Which cooker to build ?

what would be your ideal source for heat? if wood is plentiful and easy to get i would go with a lang.. if not.. i would seriously consider the brick pit.. because it is more partial to cooking with charcoal..

The lang will require about a log per hour.. it would have a higher capacity and be mobile.. because you would be able to put food on the top and bottom rack. and you can cook onsite somewhere else if you plan on doing any catering...

you can cook all day with about 20 or so logs.. idk how much fuel a brick smoker would require...

Never done anything restaurant size, but let me just throw this out there: why not a brick pit reverse flow? Assuming you have 15 ft of room you could fit a 4'x8' cooking pit, with a big 3'-4' firebox at one end. A heavy steel plate structure bottom set a couple feet off the floor could serve as a diffuser plate and then from 2ft vertical to 5ft vertical across the 4'x8' pit would give you 3-4 monster cooking grates and I'm just guessing a variety of temp zones. Add a few strategically sized doors and an chimney in the reverse flow configuration and I'm guessing you would have a killer pit.

OK, with a new restaurant at stake it's probably not time to experiment, so you should probably consider a big arse reverse flow. But now that you have us thinking I'm curious what the brothers think of this concept - downsized and it could be one sweet component of an outdoor kitchen.

PS: best of luck with the restaurant, you gonna be in Germany or elsewhere?

OK, so now I'm subscribing to the thread to keep track of comments, critiques or suggestions. Talked to my son, he agrees the concept has legs. Couple of points, if you really consider this, the steel diffuser plate should have a slight up-hill slope from the firebox to the vent end. I'm assuming in a restaurant setting it will be pretty much a 24-7 fire so make provision for an ash pan to dump ash while its running. I just used 4'x8' as an example, think about what you really need.

DJ_Golden_Child said:

I will be doing this in Germany. The brick pit reverse flow sounds like a great idea. The 8' x 4' will use close to the same amount of logs as a steel unit if not more. The advantages should be cheaper end cost and better heat retention.

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