Tag Archive: Employees

  1. The Wait Is Almost Over

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    For Immediate Release:

    Monical’s Pizza Paris To Re-Open

    Following the recent retirement of long-time franchisee Diane Boyer and subsequent remodeling of the Paris Monical’s Pizza, the restaurant is scheduled to re-open at the end of August.  Formerly a franchise location, the Paris Monical’s will now be operated as a company-owned restaurant with Jennifer Denton assuming General Manager responsibilities.  Jennifer has served as an Assistant Manager at the Tilton Monical’s and as General Manager of the Mattoon restaurant.

    The Paris remodeling includes upgrades to the kitchen and dining room in addition to new ADA accessible restrooms.  Work was done by general contractor Tony Grimes and a team of local sub-contractors. Guests will also notice several new menu items as well as online ordering for carry-out and delivery. Hours of operation will be 11:00 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

    New GM Jennifer Denton says “This is a great opportunity for our Paris team to take a long-lasting Paris tradition and continue showing why the Monical’s Pizza experience is so special.  We’re going to do our best to live up to our tradition and hope the community will love what’s new and what’s the same about their Paris Monical’s.”

    Monical’s Pizza provides a number of community outreach programs including “School Reading” Reward, “Pizza with a Purpose” Fundraiser and “Sports Backer” for local athletic teams.  A complete list can be viewed at www.monicals.com.  The restaurant also offers a new Catering Menu with carry-out and delivery packages for meetings, wedding rehearsals, graduations and parties of all kinds. Monical’s “Dippin’ Club” provides members with updates on new products, community programs and special deals and can be joined at the company’s website.

    Monical’s Pizza is the recipient of numerous local and national recognitions not only for their community efforts and “Readers Choice” awards, but also as an “Employer of Choice” winner from the National Restaurant Association.   Founded in 1959 Monical’s Pizza currently consists of 65 locations in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin.

    For additional information contact:
    Max Brigham
    Team Leader, Guest Satisfaction
    815.929.2025
    max@monicals.com

  2. Rebuilding Tilton

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    For Immediate Release:

    July 25, 2014 – Monical’s Pizza announces plans to re-build their Tilton restaurant at its existing location at 1628 Georgetown Road. The building suffered extensive fire damage on April 24 of this year. Since then the company has been working with the insurance provider, city of Tilton and the corporate architect on the plans to rebuild.

    With a newly expanded North Vermilion Street location in addition to the original restaurant on North Bowman, the company will be adding capacity to the Danville market in order to better serve their guests. The rebuilt restaurant will feature a contemporary dining room with additional seating, increased energy efficiency and a completely reconstructed kitchen.

    Broeren-Russo Construction of Champaign will serve as general contractor and Monical’s on-staff Architect, Ralph Rorem, will be responsible for the building’s design. Work is expected to begin by the end of July and expect to be completed before the holidays. Janelle Reents, President of Monical Pizza Corporation, has commented on “the patience and overwhelming support we’ve received from the Tilton community, restaurant team and city officials.” Until the Tilton Monical’s is ready to reopen, guests are invited to visit one of their other area restaurants.

    With questions contact:
    Max Brigham
    815.929.2025
    max@monicals.com

  3. Monical’s Named “Best Practices” Finalist!

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    People Report and Black Box Intelligence have announced 13 finalists for the 2012 Best Practices awards, which honor four restaurant companies for exceptional workplace practices and results. 

    In addition to Monical’s Pizza, the finalists include BJ’s Restaurants, The Capital Grille, Corner Bakery Cafe, Eat’n Park Restaurants, La Madeleine, Le Pain Quotidien, K&N Management, Longhorn Steakhouse, Maggiano’s Little Italy, McDonald’s, Red Lobster and White Castle.

    “These companies represent some of the best workplaces in our industry,” said Joni Thomas Doolin, founder and chief executive of People Report.

