Adriatic Grill, Tacoma, Washington

What happens when you have find a restaurant that uses a wood-fired oven, but doesn't even let people know about it on its web site? You can only find out about it by chance.

Well, by chance, I saw a review of the Adriatic Grill, Tacoma, Washington in a Tacoma News Tribune on-line review. The review says in part:

Adriatic Grill resides within one of the toughest neighborhoods for upscale dining. I've tried convincing friends that a restaurant near the mall - yes, that mall - serves superb Kobe flat-iron steak, turns out pizza from a wood-fired oven, masters garlicky Bolognese with al dente chewy pull, and doses grilled peaches with sweetened balsamic for dessert.

I looked at the Asiatic Grill's web site, it doesn't say anything about a wood-fired oven. What a shame.

Jimmy's Bar and Oven, Brookline, Massachusetts

Two different reviewers for the Brookline Patch covered Jimmy's Bar and Oven, Brookline, Massachusetts. (Their web site is minimal, but at least says where they are and when they are open, even if it doesn't offer a clue about what you will find there.)

The first review says in part:

He said the restaurant’s trendy atmosphere was inspired by a lower-Manhattan hotspot Barbutto, including its rubber floors, chalkboard walls with handwritten specials, and garage doors in front.

But Hamelburg said they built the place mainly around the giant WoodStone Oven in the kitchen, which he claims is definitely a focal point of the room.

“Will you look at the flame in the back?” Hamelburg exclaims. “It’s the coolest thing ever!”

The second review says in part:

Though Boston might not have the pizza definitude of, say, New York, or Chicago, we know what we like, and we have some dang fine pies to our name. Which brings me to Jimmy's Bar and Oven on Beacon Street, where the 'oven' in the restaurant's name is a Wood Stone model, churning out pizzas from a fire that burns close to a thousand degrees Farenheit. The benefit of that heat appears in the crust: a high baking temperature produces a crispier crust and more even cooking. Jimmy's crust is substantial enough to hold all the toppings, but not so thick that it overshadows the toppings. And, it's crispy all the way through—a rarity, even among some of the best pizza makers.

Sounds like a hot spot worth visiting.

Central Market Restaurant, Petaluma, California

A weekly column for the Sonoma Valley Sun highlighted the Central Market Restaurant, Petaluma, California.

The column says in part:

Located in downtown Petaluma, Central Market sits right on the charming town’s main street. The space is utterly delightful, with a rustic brick wall, soaring ceilings and tall windows, which allow for splendid views of the neighboring historic buildings. The light is somehow perfect, soft and golden. A wood-burning oven presides over the dining room, emitting a cozy warmth. The whole effect is completely romantic. Although both the staff and the atmosphere are marvelous, what guests return for over and over is Chef-owner Tony Najiola’s lovingly prepared, seasonal cuisine

The page on the Central Market's own site says a little about the oven:

In the heart of the dining room, behind the fresh oyster bar, you will find Tony and his highly trained crew pulling piping hot creations from the glowing wood burning oven.

Sounds like a lot more than your ordinary wood-fired restaurant.

Hearth Wood Fired Breads, Plymouth, Massachusetts

I have been kind of busy lately, so I haven't been posting many updates.

Now there is going to be a flood of them. I'm going to work backward, just because that's easiest.

My Google Alert pulled up a news article about sources of artisan breads.

There were multiple bakeries mentioned, but the one covered here is Hearth Wood Fired Breads, Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Their home page says in part:

At Hearth Wood Fired Bread, we are passionate about creating a spectacular loaf of bread. We are committed to serving our customers and providing the best tasting loaves of bread possible.

It also has a video showing their oven and their bread-making process.

It certainly looks worth a visit.

Homeadow Song Farm, Cincinnati, Ohio

Sometimes you discover something that defies categorization. For me, Homeadow Song Farm, Cincinnati, Ohio, is one such case.

• First, it is has a cob oven.
• Second, it is a farm.
• Third, it is a school.
• Fourth, it is sometimes used as a community oven.
• Fifth, sometimes they teach baking classes there.

Vicki Mansoor told me a bit about how they have used their oven. (A new one is being built.)

I used the oven throughout the school year for an early childhood
program. The children are given dough, sing and talk and make all
kinds of shapes. They put them on the bread board and out to the
dragon oven they went. Sometimes the children stay and watch.
Sometimes they carry the hot bread back on their little boards.
We eat it with our butter and honey from our bees.

Our grade school program uses it at times. We roast corn, dry squash, make soulcake breads at halloween, pumpkin pies, etc.

I bake loaves for myself and a few others, along with dinner; neighbors add theirs too. We have had community festival/parties where we make pizzas. We have invited people to come bake their own loaves and bring one to share.

And, we have given bread baking workshops occasionally - with a guest baker and more.

It sounds like a real gem of a place.

Community Oven, Munising, Michigan

My Google Alert brought a relatively unusual web page to my attention, an announcement titled, "MDOC Employee Named Finalist for Governor's Service Award."

