Opening a pizza place? Top reasons it is a better time than ever.

So you are thinking about becoming a pizza entrepreneur and joining the ranks of pizza makers around the country engaged in keeping Americans well fed and happy? Fantastic idea and as always-easier said than done but with today's opportunities and the internet it is a whole lot easier  than it used to be. In fact it's night day when you compare opening a place today with opening a place 20 years ago. "How can that be ?" you may ask. Well consider a few things like:

Brick Oven, Fast Casual Pizza

1. Recipes. There is an infinite amount of recipes available on the internet to choose from with sources like Google, Facebook, Youtube and celebrity chef TV and the food network. Anyone with basic skills and desire can get online, look for the hottest trends, find a recipe and get busy. Why reinvent the wheel when you can easily what is popular in the food world and duplicate it?

2. Restaurant type. You can easily take a look at the different types of locations and layouts such as a slice joint, fast casual or sit down waiter service. You can also do some research and see if delivery and take out or even a brew pub-bar will fit in with your plans. Size of location and type of pizza will be a factor in determining  if you do sit down, fast casual pizza with an assembly line or just slices.

3. Equipment. It has never been easier to see the different types of equipment being used in successful places than it is now. Currently the hottest trend is hand assembled brick oven style pizza with places like Revolve, Spin Neapolitan and Pie Craft leading the way with Revolving Brick Ovens and gourmet pizza. Pizza stations, walk-in boxes and mixers such as the old reliable Hobart are available new and used for the budget minded along with tons of information on sizes, capacities along with industry comparisons.

4.Finance. Today you can basically call up a company like Lease Corp Of America(LCA) fill out your application online and know virtually the same day if you are qualified for a loan. Those of us who remember having to make an appointment with loan officer, fill out endless paperwork while being scrutinized within an in inch of your life under a microscope will attest that the process is light years from where it has been and tell you how lucky you are.

5.Printing. This may seem like something too little to mention but with today's digital media and the ability to do it all virtually on line there is an amazing amount of time, effort and money saved. In the old days you would have to consult with a printer to make your deal on printing. Then you would have to consult with a graphic designer to do your layout and maybe even a specialized menu designee to  help you. This took time, from appointments to initial design to a rough sketch. Then you would have to go back and forth on corrections as you finalized your idea. Once that was done you have to have it proofread and hope you and your proofreader caught all the errors. One error I fondly remember was at the First Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza on Staten Island. We were all set and made our first huge purchase of several hundred thousand menus for in house, mailing and door to door delivery but we all missed the "Ground Bee" instead of ground beef on the pizza menu. We laughed about it for a long time since we had to print so many menus to save a few dollars. Fortunately you don't have to got through that incredibly time consuming operation today. Not only that but you can do it all from the comfort of your home and with computers, digital design, limited run printing options, cheap online graphic designers and still save time without taking the big risk of large runs.

6.Staff. Hiring and finding employees is easier than ever. You don't have hand a sign in the window and hope someone sees it or spend ridiculous amounts of money on classified ads in the local papers. Graig's list will get you more applicants than you can shake a stick at in most areas.

7.Promotion. Getting yourself known with the internet makes it simple. Social media, websites, blogs and press releases will get you known and open the door to customers. If you do a great job with your product, service and presentation people will talk. Your signage, uniforms and design have a lot to do with this.  Yes people will talk so make sure you do it right from the start with all your ducks in a row and a great pizza. You can call the Pizza School of New York if you are not certain of your product.

7. Marketing. Yes this is different from promoting yourself or your place. This is actually offering your product for sale by way of Newspaper, social media, TV, Radio, mailings, door hangers and however else you can get your product in front of a potential customer and tell them to buy it.

8.Location. Location scouting can be done via many outlets now with many realtors competing for business. With the internet, emails and google earth you can even see a place from a street view and decide if it is even worth looking at before wasting your precious time.

9.Training. With video, internet, Youtube, Drop Box etc. there are so many ways to present data to your staff, update recipes and procedures and keep everyone on the same page that even multiple locations become easier to manage when you get to that point.

10.Computerization. Point of sale order taking, inventory, ticket printing and display have made management a great deal more organized. The systems can track best sellers integrate promotional items and sales while even tracking deliveries and scheduling orders of food or reminding you of up coming catering or previously scheduled deliveries.

