on a warm summer morning and the smell of bacon wafts out the side door of 7a Foods Chef and owner Dan Sauer stands in front of the stove wearing jeans Blundstone boots and his trademark 7a baseball cap making breakfast sandwich after breakfast sandwich Most are on 7a’s popular cheddar jalapeno biscuit (created by Brianna Holt The tickets keep coming and Dan works in a kind of jazz rhythm — slicing the biscuits Igor Zaremba of Russia and Ivan Mamic of Croatia (both here on J1 visas) one of 7a’s year-round staff members provides a steady back beat to Dan’s pulse He chops a giant pile of celery for a fantastically large bowl of tuna salad for their American Tuna wrap Dan notes that he wouldn’t sell tuna until he could find a company that used the best most humane and sustainable fishing practices Dan spots a regular coming in and immediately slides an egg on the grill for him Dan had never done what he calls “quick serve foods” before He says that this kind of food business is “About 1,000 times harder than I thought.” “I used to spend all day sourcing and preparing maybe 100 dinners Now I make more than 200 breakfasts [almost 400 at the height of summer] and then it is on to hundreds of lunches.” several customers stand by the counter trying to peer into the kitchen window to see if their food is ready His first commercial kitchen experiences were while he was still in high school He washed dishes at the Northern Hotel in Billings and then got a job working as a garmage chef at Walker’s Grill Dan was immediately drawn to the entire restaurant kitchen experience — the intensity then on to the Culinary Institute of America and then to New York city where he thrived working ridiculous hours for a very tough boss who was known to occasionally hit his staff lived in the Bronx in an apartment that wasn’t even technically an apartment and it was unbearably hot that summer — the summer of 1999 Wenonah enters the 7a kitchen with glistening hair (she’s just showered after her 6 a.m Ivan and Gavin what she should bring to eat for lunch While Wenonah and Dan run 7a Foods together she also works as the Aquinnah Tax Collector Wenonah decides to pack up a salad and some meatballs “I like a little bit of everything,” she says But her favorite sandwich is the asparagus melt Dan and Wenonah then discuss the coming day and their kids who has just finished third grade and is nine is on his way to the Heritage Museum and both Waylon and their younger son It should be said that baseball is big in this family It seems almost fated that he would end up marrying a woman from Massachusetts and cooking in the Red Sox’s home state His best day was when the Red Sox beat the Yankees and won the World Series.” Dan escaped New York and followed his friend and chef Marco Canora from New York to work at La Cucina in Edgartown Wenonah pipes in: “It’s where L’Etoile is now and my dad Jeffrey [Madison] is from Aquinnah but I always came back in the summers to wait tables at the Home Port for graduate school in design and I was out of money so I came home for the summer ‘come work with me at this new restaurant.’ So Dan and Wenonah did not like each other at first I’m headed back to New York,” she says “I was working in the fashion business at the time and I said I know you are going to pick me.’ And he was right.” Dan shrugs and chalks this prediction up to “youthful arrogance.” Dan and Wenonah headed back to New York together Wenonah designed sportswear and athletic wear Dan helped open Tom Colicchio’s Craft which was nominated as the best new New York restaurant by the James Beard Foundation nap and then wake up to go out to dinner with Dan at 12 or 1 in the morning “Ear plugs saved our relationship,” Wenonah says and be wired from work and want to cook or watch TV and I’d be sound asleep.” This all changed when Dan got a job as a day sous chef “It literally changed our lives,” Wenonah says The following winter they ate their way through Asia for four months “Then the idea of kids came along and we decided to move to the Vineyard,” Wenonah says “We thought that cooking and working on the Island might be easier when having a young family than the demands of New York.” Dan became the head chef at the Outermost Inn and in 2008 Nonie got a job as the Tax Collector in Aquinnah and they lived in tribal housing Dan began talking to Noli Taylor of Island Grown Schools Rebecca Miller of North Tabor Farm and volunteering at the Farm Institute learning from Robin Hosey Athearn about farming — succession planting growing his own food and learning how to infuse flavor into vegetables with the dirt you are growing them in appealed to Dan Because the Outermost Inn was only a four and a half month commitment Dan had time to begin growing food and selling it too Then he and Wenonah began to think about preparing these foods and selling them and the idea for 7a foods was born they would just make salads and meals and deliver them to people’s houses then they graduated to the West Tisbury Farmers’ Market along with a few iterations of restaurants comes into the kitchen to grab some butter from the kitchen’s walk-in refrigerator He and Dan greet each other with a nod and Ross heads back to the baking area which is nestled in a nook between the walk-in and the sales counter