Author Topic: mobil oven (Read 10818 times)

wheelman · « **Reply #60 on:** July 15, 2012, 12:15:27 AM »

Wow! That's a big party. Pizzas look fantastic. I bet they were all blown away.
Bill

norma427 · « **Reply #61 on:** July 17, 2012, 07:01:35 AM »

Congrats Larry! What a nice article.

http://www.morningjournal.com/articles/2012/07/15/business/doc50023b6b54b63277328711.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Norma

JConk007 · « **Reply #62 on:** July 17, 2012, 08:25:34 AM »

Way to Go Larry !! $cha-ching$ New tent/canopy ?? The Pies look great too! How many dough balls did you plow thru for 150 people???Thats your hand pulled Mozz.? or fiore di Latte? great article as well !
Hows you shaping up for August?

scott123 · « **Reply #63 on:** July 17, 2012, 09:47:50 AM »

Quote

he noted he never quite understood the appeal behind New York slices

Et tu, Larry, Et tu?

Seriously, though, Larry, great article. With all this fantastic press and seemingly astronomical sales, might it be time to start thinking about a second, Neapolitan only location?

Jet_deck · « **Reply #64 on:** July 17, 2012, 09:48:34 AM »

Good show Larry.

thezaman · « **Reply #65 on:** July 17, 2012, 11:02:55 AM »

thanks, i am a hands on person. i believe in a independent business the customer want to see the owner. if i haven't made or baked the food i examine it before it hits the pass or carryout.we are very far from perfect but that is the goal.
being in a college town the public thinks that summer business slow down because the students are not here. i made the decision 25 years ago not to be student dependent.our summer sales are always higher than school year sales, with the exception of graduation week.
that is the reason i do not look at wood oven locations in the summer months. i have felt up to a few months ago that i would have to go into Cleveland to make wood fire pizza work as a restaurant.after all of the positive feedback I'm not sure that Lorain county cannot handle it. the man that built my mobile oven is working on a building in Lorain Ohio and had the developer contact me for a spot. 2800 hundred square feet.so that is a possibility.
one more bit if information. the Lorain county fair is 8 miles south of oberlin in wellington Ohio.it draws 18,0000 people a day. i tried to get in as a vendor in January but there were no openings. a few week ago they got a cancellation and ask if i wanted in. i committed and am now trying to put my concession area together. john conklin has been helping me with ideas.this will be a major undertaking. i am pretty maxed out at my restaurant. my biggest wood event to date has been 350 people and the stress on my crew was big.to store supplies,make dough, pull mozzarella, along with manning this 10 hours a day for 7 days is monumental. what i want to do is make the pizza 9 to 10 inches cut it 4 and sell it in a nice heavy paper plate and sell it as a individual pizza. i know slices of pizza is the norm,but that would take away from the impact the fair could have on my wood fire pizza marketing. i am going to make pies and put pics up so i can get feedback and suggestions from the forum.
if this goes well the profits along with profits from my mobile oven to date will go towards my Neapolitan oven.
thanks for reading this and thanks to all of the awesome people that have input on this web site. that i have spent 15 days ans 44 minutes on

.larry

Pizza De Puta · « **Reply #66 on:** July 17, 2012, 11:10:49 AM »

Wow! How exciting, Larry. As a business owner, I can appreciated those "crazy" days when one works to the max, makes good, sweet money, then sleeps like a log . . . until the next big day, which for you is two solid weeks!!

Congrats on your booming business.

pizzablogger · « **Reply #67 on:** July 17, 2012, 12:12:39 PM »

Wow Larry, the fair gig is going to be monumental!

I agree with sticking to whole pies only....it is consistent with the image and product you have done in the past and will do in the future. In addition, the sight of a whole pizza has a major impact and the people walking around the fair with the whole pie on the plate and eating it will be like walking billboards. "Where did you get that pizza from?!".