Of course all these wonderful reasons for it being easier still require the entrepreneur to step into the ring and make his purpose known. My respect and admiration goes to you my friends that make the attempt. I wish you the best of luck. Marc Cosentino

Fast Casual Pizza Set To Expand Across America Due to Brick Ovens

Fast Casual Pizza Set To Expand Across America Due to Brick Ovens

Who will be the Chipotle of Pizza?

Brick Oven 

Brick Oven

Pizza has been around since the days when Roman soldiers cooked bread on flat rocks around camp fires and it is finally catching on with the rest of the world. Moreover, in last few decades it has become an everyday item in the United States and with many of the big players now understanding the value, speed and flavor created in a brick oven it is rapidly becoming a phenomena with the lunch crowd  in the exploding Fast Casual Pizza segment. The ability to cook fast and consistently in revolving brick ovens has made it possible for  many of the up and coming concepts to expand at an alarming rate due to ease of training and operation. In the past old fashioned fixed deck brick ovens required a highly skilled pizza man to operate and were more suited to small operations doing the traditional types of pizza. This was limiting and not effective when expansion required a lot of specialized training and then the success of the concept depended on the skill of a few at crucial employees. The revolving brick oven not only cooks faster and more consistently but it is virtually employee proof with its ease of training and operation. Not only that but with a revolving brick oven you have the ability of avoiding the dreaded oven fade(when the deck of a regular brick oven gets cold from continuous use requiring shutting down the oven to build up heat).These revolving ovens have made it easy for operators to make consistent pizza every time while even though they are baking over one thousand pizzas a day! Yes the revolution is on again in America and the Fast Casual Pizza concept is leading the way. 

Brick Oven Pizza

Brick Oven Pizza For Bars and Pubs

Introducing the Brew Pub Model 85 Series Revolving Brick Oven

With an ever increasing demand for craft beer and neighborhood breweries comes an increased demand for an easy way to provide comparable quality food selections in a comfortable atmosphere. Enter the New York Brick Oven Companies Inferno Series Model 85. This oven provides a small foot print with a very high production rate for personal sized Neapolitan and gourmet brick oven pizza. In researching the amount of space available to existing bars and restaurants it was found that the average operator had less than 150 square feet to add a food prep and production area to his existing bar or pub. Such a small area dedicated to food prep and production did not lend itself to many if any gourmet food items that could be produced to order in any volume-that was until the New York Brick Oven Company came along. Utilizing a small dough table/refrigerator for prep and toppings and the inferno series oven any operator can now gain an entirely new income stream while keeping his customers in the seats instead of having them to find food at other locations. Not only that, but the wood and gas combination brick oven is capable of producing a world class gourmet pizza that anybody in the pizza industry would be proud of. The high temp oven is also a favorite of the Fast Casual Pizza Crowd for good reason. This small oven is comfortably rated for 60 small pies an hour with larger models being able to bake hundreds of pies in hour. For those of you that are not in the Industry you may want to compare this 90 second pizza to your average pizza oven that bakes about 4-5 pies in 15 minutes. You can see that this is truly high production. The real selling point of these ovens though is the quality of the brick oven pizza they produce with least amount labor and skill required to operate them. As an operator this the area that can make or break you. Now take this oven and add the Pizza School of New York and you get a homerun, out of the park solution to providing your customers with a great pizza while keeping the initial investment down and the satisfaction rate up. The New York Brick Oven Company has been helping pizza men for years and they have World Champion Pizza men on their team waiting to assist you so call now and make your operation more of a success.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjlWtFZt4kE

1-800-OVEN-053
nybrickoven.com

 

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If your starting a pizza shop-read this.

