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Pizza night. Picked my San marzo tomatoes today made a fresh sauce and used home homegrown basil.

Okay, below are a few pics of the unboxing and semi-final location of the Alfa 4 Pizze. All in, it took about 4 hours to uncrate, peel off the **** vinyl from the stainless steel parts, remove the firebricks and clean them, check all the bolts and screws for tightness (only two were slightly loose - neither critical), make a ramp (one of the plywood sheets, screwed into the pallet), roll off the oven, and clean everything with stainless steel cleaner and metal cleaner (copper colored shell). That was Friday. Today a couple of friends came over and we rolled it around the house to the patio over 3/4" plywood sheets. This took about only 15 - 20 minutes (3 plywood sheets with two people moving the sheets and two rolling the oven), followed by another 20 - 30 minutes attaching the two side shelves, replacing the firebricks, and a final clean. It rolls very easily for the weight, similar to our KKs. Removal of the 8 firebricks lightened the oven by around 120 pounds and equally important, lowered the center of gravity considerably making it much easier to maneuver. Since you asked, here are some unboxing pictures. Crate in garage, positioned so the crate can be removed between the door track/guides: Crate off; parts are in the cardboard box; firebricks protected by paper inserts between them; and the protective vinyl film: Back view: Very well packaged shelves, chimney, cap, door, and an extra firebrick just in case. Very little assembly, just bolt the handles to the oven door and the shelves to the side of the frame, insert the cap on the chimney and the chimney to the top: Film finally off; ready to remove the back wheel stop, attach the plywood ramp and roll it off: Off the pallet; Cleaned and polished: In place on the patio, with chimney, shelves, firebricks, and door in place. This is position one of three possible locations on the patio, pending a few trial runs: I also have a 4.5' x 2' prep table which is the same height as the oven deck I can move over when using the oven. I'm waiting for my cooking wood delivery to seriously cook anything although I may try a few pizze with some bonfire wood to get some experience.I'm happy with it so far. I will say the Alfa cover is no match for the KK Sunbrella covers: it's pretty thin, although fitted. I may need to get a more sturdy one before serious winter arrives.

Choice ribeye aged 30 days in the umai bag. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

@Poochie I usually let the stone sit at temp for about an hour before I put the pizzas on. i cook the pizzas at 500-515

You possess some amazing talent

Thank you everyone for the tips and advice. This group is great!

One can't say Alfa doesn't protect their stainless steel parts...

In progress, removing ALL the adhesive vinyl protective film from all the stainless steel parts (over an hour for just this part) and get it off the pallet. Tomorrow morning is the moving to the back yard patio event. Pictures to come after. I removed the bricks and it is quite a bit lighter. I don't think it is going to be an issue tomorrow.

You can take out the fire bricks from the oven and that will reduce the weight. They probably weigh 15 pounds each. So far 95% of my cooks have been pizza but last evening I was wanting a quick supper and had some beef patties on hand and some small leftover potatoes from my garden so decide to give those a go. Tasty.

@Poochie your concern about weight reminded me of the "lift" that we had to do when my Alfa Allegro arrived. Five of us assembled to lift it having removed the bricks from the base of the oven to reduce weight. The lift was super easy and we could have done it with four. Two might have a push. It took less than a minute. So I would not worry too much about weight if you can get help. I have tried to bake bread in my Allegro. A silvery black puck was the result. I have tried to cook desserts in my Allegro. Instant burned top to my cake was the result. The KK is much more controllable and I rely on the KK if I want to do any outdoor baking. I use the WFO for high heat roasting and pizza. That said, I have not totally given up on bread in the Allegro. The Alfa website shows cooks baking bread in their WFO. I don't like to be defeated and so will study them carefully to find out how they succeed. In the meantime, my black bread is literally the toast of the town.

all this pizza oven talk made me toss a pizza for lunch🤓 running gas and caputo red flour. great pizza flour…

not a review, but an introduction to a double arm mixer normally found in commercial bakeries, but made into a compact bench top size.. i wish the bowl was removable and the multi speed model is really too much $$$. 😅

to make it lighter, you can remove the brick floor of the oven by prying them out with a butter knife.

@John T hi john, those two ovens are very similar in floor space and mouth. the difference being alfa is made in italy. FV in china. however i do like the cart design better on the FV, seems more practical. @Poochie high temperature breads like pizza and fougasse is ok. but i haven't had luck baking bread (450-500f) in the alfa. i think they over-marketed the heat retention capabilities on steel top ovens. it simply does not retain heat like a full on refactory dome oven to bake bread. once you remove the heat source (turning off gas or removing embers), the temp drops a degree every few seconds or so. but what i found useful to keep heat loss to a minimum is to remove the flue and place a pot lid over the exhaust. but the other problem is steam production. i have tried ice cubes in a tray, and spraying a mist of water prior to baking and it's till not enough steam. the last two methods i read about in a wfo forum i haven't tried is using rolled towels soaked in hot water. if that still doesn't work, i have the APO oven for all my steam baking needs, and i don't taste the difference between breads in gas or wood, so not going to be sore about it. dessert is also something i've haven't really made, but i've seen fruit cobblers baked with great success by others. that being said, i think it's easy to get to pizza temps, but more challenging to maintain lower temperature cooks. @MacKenzie why would the bricks explode in cold weather?

well, if i was still living in ny, we could meet half way in new haven and do a pastry/horseradish swap 😄