Rebecca Miller has texted North Tabor Farm’s offerings for the day He says that his kitchen manager and sous chef Samantha Eng is out today but that she usually helps him oversee everything “I could not do this without her,” Dan says more staff members arrive — Vincent Carlomagno and Theo Gude — and don aprons Dan lets them take over in the kitchen and heads to another set of refrigerators to retrieve some trout that Island Grown Initiative’s Keith Wilda raises on Cape Cod “I’m always trying new things,” he says “Some things work and some don’t The Liz Lemon is a result of me wanting to offer a pastrami sandwich but I just couldn’t keep up with producing that much pastrami when I was home taking care of one of the kids who was sick and I was watching 30 Rock A moment of grace if you want to call it that from a need for a pastrami sandwich that was not all pastrami It’s our most popular sandwich by far I’d say people order it three to one on a daily basis We’ve made up to 147 in one day.” Dan says he’s also excited about 7a’s new product: 7a Foods cookie dough talks to the counter staff and greets customer after customer Then she finds Dan by the smoker and says she is off to go to her other job in Aquinnah Dan does a thorough inventory of the dry goods and fresh produce it is time for the kitchen to switch over to lunch The afternoon rolls on and more Liz Lemons are ordered But Dan and his staff move into a more mellow pace Dan heads home to spend time with his boys Dan and Nonie bought a house in West Tisbury Dan is clearing some of the land for a large garden but at the moment the yard is mostly just scattered with sports equipment — a lacrosse stick No one seems particularly stressed or hungry Dan and Nonie outline their summer plans including Wampanoag language camp for the boys They also talk about plans for another restaurant We do better with the pedal to the metal.” Subscribe or become a Friend of the Vineyard Gazette and receive our free newsletters and free and discounted tickets to Gazette events along with our award-winning news and photography Maybe you have heard of Telepizza on more than one occasion but do not worry if you have not heard about it yet In today’s article we will review the history of Telepizza a company that has reached unsuspected levels of popularity in Spain thanks to its food and we will check if it has faced different adversities and a powerful competition such as Burger King or McDonald’s which had a remarkable growth internationally Telepizza was founded in 1987 by Leopoldo Fernández Pujals in the neighborhood of Madrid called “El Pilar” That was the first restaurant of the chain which gradually spread throughout the capital and later to the rest of the Spanish provinces finally becoming the leading company in the national pizza market Its current headquarters are in San Sebastián de los Reyes (Madrid) The company has been producing or buying all its ingredients centrally since 1992 although in its day it also had factories in Guadalajara Its production is concentrated in the factory located in Daganzo de Arriba (Madrid) from where the dumplings are made and later distributed to all the restaurants by 1996 it had become the first company of its kind to go public and it was then when after a period of nine months with his brother Eduardo at the head of the company due to a “coup d’état” together with other small shareholders of the company and being a period marked by a slowdown in growth Leopoldo Fernández Pujals sat back in the control chair thanks to his largest investor once again boosting the growth of his family business Telepizza managed to take 50% of the national market in 1999 the company’s founder decided to focus on other areas and sold Telepizza bringing the company into a new phase led by Pedro Ballvé and José Carlos Olcese By then it was already a leader in pizza home delivery with 233 establishments in Spain and a presence in Andorra Characterized for being a company that knows how to adapt to any situation in which its pizzas not only arrived at your home but also in your hotel room the venture capital fund Permira buys the company indebting it in order to carry out the operation Telepizza is delisted from the stock exchange and takes full ownership of its shares Telepizza would continue to expand to Dubai in that year Panama and Russia over the next three years The truth is that he was not wasting any time Between 2013 and 2018 Telepizza was struggling to stay afloat The indebtedness reached 300 million euros the company goes back to the stock exchange desperate measures: the decision was taken to expand in America but without achieving the success that the investment funds expected With a debt that kept growing and after trying to solve it Telepizza reached an agreement with Pizza Hut the Spanish pizza company sold itself to its competitor This type of franchise is a very useful practice for international development to open different establishments of the franchisor in order to expand within a specific geographical area the group formed by Telepizza and Pizza Hut later joined by Apache Pizza and Jeno’s Pizza Thus beginning the “reconstruction” of Telepizza under its new president they have more than 1,400 stores worldwide with a presence in 15 countries In 2022 