Suggestions wanted for oven size. Small pub with seating for 30.

[dakzaag]

Designing a Pompeii style WFO for a small pub. The plan is too keep it simple and offer basic foods. What do you think is a good size to be able to cook pizza and burgers at the same time and maybe keep a kettle of broth or soup simmering all in the same oven? The oven will be the only cooking appliance in house, so it will be used to do just about anything. I intend to start with soldier row first and then dome it in to give more usable room at the edge of the oven. My initial thought is 48". but now I'm leaning toward 56" so they have more room to work. Anybody have any experience with a service oven and how big is big enough?

[deejayoh]

Pizza and simmering at the same time.... sounds tough! I would guess you want something over 48". And a big doorway to leave a pot in? High shoulders and flat top so you can push food out to the far edge for lower temps?

[dakzaag]

"Pizza and simmering at the same time" They realize that you can't have 90 second pizza with a cooler oven, but I am hoping to have enough space to have a shielded area that will allow for cooler temps while cranking out personal size pizza in a couple of minutes.

[Gulf]

I know it doesn't fit your description of simple but, if I were the cook (for the varied types of cooking that you describe) I would want something like a hearth stove and a very small pizza oven to the side in the same compartment. My daughter took the below pic of hearth stove and a WFO yesterday at a renaissance fair in Louisianna. Bauldy 2's post of an Argentine grill looks a lot more modern.

[jonv]

I was thinking along the same lines... a modest oven and a grill would be much easier to work with imo. I'm just building a 48" model; it is pretty big for pizza - too big, really, but I wanted the size for baking bread and other stuff. Even so, I'm not sure I would want to be trying to cook pizzas and burgers in it at the same time, and stuffing a kettle in there would be too much trouble for my liking.

[dakzaag]

I have used a 48" for a variety of items. In reality, they will be heating up nachos, and wings with the occasional pizza and burger. Of course, I suspect that once the word gets out about the flavor, they will become busier than they expect. No plans to do carry out yet, but again when the phone rings for some awesome pizza my guess is they will be tempted into serving that type of customer as well.
I think the tall sides will help a lot with space in the oven, and keeping a kettle or pot off to the side is really easy once you find a size that works for you. I love the oven posted, but the owners don't want this thing to dominate the whole building.