Pawn Stars With New York Brick Oven Co,

Opinions are like bellybuttons, everybody’s got one. The thing that always drove me crazy in school was the teacher explaining things to me that I knew he had no experience with and no real world understanding of. Examples are most prominent when it comes to art or business but it applies to everything. A most recent example was my son telling me about his class where they are starting a businesses and the teacher was giving a class on how it is done and that a farmer may be better to shut his farm down and start a new business if it isn’t working out on paper. I said ” a lot easier said than done” and then I heard my son regurgitating the teacher’s justifications for this. Makes me want to puke to hear this holier than thou armchair quarterbacking from a guy that never ran a successful business or even had the nerve to try to run his own show. It seems that school has become a place where “teaching” is more important than learning how to do something. Titles, diplomas, certifications decide who gets paid most to talk the most. Well the real world is something a lot of people are trying to discover and the popularity of reality TV shows is a bit of an indicator of this. I think people in general are tired of  phony “experts” and want to see the blood and guts of life. Whether it is a successful pawn shop like the one featured on Pawn Stars, an auto mechanic and sales place like Gas Monkey Garage or the big players interacting with up and coming little players on shows like Shark Tank or  The Aprentice, your average Joe knows the truth when he hears it and is tired of posers. The reason I make this statement is that if your looking to open a business the guy teaching you how do so better have some real world success and better not be a textbook hero who never stepped into the arena of life. Even a guy who failed miserably can teach you a lot about what not to do. If you want successful teachers and advice go people like Scot Cosentino and Andrew Scudera at the Goodfella’s Pizza School New York because THEY DID IT and have created very successful students and have helped create very successful concepts. Statistics and actual production are the only true measure-not words and formal titles. Can they do it? Have they taught it? Can you see the results in the physical universe? These are your only questions and when you have someone that can’t answer them-move on and try again. There is  lot of false data on business and the food business in general. There are some shoddy products passing as pizza for sure but that is slowly changing as your average customer is learning about gourmet brick oven pizza and expecting more. Whatever it is you are endeavoring to do, know that is more than the average guy will ever try. Stepping into the arena requires guts and daring and a dream. Don’t dare sell yourself short by following bad or incorrect advice. Do your homework, see what is true for you and be a big success! Happy pizza to you.

Pizza School New York with NY Brick Oven Co.

 

Pizza Start Up-top 10 tips for success.

Brick Oven Pizza from NY Brick Oven Company

When you are starting a pizza place there are many things you need to know but this basic list will get you in the ball park to start off on the right foot. A firm idea of where you are heading can make all the difference between success and failure. When you open your doors your customer should know what you are providing and get a clear idea of your brand. 

1. What kind of pizza are you going to make? Sounds too obvious but many people jump in without a clear idea of the the type of pizza they are going sell. What do I mean by this? Is it NY Style? Deep dish? Square? Brick Oven? Gourmet? Thin crust? Thick Crust? How about what size? Individual small pies or large family style? How many ounce dough balls will you be using? Some people may argue that this can figured out as you go or once you start but first impressions are long lasting and you only get one chance to make that first impression. The main reason to know your type of pie and how to make pizza is that it will determine most of your design and equipment choices and layout for production. Example-a fast casual pizza place where the customers walk up to counter and choose their toppings and then watch the individual size pizza hand assembled and placed in a revolving brick oven will have a different type of pie than a mom and pop place making a typical 16" Ny Stayle pie cooked in a regular deck oven. 

2. What is your concept? Your dough and the size of your  pies will have a great impact on the next critical factor and should be in alignment with your concept. The type of restaurant you envision will determine the size requirements  of your restaurant and its physical layout. Example-a typical slice place with a small seating area and counter space for about 15 customers will require a much smaller space than a full service gourmet pizza place with table service, a full menu and bar.

3. Where are going to put your concept? Concept design will also be a determining factor in choosing location. If your doing a small takeout and delivery place you may not need a prime location in high dollar strip mall or stand alone building but you may want to be located near that college campus with thousands of dorms or apartments near by. Also if your doing a fast casual concept you will need to have a high volume area with lots of foot traffic and a workers with a need for fast service.

4. Do you know how to layout the space? Seems simple but bad flow lines from order to service and delivery or dine in can make your place a production nightmare. If your in doubt consult an expert or minimally study the successful places in your area or concepts you like that are successful and you think would work with your demographic. 

5. Are you really capitalized to make  a successful go of it? Did you take into consideration the basics of rent, insurance, labor, promotion. marketing, equipment, inventory, attorneys, signage, contractors, city/town fees, permits, training...

6.Equipment? Do you know what type you need for your concept? For instance, what type and how big of a mixer do you need? What type of oven and how much space does it require-will it be part of the concept design or hidden? How big of a walk in box do you need? How many tables and chairs? What about flatware? 

7. Do you buy new or used equipment? Is it better to lease? The main consideration here is initial outlay and cash flow versus the tax savings and continued cost of lease on a monthly basis. 

8. Personnel? Do you have the people in place for your opening? Do you need to train them? Are the main chef? Is there a management team in place? Book keeping? Cleaning? Maintenance? 

9. Promotion Plan? How are you going to get your place known? Who will you invite to your opening? What local groups and activities will you support? Are you affiliated with the local school, church, sports team? 

