza is not what Taco Bell offers on occassion., Tostadas layered with spicy beef and beans and shellacked with a top layer of cheese.Nor is it the Midwestern taco pie which is a pizza topped with deconstructed taco. This is a pizza with tomatillo (tomato's cousin) chorizo, corn, fresh poblanos - mild chili peppers and fresh avocados. The makers of this, Margarita Jeronimo and Adam Del Rosario make this kind and others at their Philly eatery Rosario, People are liking it as they're liking their ElPastore, a pizza topped with pineapple chunks, achiote  marinated pork ,onions and covered with guajillo pepper sauce.

Other Mexican restaranteurs are following suit. Three blocks south of them, San LUcas Pizzeria has been selling Mexican pies since a few months after opening in 2005. Valentin Pallilero and his wife Eva Mendez spent years managing other peoples' pizzarias (Most Mexxican immigrants work at other ethnic restaurants before opening their own according to Professor Stephen Alvarez who teaches a taco literacy ?? course at St John's UNiversity ). They named theirs after the town they  both grew up in and have made a brisk business of selling the traditional kind of pie. Yet Chef Pallilero wanted his own signature one.His daughter Jacqueline had said that he wanted to make one with the feel of a taco.A slice of the Mexican pie went out with every Italian one. Customers raved about it and it became a number one seller. Another pizzeria, Mr. Taco onwed by Carlos Gomez opened. Chef Gomez who worked at various pizzerias before opening his wanted a Mexican eatery to reflect his Hildalgo upbringing. New York has this too.Italian restaurants in Jackson Heights sell tamales. LA and Washington DC also have Mexican pizzerias with LA having Asada Pizzeria.

Will Mexican pizza bemore popular than the original? Yes.People love fusion foods and this includes two of the countries most popular cuisines.