The oven must match-up with your store concept. For example, a wood fired oven may not be the best oven for a DELCO type operation, ditto for a pizzeria just down the street from the local highschool.
The oven must also be compatible with the type of pizza being made. For example, if your pizza’s claim to fame is based on the abundance of vegetable toppings, a wood fired oven may not be the best choice.
Space is a major consideration as is the fact that wood fired ovens are not roll in type ovens.
Building code/land loard approval is still another consideration.
Wood fired ovens require operator training.
A wood fired only oven will require someone to feed the oven 365 as it can take a full day for it to come back to temperature if allowed to cool.
I’ve written articles on this topic, and infact, I just sent in another article on this exact topic. I’m not against wood fired ovens, in fact, I like them a lot, but like any other type of oven, they do have their place, and since the oven will be your single most expensive piece of equipment, I highly encourage anyone contemplating buying an oven to look at, and study all of the options available. All ovens will bake a great pizza, they do have that one thing in common, from that point on, each travels a different path (some bake faster than others, some have amviance, some don’t, some are easy to operate, some have a small foot print, some are quite portable, some need to be built in, some are noisy, some are quiet, the list goes on and on. Define YOUR concept, then find the oven that best works with it and you will have the fewest problems down the road.
Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