10. Marketing? This is different from promotion. Promotion is making things known-publicity, talking, signs, shirts, hats and events. Marketing is bringing it to the market-selling it. Handouts, flyers, door hangers,  menus, inserts, val-pak, local newspaper, tv(expensive) radio and any other place you think your customers are. You have to offer them your product and tell them what it is, where they can get it and how much it costs. This is an expense and it is part of doing business unless you are in the home run of all locations with enough customers flooding in. 

All the above are valid concerns and should be evaluated before you commit to any location. Future articles will take each up in more detail and mention a few others like social media, pizza contests, donations and policies. Good luck and happy pizza!

by Marc Cosentino Co-founder of Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza

Organic Coffee

Organic Coffee

After its first release on Amazon a few weeks ago, Routine Patrol Organic Coffee has been a great hit. Marc Cosentino, owner of Routine Patrol Organic Coffee, decided to celebrate this month with lowering prices on his 11oz. bags of finely grounded organic coffee so that more people could experience the difference an organic cup of coffee makes.

Marc was recently asked why his coffee has been so popular. ‘Coffee lovers are discerning people' he explained, ‘and there is a big differences between conventional and organic coffee. When most people learn about why organic coffee is better and safer, they often make the switch'. He went on explain that coffee is one of the most widely traded commodities in the world, with over 12 billion pounds of it demanded each year. To meet the demand farming methods have developed to maximize production. Unfortunately those methods are often very expensive to human and environmental health. This is the non-organic, conventional coffee that most people are drinking.

Marc wants to the get the word out that conventional coffee is among the most heavily chemically treated foods in the world. The coffee is heavily treated with synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides. Not only does the environment suffer from this overload, but so do the people who live in it. Farmers are exposed to these high level of chemicals while spraying and while handling them during harvest. The surrounding communities are also impacted through chemical residues in the air and water. These chemicals are highly toxic and detrimental to human health.

In the case of Organic Coffee there are no synthetic fertilizers or chemicals used, which means cleaner beans, air, land, and water. The coffee is grown with only organic fertilizers, such as compost or chicken manure. As a bonus, organic coffee beans are richer in healthful antioxidants, and many people can even taste the difference. In addition, Routine Patrol donates a portion of the proceeds to the National Association of Police Organizations Assist Fund. The organization supports police officers and their families who are coping with service-related injuries and hardships caused by natural disasters.

A person's health, and the health of the planet, both get a boost with organic coffee. It is truly a win-win.

Routine Patrol Coffee

goodfella's pizza commercial

Of Course Fast Casual Pizza

Spin Neapolitan Pizza Fast Casual

 Along with so many new concepts arriving on the scene such as Pie Craft, Lotsa Mozza, Genaro's, Fire Pie, Revolve, Cucinova and a an ever growing list of incredible pizza places there is a trend spreading across the country for Fast Casual Pizza. 

Spin Neapolitan Pizza is a prime example of the hottest trend in the fast casual segment. Pizza can now be prepared in a very consistent and fast manner, with each pie individualized for the customer baked to order. This has brought pizza to the forefront as a lunch option. In the past your only choice was to pick up a quick slice of whatever has been laying around but those days are gone. Enter the Chipotle concept of fast, fresh casual at a reasonable price and you can see that the pizza industry was ripe for the picking. What was holding it back was the long bake times and inability to produce a quality product very quickly. Enter the brick oven and moreover, the revolving brick oven which has taken all the great attributes of the brick oven and removed virtually all the downside by making it easier, faster and more consistent with less skill. Taking a great and well-loved food item such as pizza and making it so much easier to deliver is the answer. What are the main components? A casual environment that is trendy, a pizza assembly line where your customers can see and choose their own toppings, a visible revolving brick oven where the pizza man bakes the customers hand assembled pizza and gets it to him in just a couple of minute vs. the usual 15-20 minutes for a deck oven pie. When you add locally grown produce, organic toppings and dough made on premise each day with a tasty recipe, it’s hard to lose.

So join the revolution and get your slice of the pie. Happy Pizza!

Fast Casual Pizza From NY Brick Oven Co.

Fast Casual Pizza

Adding pizza to your bar menu is easier than you think!

Lady Ga Ga Pizza

Lady Ga Ga Pizza by Marc Cosentino NY Brick oven Co. 

I made this pizza in our revolving brick oven at the original Goodfella's Pizza on Staten island as a tribute to Lady Ga Ga some because I was amazed at her ability to capture the media and create a true monster of press and followers. I have huge admiration for her talent to to make this happen. Looking forward to meeting her one day.