My middling pizza stand at a weekly market is highly impacted by this. I'd say roughly 1/3 to 1/2 of customers on a given Sunday mention they saw someone with one of the pizzas walking around and asked where they got it.

Have you looked at obtaining cardboard rounds? They come in 10" and 12" sizes. With a single piece of food service foil wrapped over top, these are very sturdy to place a pie on and you do not get the dip/sag in the pizza from the lip of the paper plate being under it. Down here it breaks down to about .0424 per pie round. More than a paper plate in cost, but much sturdier and the pizzas look good because they lay completely flat on them.

Good luck with everything! --K

Pizza De Puta · « **Reply #68 on:** July 17, 2012, 01:54:22 PM »

Great idea on the cardboard rounds, PB. I wouldn't have thought of that one. Filing that little nugget away!!

thezaman · « **Reply #69 on:** July 21, 2012, 09:11:50 PM »

pizzablogger i am going to give the rounds a try. as of now for the up coming fair i am looking at a heavy paper plate that has a 9.5 inch flat area with a rim.i am thinking of using 7 to 8 ounces of dough and doing a 9 inch individual pie.my price as of now will be 7.50 looking at what is being charged for two slices at some of the other fairs before i finalize.anyway ,i wanted to put up pictures of my first test pies and get some feedback. same day dough using 8 ounces, 2.5 ounces of cheese, 4 basil leaves, 2 ounces of sauce,evoo and grated cheese. do the members think a 7.50 per pie in reasonable? a few pictures

JConk007 · « **Reply #70 on:** July 21, 2012, 10:14:08 PM »

All day long Larry!!! make it $8. forget those pesky quarters! Looks like plenty of cheese thats for sure. Jeff borofsky charges $10 -$12 for that size, dont be shy. What you are doing and your product is worth it !

John

wheelman · « **Reply #71 on:** July 22, 2012, 12:04:30 AM »

Sounds like a bargain to me Larry.

Pizza De Puta · « **Reply #72 on:** July 22, 2012, 12:54:52 AM »

Keep it simple. Make it 10 inches and charge 10 bucks. I'll take one for each hand!!

thezaman · « **Reply #73 on:** July 22, 2012, 08:45:10 AM »

10.00 is not out of the question. the smaller size will make it possible to get more pies in the oven.i think 4 will fit.

JConk007 · « **Reply #74 on:** July 22, 2012, 10:17:01 PM »

Fine just no Quarters!

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #75 on:** July 22, 2012, 10:36:25 PM »

Well, everybody knows that when you go to a fair you are going to pay through the nose. And that pizza could, and will, be shared between 2 people/kids alot....so 8 bucks is a steal. Take a look around an see what a sandwich and fries is fetching and you'll prolly see that 10 bucks is not out of line.
'cmon... they get $8 for a stupid turkey leg......!

thezaman · « **Reply #76 on:** July 25, 2012, 10:04:47 AM »

we have been taking wineries on weekends for customer exposure. the winery customer counts have increased dramatically.friday the 20th i brought out 105 dough balls and sold out in two hours. with a lot of disappointed wine drinkers who came for pizza and it was sold out.i will kick up my quantities next time as i did for this one.

Chicago Bob · « **Reply #77 on:** July 25, 2012, 10:46:18 AM »

Beautiful pies Larry.....I can see why the turned away were disappointed, I'd be p!@@%# if I had to miss out on those.
Would you please tell me aprox. how long those 3 buckets of wood on the back of your truck would last. How much does it take to bring up to temp. also? Thanks.

Bob

thezaman · « **Reply #78 on:** August 21, 2012, 05:26:13 PM »

Fair update Sunday free admission sold our test pies plus our Monday start up dough. 50 balls in one and a half hours.
Monday long day 7:00 to 11 269 pies.

RobynB · « **Reply #79 on:** August 21, 2012, 06:56:00 PM »

I'm not surprised. If they had anything at our fairs that was half as good as your pizzas, I'd pay a lot more than you are charging for them!