UNITED STATES—For many businesses, location is a logistical choice. But for Forno Piombo, its headquarters location was a driving factor that accelerated the company from a small family business to national powerhouse.
Born in the heart of Napa Valley, Forno Piombo designs, manufactures, and ships high-performance pizza ovens to residential and commercial customers across the country. Founded in 2014, the company has remained in wine country ever since.
Home Field Advantage
While many companies struggle to find early adopters, Forno Piombo was able to build momentum in its own backyard. The unique intersection of the region’s mild Mediterranean climate and its world-famous wine culture creates a lifestyle where outdoor dining is a year-round reality and not just a seasonal novelty.
“I don’t think you could pick a better place in the U.S. to start this company than Napa,” said Tony Piombo, co-founder of the company. “There’s just such a sense of outdoor cooking here. It’s the perfect demographic.”
Tony founded the company along with his dad, Guy, after the latter received a request to build a pizza oven from a local church organization. “He had a background in building, so he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll give it a try,” Tony said.
After making one pizza oven, Guy built a second for his own backyard. When Tony said how well the oven performed, he knew that they had a potential business on their hands. And, so, Forno Piombo was born. They have just launched their latest project, the Roman 80 tiled pizza oven with amazing upgrades and options.
According to Tony, this environment provided a local customer base that sustained the company’s growth during its early years, allowing the Piombos to refine their masonry ovens through connections with local families and community members before ever attempting to sell across the country.
Rooted in Napa Culture
Today, Forno Piombo is run entirely from a 20,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on the border of Napa and American Canyon. It’s from this facility that the company designs, manufactures, and ships all of its orders.
But the facility is more than just a warehouse. It also functions as a showroom where visitors view different models and even see the entire manufacturing process from start to finish. The company’s entire team is based locally, and Forno Piombo also works with a lot of local suppliers for materials.
By keeping production local and working with regional suppliers for materials, Forno Piombo is able to maintain a tight grip on quality control. However, its location has also allowed it to deeply root itself in Napa Valley culture.
“Napa was a great place to start the business,” Tony said. “Past that, we get to do cooking classes here, different kinds of events. We rent and supply ovens for a lot of local community events. Bottlerock Music Festival rents ovens from us every year, the Napa Valley Film Festival rents ovens from us.”
Culinary refinement
In a region teeming with world-class culinary talent, Forno Piombo had access to some of the toughest critics on the planet. Early on, feedback from these professionals became the cornerstone of their confidence.
“Working with chefs – there are so many chefs here in Napa,” Tony said. “Getting that feedback, getting these world-class chefs cooking with our oven and saying, ‘This is the best [pizza] I’ve ever cooked,’ really gave us a lot of confidence.”
This local expertise helped the brand bridge the gap between home use and professional performance. While residential customers make up about 70% to 80% of the company’s business, its ovens are still right at home in a professional kitchen context. Along with backyard spaces, Forno Piombo also supplies wine tasting rooms, breweries, and other commercial clients.
“Our ovens are very well-built and perform very well, so they’re great for commercial applications,” Tony said. “We have a lifetime warranty on our brick line, and our ovens seem to be a really good fit for a lot of commercial applications.”
Napa: Headquarters and hometown alike
For Tony, the location isn’t just about business demographics; it’s home. Born and raised in the valley, he is now raising his own family in the same community that helped launch his business. “It’s a good place to live,” he said. “A good place to own a business.”
If you’d like to learn more about Forno Piombo, or order one of their high-performing pizza ovens for your own backyard, visit FornoPiombo.com.
Meet the Forno Piombo Ovens!
Forno Piombo manufactures perhaps the highest-performing and longest-lasting wood-fired and gas-powered pizza ovens on the market. Here are a few of their top-selling ovens.
Just Released: The Roman 80 in Ivory-colored Tile
The Casa Model Tiled in Azure Blue
The Palazzo in Sasparilla-colored Tile
The Santino 70
