BOISE, Idaho — Pizzas come in many different shapes, sizes and styles, but it's not often that you find a pizza made in a solar-powered pizzeria on wheels. Solari Pizzeria Napoletana is a local Boise business that specializes in making unique Neapolitan style pizzas from their mobile solar powered pizzeria.
- Solari Pizzeria has a series of solar panels fitted to the truck that power all the electrical equipment on-board from fridges to mixers, everything but the wood fired oven.
- You can find out where Solari Pizzeria will be making pies on their Instagram.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
“I think we make a really, really great Neapolitan pie," said Gary Ebert.
He and his Partner Glen Fiertl have been in the pizza business for a long time.
“Working in pizzerias, I’ve got probably going on 26-27 years experience,” said Fiertl.
The two have over 60 years of combined experience making pizzas all over the country. But in 2021 they decided they wanted to try something new.
“Well, we’ve always been interested in doing a project together. Glen and I have known each other for 30 years from when I was at Zeppole and he started Guidos and so we came up with the concept of a mobile pizza truck because it was something that we could do kind of on our own schedule," said Ebert.
A mobile pizza truck, powered entirely by solar energy, that Gary and Glen built from scratch.
“I worked as a welder and a millwright during my college days and I’ve always had a lot of fun building things," said Ebert.
The truck took them about three and a half months to build. After attaching a 20-foot shipping container to a diesel truck, they added a series of solar panels to the roof that power all of the electrical equipment on-board.
“The only thing that it doesn’t run of course is the wood-fired oven," says Ebert.
And that wood-fired oven runs at over 900 degrees, which is perfect for the Naples style pizza they serve.
“The dough is really the crucial part, it takes us basically three days to make the dough," added Ebert.
Gary tells me the dough gets its unique texture and flavor from the long, cold fermentation process. That dough, paired with fresh and simple ingredients, makes for a delicious pizza.
“We’re both retired. I'm 73 and Glen is in his 60s and so it's a labor of love. It’s really more about a passion for what we do and we only work a couple days a week, which fits in with being kind of sorta retired," said Ebert.
If you'd like to try one of these pies yourself, you can find Solari Pizzeria most Fridays at Barbarian Brewing and Saturdays at the Boise Farmers Market.
