Concept:

Our concept has always been pretty simple: fresh pasta and sourdough pizza with a friendly and welcoming vibe. We have added charcuterie on a pretty great level to now focus on pizza, pasta and charcuterie. We want to be comfortable enough for a guest to come enjoy a pizza and a Peroni, but also elevate the overall experience.

Pizza Style(s):

Our pizza style would fall into the non-traditional or maybe neo-Neapolitan category. We have a full sourdough program for all of our bread and pizza dough. High hydration and wood fired.

Why was now the right time to expand to a second location?

We felt right now was the best time to expand as we’ve had some great momentum ever since coming out of COVID. I felt like the first few years we were really still trying to solidify our identity. Pizza Expo 2022, as I look back, is where things really took a turn. I recall coming back from that and calling a meeting with the owners and being very passionate about really focusing on our pizza. From that point on, we’ve continued to add to our overall numbers on an annual basis. We saw our sales floors and ceilings continue to raise and a line of people at the door at times other than Friday and Saturday nights. That – paired with the momentum we were nurturing and the momentum of pizza and pasta as a whole – we knew it was time.

After nearly nine years of operation, what were you able to refine as you built out the second location?

I think the refinement aspect came from us becoming more comfortable in our own space. For the longest time, we would have to give a disclaimer that we are not Vera-certified Neapolitan – or so we thought. Once we became comfortable and knowledgeable in what we were doing, it opened up everything. We aren’t trying to duplicate anything, we aren’t trying to trick you into thinking you are in Italy. We want to make the best pizza and pasta we can, source the best ingredients we can, make sure our guests are enjoying themselves and have some fun along the way.

How have you been able to adapt to a two-unit operation, especially with the second location having double the seating?

We are still working out the kinks in operating two locations. One thing that has helped us in the transition is moving all of our dough, pasta, bread and dessert production to our new location. It has been great for consistency purposes. I have a baker, Sadie, and she has a team in the pasta lab. These guys are all very good at what they do and are continuing to learn how to dance around one another, so to speak. To have those duties split between three or four people is a blessing compared to trying to keep two teams on the same page.

What is the “pasta lab,” and how did it come about?

The pasta lab!! It has been such a cool aspect of our restaurant. Ours came from a combination of design and logistics. After seeing the pasta room that Evan Funke has and visiting with Dan Richer at Razza and seeing his dedicated space (learn more on page 38), we knew this had to not only be an aspect of what we were going to do but a focal point. So much of our daily work is done in that space, and I love that there is no hiding. Everything we do is right in from of you. I especially love the glassed-in aspect. The crew back there can just zero in and focus on what they are doing but also not be phased by how busy it is right in front of them. We keep some expo markers around, too, so if we see some kiddos being good, we’ll hand them a marker and let them know that the person making all the pretty pasta just challenged them to a game of tic tac toe. It’s a lot of fun, and these kids and families are going to remember fun aspects like that.

Learn more about Via Farina on Instagram.

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“The magic of pizza and the foundation for it – the dough – is often hidden behind closed doors, but as a restaurant group, we love to celebrate the craft and the process behind everything we do,” says co-founder and Chef Ryan Pollnow. “It’s why our handcrafted pasta production is on display in our Flour + Water Pasta Shop, as well. Our flagship Pizzeria dough room is at the center of the restaurant, located between our full-service dining room and our quick-service Pizza Shop space. It’s the heartbeat of our flagship and entire pizza program.”

Flour + Water is joined by other pizzerias, large and small, looking to perfect dough making and management. When Pizza Today visited our 2021 Pizzeria of the Year, Razza Pizza Artigianale in Jersey City, New Jersey, owner Dan Richer was in the midst of building out a dedicated dough room.

In Editor In Chief Jeremy White’s December 2021 feature article, Richer said, “We’ll be able to better control variables in that room. We’ve got water lines dialed in to the exact temperature we want, we’ll control the air temperature in there to what we want. It’s going to make such a difference to our consistency and our ability to put out the pizza dough we want to put out.” Four years later, we caught up with Richer for an update.

Rose City Pizza, a ’90s-themed pizza joint in Covina, California, took a different approach and adapted a space previously used for dry storage into a designated dough area. Owner Brian Nittayo was looking to address environmental issues impacting the consistency in his dough-making area, which was by a back door.

The three pizzerias have very different dough room setups, but they share a common drive to make the best pizza dough they can.

What Is a Dough Room?

