By Katie Elfering
What’s Happening
• Wood-fired pizzas are so last year. 2009 is the year of coal-firing, a process that uses anthracite coal to get ovens to temps over 1,000 degrees.
• Coal-fired cooking is as old as America’s love of pizza—the first pizzerias on the East Coast preferred coal to cook their pies.
• Pizza blog Slice keeps track of each and every coal-fired pizza joint in the country. Its interactive map shows that Florida now beats out New York City for the most coal-cooked pies, thanks in large part to Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza chain.
• But it’s not just New York and Florida. Black Sheep Coal Fired Pizza opened up in Minneapolis in 2008 and is wooing wood-fire lovers to the dark side.
What This Means to Business
• Coal-firing is a long-rooted pizza-cooling tradition that isn’t lost on pie aficionados. For connoisseurs, the element of tradition and the skill required add a level of experience and enjoyment to the slices.
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