[Photograph: Adam Kuban]
PizzaMoto's mobile operation has been on our radar since 2008, when the team joined up with The Brooklyn Flea. We fell hard and fast for their wood-fired pies, which Slice meister Adam Kuban called "the best pizza I've had from a mobile oven to date."
But mobile ovens can be as tricky to find as they are to operate and maintain, so we were pretty pumped to learn that the PizzaMoto team is getting ready to open their very first stationary pizzeria this fall.
Worry not, mobile oven-chasers! Those heavenly pizza trucks aren't goin' anywhere—the new location just means that the rest of us lazy pizza freaks have a better shot at getting in on some of that PizzaMoto action.
After a long hunt, it looks like owner Dave Sclarow has found the perfect site for his new pizzeria, down in Red Hook. The Hamilton Ave. space once housed the John Grace Bakery; renovations have included excavating the bakery's stunning turn of the century oven that has been walled up for decades. Built in the 1890s, the oven is going to require some intensive restoration before it can churn out the quality pies for which Moto is known.
To get the oven into tip top shape, Dave is raising funds on Kickstarter, and with a goal $50,000 it looks like every little bit will help. Backers are promised everything from a PizzaMoto bumper sticker ($5 contribution) to a private pizza party ($5,000 contribution). Here's what Dave has to say about the project:
Restore a Turn of the Century Oven Hidden in Brooklyn!
[Video: PizzaMoto, via Kickstarter] About the author:Niki Achitoff-Gray is the editor of Slice and a part-time student at The Institute of Culinary Education. She's pretty big into pizza.