512-222-OVEN (6836)

25
AUG
2016

Honey’s Wood-fired Pizza and Cocktails

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One of the pleasures in working with a customer who wants a wood-fired oven is to share a bit of their dream. We enjoy the planning stage, the building stage, and then seeing it all come together whether it’s an oven built for a home owner or for a restaurant, like Honey’s Pizza.

Hope afloat at Honey’s pizza

We recently visited Honey’s Wood-fired Pizza and Cocktails in Smithville to see in operation the wood-fired oven we built for the owners,  Amy and Steve Simmons of Amy’s Ice Cream and Phil’s Icehouse. They remodeled a building in the old downtown area into into a great new restaurant for pizza and specialty cocktails. Honey’s is a part of the Simmons’ hopes for making Smithville a destination for the greater Austin area.

“In every detail, Honey’s, which employs about 20 locals, embraces and celebrates all things Smithville. A fictional Honey’s Diner was featured in “Hope Floats,” the film Smithville is famous for. When they kept seeing visitors take pictures by the 1909 building, which was used in the movie, they decided to pay homage and keep the name for their pizzeria.”

wood-fired oven pizza oven Honey's Smithville

Wood-fired ambience

Today the real Honey’s Pizza is alive with hope, friendliness, relaxed ambience, and innovative menu. The wood-burning oven is a focal point of interest. Set into a back wall, open to view, you can watch the chef at work. We enjoyed talking with the wait staff and the chefs about how they use oven, favorite pizzas, pizza fixings, and other entrees.

The oven is fired up by 9 or 10 in the morning, and a steady fire through the day keeps the temperature at 600-700°. The chef can manage six pizzas in the oven at once. In this temperature range, pizzas bake in about two minutes. (See our blog on higher heat pizza.) The current menus lists seven interesting specialty pizzas, and customers can also design their own favorite pies.

Part of a dream

For us it’s gratifying to have been a part of designing and building the wood-fired oven at Honey’s Wood-fired Pizza and Cocktails. We believe in Steve and Amy’s important dream to aid in revitalizing Smithville. In the text on Honey’s menu, Steve and Amy pay Smithville a lovely compliment. We “have found it to be an unusual small town; it is welcoming, kind, diverse, sophisticated and rich in history.” We hope to “encourage a slow, intentional repopulation of downtown that honors its historic past.”

We’re happy for Honey’s customers enjoying great food flavored by wood-fire cooking. We’re happy to have built the Simmons an oven designed for their specific dream.

Honey's Wood-fired Oven-IMG_2809

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