Tips for a good pizza restaurant set up

[MikoMichaelangelo]

Hi all!

We're moving our pizza shop to a new building and have the funding to get some new equipment

We have very inconsistent dough at the moment and every day is a bit of a dough lottery. This is mostly due to storage and temperature so any tips on this would be welcome

Our current set-up has a fairly old spiral dough mixer, a couple of fridges and two stacked electric ovens that fit 6x12" pizzas in each

Has anybody on here got any experience with a successful pizza business in 2023?

Are there any recipes and equipment that can help to make this optimal? I know there are tons of different bits online but I'd like to see what you think and what's really worth it as some of it can get pretty expensive

Do we need dough prooving boxes/fridges, walk-in fridges, A/C etc?

Please let me know. We're hoping to open 1st of August

[scott r]

You can make consistent dough in any situation if you are a highly experienced, however, if you want to make it easy for yourself and so that you aren't always tweaking/changing and also so that you dont have to always be around you are going to want full control over both your water temperature and your ambient temperature in your dough mixing/fermenting area.

[stamina888]

You don't necessarily need to alter the recipe.  Just alter the temperature of the water you use.  If it's a hotter day, use colder water and bun it up asap.  If you need dough the same day or next day, use room temp water and let it proof for a few hours before refridgerating.

What's the temperature of your walk-in?  Is the A/C in your walk-in working?

[guybrush]

i would start by getting some temperature logger for the fridges.

If the temperature fluctuate while it's not being used or takes a long time to cool down after opening the door this might be a problem. Not only for your dough, but for food safety as well.

Depending on your definition of "old" they might waste so much energy that buying something new and more efficient model would actually save you money. getting a electricity meter which you add to your socket could help to find this out.

[highstakespizza]

I don't know anything about a 'successful' pizza shop, but I'll just put this out there because I feel like it's a game changer if you're right on fridge space, or running a lower volume shop, and I never hear anyone talking about it.

Instead of proofing bins, you can buy individual metal proofing containers. Little round 8" or 9'' circular containers, maybe 3'' tall. Most of my inconsistencies would come from:

1) trying to save on fridge space by packing dough slightly too tight, and having it grow together/being tough to cleanly removes.

2) dough being different temps. Either I'd take too much out, and it starts to over proof/get loose, or I take to little our, and in a panic have to work with the dough straight out of the fridge cause we ran out early.

The metal container seem cool, because I feel like they'll save a ton of space in the fridge. I've heard of people only putting like 8 dough balls/tray. That seems easy to work with, but you waste so much fridge space IMO. The metal also seems like it'll conduct the cool from the fridge better and cool them down more uniformly. I guess none of this matters if you've got a walk-in and tons of space.

[scott r]

Its pretty typical to find the individual metal containers being used only for NY style pizzerias because of their especially large dough ball sizes.  Many do mostly 18-20 inch pizzas by the slice, and thats a big dough ball.  For trays this can be an issue because you can only fit 3 in there with a wetter dough.  I do only 12 inch pizzas, so for me the tray is the best bet and even with 12 doughs per tray there is a lot of space so they do not become too attached to cause a problem.

For us, speed is all that matters because a large percentage of our customers for the day come within the same 4 hour period.  For speed, the tray is faster than the individual containers, not just for getting them open and the dough out of them, but also for finding someplace to put all of them when we are done with them.  Bags are not even an option for us, they really slow us down.  With a moderately busy friday night crush anything will work, but for a really busy one you might find that you prefer trays if your not doing really large pizzas.  You will find that you will have to base all of your decisions on systems off of your busiest shift (for us friday and saturday night).

In time, you will dial into your typical numbers and you can always have enough dough out.  We pull dough based on typical amount we sell on that particular day of the week, and the way I look at it is this.... dough is incredibly cheap when compared to cheese, tomato, and topping costs so im not worried about pulling extra and trashing a few trays to make sure that I am always using room temp dough, which for me gives the best results.

[guybrush]

Hi all!

We're moving our pizza shop to a new building and have the funding to get some new equipment

We have very inconsistent dough at the moment and every day is a bit of a dough lottery. This is mostly due to storage and temperature so any tips on this would be welcome

Our current set-up has a fairly old spiral dough mixer, a couple of fridges and two stacked electric ovens that fit 6x12" pizzas in each

Has anybody on here got any experience with a successful pizza business in 2023?

Are there any recipes and equipment that can help to make this optimal? I know there are tons of different bits online but I'd like to see what you think and what's really worth it as some of it can get pretty expensive

Do we need dough prooving boxes/fridges, walk-in fridges, A/C etc?

Please let me know. We're hoping to open 1st of August

it's really hard to give advice, if you don't tell us what you are currently doing and what you think is not working.  Small disclaimer:I don't run a pizza business, but i run a restaurant.

how many pies are currently selling / storing and how many do you plan to sell/store?

whats your current dough management procedure? what kind of pizza are you currently making? what kind of pizza would you like to be making? Are you happy with your current oven?

[highstakespizza]

Its pretty typical to find the individual metal containers being used only for NY style pizzerias because of their especially large dough ball sizes.  Many do mostly 18-20 inch pizzas by the slice, and thats a big dough ball.  For trays this can be an issue because you can only fit 3 in there with a wetter dough.  I do only 12 inch pizzas, so for me the tray is the best bet and even with 12 doughs per tray there is a lot of space so they do not become too attached to cause a problem.

