Klay Pizzeria & Bar

An independent restaurant opened from scratch

Dead good pizza

What happens when three people with no real experience in the food industry get together and decide to open a restaurant? A lot of lessons learned, mistakes made… and a cool as f*ck pizza place, that’s what. In 2015, two friends and I got together and renovated a three-storey property in Stoke-on-Trent’s Cultural Quarter that is now the city’s only wood fired pizzeria.

Role

Co-founder
Creative Director

Period

2015–

Business

Cooke Stanway Wainwright Ltd.

Link

www.klaypizzeria.com

A flexible & fun brand identity

Designing for yourself can be hard. Designing for your friends can be difficult. Designing for yours and your friends new business venture can be downright impossible! But, we got to a place that was directly inspired by the personality and lo-fi nature of some of our favourite pizza spots around the world. We wanted to evoke a feeling of cool nostalgia, with a clear low end influence.

This was very purposeful—we didn’t want to open a fancy Italian restaurant. At the same time, we didn’t want to open an American pizzeria either… we just knew that we were going in a direction that had elements of pizza from all over, and the brand identity had to convey that. By keeping the typographic direction simple and the colour scheme stripped back, the fun, laid back visual appearance is one that also equals approachability for customers.

Constant marketing initiatives

It’s easy to have offers. Slow day? Panic offer. Slow month? Everything 50% off. Woah now–that’s no way to build a brand that depends on a perception of quality combined with cool. At the same time, everyone likes a deal. So, we have a promo policy at KP&B. Two main offers during the week (Twosday: 2 for 1 pizzas, and every Thursday: 4/4/4/4 — 4 dine for £40), two consistent loyalty schemes (Slice Klub and Loyal Slicer) and two other promotions (£5 Pizza Sandwich Meal Deal and the #klayklay Winner). It keeps things simple for us, so we can actually remember them, whilst our customers know what they’re getting week-in, week-out.

Products that people didn’t know they wanted

We knew we wanted to do something different in the city—something that truly hadn’t been done before. And when it came to pizza, nowhere in 2016 was offering anything wood fired. The gas ovens were present in all the big chains, so we saw an opportunity to stand out. Sure, making a DIY oven by following YouTube videos and guidance in books might seem ludicrous to some. But 3 1/2 years later our little oven is still dishing out pizzas inside two minutes 5 days a week. Combined with a selection of cocktails and craft beers that are seldom found inside a 50-mile radius, we are confident that by offering this new product range, customers will flock.

Fresh, nutritious food made in an open kitchen

We were kind of getting sick of the basic food option one gets in a small city. The standard, high profile chains alongside the take-aways that at best, offer a sub-par salad that’s only bettered by a Tesco meal deal. So, a focus on fresh, locally sourced ingredients to make our pizzas was high on the agenda. Of course— there’s a degree of reality here too—we’d love to be able to shop at farmers markets 3 times a week and source the most sustainable meat possible. Whilst that degree of fresh isn’t always possible, we do our utmost to ensure great food by bringing in the best ingredients we can.

As the design of the restaurant took hold (being one of the first things we had to tackle), it became clear that we were heading toward an open kitchen environment. Which we kind of liked. People can see what’s being made, by whom and it adds to the experience. We could’ve tucked away the oven in our food prep room on the third floor, but the spectacle of the open kitchen not only delights customers but ensures that we, as business owners, stay on top of keeping every part of the kitchen up at the highest standard possible across cleanliness, presentation and organisation.