Mixing unbleached spring wheat flour, cold-fermenting eighteen hours, and blistering on 550-degree deck stones.
Good pizza dough is biology, not a chemical shortcut. We refuse frozen dough balls delivered on refrigerated semi-trucks. Every batch at 3981 Monroe St is mixed from five ingredients: high-protein spring wheat flour, cold Toledo water, fresh yeast, pure olive oil, and fine sea salt, proofed slowly in lidded tubs for eighteen hours to develop complex lactic flavor and dark blistered oven spring.
Kneading one hundred twenty pounds of spring wheat dough at dawn in our Monroe Street spiral mixer
The morning bake began at four-forty-five with sixty pounds of unbleached high-gluten wheat flour dumped into the steel bowl of our heavy spiral mixer. We drew thirty-seven pounds of cold tap water measured on the scale, dissolved four ounces of fresh yeast, and began an eight-minute slow mix. Olive oil was added on the third minute; sea salt on the fifth minute so the salt would not retard the early yeast hydration.
Once the dough cleared the bowl walls with a tight gluten window, the batch was turned out onto our maple prep table. Baker hands divided the mass into eighty-four fourteen-ounce dough balls for twelve-inch pies and forty-two twenty-four-ounce balls for sixteen-inch crusts. Each ball was rolled tight between palms on the un-floured bench to seal the bottom seam, lightly misted with olive oil, and set into white dough boxes with snap lids. The tubs were stacked inside the cold room at thirty-eight degrees to ferment eighteen hours for tomorrow's lunch tickets.
“Sugar and dough conditioners force yeast to inflate in two hours, but only eighteen hours of cold fermentation lets the enzyme break starch into aromatic maltose that blisters dark on Monroe Street stone slabs.”Original Gino's Pizza • Dough Bench Standards since 1953
Stretching forty rounds of thin tavern dough and twenty thick Sicilian pans during Friday rush
Friday five o'clock orders flood the ticket rail simultaneously. A line cook pulls dough tubs tempered to fifty-four degrees. If dough is stretched straight out of thirty-eight-degree refrigeration, the gluten tears; if it sits too warm, it over-proofs into sour foam. At fifty-four degrees, the dough ball drops into unbleached flour, receives three fingertips pressings to push gas bubbles outward to the rim, and is stretched by hand on knuckles.
For Toledo tavern thin crust, the dough is opened to twelve or sixteen inches with a paper-thin center that holds crisp rigidity. For Sicilian deep dish pan pizza, two pounds of dough proof inside olive-oil-brushed seasoned steel pans for two hours until it rises two inches high before toppings touch it. Pizzas hit the 550-degree deck hearths. Turnaround stays strictly between 10 and 30 minutes from ticket drop to boxed pie.
Unbleached High-Protein Flour
We source fourteen-percent protein spring wheat flour milled without potassium bromate or chemical bleaches. High protein develops tight gluten strands that support heavy toppings without sagging.
Slow Hydration & Olive Oil
We hydrate at sixty-two percent baker's ratio with cold water and pure olive oil. Olive oil lubricates the gluten web so our bakers can stretch the pie thin without puncture holes.
18-Hour Cold Retardation
Tubs rest at thirty-eight degrees for eighteen hours. Slow cold enzymatic breakdown converts complex starches into natural sugars, ensuring rich brown caramelization under stone heat.
Stone Deck Blistering
Pies slide off wooden peels directly onto 550-degree stone hearth slabs. Direct stone contact drives water out of the dough, producing crisp leopard-spotted char and airy rim crumb.
Frequently asked questions about our scratch dough and stone deck bakes
Short-fermented commercial dough uses fast yeast and added sugars that leave crust tasting yeasty, pale, and heavy on digestion. Eighteen hours of slow cold fermentation allows natural enzymes to break complex wheat proteins down into flavorful amino acids that digest cleanly and char beautifully on stone slabs.
Yes. Our classic thin crust is rolled out to order for a crisp tavern-style bite. Our thick crust and Sicilian pan dough are proofed directly inside seasoned steel pans with olive oil for a pillowy, airy crumb with caramelized fried bottom edges.
Prices range from 7.44 USD for a ten-inch thin crust cheese up to 21.69 USD for loaded sixteen-inch thick Sicilian or banquet sheet pizzas. Your price depends on diameter, dough weight, topping density, and carryout pickup versus delivery dispatch.
Yes. Simply note “well-done” or “extra deck blister” on your inquiry ticket. Our pizza makers will hold your pie an extra ninety to one hundred twenty seconds on the lower stone hearth to achieve deeper crust char and darkened cheese edges.
Submit an inquiry for handcrafted deck pizza
Whether you want crispy tavern thin crust, hand-tossed classic, or thick Sicilian pan pizza, our Monroe Street kitchen will stretch your pie from scratch dough. Prices range from 7.44 to 21.69 USD per pizza, with typical 10–30 minute deck bake turnaround.