How to Install an Outdoor Brick Oven
An outdoor brick oven can be a game-changer when it comes to outdoor entertaining. With a backyard brick oven, there’s no need to go back inside to cook and the food can be cooked in a fraction of the time.
Save time on building your own brick oven by choosing one of Round Grove Products’ prefabricated brick ovens then customizing it to match your entertaining space. You’ll be cooking pizzas, steaks, and more at brick oven speeds in no time.
While I received a Round Grove brick oven in exchange for this post, all opinions and ideas are 100% honest and my own.
new year's eve games to play
When my parents came home from their mission to Bosnia a few years ago, I was pretty disappointed at first when they decided to buy land out in the country rather than buying a house close to both of my brothers.
They used to live pretty across the street from my brother so visiting them both at the same time was no big deal.
Instead they decided to follow their dreams and bought a house about 30 minutes outside of their previous home on about 23 acres of land.
Who knew that property would become a haven. A place where all of my siblings and their families could meet to play together, laugh together, and eat together.
Last summer I swear we were at my parents house for at least half the summer. Fishing, playing Spikeball, having competitions of the best board games , letting all of our babies play together without having to worry about streets, strangers, and sleep schedules.
After all of the hours we spent playing and all of the pizza loaf we ate, we decided the one thing missing from the house was an outdoor brick oven.
My parents had already been working on transforming the back patio area from a muddy snake pit (seriously, so many black snakes!) to a stoned in patio for entertaining, so an outdoor brick oven where we could cook our food while still enjoying the outside would make the space perfect.
Why a Brick Oven?
When I shared on Instagram that we got a brick oven, one of the most things people asked me was why. Why did you want a brick oven?
I mean really who doesn’t want your very own brick oven in their backyard? But I’m guessing that’s not the answer people are looking for so here are some specific reasons why everyone should consider a brick oven!
- Try a New Flavor – Brick oven cooking produces a different flavor, char, and tenderness that other methods of cooking just can’t. If you love to cook, you’ll love adapting your cooking to a brick oven.
- Stay Outside – Having a brick oven allows us to cook and enjoy the outside without just grilling all the time. If you’re spending a lot of time outdoors anyway, a brick oven extends your outdoor time.
- Elevate Outdoor Entertaining – It’s a centerpiece for outdoor entertaining. Everyone has a grill but a brick oven is another reason to invite friends over for a unique outdoor experience.
- Cook Everything – Unlike a grill, you can cook pretty much anything in a brick oven. Breads, meats, veggies, desserts, you name it.
- Cook Faster – Brick ovens cook faster. If you like to entertain and want to feed a lot of people, a brick oven can help you churn out food fast once the fire is hot enough to cook. Pizzas typically take a few minutes compared to three times that in a traditional oven. Let everyone make their own then pop them in and out just like at your favorite restaurant.
- Cook Your Favorites – Many of our favorite restaurants feature brick oven cooking, but we’ve tried to cut back on going out to eat – especially right now. Having a brick oven allows us to recreate many of those restaurant favorites at home from brick oven charred artichokes to dutch oven potatoes and of course pizza.
Why Round Grove Products?
We researched all of the various options available – small outdoor brick ovens, DIY brick ovens, completely finished backyard brick ovens. We searched Google, the stone company where we bought stone for the patio, and everywhere else we could find to figure out what option would be best.
In the end, we decided to go with a Round Grove brick oven + fireplace combo unit for a number of reasons.
1 – Their products are prefabricated
First and foremost, Round Grove products are already made for you. Instead of building the brick oven or fireplace yourself, they come in a ready to go unit that you can then customize on your own however you’d like. The company was actually started after the owners put in their own backyard kitchen and it took contractors two weeks, and they wanted something easier.
You can check out the the owner’s Brick Oven Lifestyle website to see some fun ways that people have customized their outdoor brick oven! We went with just stone to match the already stoned patio but there are some incredibly creative ideas out there.
2 – They offer combo units
Another huge seller for us was the fact that Round Grove offers a variety of combo units featuring a brick oven and a fireplace.
My family loves s’mores and my dad is kind of a fire making maniac these days. If we couldn’t get a brick oven with a fireplace, they were going to just build their own fireplace anyway. So being able to get both together in one combo unit was a big check in the plus column during our search.
Round Grove also offers a variety of different sizes to fit pretty much any backyard. We got a Fiesta Largo brick oven + fireplace combo unit plus one woodbox for the side, but they have smaller units as well if you don’t have quite as much space as we do.
You can check out the full product catalog here.
They even just released a brand new Pokeeto brick oven that’s basically a small brick oven on top with a wood box underneath. It’s their smallest, lightest, and least expensive option yet for people who don’t have the budget or space for a larger model.
