Well, after our last post being so dramatic, I thought I’d bring everyone up to speed with all things Fist of Flour. I’m happy to report that all is well here. In fact, we are moving forward with great speed these days. We’ve added another person to the roster, we’re looking for one more, and we’re flushing out the kinks in our two trailer world.
We finally did it! After months of preparations, purchasing, and procrastinating, we are now capable of running two small scale gigs at the same time, or same day. Sunday January 20th, 2013 will go down in history as our first successful Double mission. I was with the old oven down at a local eatery, BSIDE BBQ catering their staff holiday party, and Zac and Mia ran the big oven over at Commonwealth Cafe & Pub for our joint venture Pub trivia night.
Lucky for me, Zac was nearby. Someone forgot to check to see that he had everything he needed in the mini van to do a small catering gig. I forgot the Metal peel which is pretty much Essential for removing pizzas from the oven, and I forgot a clip light, which is also essential for cooking outdoors at night. I think we lost the metal peel we had on board, so I didn’t technically forget it. I sent my newest assistant James over to Commonwealth to get spare items from the big van. This is why I have at least two of everything, and why the big van is so full of random stuff.
The mini van has been all kitted out now. The paint job and new tires really make it look sharp. Got all the decals done by our friends down at FastSigns Oakland. We also had them print up some new Front of house signage, two big matching banners, one for each tent. Now you can see my fist from miles away. We had to fix the old tent that broke a few months back while we were serving the Bay Area Derby Girls at the Richmond craneway. The old oven’s patchwork is holding nicely, but the trailer still has a little wobble. I’ve got a friend and former Street food enthusiast enlisted to help with moving the oven forward, and rebalancing the trailer properly. We’re gearing up to make some modifications to the old beast like adding some side panels to the underside, putting in a door, and customizing the countertops a bit more.
Finally, we’re trying some new things at gigs now too! We’ve added a Mac N Cheese single serving to the menu at certain locations, and we’ll be offering more salads to have alongside or on top of our fresh hot pizza. The pizza menu is also growing and changing as we play around in the test kitchen, which just got some new matching gas ovens. After working with the stone floors of our mobile units, traditional metal trays just don’t cut it, so I fitted a couple sheet pans with firebricks to cook on, just like the ones we used in our first oven. We’ll be better able to simulate the crispy texture of our Street pizzas, and kill them by sticking them in cardboard boxes.
We’ve started offering Limited delivery service to Prizefighter Bar in Emeryville Wednesday nights, and as that grows we’ll be spreading it to more bars that lack good food to drink with. At least that’s the plan. If we can master delivery, we may start offering Limited delivery service from many of our gigs in and around Oakland. If you live within 1-2 miles of our current location and our mini van is available, or you’re drinking at a favorite bar and you spot one of our delivery flyers, we’ll come to you! But give me a few weeks to get this all figured out. Pretty soon, you won’t necessarily need facebook to find us, because we’ll already be there!