Typically, a dough room is a self-contained temperature-controlled room or area for dough making. Alastair Hannman (aka The Pizza Buddha), a pizzeria consultant who worked with Nittayo to convert a storage area into a dough room, says, “To me, a dough room is a room that is separated from the hot line. What I mean by that is it is not susceptible to the oven temperature. It’s got a residual humidity under 75 percent to where you are able to maintain it.”

Dough rooms aren’t new. Many pizzerias over the years have incorporated dough rooms into their pizza dough-making process. As techniques changed, operations shifted to using fermentation shelves a.k.a. fermentation containers.

Dough-making environments are constantly shifting, and operators are constantly looking for ways to add consistency to the dough process. Enter dough rooms of today.

Dough Room Features Focus on Tech and Consistency

Razza’s dough room is all business. Richer says, “Our equipment includes a spiral dough mixer and a water meter – something I’ll never build another restaurant without. The water meter has proven to be a huge time-saver for accurately dosing the correct water quantity and temperature. It is also connected to a water chiller, which eliminates the need for ice. While water chillers can be pricey, they are especially beneficial in hot climates. We have a Thermoworks node, which is a thermometer that tracks the temp of the room 24/7, and you can set alerts to be notified if the temp is outside of the range that you set. Ideally, the dough room would have its own dedicated AC unit, but that can be expensive.” Richer commends installing an air filtration system, if possible. The room includes a proofer/retarder, which he says was a mistake because the compressor can affect the room’s temperature.

Flour + Water features include a 70-quart spiral mixer, four proofer retarders, a blast freezer for its upcoming frozen line, dough rounder, scales and a small 6-kilo max capacity spiral mixer. “Other features include wall-mounted filtered water for use in our dough, and a table made from a recycled paper composite material called Richlite. We love Richlite here, as the table doubles as both a prep table and a dining table for guests when the space transforms to a semi-private space for larger parties at night,” says Pollnow. “The surface has natural grip to it which is essential for portioning dough balls, and it can be cleaned easily, so it offers an aesthetically pleasing dining surface for our guests at night.”

In addition to the mixer, Nittayo wanted to automate his dough-making space. “We have the dough divider and the dough rounder,” he says.” Everything flows. We have the water meter. It measures out 24 pounds, exactly into the mixture.” Automation has paid off tenfold for Nittayo as Rose City is able to generate more output and labor efficiency. The dough-making efficiency, along with new conveyor ovens and reducing the menu size, has even sparked him to lower prices.

Fermentation Temperature

When it comes to dough texture and flavor, one of the most significant benefits is the vital element of dough making: temperature. “Those characteristics can be achieved at any temperature, but without temperature control, your results will be inconsistent from day to day. Having a dough room allows us to control the ambient temperature, which is especially important when using preferments of any kind and when bulk fermentation lasts longer than 30 minutes.”

With Flour + Water’s build out, they took advantage of San Francisco’s mild weather. “The room is equipped with air conditioning, but because of the location of the dough room within our space (away from windows and the heat of our Pizza-Master electric deck ovens and kitchen equipment), the space sits between 72 and 74 degrees, year-round – without the use of AC. We’re constantly monitoring the temp and humidity in the room to portion dough at that true room temperature.

Think of the room itself as a clean room. For Flour + Water and Razza, the spaces are enclosed rooms. Razza has floor-to-ceiling tiled walls and floor drains so it is easy to clean. It also features a window to help employees not feel claustrophobic. At Rose City Pizza, Hannman and Nittayo went with a new version of FRP wall panels with the smooth side out to make cleaning easier.

Since Nittayo made use of an existing dry-storage area that had air conditioning duct work, he was able to simplify the conversion and add clear vinyl curtains at the entry to the area, limiting the exposure to other areas of the kitchen and storage.

While costs can vary depending on size of room and features included, Nittayo’s conversion was a few thousand dollars, according to Hannman, not including the addition of the automated equipment.

Dough Rooms Are ‘a Luxury’

Pollnow realizes a dedicated dough room may not be an option for other pizzerias. “We recognize building a dough room is a luxury, but it’s not a necessity for great pizza production. Because our dough room will be acting as a commissary for satellite Pizza Shops and our retail frozen pizza line, we built it to be large. But if you are looking for similar benefits in terms of temperature control, we do recommend investing in a proofer retarder, especially if you are working in a setting that runs hot because of other equipment.”

Richer concurs. “I’ve been making pizza for more than 20 years, but it’s only in the past three years that I’ve had a dedicated dough room. It is possible to achieve consistency if you truly understand your space, can be flexible in the moment, and are able to adapt to daily changes.”

