Why I Oughta...

I've posted a photo of the original Dorianell's Cake Shop - the bakery operated by my grandparents where my Mom grew up (upstairs) that was originally located in the Back of the Yards neighborhood at 1114 W 51st Street, Chicago, IL 60609.  I asked ChatGPT - and their DALL-E GPT what the place would look like as an updated pizza shop.   Below are a couple of examples that were built via AI: The spelling of things like "CAKKE SHOP" and "CAKE SHORY" are sure tells that AI was the creator, aren't they? A funny thing happened - when I asked ChatGPT to update the pizza in the windows to be 'tavern cut' or cut into squares:  it wasn't able to do that.  It kept giving me back images with pie-cut pizza.   Here's the original Dorianell's Cake Shop - with awning: The next ask for DALL-E is to reimagine Dorinell's into a pizza farm.  That's for another post.

The post I put up yesterday regarding how Aurelio's pre-pans their dough and then racks them up pre-service time was drawn from a tip they provided on their Instagram handle.  A few posts back, they shared a photo of their founder - Joe Aurelio - in his red and white striped shop shirt . View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aurelio's Pizza (@aureliospizza) That image deserved a post here in the [ pizza dreaming ] category.   Aurelio's has a whole history section up on their site and there are a number of photos with Joe Aurelio wearing this same striped shirt.  Serving beer, visiting a table and in the kitchen. I've posted a number of times over the years here on the blog about the not-going-to-happen pizza parlor spot dream.     It starts with the look of this vintage Little Caesar's Pizza Treat location with a window into the kitchen and side-by-side prep and waiting room.   Just about everything there - the...

Back in  this post from October of 2015 , at the very end, I mention that in a video , the franchisee of the Aurelio's in Geneva "points out that they roll/sheet their skins out ahead of time and let them kind of dry out. They don't want the top 'sticky'. Not 'doughy'."  I thought that was interesting.  They pan their doughs ahead of time.  That kinda makes sense in terms of a production environment, right?  But, I wasn't sure if that was just unique to the Geneva franchise.   Welp, over on their Instagram handle , the folks at Aurelio's pizza confirm for me - as fact - this pre-panning of the dough that I've been thinking about for years.   View this post on Instagram A post shared by Aurelio's Pizza (@aureliospizza) I've been making Bar Pizzas the past few weekends and this is something I'm going to incorporate into my tests to see what impact it has on the finished product.  Also, note...they use cutt...

Via Little Caesars corporate site here .  This is not my photo.  I saw this photo (above) in this video from Company Man on YouTube ( He's a good follow there . Interesting brand histories and some speculation/rationale for why they succeed/fail.  That's what I'm pretty sure is the first franchise of Little Caesar's in Warren Michigan.  On the Little Caesars corporate site , they list 1962 as the year of the first franchise and include this photo. At first glance, I love just everything about this photo.  The name (Little Caesar's Pizza Treat), the sign (the fonts, the shape, the l-shaped light bulb row down the side and across the bottom).  Then, inside the place, those light fixtures hanging from the ceiling.  The fact that they have a lamp in there.  The fact that the store is split up 50/50 front-to-back so from the outside you get a peek into the kitchen.  The entirely glass front of the store.  The employees wearing white w...