Small Footprint Fuels Farm to Table Concept

Darby Livingston had been a farmer in Indiana for years when he came up with an innovative concept – a farm-to-table restaurant where he could provide the freshest possible ingredients to make the best possible food. The only question in his mind was what form this new venture would take. “Our original thing is our farm, that’s our main business,” Darby explained, “but for the restaurant we wanted to do pizza because my wife had a pizza restaurant when we were first married 20+ years ago.” So, with a concept and goal in mind, he began the search for a pizza oven, specifically one with a small footprint.

The first thing he knew was that a stone deck oven was what he wanted, both for taste and performance, but he was not sure what was possible given the limited space in their location. “I went on Google and was just looking up pizza ovens, small footprint, things like that,” he said, “and then I came across Peerless and was interested.” What was it about Peerless Ovens that intrigued him? “It was mainly the appearance and footprint – I thought I haven’t seen anything like that before – and so I tried looking up the online manual and read through it and see how it works, because I was skeptical.” After reading up on the oven, Darby went further with his research and watched video testimonials from Peerless customers. “There were a couple videos I watched on Youtube where a pizza place in Ohio had a tight kitchen and said basically ‘this oven ALLOWS me to be in the pizza business because of the small footprint.’” Darby went on to say that he realized that limited space was his problem too, and so he decided to give Peerless Ovens a try.

With multiple locations in Union City and Winchester, Roots by Tree Hill Farms has seen a great deal of success, and Darby credits some of that to his decision to go with Peerless and stay with the stone deck oven concept. “We don’t want to cook a pizza any other way then on the stone deck – you get the doughy top and the crunchy bottom and it’s just not like what anything else does,” Darby said. In addition to pizza, Darby bakes subs and sandwiches and a host of other items and wouldn’t dream of cooking in anything else. “The sandwiches subs and stuff, they get nice and crispy and you get that savory flavor that you just can’t get with a conveyor oven.”

So, is it safe to say that the 2324P and 2348P ovens are living up to expectations? “They do everything we want,” Darby raved  “We have 130 seats which we fill on the weekends and we’re getting all of our orders out in 15 minutes. When you learn the oven, learn the adaptability of it, you have a trick for every situation. There is a learning curve but there is with any oven.”

Another point that Mr. Livingston wanted to bring up was that the 2324P oven was what he called a “landlord friendly” size. “This most recent oven we are transferring into a place that used to be a karate dojo, it’s in a strip mall,” Darby explained. He elaborated that the new location is only going to be for carryout and delivery in a bigger town. “We have built quite a regional name for ourselves and a loyal customer base and so we were looking for a space we could just do delivery and carryout.” Unfortunately, the door to the new location was not made for restaurant equipment but the small footprint 2324P fits right through most standard commercial doorways which Darby sees as a huge plus. “Anybody that has space restrictions or they aren’t allowed to do demo work or any of that, (the 2324P) fits through pretty much a normal doorway and you can just direct vent right out the side,” he said, “so it’s very friendly to the ears of a landlord to hear you’re not going to completely modify their building.”

All in all, Roots by Tree Hill Farms is having tremendous success at their multiple locations due to an excellent concept, farm-to-table fresh ingredients, dedicated employees, hard work, and a little help from Peerless Ovens. Mr. Livingston says he would recommend the Peerless Ovens brand to anyone who asked. “The three things that brought me to Peerless were that we were familiar with the stone deck oven and the quality of the product it produced, we needed the space-saving small footprint, and most obviously, the price point,” Darby explained. “We didn’t want to spend $20,000 on an oven – we’re a farm that got into the restaurant business, after all – and  we didn’t want to go into a lot of debt to start.” He pointed out how easy the oven made it to get the business up and running. “You know, a prep table, a three-basin sink and that oven you can get into business at a pretty cheap entry point.”

Darby Livingston and Roots by Tree Hill Farms are the latest in a long line of customers who have been happy with the quality and performance of their Peerless Ovens, and if you want to be the next happy customer, don’t hesitate to visit us at www.peerlessovens.com and request your free quote today!

Roots by Tree Hill Farms
208 N Howard St.
Union City, IN 47390
(765) 691-0237