Adding pizza to your bar or restaurant?

Pizza = happy customers :)

Brick Oven Pizza 

If you own a bar, pub, amusement park restaurant or deli and have wondered how difficult it would be to make incredible pizza or how much space you would need we have an answer for you. It's easy and only requires a small space of of about 66 square feet for a pizza station and the high production bistro model from the New York Brick Oven Company. Fast, easy brick oven pizza from a one man show-wow! Not only that but you can attend the Pizza School of New York and learn to make pizza with world champion pizza men. Still intimidated? Well there is also consulting available. No excuses. Make the decision and start making dough today. Call now! 1-800-OVEN-053

Brick Oven Pizza

5 Top Pizza Success Tips

Fast Casual Pizza 

There are several areas that are key to success and while all these areas are important any one is not the end all and be all to a successful formula. I’m sure you can think that local chain that has the worst pizza in town and yet you see their delivery vehicles everywhere you go. My own personal mystery was a pizza place in Brooklyn that was run by a guy with no personality that I am sure inspired the soup Nazi years later with his disrespect and rudeness to his customers. Aside from the pizza makers smoking while they made pizza, he would tell you to eat the unburnt part of the pie if you dared to complain. How about the places that are so far off the beaten path you need a guide to find them or better yet they have no name on the joint? You can’t make this stuff up but it gives one hope that there is room for all of us to succeed. I want to qualify this as my own personal opinion from working with, knowing and visiting with hundreds of pizza men and women all over the country. By no means is this THE BIBLE OF PIZZA or to be taken as law but it will give you a pretty good idea of what to concern yourself with if your new to the game, stale or in deep trouble.

1) Location, Location, Location-the best way is to be the only game in town or be in a tourist location where there are no other options available or the ones available are of no consequence due to being very expensive or a different and specialized category like a fish house.  Some the most successful places specialized in malls, theme parks, schools, military bases or small town USA.   

2) Make the best pizza known to man or there about. If you are making a really top notch product people will find you and not only that, people will talk. Word of mouth is the best advertising it has been said. The reason for this is that people will trust the opinion of friends and family over silly unfounded claims of the best pizza in town and such advertised in the local paper.

3) Be unique. Examples of this are everywhere but they may not seem apparent. Like making a Chicago pie where there never was one, having a wood burning brick oven, using insects as a topping or having a pizza drive through like OL Jose’s in Pineville West Virginia where they are using a revolving brick oven.

4) Be a social maniac. Take pride in being part of your community. Before there was social media, there were social men and women. These wonderful people actually cared about the people they met and considered customers as friends to share joys and sorrows with. One very moving example of this is when people would come to Goodfella’s Pizza in Staten Island on their way home from work in the days after 911 just to get out of the house and be with people who cared in a friendly and safe environment. There are many examples I can think of; like the guy who coaches the local little league, the girl who hosts local heroes with pizza parties, the place that supports boy scouts, the place that sponsors Special Olympics or the guys that collect donations for slices to feed the homeless. There are so many ways to build good will in a community and give back while earning respect and loyalty that I could write a book about it but you get the idea.  

5) Service. Run a tight ship that gives service and shows genuine care for the customer’s experience. I don’t know about you but when I am ignored, the host is not pleasant, the server acts like he is doing me a favor, the table is dirty when I am seated or my unfamiliarity with ordering and the menu is treated with impatience, you have lost me, and more importantly, any future income my patronage may have brought. This may seem like a given but if you are not on top of this and setting a good example for your crew it will never happen. A little thing like a smile or help and directions can go a long way in building a relationship with your customers. One terrible example I won’t forget was having my little daughter with me in a new town when she had to use a bathroom so we walked into a place and we were treated so rudely I swore I would never visit that place. I understand the old “Bathrooms are for paying customers” routine but sometimes being human and having discretion can earn you a great deal of loyalty. In other words, if it isn’t costing you anything to be kind-always be kind. Believe it or not but this also includes salesmen wasting your time. Those salesmen are not only people but potential customers with family and friends that also eat.

While no list will guarantee your success, if you follow these points your odds will greatly be increased and if you earnestly follow point 5 you will contribute to a better world by treating your fellow citizens with courtesy. Happy pizza my friend and best wishes.

Opening a Fast Casual Pizza Concept?

