New Restaurant - Oven options

C

CorksandHops

New member
Hello. Opening up a new restaurant and wine bar in a couple of months. I’ve decided to add gourmet pizzas to the menu (3 or 4 personal sized) to round it out. Initially I was going to just use the Blodgett Convection oven to cook the pizzas as well, but after quite a bit of reading on this forum and others, I see that’s probably not a good idea. I have the hood room to fit another smaller oven, but I’m trying to figure out if its worth it since I’m assuming pizza sales will only be about 25% of my food sales.

This is my all purpose oven:
https://www.katom.com/015-SHOGNG.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIn4CgkYvJ6QIViCCtBh3C4QHREAQYASABEgLG4vD_BwE

This is the addition my supplier suggested for pizza:
https://www.castlestove.com/productdetails?id=82&sub_id=114

Looking for some operator feedback. Should I spend the extra $2,000 on this one? Is there a better option for that space?

Thanks.
 
You WILL NOT be able to cook a gourmet pizza in a convection oven.

What have you forecasted for sales and how much will your pies cost?

For example assuming $10k per week in sales, opening only for dinner and a gourmet personal 10" pizza around $12.

25% of 10k in sales per week = $2500
$2500 divided by $12 pizzas = 209 pizzas per week
209 pizzas per week divided by 7 days = 30 pizzas per day
30 pizzas per day divided by 2 hour dinner rush = 15 pizzas per hour (not factoring busier days like Fridays and Saturdays)

Can that ovens cook 15 pizzas per hour? You can always start out with it and purchase something bigger if it can’t handle it, but how well is that oven going to cook your gourmet pizzas?
 
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You’re absolutely right. Breaking it down like that there is no way it could keep up. It would need to cook 22 an hour during the rush using that formula. Back to the drawing board to see if I can find something in the size range that can keep up.
 
I use this oven to re-heat slices and finish off pies that are requested well-done. I am not sure it would work for pies. When you say 25% of sales what sales $ are you projecting? Most people do not realize how much space pizza takes up in your kitchen so take your time planning prep, storage, etc to evaluate properly.
 
Business is pretty seasonal here, but anywhere from $8750 a week to $13750. I’ve previously owned a restaurant in the same town that did about 5 times this business, so this concept is intentionally smaller with less staff. And while I’m experienced restaurant person, I’m definitely a pizza rookie. Everything else on the menu has been a breeze comparatively. I’m learning that adding even a few specialty pizzas is a big investment in time and money. I’m confident I have storage room in the walk in and in dry storage. I’ve got the equipment for dough mixing and tables for prep. I’m working with Caputo to make sure my dough recipe works out, but the oven is definitely the sticking point. With my limited space available under the hood (around 30") I can either go small or I’d have to replace my convection oven with a larger pizza oven.
 
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