It's all about the Pizza- Oven in Fast Casual Pizza

Revolving deck brick ovens can be decorated to go with any style as seen at this Greek Tavern,

When you have a pizza place, it's best to have a great oven, so why not make it a showpiece? The oven is your main equipment item and if it is a brick oven you might as well make it part of the show. Fire and pizza men busy at making pies at masterful creation of art enhances the dining experience.

"You can use traditional brick, stucco, tile, copper, brass or stone to design an oven in your own taste with your own flair" said Scot Cosentino from the New York Brick oven Co. pictured above in front of a coal burning oven.

If your going to build a real brick oven, it's silly not to take advantage of the aesthetics and add to the ambiance of your establishment you worked so hard to create.

So before you put your concept together for the fast casual market, a remodel or a neighborhood bistro, take a little time to incorporate your brick oven into the space and proudly display it for all to see.

Revolving Brick Oven benefits from world champion pizza maker Scot Cosen...

Making Perfect Pizza with a Revolving Deck Brick Oven In Vegas vs. a Crapshoot

Fast Casual Pizza, Fast Casual Pizza, it's on all the modern day gold miners tongues. Places like Live Basil. Chipotle, Blaze, Spinfire, Pizza Rev, Uncle Maddio's, Revolver and the don't forget the big boys about to jump ship over to fast casual-Pizza Hut and Dominos. Now along with all these players are the dozens and dozens of start ups who envision being the next McDonalds of pizza. How do you get the odds in your favor with so much competition? How do you stand out in the crowd? What will make you better, more efficient and able to fight the big boys? Well one way a perennial favorite in New York did it, was by making an incredible pizza in wood burning Revolving Brick Ovens. The competition is fierce in New York City with pizza places coming and going on every corner year after year so when a Place like Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza has it's 21st birthday it really is cause for celebration. "Staying ahead of the game while maintaining the integrity of your pizza and always streamlining production is key" said world champion pizza maker and co-founder of Goodfella's Pizza. A game changer for them was the addition of a revolving deck wood burning brick oven which allows for perfectly uniform cooking of each pizza while eliminating the drawbacks of traditional brick ovens such as: hot spots, cold spots, hard to regulate temperatures and unskilled pizza makers. The New York Brick Oven Company will be demonstrating there Inferno series revolving brick ovens at the this years Pizza Expo in Las Vegas Nevada at the end of March in booth 231 for those interested.
The next key "ingredient" is just that: you have to use fresh ingredients these days. The pizza eating public is not the same uninformed group as it used to be and they know they have a lot of choices now as to where they want to spend their hard earned money. Why would they buy frozen dough, sauce froma jar or even worse a sauce made from reconstituted powder. Then you have your cheese. Processed, hardened oils are a thing of the past and almost any supplier can give you access to a premium fresh mozzarella so why not use it. Produce is now being purchased from local growers when feasible and helps the community while ensuring a fresh product. That being said you need a little understanding of how to best assemble your ingredients to make a good pie so you can read up on it, watch videos, experiment or take classes from a place like the Pizza School of New York which turns out top notch pizza makers from around the world(the training is priceless in the course of a career).
Once you have that mastered, you need a business model to build your restaurant after. In this case unless you have experience it can't hurt to go out and see what the successful fellows are doing and then put your own spin on it by adding your own flare or style. A good idea is to avoid head on competition till you get your feet wet and gain some experience running your own place. I say this because if you start in a place with little or no competition you have a better chance of carving out your own niche and drawing customers without going head to head with major brand recognition, huge marketing budgets and tremendous buying power which can effect final costs and offers to your customers.
The pizza game can be tremendously fun and rewarding but is not without a lot of very hard work, knowledge and skill. Simple enough to say now go and make it so.

Scot Cosentino of Goodfella's Pizza with his Vodka Pie Sensation

de Blasio Fork Sells for Thousands in Tunnel to Towers Auction for Disabled Veterans

Andrew Scudera and Scot Cosentino displaying award winning pizza

Marc Cosentino of  Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza Serving Mayor de Blasio the Smoking Goodfella

The infamous fork that was at the center of the international pizza scandal involving Mayor of New York Bill de Blasio's culinary skills has finally sold at auction. The fork was donated to the Tunnel To Towers Foundation by the owners of Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza to help raise awareness for the foundation which has been a tremendous help in the community building housing for disabled veterans. "We got to work with Frank Siller and the Tunnel To Towers Foundation during the recovery efforts on Staten Island after Hurricane Sandy and we witnessed the dedication and commitment to helping the community and decided we would do what we could do to help them. My brother Marc is a veteran and decided to use the fork to help raise awareness and funds for Tunnel to Towers so we said sure, let's do it " said Scot Cosentino.  The bidding was started off by the New York Brick Oven Co. at $1000 dollars which kept rolling and ended off reaching the $2500 mark by auction end. The fork was purchased by an anonymous donor who then turned around and donated it back to Goodfella's saying " it's where this piece of history belongs". The fork is now on permanent display at the world famous Staten Island eatery.

