Full-service bar-and-grill operators are increasingly treating pizza as a profit center rather than a menu afterthought — and Bacio Cheese is moving to capture that shift. The Leprino Foods brand, long entrenched in the pizzeria channel, is now actively pursuing bar-and-grill concepts with a pitch that frames premium cheese as a unit-economics lever, not just an ingredient upgrade.
The strategy is backed by category data: a 2026 Bacio survey found that 97% of U.S. consumers love or like pizza, and 88% report eating the same amount or more pizza year-over-year. For multi-unit bar-and-grill operators watching traffic and check averages under pressure, those numbers suggest a familiar SKU could function as a low-capital traffic driver — if execution is tight enough to differentiate from QSR and fast-casual pizza alternatives.
Tommy's Tavern: A 19-Unit Test Case
Tommy's Tavern and Tap, a 19-location full-service concept serving sushi, burgers, and tavern fare, offers the clearest proof-of-concept. Executive Chef Chris Perrino made coal-fired pizza the chain's signature item, and credits Bacio's mozzarella-style cheese — made with a Kiss of Buffalo Milk® from Grade A milk — with delivering the consistency a multi-unit operation demands. Since switching to Bacio, pizza-related guest complaints at Tommy's dropped from approximately 1.5% to 0.25%, a reduction the chain attributes largely to tighter ingredient standardization. Bacio's shredded blends are portioned with calibrated measuring cups to eliminate coverage variation across all 19 locations.
Off-premise performance has also improved. As takeout mix grows across the full-service segment, reheat quality has become a meaningful differentiator. Perrino notes that a Bacio slice held for twenty minutes after cooking retains stretch and moisture rather than turning oily — a functional attribute that supports delivery and carryout without a menu-engineering overhaul. The same cheese pulls double duty in Tommy's spinach and artichoke dip, compressing inventory complexity while maintaining back-of-house quality standards.
Perrino frames the cost-benefit calculus directly: spending an additional dollar per pizza on premium ingredients to generate roughly eight dollars in incremental guest retention and repeat visits is, in his description, sound math for any operator evaluating food-cost trade-offs against lifetime customer value.
Rewards Program Funds Operator Staffing
Beyond product performance, Bacio's commercial model includes a loyalty mechanism designed to deepen operator relationships. The Bacio Gold Club Rewards program returns monthly cash-back to participating operators and unlocks access to customized marketing materials. Tommy's Tavern used accumulated rewards to fund a traveling pizza specialist — a dedicated trainer who cycles through all 19 restaurants reinforcing technique and precision. The move effectively converted a purchasing rebate into a labor and training investment, a structure worth noting for multi-unit operators evaluating total program value versus ingredient cost alone.
Enrollment runs through Bacio's website or via Performance Food Group distributor partners, with purchases tracked automatically. The rewards structure positions Bacio alongside broadline distributors and GPO programs that increasingly bundle financial incentives with operational support to lock in multi-year volume commitments.
For bar-and-grill operators navigating a full-service environment where menu pricing pressure and labor costs continue to compress margins, a pizza program anchored by a proven premium ingredient — distributed through an established broadline partner and supported by a cash-back rewards mechanism — represents a relatively low-risk daypart and check-size opportunity. Whether bar-and-grill operators can replicate Tommy's complaint-rate improvement at scale will depend on training consistency and supply-chain reliability, two variables Bacio is clearly positioning itself to address.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
