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[mitch74]

Hey there.  First time poster long time lurker.  I was wondering if I could get some opinions.  I have been working on opening up a small brick oven style restaraunt in my home state for a while and have been looking at available properties to lease.  I thing I have found the ideal location on a busy street with tons of visibility  and a great bar/restaraunt scene to back it up.  I could probably open this place in a matter of a couple months with minimal renovations and expense.  My only issue with it is that I don't think I can get the oven and prep area out in the open like I had always pictured.  To all you pizza freaks out there,  does the oven need to be visible if the pizza is good enough to become THE local pizza spot?    Open to all answers and they do not need to be one word.  Thanks everybody. 

MITCH

[Pete-zza]

Mitch,

In parallel with your post here, you might want to register and pose your questions to the members (they are mostly professional pizza operators) at the PMQ Think Tank forum at http://www.pmq.com/tt/viewforum.php?f=6.

Peter

[Davydd]

If you mean brick oven as in wood-fired loading pizzas with a long peel and working and turning them in the oven the answer is YES. That is the show and the draw. Brick ovens become the focal point in the space as well. I would assume you would want to put some design thought in to stage a brick oven.

[petef]

My only issue with it is that I don't think I can get the oven and prep area out in the open like I had always pictured. 

I'd be happy to see the oven on a large display. You could setup a video camera
in the kitchen/oven area and have the live feed displayed on one or multiple
large monitors. One day you could have the camera focused upon the oven
and another day on the cook.

You could even broadcast it out to your website
for the entire world to see.

Thinking outside the box.

---pete---

[ThunderStik]

To me it depends on if it is going to be an "upscale" place or not. First and formost I want good pizza if im going out for it. If there is a WFO in back and there is good pie out front thats good enough for me.

If its an upscale place and the WFO is part of the "ambiance" then I would guess it would have to be in plain sight.

[Essen1]

To me it depends on if it is going to be an "upscale" place or not. First and formost I want good pizza if im going out for it. If there is a WFO in back and there is good pie out front thats good enough for me.

If its an upscale place and the WFO is part of the "ambiance" then I would guess it would have to be in plain sight.

I don't get it.

Why does it have to be an "upscale" place? As far as I'm concerned, it could be a hole-in-the-wall type place that has the oven in plain sight (or not) and still crank out great pies.

[ThunderStik]

I don't get it.

Why does it have to be an "upscale" place? As far as I'm concerned, it could be a hole-in-the-wall type place that has the oven in plain sight (or not) and still crank out great pies.

I dont get what you dont get.