Many people about to embark on the Fast Casual Pizza adventure are wondering should I or shouldn’t I? When asking opinions remember that:

Opinions are like belly buttons-everybody has one so the best advice is to do it your way and follow your own vision. Ultimately you are the person putting in your monies and sweat equity so being the chief cook and bottle washer gives you the final say-good or bad.

A couple things to look at though are as follows:

1) Does your location have enough potential traffic to warrant a fast casual concept? In other words, is it in a place with people that need to eat fast and (usually) inexpensively?

2) Is there a potential for foot traffic and a lunch crowd verses a destination location that people will have to drive up to? If they have to drive to your location, is there ample parking?

3) Is the size of the space conducive to fast casual and laid out to facilitate easy entry? Service? Exit?

4) Do you have the proper oven and recipes for fast production?

5) Is your potential customer base and product in sync?

6) Do you have a trendy design?

7) Is your pizza any good or is just something to fill up on?

8) Is your model workable without wait staff?

If you have already looked at these questions you are way ahead of the game and stand a good chance of competing in the fast casual race. If you haven’t then you may want to consider speaking to someone with experience or going out and making the rounds to see what is and what is not working in different areas and environments. Personally I feel that a quality product delivered in a nice environment by a pleasant, courteous, professional staff will always find an audience if you can promote and survive long enough for word to get out. However most people are looking for the elusive “sure thing” which is mystical and not real because most of the successful places have had huge research, trial and error before they found the “formula” for success. Persistence, hard work and the ability to think and change on your feet will get you far but following what the big boys are doing and have already figured out will eliminate some of the trail and hopefully most of the error. For those about to jump in the arena-I salute you.

Here are some places you may want to visit in your quest and some contacts you may wish to make:

Revolve Pizza, Blaze, Pizza Locale, Spin Neapolitan, Pie Five, Piology, Fired Pie, Fuel Pizza, Goodfella’s Pizza School New York, Cucinova, 800 Degree, Papa Pancho, Pizza Studio and a host of others. The reason I mention Pizza School New York is for those who have no idea about pizza or brick oven pizza and want a first-hand view of a live pizza operation featuring the Mack Daddy of ovens from the NewYork Brick Oven Company for training. Many roads lead to Rome but as any tourist can tell you the easiest and simplest direction is best for strangers. Happy Pizza! May you roll in the dough and enjoy the adventure.

Chipotle and other Giants Join the Fast Casual Pizza Game

Once Fast Casual Giant Chipotle bought into the Pizza Local Fast Casual Pizza concept many foodies took notice, then came Wetzel Pretsel's with Blaze and Sparro's with it's new concept called Cuchinova and the floodgates for many franchise holding groups were open. They began looking for new concepts and started creating new concepts such as Revolve with namesake revolving brick ovens from New York Brick Oven Company pumping out brick oven pizza faster than can be assembled. What is the attraction? Why is Fast Casual Pizza Exploding across the US? What defines the category and who are the real players behind it. Well the pizza segment has always had it's share of the market with giants such as Pizza Hut and Domino's still dominating but what the attraction is, especially for millennials, is that it's fast, hot and fresh in a trendy atmosphere at reasonable cost. Factor in the entertainment value of watching your pizza prepared and cooked in under 5 minutes and you get the picture. Another very important part of the equation is lunch. What does that mean you may wonder since pizza was always available for lunch in most sit down restaurants with table service or slice shops dominated by players such as Sparro Pizza in a mall near you. Speed is the answer, most busy towns and commercial areas with a working clientele could not wait for a conventional pizza place to take an order, bake a pie and then serve it in the limited lunch break customer's had. Once you factor in getting to a location you see how pizza, especially gourmet pizza did not fit the equation. Then came the brick oven revolution with pies under 3 minutes and then the revolving brick oven revolution which made it possible to be even faster but more importantly to able to make a consistently perfect pizza without a highly skilled work force. This high speed production combined with a low food cost was the ticket to a successful model along the lines of a Chipotle or Panera bread. Now take this model and add  a reduced labor cost cost with a reduced  labor force since table service is not needed and less pizza men with revolving brick ovens and your set to crack the fast casual pizza code. Another big factor behind the scene has been the Pizza School of New York training and helping set up franchises, conversions, new concepts, brew pubs, pizza trucks and traditional mom and pop pizza places all over the United States and the world with tremendous results. Whatever your part in this brave new world of Fast Casual Pizza is, you are in for a big treat. From new contenders with dreams of bringing their concepts to the foreground to the small town mainstay looking to mix it up a bit there is plenty of room for everyone and the biggest winner will be the consumers with the ever widening choices being offered and a super healthy dose of competition to keep everyone on their toes and the pizza fresh. 

