The oven alone in this behemoth is a whopping 5,000 pounds
Posted 06.27.2012 at 10:25 am
12 Comments
BUILDING A MOBILE PIZZERIA
Cost $180,000
Time 22 months
Pizzeria on Wheels: Cody Pickens
How It Works
SUSPENSION
To protect his Stefano Ferrara pizza oven from stress fractures caused by road vibrations or potholes, Darsky installed a self-leveling suspension system. (It’s similar to the “air suspension” rides offered by moving companies to protect fragile items in transit.) He opens the valves on the tire-like cushions to deflate them, bringing the truck closer to street level.
Renaissance Man: Darsky, a former scout for the Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians, learned the art of pizza making at restaurants including San Francisco’s acclaimed Flour + Water. Cody Pickens
KITCHEN
“The idea is to do as much as possible on the truck—to be completely self-contained,” Darsky says. “I don’t want to drive around and have a support van.” The container holds a kitchen with a large fork mixer, a refrigerator with a capacity for at least 200 dough balls, a water pump, a water heater and a three-bay sink (as required by the city health department). The oven walls insulate the chef from the heat of the fire, but Darsky made a hole in the roof for an A/C unit to keep himself extra cool.
WINDOWS
Inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s glass and steel architecture, Darsky designed the truck to be as minimalist and transparent as possible. The see-through walls ensure that he doesn’t have to work inside a claustrophobic cave of a kitchen, and the three 500-pound doors—each outfitted with tempered, laminated half-inch glass in aluminum frames—fold open to create a space for stand-up dining. The frames are set in compensation channels that leave room for the windows to move in case the truck experiences serious turbulence. Even in the event of an earthquake, Darsky says, the window glass won’t fall out.
See Darsky's recipe--in bulk, mind you--on the next page.
single page12 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Popular Tags
Technology
|
|
|
|
|
|
July 2013: The Future Of Flight
The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.
.jpg)
Popular on Popsci
Most Commented
Technology
- Green Light For Plan To Build World's Tallest Building At Record Speed
- Why The U.S. Won't Dare Kill Edward Snowden With A Drone Strike
- U.S. Government Uses Early Knowledge Of Microsoft Bugs For Spying
- Congress Was Not Really Briefed On PRISM
- A Concise History Of The NSA's Online Spying Program PRISM
- Who's More Powerful, China Or The United States? [Infographic]
- Why Government Phone Spying Is Really About Big Data
- Watch This Insane Helicopter-Bike Fly Around
- Designers Spruce Up The Government's Crappy PowerPoint
- Laser Time Cloak Hides The Fact That An Event Ever Happened
Most Emailed
Technology
- Nursing Home Tracks Residents' Every Move
- Researchers Can Now "Hear" The Exact Shape Of A Room
- Designers Make City Noise Actually Sound Good
- All Of America's Waterways On One Map [Infographic]
- The 6 Most Important Things We Learned From Edward Snowden's Guardian Q&A
- Stanford's Artificial Neural Network Is The Biggest Ever
- New DNA Fog Covers Crime-Scene Suspects With Evidence
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class Of 2013
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class of 2013
- Google Reveals Massive Iranian Phishing Scheme
Most Viewed
Technology
- Nursing Home Tracks Residents' Every Move
- Researchers Can Now "Hear" The Exact Shape Of A Room
- Designers Make City Noise Actually Sound Good
- All Of America's Waterways On One Map [Infographic]
- The 6 Most Important Things We Learned From Edward Snowden's Guardian Q&A
- Stanford's Artificial Neural Network Is The Biggest Ever
- New DNA Fog Covers Crime-Scene Suspects With Evidence
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class of 2013
- Meet NASA's Astronaut Class Of 2013
- Google Reveals Massive Iranian Phishing Scheme
Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email
Today on PopSci.com
.JPG)
Copyright © 2012 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
In the July 2012 issue, the article states that, "...John Darsky shares his pizza recipe at 'popsci.com/pizzatruck'. That URL appears to be a bust. Is the recipe available anywhere?
I like trucks of all kinds. I see this abomination of a truck and I feel sad. .... really sad.
.............
Every day is a new day!
This truck - in the town where I live - would CLEAN HOUSE. Drive in - make pizza - leave for the evening. The pizza out here stinks and...yeah, please distribute these things.
This pizza truck concept is fantastic...I've had this business idea in my head for over 2 years now...I can't believe that it has taken someone this long, to finally come forward with this, now after all the cupcake and lunch trucks on the road...look at night how many pizza delivery vehicles from Domino's, Pizza Hut, etc. drive up down your streets...this is bringing the pizzeria right into the neighborhoods, brilliant!
How often does a body have to check the brakes and suspension on this Pizza-naut lorry? I wouldn't take it in San Francisco up and down those hills, but I would love to grab that pizza in person!
A nice piece of work but we've had a fire-engine pizzeria in Tucson for at least the last two or three years. It's operated by Vero Amore and makes very good pizza indeed. All wood-fire baked, the pizzas delivered by the Vero Amore emergency response vehicle -- a real big fire engine, with an oven where a pump ought to be -- set the standard for food trucks. See
http://veroamorepizza.com/fire_truck.asp
for more details.
How does anyone get the finances for stuff like this? Hey, can I get a quarter million dollar loan to build a custom food truck?
@Robot- Yknow whats better than trucks? pizza
loganelvo,
Trucks, pizza, donuts, peanut butter and jelly, fishing, dogs, science fiction and science fiction gadgets and gizmos, internet, spelunking or cliff climbing, rain on tin roofs and sleeping in & waking up to the smell of hot coffee, eggs, bacon and toast, HOT apple pie and COLD ice cream, tools of any kind, camping and hotdogs or hamburgers over a camp fire, sports and yes (sex always). The order of these things is a constant variable. ;)
..........................................
See life in all its beautiful colors, and
from different perspectives too!
This seems pretty awesome! I hope it pays off for him, I'd love to be able to get some pizza from here! Mobile construction is the future?
If you need construction cameras to keep an eye on your next mobile construction, contact us at Eye Stalks Corporation.
http://www.eyestalks.com/home/construction-camera
Have a wonderful 4th of July!
That is so cool how the suspension system works!
This is pretty sweeeeet! I'm getting started on building my own little catering company which offers gourmet pizza baked outdoors in both wood and gas power outdoor ovens. So, for me this is very exciting to see. Wow.