For us, speed is all that matters because a large percentage of our customers for the day come within the same 4 hour period.  For speed, the tray is faster than the individual containers, not just for getting them open and the dough out of them, but also for finding someplace to put all of them when we are done with them.  Bags are not even an option for us, they really slow us down.  With a moderately busy friday night crush anything will work, but for a really busy one you might find that you prefer trays if your not doing really large pizzas.  You will find that you will have to base all of your decisions on systems off of your busiest shift (for us friday and saturday night).

In time, you will dial into your typical numbers and you can always have enough dough out.  We pull dough based on typical amount we sell on that particular day of the week, and the way I look at it is this.... dough is incredibly cheap when compared to cheese, tomato, and topping costs so im not worried about pulling extra and trashing a few trays to make sure that I am always using room temp dough, which for me gives the best results.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I just picked up my metal containers with week, so I might be a little premature on my excitement lol. I've just got one single door commercial fridge, slightly larger than a speedrack, so having the dough in a more modular/movable setup is I think going to help out a lot with space management.

The time to unload a ball of dough is an interesting angle. I haven't really liked bagging the dough balls either, but I find it's mostly because they'll tend to stick and can double over on themselves when removing if you're not careful, then the 30-60 second stretch is like 5 minutes. I think it's probably just my lack of experience, but for me a lot of it comes down to 'Fool Proofing' solutions. Like even if I've cut out the dough after it grows together a million times before, when I've got more than one order going, I just tend to make mistakes/get anxious. So I figure even if I add another 30 seconds to the stretching portion, as long as I'm eliminating the long tail of the 'stretch time distribution' where stuff goes really wrong it'll help nail down the operations.

But I guess typing all of this out, a lot of my choices have been motivated by the way I do business. Since I'm in a shared kitchen, most of my volume comes from apps, and it seems like your adherence to service times is a big factor in how many orders they send to you. I'm also running extremely low volume, and cooking on a 2 slot P22-S, so I can more or less make the pizzas myself as fast as I can cook them.

[TheRealJonnyD]

Fwiw, all the pizza shops I've worked at use 8 or 9" dough tins. I know of some NY shops that use trays, but I think the tins are more popular even for American style here. It's all I use. I agree with Scott, for 12" only -- I'd use trays. It just makes more sense.

[Enricodonaruma]

Hello, You may want to consider the following items, A proofing fridge and a water chiller. This will allow you to control the temperature very easily. There are also Proofer/retarders in one. Whereas you set the temp and timer and it will adjust the temp automatically on a timer. Example -bulk ferment 4 hours at 70 degrees, then drops to 36 degrees for a cold proof until you are ready to ball... Everyone develops there own system.
Also with the mixer... If it is too fast it can heat the dough up too much. A 2 speed mixer with a slow setting is paramount. Last, I don't know how long you are mixing, but you can do a long autolyse to improve dough strength, without the added heat of the mixer.

[foreplease]

Fwiw, all the pizza shops I've worked at use 8 or 9" dough tins. I know of some NY shops that use trays, but I think the tins are more popular even for American style here. It's all I use. I agree with Scott, for 12" only -- I'd use trays. It just makes more sense.

I'm interested in what you, Scott, and anyone else thinks in terms of grams. I have settled into a handful of different doughs at home - made at 14" - in the 385-410g range. My round plastic ones many places use for takeout food need to be replaced. I have been thinking of getting 4 of the metal ones. If my dough balls will have room to swim in them then it does not make sense. They seem like a nice and durable tool for someone making a few pizzas at a time at home, but would like opinions. I have better ways to annoy my wife if these will be a waste. 

[highstakespizza]

I'm interested in what you, Scott, and anyone else thinks in terms of grams. I have settled into a handful of different doughs at home - made at 14" - in the 385-410g range. My round plastic ones many places use for takeout food need to be replaced. I have been thinking of getting 4 of the metal ones. If my dough balls will have room to swim in them then it does not make sense. They seem like a nice and durable tool for someone making a few pizzas at a time at home, but would like opinions. I have better ways to annoy my wife if these will be a waste. 

I just finished balling up my dough for the first half of the week, and storing it in the metal trays. I think Scott and JohnnyD have a lot more experience, but I'll throw in my opinion as a recent convert. I use 420g balls for my 14'' pies, and I think it's kind of break-even for dough balls that size. Any smaller and I think a tray can pack them more efficiently, any bigger and I think they start to make more sense, but at 14'' they take up about the same amount of space in my fridge as they would in a tray, maybe slightly more.


I saved a couple of the dented containers for home use, but I don't think I'd buy them specifically for home use unless I was making bigger pies, or my friends started threatening me with 2 star reviews when I get backed up/inconsistent. I think they are a bit of a harder sell for the house personally, but I'm also on a new pizza shop owner budget lol.

[foreplease]

Thanks for your input, highstakespizza.

[Bimko27]

OP, how's the business going? Did you work it out with the equipment?

[cryan8181]

I don't know if OP will answer, seeing as he was last active in August last year.

But I want to share some ideas for others that Tommy Klauber, a restaurant consultant, covered in this article on LinkedIn.

Sustainability and efficiency are key ingredients. Opt for energy-efficient appliances, like ovens with smart temperature controls, to reduce energy consumption.
Also, arrange stations logically to minimize unnecessary movement. Invest in quality kitchen equipment that lasts longer and requires less maintenance. Add technology like inventory management systems to minimize food waste and streamline operations.