pizza catering and cambro?

[souspizzaiolo]

Anyone every used Cambro stuff to hold gobs of pizzas hot for a while for a cater? I realize that it’s not a perfect solution, but neither are hot bags, or too heavy to move around pizza warmers or making pizza for 200 at once in my small operation. I was looking specifically at this one. Thank y’all!

 

[Tony_Maronni]

Those look expensive.

 

[GotRocks]

I use “Cam Carriers” for transporting meats and sides, I love them, but never tried to hold a pizza in one

 

[souspizzaiolo]

They’re definitely pricy. But I could really clean up the cater game with them. Right now we just hold them in hot bags until it’s time to serve them, which works OK, but it limits how far out we can go and how many we can do at a time.

I think with a little investment we could really turn a cater program into something nice and have reliably hot pizza available. Also we’ve been talking about serving pizza by the slice as bars around town who we’re friendly with. This could accelerate that. I have a couple of hatco fstd-1s but they weigh a ton and don’t load in and out of a van very well. Gonna need to buy a van and lots of seperate cater wares as well it looks like. Its a ton of investment up front yes, but my market is ripe.

 

[December]

I checked out your website awhile back. Really cool place, and I remember you saying how busy you were.
Your motavation to do more and more is admirable.

 

[GotRocks]

How big of a transport vehicle do you have? The ultimate way to go IMHO would be to use a CVAP holding cabinet made by Winston Industries.
You can adjust heat and humidity levels independently of each other. They are expensive, like really expensive! But worth every penny.
I like to watch the used market for CVAP’s, and have gotten some smoking hot deals on them. I first saw them at the 2005 NRA show, I was served fries that were held for 3 hours, and they were very close to being like they are right out of the fryer.
All KFC’s use them, as do many Domino’s locations. Used ones can be iffy if the control panel has dial on it, the push botton ones are much more reliable. A new control panel will run about $800.00 (I’ve repaired a few in my time)
The CVAP makes an Alto-Shaam look primitive.
For your needs, just get the holding cabinet, you do not need cook/hold, or thermalizing units

 

[souspizzaiolo]

I checked out your website awhile back. Really cool place, and I remember you saying how busy you were.
Your motivation to do more and more is admirable.

Well thanks. I’m just trying to figure it all out. I just don’t wanna be stuck behind the ovens for the rest of my life/loan/lease. Most days I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing or if I’m getting anything done, but at the end of the month the pizza shop is still running and typically makes some money too, so I’m trying to see the cumulative effort here. Also there’s just people everywhere who want good pizza! and it’s my job to get it to them! So I’m gonna do that! Also I’m gonna be a dad in August so that’s certainly been a fire under my ass to figure out how to have some flexibility at work.

We have to find new ways to grow cause our shop is so small. We have 20 seats. So delivery and catering is the only way to add more $ to the bottom line. We could continue to focus on squeezing every dollar out of our little space, but it’s just not gonna come close to adding up to the $ or value that we can bring in offsite.

How big of a transport vehicle do you have? The ultimate way to go IMHO would be to use a CVAP holding cabinet made by Winston Industries.
You can adjust heat and humidity levels independently of each other. They are expensive, like really expensive! But worth every penny.
I like to watch the used market for CVAP’s, and have gotten some smoking hot deals on them. I first saw them at the 2005 NRA show, I was served fries that were held for 3 hours, and they were very close to being like they are right out of the fryer.
For your needs, just get the holding cabinet, you do not need cook/hold, or thermalizing units

I just have my little ford ranger as a vehicle right now, which doesn’t really present well. I’d like to buy a van that can fit a few warmers in it and maybe a display warmer too for our bar vending? Something with a ramp? Is that a thing? Anyhow, I will certainly keep my eyes peeled for a CVAP at auction. Sounds like overkill which sounds like something I’d like!

 

[Warren]

Based on my limited catering expierience. I would offer the following buy several pizza cutters. Gotta make sure you have one with you. Put the pies in hotbags but dont cut them. You can box and close them faster and they will hold the heat better. Then cut the pies on site. If you are catering so far away that this wont be enough, are you spinning your wheels ? If it stunts your exsisting bizz. Then you dont gain anything.