Many good answers already. The size of your space will definitely play a role. The more pizzas you have to make, the more space you may need......especially if you will be using a walk-in or some other type of refrigeration to store the dough.
What style of pizzas will you be making? What hydration, types of flour, etc.? Using baker's yeast, natural leavening or a hybrid? If the natural route, do you prefer the crust flavor to favor more lactic acid qualities or more acidic flavored qualities? Lot's a ways to skin a pizza cat and there is no "best" method, only what works best for your specific situation.
Our deck oven pizzas, where I use a dough specific to the Baltimore location, from mixer to oven, use dough that is 74 to 78 hours old. A significant portion of that time period involves a pre-ferment that is left at room temperature for 22 hours and then a long bulk rise at room temperature, followed by spending time in the walk-in before the balls are taken out for a final rise at room temp before cooking. This process is specific for my lack of space to do more of the fermentation time in the walk-in. As an aside, the pre-ferment rise at room temperature is too long and I am gonna keep tinkering with it.
Our wood-fired pizzas, which are a different dough than the deck oven, use dough about 54 hours from mixer to oven.....again with a significant portion of that being an ambient temperature rise.
The health department does not require any specific considerations related to mixing dough where I am, particularly because there are no animal fats (lard) or time/temperature sensitive individual ingredients in our dough. As long as the space, equipment and storage items are kept clean, we are good to go. Check with your local Health department about your specific area.
As far as your inquiries on shorter-fermented doughs, I am not sure what pizzerias you are referring to, but keep in mind the temperature a dough is fermented at plays a role in how far along the fermentation process that dough is when making a pizza. A dough that is made the night before and never refrigerated can have a good amount of flavor development to it.....is it the same as a longer fermented room temperature dough or a longer fermented cold dough? No.
In my experience, the general public has little idea about the difference in crust flavors between a very well-made pizza crust and a great one. Many people in America have experience eating pizzas that typically feature bland, relatively flavorless crusts which also may be quite dry inside due to prolonged bake times. So even a modest increase in flavor and/or textural quality in a crust will be a relatively large revelation to such a person.
Also, any type of "mystique" a restaurant can gain from newspaper articles, TV appearances and general hype plays a roll. One of the most famous pizzerias in the world typifies this phenomenon......most people buy into the hype and absolutely rave about the pizza. The two times I have had it my immediate thought is there are multiple places making the same specific style of pizza within 20 minutes of here that are making pies which are much better. And then when I think more about it, said famous place, even though it is not as good as the other nearby places offering the same style, is still making pizza much better than what anyone in most parts of the country will ever experience. And then when I think even more about it I remember that it's just pizza.....fold it, eat it and smile. It's pretty good at the end of the day!
Cheers. --k
--k
