Chain Leader

Technology moves slowly in the restaurant industry, especially in the kitchen. Although accelerated cooking technologies like induction (magnetic field) and air impingement (high velocity heated air) have been around for a while, they are still making inroads into mainstream restaurants. The latest in high speed cooking is certainly not the newest, but coal-fired pizza ovens are making a comeback around the country. There’s nothing that warms the heart like seeing the pizza chef loading the oven with anthracite coal, firing it to a toasty 800 degrees, and cooking a pizza in four minutes.

Coal-fired pizza ovens were the mainstay of pizza restaurants in New York and neighboring Connecticut for many decades. Coal is a hard to learn, hard to start, and hard to manage fuel that gives pizza a unique, smoky flavor and a crispy crust. It lost out to gas-fired and wood-fired ovens that were easier to learn and operate. However, it is making a comeback in a few dozen locations around the country, and customers are finding that there is a noticeable difference in how a coal-fired pizza tastes.

Anthracite coal burns cleaner than regular coal, which is often used for heating. It imparts a charcoal taste, and the intense heat leaves the thin crust singed and blackened along the edges, and on parts of the bottom. Done correctly it is blackened, not burned. The quick cook time leaves the vegetable toppings juicy and crisp, and the heat leaves the cheese golden brown. 
 
                                                              

There are two small chains that are expanding. The oldest, Grimaldi’s Coal Brick-Oven Pizzeria, has 10 locations open in Arizona, Texas, New York and Nevada, and expects to open five more by yearend. Anthony’s Coal-Fired Pizza has 11 locations in South Florida, and another location opening soon. Phil Romano, and partner Joseph Paladino, have opened two Coal Vines pizza restaurants in the Dallas area, and have more on the drawing board.

There are at least 12 states with a coal-fired pizza restaurant, and the trend seems to be growing as others see the success that the early chains are having. There are numerous locations in the greater New York area, but there is a moratorium on permits for any new coal ovens within Manhattan.

I have always believed that the only true way for a restaurant to differentiate itself, and protect itself from being easily copied, is through the cooking equipment that it utilizes. Woks, rotisseries, smokers, wood grills, and coal-fired ovens each require specialized equipment and training that make it harder for the restaurant next door to knock off your menu. All too often it is too easy for a recipe to be copied by simply ordering the necessary ingredients, and working it out. Introduce a piece of uncommon equipment and you buy yourself some competitive space.

The old world art of cooking with coal is an interesting trend. There are going to be some cities that won’t allow it, just like they won’t allow wood, but most of the country is still open. In the meantime it seems that there will be no shortage of entrepreneurs trying to mine this one for all it’s worth.