BULLITT BAR CHANGES THE GAME: A TEMPORARY FIX TO OPEN DURING COVID-19 TURNS INTO A PERMANENT NEW REVENUE STREAM FOR YEARS TO COME!

When the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in the United States, bars around the country were amongst the hardest hit. Even in Florida, bars were one of the first types of establishments ordered to close, and one of the last allowed to re-open.

Bullitt Bar and McQueen's Social Lounge—staples of the downtown Orlando nightlife scene—were determined to find a way to re-open for their customers sooner rather than later. After one of the Donna Italia team members saw an interview with Matty Bullitt from Bullitt Bar on the news, we knew we could offer them the perfect solution!

"Donna Italia was kind of a game-changer. We knew we needed to obtain a food license in order to be able to open, but we thought that would require us to build out a kitchen, which isn't our concept.

With Donna Italia, we were just able to set up the oven in our prep room and have a miniature kitchen without a whole build-out. It was a no-brainer for us," Matty explained.

Matty reached out to the health department and was pleased to learn that having the Donna Italia professional stone oven in their prep area was enough for them to obtain a food license without a full kitchen. Because the use of one of our proprietary ovens is included with every Donna Italia pizza subscription, he didn't have to worry about the high up-front costs of installing a traditional oven and hood.

Even better, the Donna Italia oven is compact enough to fit on any table or countertop!

* Photos courtesy of @bullittbar and @mcqueenssociallounge

Once they received their food license, both Bullitt Bar and McQueen's Social Lounge were able to open six weeks before the ban on bars being open was lifted, solely because they were now serving food. "Donna Italia allowed us to open when bars were shut down because it allowed us to open as a restaurant," Matty said.

Even now that the bars are able to open at full capacity, Matty is still planning to keep serving Donna Italia pizza. "We have added some tables and high-tops so we have seating areas, and we bought plants to act as social barriers. But our customers are happy that we're able to open."

As a craft cocktail lounge that focuses on great pricing, Matty is glad to now be able to offer his guests something to eat while they socialize amongst custom art created by local artists, a twenty-four foot skull wall, and basketball hoops at McQueen's Social Lounge, or the old-school Americana look of Bullitt Bar (which was inspired by the 1968 Steve McQueen film of the same name).

Matty with his team continues to innovate creating exciting specials for his patrons combining pizza with beer or cocktail offers that create engagement and drive more traffic to his venues.

"Pizza provides another stream of revenue that we didn't have before. Every night's different, but the increase has been noticeable. And it's been great for our customers because they don't have to leave to go get food. Now they can just order pizza while they're here."