Courtesy of NY Brick Oven Co.

Pizza Wars and the Neapolitan Connection

New York Brick  Oven Style Pizza

Most of the pizza in the world is made and sold in America to Americans. In the same way the Italians perfected that pasta they borrowed from the Chinese so too the Americans perfected pizza they borrowed from the Italians and made it into one of the world’s largest food segments.   Respect to those brave ground breaking entrepreneurs from Pizza Hut and Dominos who knew the masses would go for this new food and  the Italian American classics like Lombardi’s, Tortono’s and Patsy’s  who brought pizza to America early on creating an interest for those who followed and added their own American twist. There are too many to mention but some of the big players along the way that contributed were Uno, Bertucci’s, California Pizza Kitchen, Goodfella’s, Sbarro, Papa John, Uncle Maddio, Little Cesar’s  and the other hundreds of chains and independents in every town across this great land. Pizza is both territorial and universal at the same time because when all is said and done a pizza is dough, sauce, cheese and toppings cooked in various ways at various temperatures in various ovens. To think there is group of people from another country coming to the land of the free and the home of the brave with the nerve to say pizza can only be made one cookie cutter way, with one flour, with one type of mixer, one type of cheese and cooked at one temperature in one type of oven is bad enough but to force a pizza man trying to make ends meet to pay a monthly fee for a certificate to make pizza and buy an exclusive flour from only one company is a bit much for any red blooded American, besides being a bad business choice, since all the competition will be making the same exact product. Diversity is what makes America the place everybody wants to come and live. Whether you are on the West Coast like California or Hawaii and want pineapples and ham or maybe you are in Chicago looking for a deep dish or even New York City looking for a slice -we salute you and as the great Burger king says “have it your way” and eat more pizza, because it’s all good.

New York Pizza is the Best! Americans Perfected Pizza!

Why We Started New York Brick Oven Company

Why are revolving or rotator brick ovens better?

There are many reasons to choose a revolving brick oven over a conventional fixed deck brick oven. First and foremost is the consistency of pizza baked in a revolving brick oven compared to a regular brick oven. In a revolving brick oven you can place your pizza on the cooking surface and let it cook, no need to spin it or reach into a hot oven and rotate the pizza. The heat in a revolving brick oven is evenly dispersed as the stone rotates (some call them rotator ovens). Because the cooking surface is not fixed with the heat source or fire in one place you don’t have to continually move your pizza around the cooking deck to avoid burning and cold spots.

Ease of use is another important feature. Anyone with common sense can be trained to use the oven and handle pizza in a few minutes’ verses the months of training to work a conventional brick oven. This allows owners that are not the pizza men to have much more control and flexibility with staff and avoids having to rely on only one or 2 key personnel to be your experts. Not only that, but your pizza making will be more consistent with less responsibility on your pizza men cooking with the same style and ability.  Next comes speed. You may not think this is as important as it is but if you have ever been stuck on a regular brick oven on a Friday night during the dinner rush you would understand. There is nothing worse than turning away paying customers because your oven has to get hot or it’s too hot and has to cool off. These thigs are completely handled by the New York Brick Oven Companies Revolving Brick Ovens because the cooking temperature is constant and set. The rotating or rotator brick oven cooking surface is constantly reheated resulting in no fade or cold deck. You don’t get hot spots because the entire cooking surface is the same temperature. As an operator this takes a lot of the guess work out and adds a lot of dependability.

New York Brick Oven Company

Now a topic near and dear to most owners is labor. Between wages, insurance, overtime, social security and workers comp every dollar you spend on labor gets multiplied. This adds up really quickly and can make or break your operation. A revolving or rotator brick oven can help save labor because your pizza man is not “stuck” to the oven and can make more pies as his pizzas are baking because he does not have to be at the oven constantly turning and moving the pies. This is a tremendous benefit as anybody who has ever worked a brick oven for any period of time can tell you.

The stress of having to be aware of pizza and a few seconds of distraction can set the whole operation back by having to remake the burnt pizza. 

