Ever since Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza opened up in Fort Lauderdale, and grew, it seems like everyone thinks they can hop on the bandwagon. Luigi’s Coal Oven Pizza on Las Olas in Ft. Lauderdale is the latest of places to open in hopes of cashing in on the coal craze. Luigi’s Coal Oven Pizza I believe is owned by the same guys who serve some pretty great food at Tuscan Grill a little further west. Luigi’s Coal Oven Pizza is a cute place tucked away in the back of a parking lot next to Rocco’s Tacos. It was a quaint place, housing only 8 tables. I had tremendous hopes for this new place since the pizza at Tuscan Grill is pretty darn good with a wood oven.
Lets first look at why they might have chosen a coal oven to begin with. Unlike a wood oven, cooking pizza with coal oven should come with a tremendous investment in first understanding the proper operation of the oven. A coal fire is much harder to start (get hot) and is more difficult to manage than a wood fire or gas burner. Even the simple aspect of getting anthracite coal to burn right requires an ignition source in excess of 900 degrees (F) that is usually provided by a bed for burning charcoal or wood. Dry wood by comparison, burns more quickly and starts burning at around 450 F. Coal has roughly twice the heat/energy potential of wood (13,000 BTUs per pound for coal versus roughly 6,500 BTUs per pound for wood) so accessing and managing its potential energy when and where you need it can be challenging. (courtesy of woodstone-corp). So just hiring some regular pizza guy to run this oven is not enough to produce quality pizza. Just because you can cook with wood, does not mean you can cook with coal.
