If you are not near a Monical’s location, you can order our dressing online by clicking here.

Find this and other recipes right here on our blog by clicking our ‘Recipes’ link above (or click here).

During the Holiday Meeting, attendees donated non-perishable food items, which prior to being given to the Midwest Food Bank, were used to create a (temporary) indoor miniature golf course. This went to prove that sometimes it’s ok to play with your food.  When finished, it was determined that 3,172 items (or 7,428 pounds) of food plus and additional $415 were donated to the Midwest Food Bank, which supplies over half of the food banks in Illinois.

In lieu of having a gift exchange, Monical’s managers, corporate support staff, franchise owners and vendors attending their Holiday Meeting were asked to bring an unwrapped toy donation for Toys for Tots.  The Monical’s Team in attendance helped Central Illinois residents by donating nearly two vans full of gifts at this event.  Monical’s Pizza restaurants are also collection sites, where guests and restaurant staff can also make toy donations.

The McLean County Toys for Tots is celebraring it’s 20^th Anniversary this year. Matt Drat accepted Monical’s toy donations on behalf of the organization. Their goal for the county this year is 20,000 toys for more than 6000 children.

Monical’s Pizza would like to thank Central Illinois Produce, Vermilion Valley Produce, Fontanini, Randolph Packing, Busey Bank, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and Grand Victoria Casino for helping make their Holiday Meeting a success! A special “Thank You” goes to Delco Foods, Gordon Food Service and Pepsi for donating food which will go to the Midwest Food Bank and for contributing to the success of this annual event!

Donated food for the Midwest Food Bank

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 18^th 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

A: Apple Slices
B: Breadsticks
C: Cookie or Calzone
D: Delight (pizza combination)
E: Extra Meat or Veggies (pricing per topping)
F: Family Pleaser
G: Gluten Free Pizza
H: Half Sandwich and Salad Combination
I: Italian Special (pizza combination)
J: Juice
K: Kid’s Menu
L: Lasagna
M: Mozzarella Sticks
N: Nacho cheese
O: Oven-Ready (Frozen) Pizza
P: Pecan Grilled Chicken Salad
Q:
R: Ravioli
S: Sweet Tea
T: Turkey BLT Sandwich
U:
V: Veggie Toppings (or pizza combo)
W: Wings
X:
Y:
Z:

Mommy gets spaghetti and Nana gets pizza so he’s all set!

The employees and customers at CVS thought this picture was just adorable. They said it belonged in a restaurant or a photo contest. All of our friends and relatives (as my daughter and I both have 8×10′s in our kitchens) say he should be a bright blue-eyed Monical’s Poster Child.

We just had to share this with you since it’s our favorite snapshot. Enjoy!

Mick & Ruby F

Monical’s Menu helps this Mom ‘Git-R-Done’
Growing up my elders always told me, “the older you get the quicker time goes by” and man, were they right!  Like many working mothers I wear many hats and I have found, after having children, that time speeds by even faster.  My daughter, Josephine, is 17 months old and my son, Gavin just turned 3 on February 7th.

To celebrate we had a party and of course this party had to have a theme, activities, prizes and not to mention a fantastic menu.   The theme was easy, Disney Pixar CARS as Gavin is a HUGE fan! Decorations, no problem!  Some handmade some store bought. Goody bags….check! Name the character trivia for the game and car related prizes such as car wash – piece of cake!  Coloring books, crayons,  stickers and more to keep the kids occupied – fantastic.  Now the burning question….what will the menu be and how can I relate it to this theme?

Hmmmm. I pondered for a while then thought, “my family LOVES Monical’s and the Manteno, IL location always gives great service and the food is out of this world”. That settled that question but now, how can I make it fit the theme?  Looking at the menu and recalling the names of character in CARS it hit me; we will have – Ramone’s Rollies, Sally’s Salad, Route 66 breadsticks, Francesco Cheese Fries, Guido’s Italian Special Point Pizza and Tow-Mater and Cheese Pizza!  What a hit!!  Everyone revved their engines and raced to the food table to fill up their tanks and enjoyed every bite!