If you are using wood and gas as a heat source you can regulate the temperature without worrying about having to continually monitor the temperature and add wood since the gas will keep it level. Not only that but the wood consumption goes way down as it is not the only heat source. Now if you have multiple units or are planning multiple units the value goes up proportionately across the board by having a consistently baked pizza from a revolving/rotator oven that is easy to use but more importantly-easy to train your pizza makers on.  This is why the New York Brick Oven Company is leading the industry and quickly becoming the top choice for FastCasual Pizza and start- up artisan pizza places across America. 

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Revolving Brick Ovens

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New York Pizza School, Revolving Brick Ovens and Gourmet Pizza

         

       

The country is undergoing a pizza revolution which was created in New York by the original pizza kings such as Tortono’s Pizza in Coney Island Brooklyn where when the owner Jerry died in 1994 the New York papers proclaimed “The King of Pizza is dead”.  A huge acknowledgment for the man whose family helped put another New York mainstay-Lombardi’s Pizza on the map. Lombardi’s was the first licensed pizza place in America dating back to the 1905 on Mulberry street New York.  Patsy’s up in Harlem which came on the scene early in the 1930’s and is another famous New York brick oven pizzeria and like Lombardi’s and Tortono’s also featured handmade, hand tossed, fresh mozzarella and fresh homemade sauce cooked in a coal burning brick oven like the ones many bakeries have been using for thousands of years to bake bread. 

Then in the early 90’s a couple of young upstarts from Brooklyn who had been fans of New York’s finest pizza places decided to open the first wood burning brick oven pizza place on the forgotten borough of Staten Island then Brooklyn New York but along with the standard Margarita pizza that the other famous pizza places were doing, they took it up a notch and created a line of unique and truly “gourmet” pizzas such as the original Vodka Pie and the Mushroom Madness made with the relatively, unknown at the time, porcini mushroom. They called their place Goodfella’s Brick Oven Pizza and soon became pizza celebrities featured in all the local media and then international media after winning the World’s Best Pizza contest at Pizza Expo. Now not to be New York biased it would be rude to leave out the left hand coast and the incredible success of California Pizza Kitchen who took the brick oven idea and put the California twist on it with such great pizzas like the BBQ Chicken, Tai and Jamaican Jerk Chicken then built the concept to international status. With the advent of cooking shows and the fantastic popularity of gourmet foods, social media, 24 hour a day television and the increase of public awareness regarding fresh food, the organic craze, celebrity chefs and a demand for new and exciting dining experiences, the stage was set for the current Fast Casual Pizza Trend. The Fast Casual Pizza trend is the right thing at the right time and fills a need for a premium gourmet food item that is both fast and easy to transport without diminishing the flavor and eating experience. Today's consumers, mostly millennials, are looking for a better product in a trendy environment that fits their budget. So the pizza race begins.

Chipotle, the fast casual giant, is currently developing its pizza chain model called Pizza Local and has many industry experts eagerly standing by to see how it evolves with its revolving brick oven for speed and consistency for its fresh made dough. Some other up and coming names to watch out for that are also using the revolvingbrick ovens are Revolve, Spin Neapolitan, Pie Craft and The Pies the Limit. The other big player behind the scene in this game is the Pizza School of New York which has been setting industry standards by training students in an actual restaurant on the latest revolving brick ovens for a real time hands on experience thereby creating many successful operators and local pizza sensations when the students enter the fray with new found skills. This is an exciting time for the pizza world and the consumers are the biggest winners with ever increasing choices and locations to get great pizza.

50 oz. Tomahawk Steak cooked in Revolving Brick Oven

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Top 10 “Fast Casual Pizza” ingredients.

Top 10 “Fast Casual” traits and how they affect pizza today. 

Fast Casual refers to a certain type of restaurant which usually has most of these attributes:

1)      An apparent quality improvement over fast food. This is created with fresh food promoted and prepared in front of the customer eliminating the possibility of frozen processed foods. This is often enhanced with a promise of GMO-free, free trade zone and locally grown produce.

2)      An upscale more comfortable and inviting atmosphere.

3)      Interaction of customer and staff due to the need to order, pick, choose and direct the assembly and preparation of the food items.

4)      Varied, made to order wholesome food choices.

5)      Counter service with limited table service like food runners.

6)      Very fast production and cook times.

7)      Healthier food items and items that are naturally grown, organic with free range meets and non-farmed fish.

8)      Perceived value with a cost that trends between fast food and casual full service dining.

9)      Trendy

10)   Aimed at the millennial consumer category.

So how does this affect pizza today and the exciting concepts reaching for the brass ring in the Gold Rush of the “Fast Casual Pizza” market?