Kyle_Bryner
New member
Hello everyone. I’m in the infancy stage of planning my small neighborhood pizzaria. I’ve been in the foodservice industry as an executive chef and F&B director of several restaurants and boutique inns. I’ve cut my pizza teeth when I was in my teens at an independent pizza shop.
A little bit of info on the type of place, location, and menu offerings I hope to serve before I ask my question seems called for. I’ll be serving in Clayton, GA., a small community in the mountains of NE GA. I’d like to create a “community” pizza place, a place where families, professionals, locals, and tourists will all feel comfortable dining in. I’ll be tying in with the schools, churches, various organizations in my community, and will attempt to be a fixture in my area. There are currently few other places offering pizza in my area (one chain store, one full-service Italian restaurant, and a couple of places around 15-20 minutes away from Clayton on the outskirts of the county). Only one place in my county delivers pizza (surprisingly not the chain store), and they serve the Dillard area, which would be outside of my area of delivery anyway (IF I decide to deliver…the verdict is still out on that one). I would like to have about a 40 seat dining room, an open kitchen (so the customers can watch the pizzaiolo toss and top the dough) with a brick-oven (probably gas for the ease and convenience, however I might decide to go WFO), a few classic arcade games in the back, with a clean and warm environment. I plan to offer things can can all be prepared in a brick oven: pizzas, calzones, flatbread sandwiches, brick-oven wings, etc. in addition to cold items such as salads and desserts (Italian ice and Gelato). I’d also have a decent selection of craft beers from our region (Atlanta, Asheville, and Athens) and craft soft drinks made in house (a hobby of mine).
My questions is, would a 140-150 model brick oven (such as the Marra Forni 150s) be adequate enough to be the sole cooking source (with the exception of a portable induction burner to use for prep and an occasional special) for a small neighborhood pizzaria? I’d like to keep the store super minimalist, and also avoid a hood system, but I don’t want to kill my productivity with an inadequate oven. I guess I could always get another oven if and when we grow…but to start and for the first few years, would one work?
A little bit of info on the type of place, location, and menu offerings I hope to serve before I ask my question seems called for. I’ll be serving in Clayton, GA., a small community in the mountains of NE GA. I’d like to create a “community” pizza place, a place where families, professionals, locals, and tourists will all feel comfortable dining in. I’ll be tying in with the schools, churches, various organizations in my community, and will attempt to be a fixture in my area. There are currently few other places offering pizza in my area (one chain store, one full-service Italian restaurant, and a couple of places around 15-20 minutes away from Clayton on the outskirts of the county). Only one place in my county delivers pizza (surprisingly not the chain store), and they serve the Dillard area, which would be outside of my area of delivery anyway (IF I decide to deliver…the verdict is still out on that one). I would like to have about a 40 seat dining room, an open kitchen (so the customers can watch the pizzaiolo toss and top the dough) with a brick-oven (probably gas for the ease and convenience, however I might decide to go WFO), a few classic arcade games in the back, with a clean and warm environment. I plan to offer things can can all be prepared in a brick oven: pizzas, calzones, flatbread sandwiches, brick-oven wings, etc. in addition to cold items such as salads and desserts (Italian ice and Gelato). I’d also have a decent selection of craft beers from our region (Atlanta, Asheville, and Athens) and craft soft drinks made in house (a hobby of mine).
My questions is, would a 140-150 model brick oven (such as the Marra Forni 150s) be adequate enough to be the sole cooking source (with the exception of a portable induction burner to use for prep and an occasional special) for a small neighborhood pizzaria? I’d like to keep the store super minimalist, and also avoid a hood system, but I don’t want to kill my productivity with an inadequate oven. I guess I could always get another oven if and when we grow…but to start and for the first few years, would one work?
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We are getting lots of information from Frank Mastro’s daughter about the blodgett ovens and also bakers pride. He went to them for a while with his designs for ovens. Blodgett was resistant to make his pizza oven design because at that time there were less than a dozen pizzerias in NYC… Walter