The announcement says in part:

Peggy Carberry has been selected as a finalist for the 2011 Governor's Service Awards in the Volunteer of the Year category.... She is committed to the local community through the work which she and her sisters, known as "The Cooking Carberrys," conduct throughout the year during their free time. 

Peggy has been instrumental in raising literally tens of thousands of dollars for the community, primarily through baking in their bread oven at Munising's Bay Shore Park. ...

Peggy, along with her sisters, volunteers her time every Tuesday for approximately 7-8 hours, baking in the community bread oven at the Farmer's Market at Bay Shore Park in Munising from May to October. It is estimated they serve 300 people and raise at least $850 every Tuesday. Also, Peggy adds that they man the community oven almost every weekend during the summer months and those donations also go directly to various special events. Their sign says, "The Cooking Carberrys are helping the community One Pizza at a Time."

I have collected links to other mentions to the Munising oven, but this post gave some of the best details about their oven and its benefits to the community.

11/01/11: By chance, I happened to find an online album that has a good picture of the oven.

Felicia's Pizza Kitchen, Ardmore, Pennsylvania

My Google Alert brought a patch.com localized review of Felcia's Pizza Kitchen in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.

That's the good news. The bad news is they don't have a web site. I did find a few other mentions of them.

• Felicia's Pizza Kitchen - Ardmore-Merion-Wynnewood, PA Patch
• Felicia's Brick Oven Pizza - Ardmore Restaurant - MenuPages Pizza, Sandwiches Restaurant Search
• Felicias Pizza Kitchen - Ardmore, PA

Sounds like an interesting place.

Bricks Wood Fired Pizza, Lombard, Illinois

Once again I have a little time to post in my blog.

This time my Google Alert found a news post from Lombard, IL.

There is a good picture of a pizza and an interview with the owners of Bricks Wood Fired Pizza, Lombard, Illinois. Their oven is apparently a genuine Italian import.

Unlike many wood-fired pizza places I have found, these folks deliver (if you are in their territory of course).

I don't get that way very often, but I might again someday, in which case I'll see if I can make a field report.

Community Oven, Carbondale, Colorado

A community oven long in the development stages in Carbondale, Colorado, reached a successful milestone with their first community bake.

They have their own home page.

They relatively recently created a Facebook page. (I don't know why their page is classified as belonging to an "Actor/Director"!)

Most recently they were featured in a story in the Glenwood Springs Post Independent.

I have watched this project develop for a good long time, and I'm very glad it has been successful.

I wish them a long, well-earned, continuation.

Community Oven, Cambridge, New York

My Google Alert brought my attention to a blog post about the community oven in Cambridge, New York.

I have some information about the Cambridge oven on my Quest for Ovens web site on the Community Ovens page.

There are additional links about the Cambridge oven on my Community Oven Links page.

It was very nice to read a first-hand account of using the oven; they are amazingly hard to come by.

Olive Pizza, Minneapolis, Minnesota

While doing some shopping at Midtown Farmers Market in Minneapolis on Saturday, Sept. 17, 2011, I spied a tent with the legend "wood-fired pizza" emblazoned on it.

Checking it out I saw a pizza oven built into a trailer, and a crew running a wood-fired oven to make pizza.

This turned out to belong to a business I had not heard about, Olive Pizza, Mobile Wood-Fired Pizza.

Their web site doesn't give a lot of detail about their business. The earliest date currently showing on their calendar is August 27, 2011.

They were selling a variety of pizzas for $7 each. I did not have the opportunity to try one.

I did take a few pictures, but I'm not able to upload them at this point.

I wish them luck. (I can't say I'm impressed by their web site.)

June 28, 2012: I saw that their web site says that they are at the Bloomington Farmers Market, no longer at the Midtown Farmers Market.

Blue Moon Dine-In Theater, State Fair Grounds, Minnesota

An article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune mentioned in passing, "Food-loving fairgoers know to visit the five-year-old Blue Moon Dine-In Theater for fabulous wood-fired pizzas...."

The Blue Moon Dine In Theater is mentioned on the state fair's food finder. If you click to open the information about the Blue Moon Dine In Theater, it says, in part, "...wood-fired pizza (pepperoni, sausage, onion, mushroom, tomato bruschetta, salami sausage, margarita)...."

The Minnesota State Fair is only open 12 days of the year.

So if you happen to be in Minnesota and you happen to be attending the state fair (for which there is an admission charge), you might consider having some wood-fired pizza there.

Portable Oven Classes, Silverwood Park, Minnesota

My one-day oven building class at Silverwood Park in the Twin Cities is now available for registration through this link.

My classes at Silverwood have always filled, so if you want to take a class this year so you can build an oven this year, this is your remaining opportunity.

8/22/11: Apparently the class is full. We are planning to do a little deliberate overbooking, so you might still be able to sneak in.

Community Oven Map, United States

I realized that there is no reason not to include my US community oven map in my blog as well, since my other maps appear here as well.

So here it is:

Roma Restaurant, Bar and Market, Willernie, Minnesota Field Report

I made a lunchtime visit to the Roma Restaurant, Bar and Market, Willernie, Minnesota. They are located at 460 Stillwater Road, Willernie, MN 55090. (Note that they also have a Restaurant page on Facebook.) They are on my map of wood-fired oven businesses in Minnesota.