    The Best Practices awards, which represent industry segments from quick service to casual dining, will be given Nov. 8, during the 18th annual Best Practices Conference in Dallas.  People Report said the finalists were evaluated on their retention of both managers and employees, the diversity of their workforces, compensation practices, community involvement, corporate responsibility, employee funds and foundations, and initiatives in sustainable business practices.

    Dallas-based People Report provides employment analytics for its members on a monthly basis.  Its sister company, Black Box Intelligence, provides weekly restaurant industry financial and market data.  Together they report on more than 33,000 restaurant units with one million employees

  4. Recycling at Monical’s Corporate Support Center

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    It began with recycling aluminum cans. Many of us were drinking canned soft drinks, so we installed a can crusher on the wall in our employee kitchen and placed a lined plastic garbage can under it. After empty cans were crushed, they simply fell into the lined garbage can. Once a bag became half-full, we took it to the local recycling center and redeemed it for cash. The money was then used to buy Dairy Queen treats for the office.

    Next, it was paper and cardboard. We spoke with our waste collector and found that by choosing one day of the week to recycle paper and cardboard (Thursday worked best), we could reduce the quantity of pick-ups. In addition to helping the environment, this method of recycling actually saved the company money.

    Then, plastic recycling tubs were placed under our desks and a we put a large tub in the fax/copier area. We designated a 4’ x 8’ area in our file room to collect corrugated cardboard during the week. On Thursdays, we spend 15 minutes dumping our tubs into a large pick-up can where it’s then pulled to the outdoor trash area near our employee entrance. The corrugated cardboard is broken down, placed in saved corrugated cardboard boxes, and set out with the paper to await for pickup. It’s gone before the end of our work day.

    Next, we tackled the prospect of recycling plastic bottles. A garbage can was placed in our kitchen specifically for PET and polyethylene bottles. We began noticing that the employees who didn’t have recycling collection at home began bringing their used bottles too. This presented two more opportunities: batteries and plastic bags.

    We only needed three square feet of space to accomplish this. For batteries, we placed a basket next to our shredding area. For plastic bags, we placed a plastic laundry hamper in the same area. As we began recycling the batteries from various office tools, the plastic bags from our lunches, the used packing materials and mailing sleeves, we once again found that our employees were continuing the effort by bringing their own used batteries and plastic bags from home.

    The batteries are recycled at the Interstate Battery Store, located just a couple of blocks away from our office. Interstate has taken it upon themselves to collect and store used batteries until a recycling center in the area is identified. The laundry hamper full of plastic bags is taken to a local grocery store where they happily accept them.

    Finally, our IT coordinator began accepting copier and printer cartridges for his church to recycle. As a result of this, we’ve been able to divert 50% of our spent cartridges to support his efforts.

    We seem to be treating this process casually and consistently. The reality of recycling is that it doesn’t take much time or require huge amounts of extra space and, in the end, we save the company money. We enjoy this small group effort for a variety of reasons, and rewarding our employees with ice cream certainly adds to the enjoyment.

  5. Think Global- Act Local

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    At Monical’s Pizza, we’re very active in our local communities, and we try to reach out and support those communities as much as we can.  In November 2010, the employees of Monical’s reached just a little farther than usual.  We touched lives all the way in Africa, in fact.

    Almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water.  That’s one in eight people. charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations.  Monical’s Pizza teamed up with charity: water to help directly fund sustainable water solutions in a needy area of Africa.   We wanted to raise enough money to build at least one well, which would provide clean, safe water to an entire community for 20 years.

    How did we do it?  One weekend in November, we asked each of our team members (restaurant crew and corporate support staff alike) to donate $3 per day to wear blue jeans to work.  100% of the money we collected went directly to charity: water.

    An overwhelming majority of the company participated!  Although we didn’t raise quite enough for an entire well, we had a great time promoting the event and getting our guests’ support.  We were also reminded of our own blessings, and that certainly humbled us and drove our spirits through the busy holiday season.

    When we say we’re “People Pleasing People”, it means more than providing delicious pizza and great service.  It means reaching out to our communities, no matter how near of far away they may be.

    To learn more about charity:water visit http://www.charitywater.org/about/