3 – They are a small business
One of the things I personally love most is that Round Grove is a small business started by a husband and wife team in Ohio. When I called to ask questions about the products, I wasn’t redirected to some customer service line with people who didn’t know anything about their products – I spoke to the owners directly.
When I had some questions about the shipping and installation process after our product arrived, I was able to get in touch with a member of their team who tried to answer my questions, even though it was after normal business hours.
When he couldn’t answer me, he immediately called the shipping manager, and called me back within minutes.
The company is run in Ohio, all of the Round Grove products are made in the US, and even when everything else was shutting down because of the virus – I was able to get my product within a few weeks of placing my order.
Every call, every communication, and every step in the process has felt like this company is a family owned company who wants to do the best for their customers.
And as a small business owner myself, that’s something I can get behind and recommend.
4 – They walk the walk
One of the other big sellers for me was when I talked to the owners on the phone, they sold me on this idea that brick oven living is more than just making brick oven pizza all the time. If all you want is brick oven pizza, there are restaurants out there that do that.
scavenger hunt for birthday presents
Scott and Bonnie live this lifestyle and they truly want others to enjoy what a brick oven lifestyle is – enjoying time outside with friends and family – all facilitated by a beautiful brick oven focal point in your entertaining space.
As we spoke on the phone, Bonnie had me excited about trying out some of her brick oven recipes and Scott had me excited about inviting people over for some backyard entertaining, s’mores in the fireplace, and of course – some friendly competition in the form of these outdoor games .
This post is just the first about our brick oven. I cannot wait to share more ideas as we get more comfortable with cooking in the brick oven and things cool down enough to really turn up the heat and enjoy time outside with our new patio.
How Did We Customize It?
I mentioned above that one of the main reasons we picked Round Grove was because the unit came already premade, we just needed to customize it to match our space.
Customizing our space was a bit time consuming (hello summer heat and very pregnant sister) but not difficult. And I absolutely love how the finished product turned out!
Before I show you the final product, let’s talk about how we got there.
Brick Oven Delivery
When we originally placed our Round Grove order, they asked us if we wanted to include forklift holes or something for a crane to pick up the brick oven for install. It hadn’t crossed my mind yet that we would need some sort of machinery to get the brick oven off the truck and into the right space in my parents’ backyard.
Luckily Round Grove includes forklift holes – you just need to provide the forklift and manpower. Also luckily my parents live in the middle of nowhere with farm neighbors on every side. One of their kind neighbors did the machinery work for us.
The woodbox and hearth – we muscled those on our own.
Installation Process
Another thing I didn’t realize was that the unit wouldn’t be 100% put together when it arrived, but hello, forklift holes remember? The brick oven and fireplace came in one solid unit along with pre-cut pieces of drywall to cover up where the forklift holes had been added.
Adding the chimney and drywall back onto the unit was pretty easy once we figured out what we were doing. In hindsight, I probably should’ve watched these instructional videos instead of trying to figure it out on our own.
Within an hour of delivery, the brick oven was ready to use. And we put it to use quickly, firing up our very first pizzas (had to start with pizza) within 24 hours of delivery.
Customizing the Brick Oven
If you want, you can always stop there and just use the brick oven as is for as long as you want. We spent a week stoning the brick oven, hearth, and woodbox to match the patio. And I still have no idea how construction teams do this all day long in the summer heat, we were dying once like 11AM hit!
On the side opposite the woodbox, we decided to add a tall custom cabinet to hold all of the brick oven accessories we needed to cook – pizza peel, thermometer, lighter, etc. It may not be the prettiest part of the project, but I love how it turned out and how functional it is!
Next to the woodbox, we built some additional cabinets to hold plates, pizza pans, and other things we’ll need for cooking. Then we added an outdoor fridge and some matching tile on top of it all.
I’ll show you the final patio area in an upcoming post but let me just say, I love being able to look out at the backyard now with a sense of pride to know that my family built that. And I personally helped.
There’s just something about getting dirty and building things on your own that makes the end result so much sweeter.
Installation Video
Want to see how easy it was to install and customize? Here’s a quick video showing the process from start to finish! Can’t see the video? Watch it here .
What’s Next?
Now that the space is finally finished, it’s time to keep cooking. I’d say start cooking, but we’ve been cooking from pretty much the moment the forklift placed it in the backyard.
Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing more about our experience with the Round Grove brick oven, delicious brick oven recipes, and of course outdoor entertaining ideas.
If there’s anything you want to know, recipes you want to see, or anything else you want to chat about – feel free to leave me a comment and I’ll try to include it in upcoming posts!
And make sure to follow along on Instagram so you can see all the yummy food we make with the brick oven between posts! So far we’ve tried chicken, steak, potatoes (so good!), pizza, pepperoni rolls, s’mores pie, and more!
fun games to play in the water
