Blog

  • Hand Stretched Dough for Pizza and Appetizers

    At Slice, every pizza, appetizer, and dessert, starts with hand-stretched dough.

    This means no two items are exactly the same. We believe this gives each of our orders a bit of character. However, just because the shape of the pizza will slightly differ, it does not mean that you will get more or less food based on who’s stretching your dough. We are diligent that when we portion our dough we always weigh every order to ensure they’re consistent weights.
    P.S. Most of our staff does not toss the dough, but it makes for a pretty neat photo.

    You can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • How to Cook Multiple Pizzas in a Wood Fired Oven

    There’s so much more to running the pizza oven than meets the eye.

     

    Every Wood Fired oven has different hot and cold spots. This means if we’re cooking 3-5 items in the oven, our cooks are constantly switching items in and out of the hot zones to ensure nothing burns and everything cooks as quickly as possible. They also have to be monitoring the internal temperature to see when we need to add more wood, or potentially give the oven a break (but we'll talk more about that at a later time).
    It looks very difficult, and I can ensure you, it's more difficult than it looks.

    You can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • How Hot is a Wood Fired Oven?

    A Wood Fired Oven obviously operates a bit differently than conventional ovens.

    For example, we have to start the fire for the oven 3-4 hours before service starts. We do this to ensure the fire has time to develop coals. Our goal is to have the oven over 1,000 degrees. We want the oven to be as hot as possible to build up heat, this helps keep it warm during service, even when we’re cooking a ton of pizzas.
    Once we think the oven is hot enough, we start to try to bring it down to its ideal temperature, which is somewhere between 675 - 750 degrees. It's a ton more work than an ordinary oven, but we think the final product speaks for itself.

    You can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • What is the Maximum Number of Toppings You Should Put on Pizza?

    What is the maximum number of toppings to put on a pizza?

    We typically never offer more than 5 toppings on our pizza, why? We’ve found that more than 5 toppings will lead to the pizza cooking incorrectly. The bottom will still cook in the same amount of time, but the top will take much longer, leading to a high likelihood that the bottom will burn.

    This is why if you’ve ever asked to order a pizza with more than 5 toppings our staff has likely dissuaded you.

    You can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • Which Toppings go Under the Cheese on Pizza?

    You’ll notice our arugula, spinach, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh garlic, always come under the cheese, why?

    Our Wood-Fired oven runs from 675 - 800 degrees, in the 3-5 minutes it takes to cook a pizza, those toppings have a chance of burning. Placing the more delicate toppings under the cheese serves as a way to protect them.

    You can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • How we Make Pizza Sauce - What makes it Unique

    What makes our sauce unique?

    It all starts with the tomatoes. We use a premium tomato, they typically spend less than 3 hours from the vine to can. The only time the sauce is cooked is the short duration it spends in the oven. All we do is add our spice blend, and voila.

    Try the sauce for yourself, you can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • How We Make Breadsticks

    Our breadsticks start with the same dough ball we use for our 12” pizzas.

    From there, we hand stretch the dough into a thin oval, then slice the dough into 6-8 pieces, depending on how the dough was stretched.

    Then they hit the oven. Immediately after they are cooked we top them with a garlic butter glaze and a healthy dose of parmesan.

    You can order them online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • Wood Fired Oven

    The fire is the only heat source we use in the oven at Slice by Saddleback, so obviously, the type of wood we use is going to influence the end product.

    For our BBQ we use a blend of Michigan Hardwoods, and we’ve always loved the consistency of the results and the end product it produces. So for Slice, we decided to use the exact same type of wood!

     

    You can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback

    Posted in Slice

  • Jammer Squares

    Jammer Squares blew our minds when we first saw them.
    We never would have thought to put together this mix of ingredients and we would have NEVER imagined so many people would purchase them.
    They feature our small dough, topped with cream cheese, red pepper jelly, and mozzarella cheese.
    When Matt first tried them he said they reminded him of a Crab Rangoon. Frankie said it was his take on a dish his family always made during the holidays and thought Matt was crazy for the Crab Rangoon statement. Whatever you compare them to, they're delicious.
    You can order online now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback
    Posted in Slice

  • Cup and Char Pepperoni

    Slice by Saddleback uses an old-world style pepperoni, it’s called a “Cup and Char Pepperoni”.
    The reason for the name is simple, when the pepperoni is cooked it has a tendency to “cup” up and “char”. They’re a bit smaller than the typical pepperoni, but we think they are so much better.
    The pizza featured in this photo is the #20. It has Tomato Sauce, Mozzarella Cheese, Pepperoni, Garlic, and Ricotta.
    You can order the #20 now: https://linktr.ee/slicebysaddleback
    Posted in Slice

  • Inflation the Silent Tax

    How a $0.61 increase in the cost of production leads to a nearly $2.50 increase for consumers. 


    The company that manufactures our BBQ Sauce is raising our costs by over 20%. Why? Inflationary pressures: prices are rapidly rising for shipping, ingredients, plastics, and glass. We do not fault our manufacturer. We are experiencing the same forces in our restaurants. BUT If something doesn’t change, it could mean our BBQ sauces are too expensive for retailers. 


    Each time a retail product changes hands, the price goes up. We’ll use actual costs from our experiences to demonstrate how this works. 


    Old Pricing - We purchase the sauce for $1.93/Bottle (including Shipping and Label) > We sell it to a Distributor for $3.38  > The Distributor sells it to the Retailer for $4.19 > The Retailer sells it on their shelves for $5.99


    New Pricing (same margins) - We purchase the sauce for $2.54/Bottle > We sell to the Distributor for $4.45 > the Distributor sells to Retailer for $5.52 > the Retailer sells it on their shelves for $8.49!!


    This $0.61 increase at production leads to a $2.50 increase for you, the consumer. 


    We hope this demonstrates how fragile pricing is, and how rapidly prices can change. A seemingly insignificant rise in the cost of production leads to a dramatic increase in the final price for the consumer. 


    We’re currently working to figure out solutions. Any tips, information, or ideas are encouraged.

    Posted in Restaurant Operations, Retail

  • Saddleback's Valentine's Day Meal - 2022

    Our 2022 Valentine's Day Meal! These will be available for pre-order only. You can order for February 12th - 14th. All the meals will come cold with simple reheating instructions.

     

    Order Now! 

     

     The meals are designed to serve two people.

    • 1/2 Citrus Chicken
    • 1/2 Rack of Ribs
    • Mini Pan of Corncake
    • Pork Belly Brussel Sprouts
    • 2 Red Velvet Cupcakes 

    • $59.99

     

    You can pre-order now, just select the location you would like to order from, then select a date between February 12-14th. The meals are under "Valentine's Day Specials"! 

     

    Order Now! 

    Posted in Specials