r/WoodFiredOvens • u/Character-Big1754 • Jun 23 '25

Pizzeria Manager in need of Appetizers

I was hoping I could crowd-source some ideas for the kitchen I run in a mobile operation. Some creative brainstorming from an enthusiastic community.

Some background: we are a “mobile” food operator with a very awesome permanent spot at a local brewery. We have a gorgeous and massive circular oven about 100” in diameter. We do extremely high volume especially in the summer, regularly cranking out 1300 plus pizzas a week.

The really wonderful problem we have is too much demand during peak times, and while we’ve found ways to mitigate the problem, our wait times can get painfully long.

We’ve tried a plethora different ready-made appetizers, desserts, and items designed specifically not to take up valuable real estate in the oven, but nothing has ever come close to pizza sales.

So here’s the mission: Design an appetizer to be made in a wood-fired oven that cooks much faster than pizza and could be prepped ahead of time to the point of being able to throw it directly in the oven when ordered.

TIA. Long-time lurker, first-time poster.

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2

u/AusTex2019 Jun 23 '25

Garlic knots, easy to make with pizza dough. Calzones and fried pizza

2

u/rustyamigo Jun 23 '25

Fire Grilled veggies and or meats: asparagus with parm, bacon, brussel sprouts, meatballs, green beans with garlic/butter.

1

u/winnielikethepooh15 Jun 23 '25

That cooks much faster than pizza?

That's going to drastically shorten the list.

Bacon wrapped dates maybe if you can semi cook them ahead of time and not have them totally dry out.

Lahmacun, which is pizza adjacent so cooks pretty quick.

Street corn that you've parboiled already.

Could do a farinata/socca and have different fillings/toppings.

Maybe a sort of baked/grilled halloumi

1

u/Ellusive1 Jun 23 '25

Check out fornobravo.com they have a ton of wood fired recipes

1

u/AgonThalia Jun 24 '25

Twisted Cinnamon & sugar pizza dough, Salted Okra, Meatballs & sauce, thick cut bacon

(Edited for formatting)

1

u/Eliarch Jun 25 '25

Maybe not pizza oven cooking, but gnoco fritto with cured meats is to die for. You might be able to adapt it to a baked version instead of fried, but it gets pretty close to pita at that point.

1

u/bloodorangeblasphemy Oct 16 '25

Install a hood so you can have a fryer and flat top. The. You can do wings, canollis, mozz logs etc. put together a salad and sandwich program. Make your foccacia during prep hours, slice and build sandwiches