Get our free one-page cheat sheet of pizzeria cost benchmarks: food, labor, rent and delivery, with a blank for your own numbers.
A pizzeria’s core opening equipment costs about $93,000 to $100,000 new at manufacturers’ and dealers’ list prices, before smallwares, freight and installation. You can cut that hard by buying used, but not on three pieces: the make line, the walk-in’s refrigeration and the hood. That total is our tally of seven line items below. Our guide to what it costs to open a pizza shop priced four of them. This is the full list.
Seven line items carry almost all the money
Oven. Middleby’s store lists a single-deck Bakers Pride Y-600 at $14,414 and a Middleby Marshall PS640E conveyor at $27,669, both U.S. starting prices. GoFoodservice lists the double-deck Y-602 at $28,329. Which type fits your menu is its own decision, covered in pizza oven types compared. Whether you need two is covered in is a second oven worth it.
Mixer. Chef’s Toys lists a Hobart HL600 60-quart at $28,136.49. The Horeca Store, a dealer, puts a new 60-quart at about $10,000 and a used one at about $4,000.
Make line. KaTom lists a 67-inch True TPP-AT-67-HC prep table, nine third-size pans over a refrigerated base, at $6,516.64.
Walk-in. WebstaurantStore lists a 10-by-8-foot Kolpak cooler with a self-contained half-horsepower refrigeration system at $11,279, with a 4% manufacturer increase coming Jan. 1, 2027.
Reach-in. A two-door True T-49-HC lists at $5,343.20.
Hood and suppression. An Indianapolis installer prices a complete system at $1,000 to $1,500 per linear foot, or $10,000 to $15,000 for a 10-foot hood, plus $3,000 to $5,000 for fire suppression. It labels those 2024 averages.
Dough boxes. A Cambro 18-by-26-inch, 3-inch-deep box is $26.63 each. Thirty of them, an illustration and not a benchmark, is about $800.
Add the double deck, the Hobart, the make line, the walk-in, the reach-in and 30 boxes and you get $80,403. The hood takes it to $93,403 to $100,403. Swap in the dealer’s budget prices for the oven, mixer and walk-in (about $15,000, $10,000 and $8,000 new) and the total drops to about $59,000 to $66,000. That’s our arithmetic on listed prices. Smallwares (peels, screens, cutters, pans, ladles) aren’t in it, and we found no sourced benchmark for a pizzeria smallwares package. Price yours from your menu.
Used saves the most where little can break
Glen Clark of Clark Service Group told Foodservice Equipment & Supplies that the best used bets are simple gas cooking equipment like griddles, ranges and ovens, because they have few parts to fail. Refrigeration worried him, since you can’t see how it was maintained: “there might be some excessive wear and tear on the system or on the compressor.” His advice is to ask for the service history and pay a qualified agency to inspect the unit first.
On price, auctioneer Jeffrey Yarbrough told FoodService Director in 2015 to try to pay less than 50% of new retail and to stay out of bidding wars. In the same piece, chef Jake Bickelhaupt warned that private sales come with no warranty, no service plan and no refunds. Restaurateur Burt Rapoport said he never buys refrigeration used, because new units with factory-installed compressors last longer.
So the oven and the mixer are where used buying pays. The Horeca Store puts a used deck oven at about $5,000 against $15,000 new, roughly a third of the price.
The three pieces never to buy used
The make line. True’s warranty on its hydrocarbon units runs six years on parts, five on labor and seven on the compressor. It applies “only in favor of the original purchaser/user to whom delivered,” and a transfer voids it. A used make line arrives with no coverage on the box that holds every topping you own. If you want a discount, ask for scratch-and-dent: Burkett lists a dented T-49 at $4,795 against $5,343.20, with the full manufacturer warranty, about 10% off.
The walk-in’s refrigeration. Kolpak covers its panels for 10 years and refrigeration parts for one, and only for “the original purchaser/user at the original installation location.” The maker is telling you where the risk sits. Our view: a sound used box can work, but put new refrigeration on it.
The hood and fire suppression. This one is about code, not warranty. Duluth, Minn., requires a permit to install, repair or replace a suppression system, approves plans before work starts, and says “All systems shall conform with UL 300,” the fire-test standard for kitchen suppression systems. Castle Rock, Colo., checks that nozzles are placed per the manufacturer’s design manual and protect every cooking surface. A used hood was built around someone else’s line. The costs keep coming under NFPA 96, the national fire standard for kitchen exhaust. Bellevue, Wash., requires hood cleaning every six months for most kitchens, monthly for solid-fuel appliances like a wood-fired oven, and suppression service every six months.
Buy the oven used and the make line new. The oven is a burner and a thermostat. The make line is every topping you own.
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The limitation: a warranty is the maker’s promise, not failure data. Nobody publishes how often used pizza prep tables or walk-in compressors fail, or what independents actually paid for used gear. Bickelhaupt saved $1,500 on a used reach-in by checking the compressor, the door seal and the interior, and plenty of operators have similar stories. Ours is a rule for the pieces that stop the line when they fail, not a claim that every used cooler fails.
Common questions
What equipment do I need to open a pizza shop?
An oven, a mixer, a refrigerated make line, a walk-in, a reach-in, a hood with fire suppression, dough boxes and smallwares. At makers' and dealers' list prices, the big pieces come to about $93,000 to $100,000 new by our count, before smallwares, freight and installation.
How much does a pizza make line cost?
About $6,500 new for a 67-inch True prep table that holds nine pans, at KaTom's list price. A scratch-and-dent unit with the full factory warranty can save you about 10%.
Should I buy used pizza equipment?
For a lot of it, yes. A service company told FES that simple gas equipment like ovens is the safest used buy. An auctioneer told FoodService Director to pay under half of the new price. Get it inspected first, and skip used refrigeration and used hoods.
Why shouldn't I buy a used pizza prep table?
Because the warranty doesn't come with it. True's warranty covers only the original buyer, and passing it to someone else voids it. A used make line holds every topping you own, with nothing covering it if it dies on a Friday.