Mayor de Blasio's Fork

Thermal Mass, Revolving Brick Ovens and Fast Casual Pizza

Mass

What does thermal mass have to do with making brick oven pizza? Well, let's start with the definition:

Thermal mass is a concept in building design that describes how the mass of the building provides "inertia" against temperature fluctuations, sometimes known as the thermal flywheel effect.^[1] For example, when outside temperatures are fluctuating throughout the day, a large thermal mass within the insulated portion of a house can serve to "flatten out" the daily temperature fluctuations, since the thermal mass will absorb thermal energy when the surroundings are higher in temperature than the mass, and give thermal energy back when the surroundings are cooler, without reaching thermal equilibrium. This is distinct from a material's insulative value, which reduces a building's thermal conductivity, allowing it to be heated or cooled relatively separate from the outside, or even just retain the occupants' thermal energy longer.

So when you have a brick oven, such as The New York Brick Oven Company's revolving brick oven, that is dense and thick(several thousand pounds) you have a higher thermal mass than the routine pizza ovens which translates to having consistently cooked pizza and a more energy efficient design. Having a thick revolving deck aslo uses thermal mass to hold oven heat and cook evenly without hot and cold spots due to the continuous rotation. This was proven out in real world trials at the Iconic Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza of New York when they replaced one of their fast casual pizza concept's 8 ft. interior surface standard brick ovens with a New York Brick Oven Inferno Series revolving brick ovens. This one change made for more consistent and faster production allowing them to realize about a $40,000 a year reduction in labor. The labor saving came from no longer needing to use the second 5 ft. standard oven for the rush and reducing the number of employees during non- peak hours with the revolving brick oven. Not to mention less fuel with operating a single oven as opposed to two ovens.

Fast Casual Pizza and Revolving Brick Ovens

With the Fast Casual pizza industry exploding across the nation and new concepts for Brick Oven Pizza literally springing up almost daily it will be great to see which  concepts dominate the competition. The New York Brick Oven Company's revolving brick oven Inferno series has been drawing a lot of attention and is already in full use in such places as the award winning Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza of New York and the Radius brew pub of Emporia Kansas. Brew Pubs and pizza are a natural combination and compliment each-other well. Many of the new chains are switching over from conventional fixed deck ovens to revolving ovens to handle fast production while maintaining a standard brick oven pizza. The mainstay of the new fast casual pizza revolution is fast pizza made with fresh ingredients that the customer chooses. Having an oven that can maintain the correct temperature without the need for highly skilled labor is where the New York Brick Oven Company's revolving deck brick ovens shine. These brick ovens are capable of being fueled by wood, gas or a combination thereof. The fact that the owners of New York Brick Oven have over 40 years making pizza between them and are partnered with Kuma Forni of Italy speaks volumes about them and having their revolving brick ovens all over the world speaks more.

FAST CASUAL PIZZA-THE RACE FOR A PIECE OF THE PIE IS ON

Scot Cosentino of Goodfella's Pizza, the original Fast Casual/Quick Serve Pizza Concept

The latest "Gold Rush" in the multi-billion dollar food industry is Fast Casual Pizza. Fresh ingredients, made to order and delivered quickly in a casual setting is the model being followed, with tremendous interest and investment from the such contenders as Chipotle, Blaze, Live Basil, 800 Degree, Uncle Maddio's and a slew of other contenders. What they are hard at work on is re-inventing Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza- the original East Coast leaders in Fast Gourmet Pizza and New York Brick Oven style pizza, having defined the category decades ago. "A Revolving Brick Oven from the New York Brick Company is how we create our award winning pizzas at a super fast pace while retaining a consistently perfect product" said Andrew Scudera from Goodfella's. 

The emerging concepts are following a basic format and design of how the products are ordered, assembled and cooked. The main differences is the type of pizza, dough, sauce and oven design with the more high end companies going for the now standard brick oven and the the future minded entrepreneurs jumping on the New York Brick Oven Companies Revolving Brick Oven for authentic pizza with high production potential.

After major contenders failing abysmally in the red hot New York City market, many are taking it slow and are wisely playing it safe with much concept development on the west coast before attempting to take on the capital of pizza." What is to be seen is whose concept will stand out, be easy to reproduce and have staying power in what will be an area with huge potential and fantastic competition" said Marc Cosentino co-founder of the Goodfella's Brick Oven Pizza chain. brickovensforsale.com

Scot Cosentino  with his International pizza trend setting "Vodka Pie" www.goodfellas.com