woodstone commercial ovens

[Ed]

Do any of the pizza shop owners here use Wood-Stone brand ovens?
I would be interested in hearing your experiences.

I am thinking of having a pizza shop one day and they look like well made pieces of equipment.

Thanks,

Ed

[SmokyHearth]

Woodstone is a great oven, but you can buy the same oven from Earthstone (www.earthstoneovens.com) for about half the price from www.pizzaovens.com. It saved me well over $10k on my oven. Earthstone is a lesser-known company than Woodstone, but offers traditional European-style ovens made on the West Coast. If you get a chance go to their demo kitchen in Burbank, CA. They offer both commercial and residential ovens.
-don

[JPY]

the web site is www.earthstoneovens.com .  I had to make the correction.  Does it mean that I'm biased toward Earthstone? 

[varasano]

I've seen a dozen woodstone ovens and none had a good pizza. I don't know if the oven is to blame, but I'm sure that most of the places had the oven set to 400-550F. Yesterday I saw one that had a temp guage on the front reading 394F.  It's pointless. I think most of these places think that bricks cook pizza. In fact, heat cooks pizza.  I personally would be skeptical of a woodstone unless the vendor could show me it's ability to sustain high heat. Certainly whatever training they are giving their customers is either way off base or else not being followed.

Jeff

[SmokyHearth]

349 degree eh? That's interesting because my NSF rating on my oven states that it must be above 500 degrees for safe cooking. I start the day at 650 (sometimes I'll cook at 550 while waiting for it to warm up) and usually end the day around 710-715. I'm assuming that the 349 oven was probably gas-fired because I don't think I could keep the temperature that low with a wood fire.
-don

[jimd]

Here in Washington DC, the best pizza place in town (2 Amys) uses a Woodstone Oven. They keep the temp at about 625, I believe (based upon the temperature read-out on the side of the oven). I know this temp is low for true Neopolitan Pizza. I would say that they do have fabulous pizza which seems fairly true to the Neopolitan style (until I get to Naples or to spend time with PizzaNapoletana, I guess I cannot say this with any certaintly.)

I do note that I have been in other places with Woodstone Ovens that are just horrible, and the oven seems to be more "show" than "substance".

Jim

[JPY]

The Woodstone oven reads from about an inch under the floor.  So the actual temp at the surface should be higher. Again this may be misleading in some ways.  You can always put a fire in the middle for 10 minutes and get that temp reading way up there but it won't last too long. I know the Pie-Tanza place that some people have mentioned in Arlington, VA has the Earthstone oven, which is close to D.C..  In my opinion you do what works best, some like to run it at 850 and some at 600, there's no real rule that you have to follow.

[Arthur]

Here in Washington DC, the best pizza place in town (2 Amys) uses a Woodstone Oven. They keep the temp at about 625, I believe (based upon the temperature read-out on the side of the oven). I know this temp is low for true Neopolitan Pizza. I would say that they do have fabulous pizza which seems fairly true to the Neopolitan style (until I get to Naples or to spend time with PizzaNapoletana, I guess I cannot say this with any certaintly.)

Jim

IMHO I would say that 2 Amys is fairly poor compared to most wood/coal oven places in NY and Italy although they may be the best in washington dc, but frankly that's not saying too much.   Their dough is undercooked and the buffalo mozz is just ok.

[jimd]

2 Amys can be inconsistent. On a good day, it is the very best I have had. However, I have not yet been to Italy ( I hope to go next year). I can only imagine how I will feel about the pizza in Naples given your opinion. I may not come home. I happen to be from New York. Maybe I have forgotten how good it was (I have moved to DC), but for me, 2 Amys beats nearly all of the NYC places I have tried.

[Arthur]

2 Amys can be inconsistent. On a good day, it is the very best I have had. However, I have not yet been to Italy ( I hope to go next year). I can only imagine how I will feel about the pizza in Naples given your opinion. I may not come home. I happen to be from New York. Maybe I have forgotten how good it was (I have moved to DC), but for me, 2 Amys beats nearly all of the NYC places I have tried.

I too am from NY orginally.   I do find myself a little harsh on non-NY pizza, just because that's what New Yorkers do.  I do think that the best pizza I have had has been in NY - totonnos in brooklyn, patsy's, L&B in brooklyn (square)...    DC has one or two places that are ok - 2 Amys, pizza paridiso.   In Virginia there are a few NY street pizza places that are pretty good - mostly because the owners are from brooklyn and I know their ingredients.   It's been a while since I've been to Italy - I loved the pizza there, but of course it's different in so many ways.   For me this is what makes pizza facinating - the simplicity of the ingredients yet the complexity of the result.  It's all good