The outside of the building is directly in front of its narrow parking lot. From what I could see of the interior, it looks like they added the oven and expanded next door to their original location in 2008.

The oven is tucked into the front corner of the original space, back behind the counter and by the kitchen. You can barely see it from their dining room.

One can really see that this is a wood-fired oven. (A small image of one appears on their home page.) They don't really explain where the oven comes from (or why they wanted one), but it certainly does its job.

The menus for Roma Restaurant are available for downloading. I took my wife there for lunch, and we ordered the Balsamico (without the proscuitto, since we are vegetarians). Service seemed attentive and fast. My wife and I both thought it was delicious.

We found the crust to be very tender, not the hard, chewy crusts we often find with any pizzas, but especially with WFO pizzas.

There were several other pizzas on the menu we wanted to try, plus there are lots of other tasty-looking items that are not wood-fired oven pizzas.

There is a sign in their window that says they can par bake their pizzas so you can finish baking them at home. That would be an interesting option to try.

It's certainly not in our neighborhood, but if we happen to find ourselves in that corner of the Twin Cities Metro again, we will stop in for another visit.

Maps and Wood-Fired Businesses

I have now done three maps of wood-fired businesses (mostly wood-fired ovens): Wisconsin, Washington, and Minnesota. I might do one for the VPN-certified pizza places in the US and Canada. (There is also a map of community ovens that I know about.)

I have no plans to do any other maps unless there are some requests to do so.

So, if there are any maps you really want to see, comment to me, and I will add requests to my "to do" list.

Minnesota WFO Businesses

I have now assembled a map of wood-fired oven businesses in Minnesota. I am trying some new options with map construction. I am trying to color code information about the different businesses so that people with particular tastes in mind can better see where they can find the food they like.



The color key that I have applied to places on the map attempts to use the following
categories:

• green - VPN certified
• white - Neapolitan-style, but not certified
• red - hearth, but gas or electric, not wood
• yellow - farm
• blue - restaurant, possibly without pizza (e.g. wood-fired grill)
• brown - bakery
• gray - don't know

So of you want to find wood-fired oven pizza, look for the green or white markers.

Washington Wood-Fired Businesses

I have put together a map of all the Washington State wood-fired businesses that I have found.

Many of these are restaurants or pizzerias with wood-fired ovens, but not all.

Many of them are in the Seattle area, but there is at least one on the Olympic Peninsula.

A couple (Alder Wood Bistro and Queen Margherita) I have actually eaten at. (Look for
the fieldreport tag.)

If you want to find the VPN-certified Neapolitan pizza places, you can find them listed on a VPN page.

Tutta Bella, Seattle, Washington

While visiting Seattle and eating at one wood-fired oven pizza place, my friends and local guides showed me a place they knew that I had not heard of, Tutta Bella.According to a small sign in the restaurant, Tutta Bella is the oldest VPN-certified pizza place in Washington. That seems to correspond to the certificate numbers on the VPN web page that I found.

They certainly use genuine Caputo flour.

It certainly is a wood-fired oven.

It looked like a nice place, and according to their web site and the VPN site, there are actually several Tutta Bella locations around the Seattle area.

They all seem to have their own Facebook pages, but this page was the one I visited.

David Cargo Brick Bread Oven / Pizza Oven

I sometimes see where somebody is searching for information about bread and pizza ovens using my name as part of the search.

I do not yet have a set of complete set of detailed plans or a book or DVD on my oven plans and oven construction techniques. (I have been working on a manuscript, which will include plans and diagrams. If you know of a suitable or interested publisher, please let me know or have them contact me.)

I do post information on-line about my class schedule.

You can also e-mail me with questions about my classes.

Currently I regard my oven designs as my intellectual property (IP). I know people who have built their own ovens using information collected in my brick oven links page, but not using my specific designs. I make what I find on the net available through that links collection, but I feel that my own designs have their own advantages.

I won't give away my intellectual property for free by posting it on the internet. I will share the information with people who take my classes, and I'll even keep them updated when I update my designs.

You can save yourself some work by taking my class and using my designs, but suit yourself.

So, what do you get if you take my class and build one of my ovens? You get an oven that is quick to build (about an hour for the smallest), that gets hot enough to cook pizzas (easily 20 and as many as 40 in 2 1/2 hours if you have a good production line) at high temperatures (starting at 800-1000 degrees), and while not cheap is still a lot cheaper than any other brick oven you are likely to see. (The small oven would cost about $400, not counting taxes and shipping charges.)

8/25/11: Here is a look back at how I got started building ovens.

Three classes are now scheduled for 2012.
Silverwood Park (Twin Cities) on April 28, 2012 (no more classes with them unless they change their minds)
Tunnel Mill (south of Rochester) on May 5, 2012 (no more classes with them in 2012)
Borner Farm Project (Prescott, WI) on June 16, 2012.

Follow the schedule link above for more details.