We’re opening a small Pizzeria Tavern in Baltimore City and things are finally coming together with our renovations of the spot we took over. It was an old Irish type tavern with a fair amount of kitchen area but we had to re-tile the floors and FRP the walls, replace some refrigeration and obviously add an oven, mixer and a few other odds and ends. We’re going to keep it primarily a bar/tavern with a pizza-based menu, several salads, some bar fare (i.e., a burger, mac/cheese, hand cut fries, hush puppies, edemame, cheese/cured meat plate, etc.), several vegetarian and vegan options, a broad beer and wine selection and we’ll be continuing in the tradition of the previous business with… (kill me now) Karaoke… occasionally… haha.
With our plan to do something between artisan & neapolitan style pizza, we originally had planned to build a small wood fired brick oven (well have one built or use a kit FornoBravo Modena or something of the sort) but with the lack of experience with a wood fired oven and without the benefit of it being in plain sight of the patrons, we decided to go with a Marsal MB-60 brick lined. I gotta tell ya, it’s impressive on paper and even more impressive in person but I’ll really let you know how I like it after baking in it I know lots of places are in love with their Marsal’s, especially the MB series so I’m proud to just have one at this point. Maybe one day I’ll get the wood fired oven I dream of but til then, we should be able to put out some lovely pizza.
Thanks. Yep, the building is OLD… primary structure was built sometime around the turn of the century. So, we have radiator heaters throughout the building all running on a fairly new boiler for heat. That one particularly is turned OFF since it’s pointless in tghe kitchen LOL. Removing it wasnt a priority since it would really only give us an additional 4" back…
Nice oven and I share in your excitement as I am in a very similar situation. I have owned and operated a bar in the mountains of Colorado for 9 years. Previously an Italian restaurant I basically built a bar/nightclub scene and sat on the kitchen due to its expenses to upgrade (new floors, update hood, equipment costs) Now my new landlord has sunk some money into my place and I am in the process of remodeling and opening a pizzeria. I wont go into to much detail here, but I totally understand your excitement. Going from opening at 6pm to 11am and from an Auto Fry behind the bar to a full service pizzeria. Hopefully this will be the next step in taking an already successful business to the next level.
Best of luck to you.
Jonny
PS We have karaoke every Thursday night, I try to never work Thursdays!!
Haha… I’m a big crowd participant but not much of a Karaokist (did I just make up a word?). Thanks guys. Should have the oven up and running this week if I can get the flue vent guy back out. Mixer showing up next week I hope and interior improvements & renovations continue… plus new opening sidewalk windows and a front door in 2 weeks and the building is getting painted late this week or next week. Should be able to open sometime mid June if we can square away all our HACCP, Health, Fire and liquor licensing paperwork.
i wonder if it is worth the mb60 over an SD oven, when nobody is going to see how blingin that oven is with the cool dome, wood handle etc. when it is in the back of the kitchen?
My MB series is a “dumbed down” version since it’s not in public sight. We went with the SD series legs/base, no decorative “dome” top, and just upgraded to a stainless skin since it’s the best to keep clean (standard is an aluminized raw finish which is usually faced with brick or tile). Im assuming you know about the MB series and it’s 2" stone hearth with 1.5" brick lined domed ceiling and back wall (as opposed to only the 2" brick hearth in the SD series ovens). I can’t imagine it not baking a better pie… Brick Lined versus not? I hope. Haha.
I think you made a great choice… put the money where it would serve you best. Stones all the way around and the SS finish… should put out a great pie and still looks good. What kind of mixer did you go with?
We originally were going to go with a spiral mixer but ended up getting a great deal on a completely refurbished Hobart M-802 80qt. We dont have 3-phase in the building so I figured this 3hp single phase unit would be all I’d ever need… The ability to do a full 50lb bag of flour per batch is nice, plus I can scale down if we’re slower and it came with a new stainless bowl, dolly and the motor is less than 11 months old. It should be arriving next week sometime. I hope Baltimore City doesnt require a bowl guard LOL
Here are a few pies that came out of the MB-60 on its maiden baking This is baking at full temp, cant turn it up any more and 600f thermostat is pegged (no IR thermometer yet so not sure on actual deck temps). Not bad
Thanks Hmm… maybe not the exact recipe but I can tell you the last batch I made was using 100% Caputo 00 flour, about 2.5% salt, about 1% ADY and around a 70% hydration (water plus secret stuff).
I allow my yeast to hydrate for about 10 minutes in 100% of the hydration (regardless of debate on the necessity, I’m a creature of habit) then add it to 75% of the flour with 100% of the salt, mix that well for about 3-4 minutes and allow it to rest covered for about 15 minutes. Then I mix again, adding the remaining flour until it’s to my desired consistency (adding pinches of flour or water to adjust minimally). The smaller test batches I’ve been making (1-2lbs flour weight) are sans-mixer so I’m hand kneading for 3-4 minutes dusting my work surface as it gets too sticky to work with (70% hydration gets pretty sticky to handle). I then allow it to bulk ferment for about an hour covered at room temp, then scale and ball, place in proof box and allow to cold proof for at least 24 hours. I pull them out of the fridge and usually bake once theyre at room temp.
Once my mixer is delivered, I’ll be doing maybe 25lb (flour) test batches and probably reducing the bulk ferment time as I’m not sure how much the bulk batch will increase in size if left to bulk rise… (its an 80qt Hobart… anyone wanna chime in on a small minimum dough batch size?)
I am considering using some oil either in the dough or as a rub/wipe in the proof boxes to avoid some skinning. I may experiment plastic wrap also. The stacking dough boxes I have dont seem to seal that great. We’re still working out the kinks… But the test doughs are helping. The oven seems to be baking well in around 4 minutes… just gotta get 10 in there at a time for 3 hours straight for a real test
I know lots of places are in love with their Marsal’s, especially the MB series so I’m proud to just have one at this point. Maybe one day I’ll get the wood fired oven I dream of but til then, we should be able to put out some lovely pizza.
Hmm… maybe not the exact recipe but I can tell you the last batch I made was using 100% Caputo 00 flour, about 2.5% salt, about 1% ADY and around a 70% hydration (water plus secret stuff).