Interview: Small retailer Paul Goodale PizzaLuxe
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Pizza Luxe started life as a stall in Brick Lane Market; it sold freshly made artisan pizzas cooked in mini ovens directly on the street to passers-by. Back in 2010, three directors from Westfield ate at our stall and
were so impressed with the food they asked the stall manager, Laura Pabon, if she would consider moving to premises at Westfield Stratford City. We leapt at the chance to take our food somewhere bigger and Westfield's directors were incredibly supportive all the way through the process. Westfield’s retail directors really understand food and the brands that appeal to people. We had a clear idea of how we wanted the restaurant to look, with pared-down, simple decor to allow guests to focus on the food. Westfield worked with our architects to achieve this – it is really commendable that such a large company appreciates the fact that we are a start-up and did all it could to give us the same opportunities as the large restaurant brands. We still can’t believe where we are located, just 100m from the London Olympic site. Since our move from Brick Lane to Westfield we have had to learn a lot about how to position our brand, especially as there are so many other
pizza restaurants out there. But, so far, business has been amazing. We started with a restaurant with seating for 30 people, but in spring we were able to open a terrace space for an additional 60. As we are no longer just working from a market stall we have been able to expand our menus to include pasta dishes and desserts. Before people wouldn’t have expected anything other than pizza from our stall, but now they expect to have a drink with their meal so we also have a fully stocked bar serving wines, champagnes and spirits. Westfield Stratford City is a very different environment from Brick Lane Market, with a very different clientele. Thousands of people pass through Westfield every day but in our time there we have managed to develop a loyal customer base, with some customers returning time after time. Some of these are people staying in one of the new hotels that has developed in the area, who like to have some sense of routine for the time they are in London. Pizza Luxe would like to expand further, and we envisage organising a few small pop-up stalls at festivals as a way of branching out. For now though, it’s expected that 500,000 people will pass through the area every day during the Olympic Games, so we are going to focus on doing our best in this period and the months to come.
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