Building a Pizza Oven: It’s Done

It was like giving birth to a Zebra. But, it was worth it. The pizza oven trailer project is complete and has been christened Bola Pizza after our late, great dog, Bola. I couldn’t cook a pizza without that dog grabbing every last crust he could find.

Stefanie finished up the tile work and it is better than I could have imagined. A patchwork of blues and mirrors. There was some criminal activity while the tiles were drying. Vandals ran a muck over the soft clay. Be on the lookout for these guys:

Larger burgundy tiles cover the front of the hearth. The steel face plate received reinforcing courtesy of four compression bolts and high temperature mortar. Cedar posts are lashed to the trailer to hold up a canvas tent that covers the prep and serving area. There is nothing worse than a rogue leaf falling into the sauce.

Even better than the outside of the oven is what is going on inside. The pies are gorgeous. And, people are scarfing them down as fast as I can make them. Read about it here, here, here and here.

I couldn’t have done this without the generous support of others. Thanks go to Soraya Vallecillo of Forno Bravo for the oven, Todd and Richard out at Magnum Trailers, artist extraordinaire Stefanie Distefano of Flamingo Ranch, Chad at Jester King Brewery for the steel face plate, Henry Levine for the custom pizza tools, my dad for helping me put everything together and my wife for going along with this crazy plan.

Previously: Building a Pizza Oven: Custom Tiles