We passed our health inspection this morning (on the first try too) so we’re ready to do business. We’ll start taking orders at 5pm all the way through close

Thanks again for following our process for so many months. Our phone number is 215-796-9809 so give us a call tonight

~DP Dough Philly Team

I know we’ve been quiet for a while so here’s a quick update: we passed our final inspection today. That was one of two remaining major hurdles (the second being the health inspection). Now that we passed our final we can get our certificate of occupancy and once we pass our health we’ll get our food license. The next obvious step is selling you guys some ‘zones

We’ll keep you posted over the next few days regarding the health inspection too.

Also for those on twitter, we are as well. You can follow us at www.twitter.com/dpdoughphilly

Thanks!
Jason

Only somebody who has ridden the store-opening-rollercoaster can understand the pain it causes us to have to put up this blog post after our last one. After three years of working through delay after delay, we were certain we’d be open by today.

So certain in fact, that two weeks ago we announced we’d be opening some day in August when the calendar read “1X.” Back then – which now seems like eons ago – we were excited because we were only a few days work away from being ready to open. Maybe we’ll share the full story with you after we open, but we’ll just let you know in vague terms that two weekends ago we were dealt a few hard blows by the restaurant gods. We kinda feel like Rocky right now being knocked down by Apollo but we know that Rocky kicks some ass in the 15th round.

One of those blows was the lack of a sprinkler permit that we were under the impression wasn’t necessary. After speaking with the Mike the Sprinkler Man, we found out the permit will take another 2-3 weeks and we cannot get our Certificate of Occupancy to operate until we get it. The sad reality is that though we’ll be operational this weekend because everything else in line, we won’t be allowed to sell anything. We are crushed by the news of yet another delay and because of this last pushback we are going to refrain from setting any sort of firm-date.

On the positive side, Mikey has been a soldier throughout this recent ordeal and has become our de facto contractor and constructor. He took on the project of building the pad for our walk-in box as well as assembling the walk-in box himself (after painting the whole store and the bench too). He also lined the walls with red tile so our walls are completed. Here are some pictures of the completed projects (and the countertop is being installed today, which was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle). Thanks for the hard work and late nights, Mike.



And to our fans, please accept our humble apology for possibly getting your hopes up and having to break this delay news to you. We swear, you’ll get your calzones.

Hey everyone,

Thanks for following our progress over the last (gasp!) three years. We are finally going to commit to an opening date…sort of. Our ever optimistic manager, Mike, insists that we can be operational in 7-12 days and I tend to believe him. In fact, Jacquie and I will be in Philly with Mike this weekend buying the final supplies from the restaurant supply store and putting the finishing touches on the store’s interior (if you’re wondering where Scott is, well, he’s been off-shored temporarily but will be back for the Grand Opening). Since we really can’t say which day we’ll be open, let’s just say we’ll be selling our first calzone between August 10th and August 19th, hence the August 1x.

See you soon!

Thanks again,

The DP Dough Philly Team
Mike, Jacquie, Scott and Jason

Jason and Jacquie (I, in this case) went to Philadelphia this past weekend to help car-less Mikey run some errands, meet with potential day-shift managers, and check up on the store’s progress to report back to you!

I photoshopped most of the pictures here because I’m trying to learn more about CS4; and because a few of the pics turned out blurry :o) Don’t judge - it was dark and I didn’t have a tripod!! It’s hard to hold a heavy camera steady for long-exposures. Anyway, more about our store!

This is Jason and Mikey standing outside of the store. I imagine that in 40+ years our grandchildren will pull out this picture and it will look weathered and faded like it does here.

This is the right side of the store. The top is beige, the trim will be painted a dark gray, and the bottom part will be red. Our curved countertop will go on top of the platform in the middle of the store and there will be an eating counter all along the right side wall.

This is another shot of where the counter will be. This is basically what you will see as soon as you walk through our doors, finished of course.

These are our double-stacked convection ovens. They are so much bigger and taller than what they looked like in the original picture we posted. The ovens are really sick. They can be calibrated for any temp and any speed. The calzones will go the full trip from one end to the other but there’s a door in the middle where breadsticks can be thrown in for their shorter cook time.

Next is our freezer that’s in the prep-area. The freezer may be utilized in the future for pint sized ice creams (an idea we’re kicking around to deliver with the zones). Yum!