Denise Greer is Executive Editor at Pizza Today.

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For those that know me, pizza is life but sports are LIFE. I started playing various sports as a kid and have continued an active lifestyle into adulthood. I mean, you have to with all the pizza! The first thing coaches ingrain in you are warm-ups and cool downs. They might not harp on them like they do technique or other elements, but it is the first and last thing you do in every practice or session no matter what the activity of the day is. For the body, warm-ups are essential to prime the body for any major activity and cool downs help with recovery and both build endurance. Now, you might be thinking how in the heck or why is she talking about sports when this is about all things pizza and dough. Well, heat and cold play as crucial a role in great tasting dough as it does in performing in peak athletics. You wouldn’t want to sprint the first mile in a marathon without properly warming up and you also wouldn’t want to make a dough and then cook it right out of the mixer. Both require time and proper temperature control.

Laura Meyer, owner, Pizzeria da Laura, Berkley, CA

Fermentation requires a few ingredients, but the major one is yeast. The strain of yeast we are most preoccupied with, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, is most active between 85 and 95 F. Anything above 110 degrees and it will begin to die and the clock starts ticking in regards to longevity. Before I even mix a batch of dough, I am thinking about temperature. This is the one factor that will play a crucial role in not just proper fermentation but also flavor development. During fermentation many things are happening at once. Yeasts are looking for simple sugars to eat so they can reproduce, and different bacteria are also looking for food so that they can also survive. There are many bacteria fighting it out for dominance, especially within sourdough, but Lactobacillus is the primary one we analyze because this bacterium produces lactic acid which is where we get a lot of the flavor in our dough, aside from salt. While both yeast and bacteria are looking to survive, enzymes are breaking down complex sugars into simple sugars providing more food for yeast. 

The yeast produces alcohol and Lactobacillus bacteria create lactic acid. As long as there is a food source available, they will continue to consume and produce, but when the dough ages to a point where there is too much alcohol, a different bacteria known as Acetobacter comes in and feeds on the excess of alcohol and then produces acetic acid which is more
astringent like white vinegar.

All of this is happening within our dough as soon as we mix a batch of dough. The goal is to balance the length of fermentation so that we create maximum flavor while still ensuring usability. Right now, everyone loves to talk about how hydrated their dough is and how old it is. Well, there’s a tightrope we walk when it comes to this. Yeast is most active in warm environments, but you do not want them to be so active that they consume all of their food source before the bacteria is able to produce the acids needed for flavor. The clock starts as soon as you begin mixing. 

For those who live in warm environments, temperatures can be a blessing and a curse. In Italy there isn’t as much refrigeration space as here in the U.S. This means a lot of pizzerias are fermenting their dough in ambient warm environments. The key to this is control. If the day is warmer than usual, ice-cold water in the batch will help slow down yeast activity. As well, decreasing the total amount of added yeast in the dough will ensure it ferments properly at the warmer ambient temperature. If you do not compensate the amount of yeast when fermenting in warm temps, your dough will most likely not reach the length of maturation time you are aiming for, resulting in less flavor. If you think about it, less yeast in a batch means a larger food source available. If there’s too much yeast, that means there’s less of a food source available resulting in your dough dying sooner.

Cold fermentation on the other hand is a blessing if used correctly. In the U.S. we are always trying to maximize refrigeration space. For dough the use of cold fermentation can be a tool to increase flavor as well as make sure your dough ferments on your timetable. There are so many moving parts to restaurants that your dough schedule needs to be as streamlined as much as possible. For those using solely warm fermentation, this requires a lot more attention to detail. If the room becomes too hot, you will be moving your dough around. If the room is too cool, then you are chasing the warm spots. The use of refrigerators gives you more time if you have it. When yeast is in a cold environment, activity slows down. In a refrigerator held between
35 and 40 F, yeast slows to a crawl. When yeast activity is slowed down, bacteria has a chance to produce the acids needed for flavor. When someone says they are using five-day-old dough, they are most likely using a refrigerator.

Neither solely using warm or cold fermentation is better than the other. Both are great and useful when it comes to making tasty dough but understanding the effects of both is crucial. We are always looking for a way to control our product and make it as consistent as possible. Knowing the role temperature plays in the lifespan of your dough is essential. As soon as you understand the balance of time and temperature, the real fun begins.

Laura Meyer is the owner of Pizzeria da Laura in Berkeley, CA.

>> Explore answers to more common pizza dough questions in Troubleshooting your Pizza Dough: What’s wrong with my pizza dough? <<

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