Napa-born pizza oven manufacturer Forno Piombo has released the Roman 80, expanding the company’s ability to bring professional-level pizza ovens to backyard spaces and smaller businesses alike.
The Roman is a new high-performing pizza oven built with high-grade refractory concrete. From its design to its aesthetic, it both fills a gap in Forno Piombo’s catalog and represents the core of the business: chef-quality pizza, right in your backyard.
Making High-End Pizza More Accessible
In the high-stakes world of professional culinary equipment, there has long been a “gatekeeper” effect. If you wanted a true, hand-built masonry oven capable of holding 900-degree heat for hours, you usually had to be a commercial restaurateur with a massive budget and a connection to a specialized industrial distributor.
Tony Piombo, who started Forno Piombo with his father in 2014, noticed the gap in the market early on. The commercial world was well-served, but smaller businesses, organizations, and backyard gourmets were largely left with poor choices, such as flimsy steel ovens or massively expensive commercial units designed for high-volume pizzerias.
“Most of the big players in this industry are focused almost entirely on the commercial side, selling 20 ovens at a time to a franchise or through a middleman,” Tony said. “That makes sense for their bottom line, but it leaves the individual homeowner in the dark. We decided to flip that.”
A Nimble and Agile Strategy
Forno Piombo’s strategy relies on a nimble, direct-to-consumer approach. This allows the business to cut out the distributor markups that typically drive professional masonry oven prices into the tens of thousands.
Additionally, the company owns the entire manufacturing, logistics, and supply process from start to finish. It works with local suppliers for materials, conducts all of the masonry work right in its 20,000-square-foot facility in Napa Valley, and even supports final delivery and installation. And while it does support a variety of commercial clients, the core of its business remains discerning backyard cooks.
“We seem to slot in really well with breweries, country clubs, wine tasting rooms. That sort of thing,” Tony said. “But the vast majority of our customers are purchasing an oven for their home to cook pizza for their family and their friends.”
Versatility Built Into Every Brick
Along with culinary-level performance, one of the key advantages of a Forno Piombo oven over common steel-walled models is its versatility. Although these ovens can make absolutely incredible pizza, they can also be used for a wide range of other outdoor cooking tasks. “Our ovens aren’t just pizza machines,” Tony said. “They are thermal engines.”
Because of the design and materials used, Forno Piombo ovens can reach high temperatures very quickly, but they can also act as thermal batteries. Once the oven is fired, it can retain enough heat to roast a Thanksgiving turkey or bake artisan bread – even long after the initial fire has died down.
According to Tony, this versatility is a key driver for the non-commercial market. The average backyard chef doesn’t need to churn out 60 pizzas in an hour. Instead, they want an oven of this kind to be a focal point – an essential piece of a thoroughly Napa lifestyle that combines outdoor cooking with gatherings of family and friends.
The Roman: A Marriage of Versatility & Beauty
While each Forno Piombo is versatile enough for a range of uses, the company recently released The Roman, which Tony says fills a missing piece in its catalog and expands its reach among residential customers.
The Roman is a new woodfired pizza oven with a 32-inch interior diameter, which Tony says is the “Goldilocks” size. It’s both large enough to cook three 12-inch pizzas simultaneously but small enough to reach the 900 degrees Fahrenheit required for a Neapolitano-style pizza crust in under an hour.
“It’s an incredibly beautiful oven,” Tony said. “And I think it’s going to be one of the most popular ones we sell.”
Breaking the pizza oven barrier
By focusing on the backyard chef who demands professional results, Forno Piombo has carved out a unique space in the industry. With the launch of the Roman in late February, the company is making one thing very clear: world-class, woodfired cooking is no longer reserved for the professional kitchen.
For more information on the Roman or to peruse the company’s other high-end oven offerings, visit FornoPiombo.com.
Meet the Forno Piombo Ovens!
Forno Piombo manufactures perhaps the highest-performing and longest-lasting wood-fired and gas-powered pizza ovens on the market. Here are a few of their top-selling ovens.
Just Released: The Roman 80 (Tiled)
Santino (Tiled)
Casa
Palazzo