This is our built-in wrap-around bench that Mikey is in the midst of staining a dark brown.

Last but not least, our handicap-accessible bathroom!

And I leave you with the original version of the first picture because this is what you’ll see when you walk up to our store in the middle of August to get your yummy calzone - sans brown paper!

Since you’re getting this email, I assume you’ve been following our progress and may even be excited to see that we’re getting VERY close to opening. As we near the end of the beginning, we are starting to look for a reliable/organized/experienced/kick-a$$ person to help Mikey run the day-to-day of the store. In other words, we’re looking for a full-time manager. Instead of going to craigslist and looking for “strangers,” we thought we’d come to our trusted fans and ask if any of you have experience and are interested or know of anybody who might meet those criteria.

We are hoping to meet with people this Sunday so we can get started on the training by early August. Drop me an email or apply through our form on the website if you’re interested! We really look forward to hearing from you.

In the meantime, here are some more pics of how the store is coming along.

The walls that have been painted by Mikey himself:

Our built-in bench that wraps around half the store:

Our hot (bad pun intended) and brand-new conveyor ovens which will make your fresh, piping hot calzones in 5 minutes!

~Jacquie with the DP Dough Philly team

I’m nervous to say this but I’ll do it anyhow: we’re on schedule. Of course now that I’ve published this post I’m sure I’ve jinxed us too. Still, at this point we are on target with the drywall (aka sheet rock, hence the “witty” title) up and finished. I guess it’s easier to make progress when you aren’t held up with permit delays

We should have the floors, ceilings, ovens and countertops in by the end of the month. Following that phase, and if we can keep on schedule, is about 2-3 weeks worth of equipment install, final touches and employee training. We’re more confident that we’ll be slinging ‘zones before July ends. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Here are some recent store pics:

~Mike, Scott, Jacquie & Jason
DP Dough Philly

The four of us DP Dough Philly founders (phounders?) consider ourselves foodies, not just entrepreneurs. With that said, one of our favorite 40th Street neighbors is James Beard Award winner Jose Garces. Here’s a quick write up about his Philly restaurants from one of my favorite newsletters.

http://tastingtable.com/entry_detail/everywhere/301/Jose_Garces_brings_an_atlass_worth_of_cuisines_to_Philadelphia.htm

Distrito is our neighbor and we’ll attest that food is quite delicious. Being a Kentucky native, I’m particularly excited about his new venture — Village Whiskey

As for our store, we’ll have more progress updates very soon.

~Jason

If you’ve walked by the store lately you’ve probably wondered, “Man, are these guys doing ANYTHING?” I’m sure there are even more exasperated thoughts coming from those who are in the know about the D.P. Dough greatness.

Well, I promise you, the four of us have been quite busy.

As long time followers of our updates know, we solve one dilemma and encounter another one. Most of our holdups have come from having to rezone the store (turning a bodega into a food service eatery is quite an undertaking as we’ve discovered) and also bring it up to code. Our most recent delay was no exception. Due to lack of trash accessibility, we actually had to build our own alley out back. Shortly after getting city approval to move our neighbors fences, we did just that and then laid some concrete for the alley.

Along with completing the trash alley, we have some other great news. I’m sure you can put 2 and 2 together and surmise that these unexpected delays and extras have led to a few, to say the least, budget overages. Fortunately, we were informed of a wonderful program by The Merchants Fund. In a nutshell, they grant funds to a select number of Philly businesses who are need of some financial assistance. More specifically, it is for business that will create jobs and give back to the community that sustains them. That’s us — we can’t wait to start adding value to the 40th Street corridor — and we can’t thank them enough for a much needed and quite generous grant of up to $42,000. Oh, and did we mention we got a Happy Gilmore sized check? Friggin awesome.

The next post should include some interior shots to prove there will actually be a restaurant behind those doors.

~Mike, Scott, Jacquie & Jason
DP Dough Philly

If you happen to walk by the store for whatever reason you’ll notice S&M is gone. Of course it has been gone for a while, but now it’s a bit more official. There isn’t much else to say so here are the pics:

Painting:

Slideshow

Signage:

Slideshow

Getting there!

~DP Dough Philly
Mike, Scott, Jacquie, and Jason