Vault Wine Bar, Shelby, OH

The Vault Wine Bar in Shelby, OH and the CE131PE Electric Oven from Peerless Ovens are a perfect match!

A few years ago, Ben and Cindy Lash were scouting locations, in preparation for opening their new business. “We were just looking for a little place downtown to open a wine bar, and we came across this old bank that had been empty for 12 years,” Mr. Lash said. And so, in May of 2014, the Vault Wine Bar was born. The building is perfect for a unique and fun experience, as Mr. Lash explained: “It’s an actual bank with a vault, and the vault is the centerpiece. We also have all the keys to the security boxes, so we do contests and special events – for example we’ll put a $50 gift card in one box along with some other prizes. People love coming in for those events.”

While creating a unique and fun experience was straightforward, trying to decide on a menu/kitchen design was a little more challenging, but thanks to an encounter at the Mid America Food Show in Columbus, Ben and Cindy were able to find the perfect solution, the Peerless CE131PE, an electric counter model oven. “The key was we saw Peerless Ovens at one of the food shows in Columbus Ohio, and I knew how expensive a hood and fire suppression was going to be, so I was trying to tailor my menu around an electric kitchen. I wanted something I could do without spending all that money, and I loved the electric oven idea.” He further explained that the Peerless CE131PE has been amazing for him and he has no regrets, saying “it’s amazing what food we can put out without having a grill or a fryer – we just have the convection oven, our electric pizza oven, and a steam table.”

Ben says that they use the Peerless primarily for pizza although they have experimented with Stromboli, among other things.

But in terms of being a workhouse pizza oven, Ben raved about the oven’s performance and consistency.  “We have a competition in the kitchen for how many pizzas we could serve during our festival – every year in July we have a festival and it’s our busiest day of the year – and so every year we try to beat the number of pizzas we can put out.  Our record is 114 pizzas we got out of that oven – just in one evening from 4-11pm.”

Ultimately, Ben relied on customer testimonials from before purchasing his CE131PE, and he wanted to tell his story to maybe help someone else make the right decision for their business.  “I looked at other testimonials and looked at a lot of ovens,” Lash said.  “I liked the idea that Peerless is local, it is highly-recommended, and it is well-made.  I’ve been so happy with it for 5 years – it’s done everything that we’ve wanted it to do – and I’m really happy without having the expense of the hood system and everything.”

The Vault Wine Bar
29 W Main St, Shelby
(567) 292-9081