Car related puns aside, the service and food as usual were fantastic and left them craving more!  Thank you Monical’s for being a true “Family Pleaser” and for helping to make my son’s birthday party a true success!

 We love to tell our guests then when it comes to our pizza, we are experts at creating that “Magical Moment.”  You know, that moment when the cheese settles and the pieces separate into deliciously crisp, bite-sized squares of flavor-filled perfection.  While that moment lasts through the meal, we get questions all the time about how to create that moment at home without taking home one of our team members.  Whether you’re working with take home Monical’s or even leftover Monical’s here are a few of the top re-heating tips we’ve put together over the years.

Re-heating Overview:

Once you’ve got that pizza in your house, you have a decision to make – do you just want it warm, or do you want it warm and crispy?  The Monical’s Magical Moment we’re trying to re-create is all about the pizza being crisp and warm…so that’s where we’ll spend most of our time.  But if you’re in the microwave crowd, don’t worry – we’ve got a ”hot” tip in here for you, too.

No matter which method you choose, when it comes to re-heating pizza, you always have to start with pizza that is at room temperature.  So before re-heating, pull your pizza out of the refrigerator and let it sit for approximately 15-20 minutes. (Reminder: do not leave pizza unsupervised during this process – our pizza has a tendency to mysteriously disappear when left unattended.)

Stove Top:

Get out the trusty old frying pan (bonus points if it’s a cast iron skillet) and turn the burner on low for a 1-2 minutes to warm up the bottom of your pan.  While the pan gets warm, prepare a tin foil dome to act as a cover. *For a crispier crust, one family member suggests brushing a very slight layer of butter on the bottom of each pizza slice. With the pan warm and the dome ready, place your room temperature pizza in the pan and heat at medium-low heat for 4-5 minutes while the pan is covered with the domed foil lid. The foil will help reflect heat back to the toppings without trapping steam inside.

Oven:

How you re-heat using an oven will vary between oven types and based on what you are placing the pizza on for warming. If you are using a pizza stone, place that in the oven.  If you do not have a stone, place a sheet of foil directly on the oven’s surface. Set the oven to preheat to 450 – 475 degrees and lay the room temperature slices on the stone/foil.  Leave the pizza in until the oven finishes pre-heating or until you see the cheese bubbling.

Toaster Oven:

Toaster ovens are a good option if they are available. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and put your room temperature slices on some foil for about 10 minutes or until cheese is bubbling.

Microwave Oven:

This is the least preferred method for heating, but we would be remiss to leave this option out. Crispiness is not really an option here, but we do have a trick to keeping the pizza crust moist.  Place your room temperature pizza in the microwave, with a cup of water, and use the defrost setting in 30 sec. increments to prevent overheating. Remove when warm.

If you have tried one of these or have your own way we may have missed, please take a minute to share your thoughts.

Find this and other recipes right here on our blog by clicking our ‘Recipes’ link above (or click here).

The original Sweet & Tart recipe dates back many years, and the recipe is not easy to reproduce or duplicate. The slightest variation in the way it’s made can cause changes in color, texture or taste. Because of the incredibly loyal following this dressing has, our Guests or our Management Teams notice changes immediately. It’s then that our Quality Assurance Team must spring into action and work with vendors to find a solution.

We not only purchase the dressing in large quantities for restaurant use, but also sell it (a lot of it) in pint bottles. We recently developed a “light” version with a nearly identical taste profile that is (shameless promotion to follow) for sale online or in our restaurants.

Due to the extreme popularity of our Sweet & Tart Salad Dressing, we know we must do whatever is necessary to monitor and protect the quality and consistency of this product.  Salad dressing may not seem like a big thing to many restaurants, but to us and our Guests, it’s a significant part of what makes Monical’s special.