Behind the news: The folks behind the operation, Marshall Jett and Errin Bird-Jett have been plying their craft from portable pizza carts for about four years. They'd show up at farmers' markets and cook pizzas with fresh toppings bought right there from the stands. They eventually expanded to three portable ovens, five full-timers on staff, and 20 on-call slice slingers.
We design and build each oven as a unique work of art using a special refractory clay mixture that withstands temperatures up to 1300 degrees Fahrenheit! If you try to cook a pizza at 1300° F, it will quickly become charred beyond recognition, so we normally cook our pies between 900° and 1100° F. At these extreme temperatures, Veraci pizza is ready in a less than two minutes.
The pizzas coming out of the Veraci ovens, if you look at some of the pictures on the website, look pretty good, too.
I've been mildly obsessed—well, obsessed off and on—with building my own pizza oven, and a Veraci-like oven (minus the trailer, above) looks somewhat in line with what I could fit in the garden space of my rental apartment. Not sure how my landlady, who lives upstairs, would react, but I figure if I sent up pizzas, that would grease the wheels.
That's hot! I especially love the concept of setting up the oven at farmer's markets and then using the market's fresh ingredients. Brilliant. I'd love to see this concept take hold in New York in lieu of the dirty water hot dog carts.
Their website doesn't really have any pictures of the pies but maybe it's just me. If they are indeed cooking their pies at 900 - 1100 why no color to the crust? It just looks pretty white to me.....not developed enough maybe.
We have a guy here in Portland, OR (TasteBud Farms) with his traveling wood oven. It was built 7 years ago (or so) for a guild (bread bakers) event at the farmers market....he makes some mean bagels, pita, cobblers all for the farmers markets....all sorts of fresh yummy goodness.
American Flatbread in Vermont has at least one portable wood-fired pizza oven that they take to events as well (it's usually at the Vermont Brewers' Festival in July every year).
Adam....yes he does....he actually just opened his own shop that is Thursday only right now but soon enough...It's good but not as good as his lamb pita sammich
Hey! I had one of their pizzas at the Death Cab for Cutie concert I went to a couple of weeks ago in Bend. The wait was excruciating, but expected, since there was a huge line. Being low on cash (only had $8 in my pocket), I got a Quattro Frommagio, and shared it with the boyfriend - it was really quite good. I'm glad I joined that line instead of anything else there... ^_^
It's very cool. I saw one nearly identical to that on the streets in Manhattan nearly ten years ago - but I don't knwo if that one is still operating or not.
Pretty awesome -- I read about this yesterday in Nancy Leson's food column in the Seattle Times. How amazing is this -- I've been hearing about this amazing pizza available at local farmers markets and now I can try to get some myself.
We were Marshall's first clients for a home oven (May '07), and I have to say, there are few things as fun as having a pizza oven in your back yard. That said - it's a lot of work. We are still more than happy to head to one of the markets to find Veraci for a slice - their pizza is always satisfying, and almost as good as making it at home.
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17 Comments:
This is awesome.
Raphael at 1:31PM on 06/04/08
That's hot! I especially love the concept of setting up the oven at farmer's markets and then using the market's fresh ingredients. Brilliant. I'd love to see this concept take hold in New York in lieu of the dirty water hot dog carts.
Thomasj at 1:33PM on 06/04/08
Their website doesn't really have any pictures of the pies but maybe it's just me. If they are indeed cooking their pies at 900 - 1100 why no color to the crust? It just looks pretty white to me.....not developed enough maybe.
We have a guy here in Portland, OR (TasteBud Farms) with his traveling wood oven. It was built 7 years ago (or so) for a guild (bread bakers) event at the farmers market....he makes some mean bagels, pita, cobblers all for the farmers markets....all sorts of fresh yummy goodness.
Kim Nyland at 1:41PM on 06/04/08
EDIT----the seattletimes picture shows color....my bad!
Kim Nyland at 1:44PM on 06/04/08
Yeah. I should go in and link to the Seattle Times pic more clearly.
Kim: Does the guy in PDX (TasteBud) do pizza?
Adam Kuban at 2:04PM on 06/04/08
they're good...but $18 for cheese? a 'lil outrageous for a mobile pizza stand.
dmarina at 2:33PM on 06/04/08
Their pizza is excellent. Yum yum yum.
dylinw at 2:41PM on 06/04/08
American Flatbread in Vermont has at least one portable wood-fired pizza oven that they take to events as well (it's usually at the Vermont Brewers' Festival in July every year).
kaszeta at 2:55PM on 06/04/08
Adam....yes he does....he actually just opened his own shop that is Thursday only right now but soon enough...It's good but not as good as his lamb pita sammich
Kim Nyland at 4:22PM on 06/04/08
Hey! I had one of their pizzas at the Death Cab for Cutie concert I went to a couple of weeks ago in Bend. The wait was excruciating, but expected, since there was a huge line. Being low on cash (only had $8 in my pocket), I got a Quattro Frommagio, and shared it with the boyfriend - it was really quite good. I'm glad I joined that line instead of anything else there... ^_^
devlyn at 4:34PM on 06/04/08
That's too cool, I want one!!!!
jonfoxx at 7:42PM on 06/04/08
It's very cool. I saw one nearly identical to that on the streets in Manhattan nearly ten years ago - but I don't knwo if that one is still operating or not.
phaelon56 at 10:45AM on 06/05/08
me want one
ronzoni at 3:49PM on 06/05/08
Pretty awesome -- I read about this yesterday in Nancy Leson's food column in the Seattle Times. How amazing is this -- I've been hearing about this amazing pizza available at local farmers markets and now I can try to get some myself.
Stushi at 5:55PM on 06/05/08
The original article didn't mention that the location of the new, non-mobile Veraci's will be in a former Domino's store. Talk about an improvement!
Percebes at 2:53AM on 06/07/08
We were Marshall's first clients for a home oven (May '07), and I have to say, there are few things as fun as having a pizza oven in your back yard. That said - it's a lot of work. We are still more than happy to head to one of the markets to find Veraci for a slice - their pizza is always satisfying, and almost as good as making it at home.
EandAT at 7:20PM on 06/10/08
Check out Inferno Catering at www.infernocatering.com. These guys have an Italian made oven on wheels with a full kitchen da boot.
carykemp at 12:49PM on 06/22/08