it celebrated 35 years in the market It has invested time and money in innovating its image and connecting with its public with the intention of boosting its business On the financial front, they are still struggling to get off the ground. Debts have remained over time, including the recent refinancing of 70 million euros to reduce its debt by 50% that Telepizza has agreed with its shareholders Telepizza has been present in the lives of families in Spain the brand already made reference to the secret of its pizzas and the value of enjoying a pizza with the family marking Telepizza’s advertising trajectory throughout its 35 years of existence Between 2000 and 2011 they focused their advertising strategy on the quality of the pizzas and “round moments” referring to those moments when eating a pizza was the right idea: a party at home In the following decade, Telepizza campaigns would put the focus on promotions and discounts proposed by the brand, and begin to bet on the online world. Also in 2019, it launches its loyalty program, Mitelepi This program allows the user to be part of the telepizza community and accumulate “telepicoins” just for registering on the official website and placing orders It also gives you the possibility to enjoy exclusive offers and promotions depending on the level you belong to: bronze Due to the global health crisis caused by COVID-19 Telepizza launched an advertising campaign highlighting the value of the people who were on the front line during the pandemic and who general fear meant that they were underappreciated on multiple occasions This spot attracted a lot of attention and was widely commented in the media as it gave a lot of importance to the fact of understanding and wanting to help those who are not going through an easy time they assumed their mistakes in advertising and began a new stage of communication in Telepizza in which reaching the younger audience had become a priority they returned to focus on their original slogan betting on digital channels and social networks the brand intends to consolidate its long-term strategy They also aim to create a sense of belonging to the Spanish market after a hard night’s work at the Royal Palace referring to its beginnings and the pleasure of having a pizza delivered to your door presents the title of the campaign “Long live the dough A secret that since 1987 has spread thanks to word of mouth among consumers making the brand grow to become a reference in the sector Jesús Cubero, the Global Chief Marketing Officer of Food Delivery Brands, in an interview this year told how the rethinking of the new brand strategy and its communication was beginning to bear its first fruits focusing on giving value to the family atmosphere of the Telepizza stores of those early years when the company did not stop growing and that coincides with the years when the original founder of the company was at the helm This does not mean that they are going to be left behind but keeping in mind the future they are facing and the new generations they intend to offer a service at the level of what Telepizza means to its customers despite all the adversities it has faced throughout its more than 35 years of history and all the adversities it still has to face Telepizza is still the reference restaurant in Spain to order pizza at home as it was in the 90s Image: Telepizza Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" Marketing4eCommerce is the reference media for marketing news and ecommerce news With your agreement, we and our partners use cookies or similar technologies to store, access, and process personal data such as your visit to this website. You can withdraw your consent or object to data processing based on legitimate interests at any time by clicking on "Settings" or our Cookie Policy on this website.  We and our partners do the following data processing: Store or access information on a device audience information and product development Share data and profiles not linked to your identity and identification using device characteristics The Elephant's Trunk Nebula is over 20 lightyears long and can be found running through IC 1396, a young star cluster embedded within a cloud of glowing The Elephant's Trunk is composed of cool interstellar dust and gas, which blocks out light on its way to Earth and leaves behind a long, thin silhouette that gives the nebula its name (and makes it one of many nebulae that look like animals) Pockets of dust and gas like these make for perfect stellar nurseries and are consequently subject to energetic bouts of star formation deep within Conversely, the hot radiation from these newborn stars blasts away the cosmic dust ultimately destroying the ingredients that led to their formation in the first place The IC 1396 complex is located about 3,000 lightyears away and covers an apparent width of over 10 full Moons in the sky Below is a selection of images of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula captured by BBC Sky at Night Magazine readers and astrophotographers from around the world For more information about astrophotography, read our astrophotography guides or our pick of the best astrophotography cameras And don't forget to send us your images. 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