Coco's in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Canada

I have been fascinated with cooking outdoors as long as I can remember.  My Mom had a clunky old charcoal grill that whe would wheel out once in awhile.  After she got sick, the grill never came out.  One of the first purchases we made as newlyweds was a hibachi followed quickly by a charcoal grill just like my Mom's.  I fondly remember our first propane grill, every grill we've had since then, and learning to cooking on an open fire while camping. There really isn't a fuel I haven't used when cooking outdoors.  Our outdoor grill is used year round despite the weather.

We stopped at Coco's in Niagara Fall, Ontario Canada.  Coco's is located at 5339 Murray Street, one block from Fallsview Blvd towards the Falls.  This unique restaurant specialized in wood fired pizza and lamb.  The tantalizing smell of the smokey fire is enough to draw you to the restaurant from a couple of blocks away.  You just can't get better flavour than from a wood fire!  It has two large and quite amazing wood fired pizza ovens as part of their pizza bars.  They are spectacular.  They also have a large, custom made wood fired pit for barbecuing lamb.  The main draw really is eating outdoors on one of their patios while being enveloped in the wonderful smokey atmosphere created by the wood burning ovens and grill.

We love pig roasts and up to the last couple of years we were able to rent a pig roaster.  Well, renting pig roasters for whatever reason is not possible anymore.  I want a pig roaster!  It is really the only way to do a pig. 

Coco's had the most amazing roaster set-up.  Granted they were roasting a lamb rather than a pig but I hear they roast pig as well.   I think I got enough pictures to duplicate it.  The roaster was about six feet long, stainless steel, wood fired and equipped with a rotisserie spit.  There was a drip pan which is something not normally used with pig roasters.  This set-up gives me a good idea as to how to set-up  a roaster at our new house. 

Coco's has two wood fired pizza ovens, one for each of their pizza bars.  These were quite elabourate with colourful ceramic tile designs on the outside.  I'm not kidding, I would love to have one of these!  I am going to be looking online for building plans.  I think this design would be great for baking bread in as well. 

Wood fire imparts a unique flavour to any food being cooked.  You can bet we will be incorporating outdoor wood cooking into our new home even if we can't go a large as this outdoor wood fired oven.  Watch for that adventure coming soon as our house is officially SOLD!