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February
Meeting - Thursday, February 9
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Palermo's
Pizza - meet in Palermo's Cafe
3301
W Canal Street
Milwaukee,
WI 53208
414-643-0919
View on map and get
directions
Fee:
$30 for dinner (excluding drinks), tour and t-shirt
Arrival
time: 5:30pm
Tour:
5:45pm - approx 40 mins (20 min video that is narrated by Barb who is
giving us the tour then 15-20 min tour of the manuf facility)
Dinner:
Salad,
Garlic Bread, Pizza
Cash bar - $3
bottled beer, $6 glasses of wine, $1.95 for 20 oz bottles of soda
Registration is
payable by check at the door. Registration deadline is February 1.
RSVP to Beth Ann Nylander at bnylander@kraftfoods.com.
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Milwaukee's
Menomonee Valley has been a center for manufacturing for more than 100
years, and has been home to some of the city's best-known heavy
industrial companies for much of that time.
The area
continues to be home for some of the city's best known manufacturers,
but the mix has changed. Palermo Villa Inc., the makers of Palermo's
Pizza, is a perfect example of the changing face of the valley - its
products are well known around the country, are made with locally grown
and sourced materials, and are produced by Milwaukee talent.
The company
makes pizzas with four different types of crust, Primo Thin, Stone
Baked, Hand Tossed and Rustico. Palermo's uses an Italian pizza
oven to make its Stone Baked crust, and is the only frozen pizza maker
in the country to use an oven with Italian marble surfaces, said Chris
Dresselhuys, the company's director of marketing.
The company
makes 28 different pizzas with its four premium crusts. Advances in
flash freezing technology over the last 10 years now allow the company
to use fresh tomatoes, roasted vegetables, fresh spinach and pineapple
on some of its pizzas.
In addition to
its premium pizza line, Palermo's also makes a line of frozen pizzas in
the value market segment, which usually retail for $2.50 or less. It
also makes two types of breakfast pizzas. Additionally, Palermo
Villa is a contract manufacturer that makes premium pizzas for several
grocery chains on the east and west coasts.
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Upcoming Event
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MARCH 2012 Student Night
Thursday, March 8
Fluno Center
601 University Avenue
Madison, WI 53715
tel: 877-77-FLUNO
or direct at 608-441-7117
5:45 - 6:30 pm Registration,
Networking, Silent Auction
6:30 - 7:30 pm
Dinner
7:30 - 8:30 pm
Scholarship Awards and Speaker
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for meeting locations or
topics? We would love to here them! As we try to make WIFT
a strong resource for continued education in the food industry, we need
to hear from you what is important. Please email your comments to
Caryl Beal, WIFT Web Editor, at caryl@dempseycorporation.com.
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We hope to see
you at the February
2012 Event!
Sincerely,
Wisconsin IFT
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About Our Featured
Company
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FROM
RESTAURANTEUR TO FLEDGLING MANUFACTURER
Palermo's began making frozen pizza breads in 1978, in
an old bakery that was renovated into a manufacturing facility on
Milwaukee's South Side. Several years later, Palermo's introduced
twelve-inch round pizzas with crusts that were par-baked on-premise. Pizzas
and pizza breads were sold under the "Palermo's" brand name,
and Jack Fallucca soon became known as "Papa Palermo." His
expression "Dat's Da Best!™" spoken in his heavy Italian
accent, was soon adopted as the company's slogan and became widely
recognized throughout the area.
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