Queens-Style Pizza Screens: Project Plan
A plan to buy, size, season and bake on a fine stainless mesh pizza screen like the ones used by a few Queens, NY pizzerias (Margherita Pizza in Jamaica, Gaby’s in Hollis). The pie is dressed on the screen, then usually finished directly on the oven deck, which gives the underside a fine mesh pattern and a bagel-like chew. The notes come from the pizzamaking.com thread on these screens and the videos linked from it.
Source caveat. The forum blocks automated fetching, so everything below is from forum posts I read as screenshots (2017 through September 2026) plus one video title. Facts are tagged (stated) where a poster said it. Anything else is (plan), my own proposal. See Open questions.
What the Queens pizzerias do (stated)
From hammettjr’s 2017 visit to a Long Island pizzeria that uses the same screens:
- The screens are “custom made” and arrive in a shipment every 2 to 3 months. The owner then “makes” each one by folding over the edges.
- They bake in Baker’s Pride deck ovens.
- Pies are dressed on the screen, and the poster was fairly certain they finish baking directly on the deck.
- The crust has a bagel-like chew and the sauce is sweet and complex. Parmesan is probably in the sauce.
- The hand-folded screen he took home was 18.5″, and his largest stone was 16″.
From a 2026 post in the thread: a poster who called a pizzeria that uses the fine-mesh screens was told they are aluminum and turn black with use. Another poster said Gaby’s opens its dough with oil, as Frank Giaquinto did.
Videos
- How to make a pizza at Gaby’s Queens, NY (posted by “Mike”, mikeman0341) — the Gaby’s screen-and-oil technique. I could not load the page, so I have only the title.
- A second YouTube link in post msg826338 — still to be added.
Choosing a screen
| Choice | Notes from the thread |
|---|---|
| Material | 304 stainless was used by one builder (stated). The pizzeria screens are reportedly aluminum that blackens with use (stated). Stainless is my pick: it does not darken or flake. |
| Mesh | Target spec: 304 stainless steel, 20 mesh, 0.30 mm wire. That is about 0.012″ wire with roughly 0.97 mm (0.038″) openings. A thread poster compared two 20-mesh listings: one is 0.15 mm wire, and the same 20 mesh at 0.3 mm is twice as thick. They judged the mesh in a closeup photo of a working screen to be “much thicker than 0.15 mm”, and wondered whether the weight of the pie or repeated high heat would tear thin mesh. So buy the 0.30 mm wire, not the 0.15 mm. (I have not checked that listing’s stated alloy; confirm it says 304.) A Sept. 2026 poster used 60 mesh and found it “simple to shape” (stated). Another poster’s 40-mesh screen is 0.0085″ wire (stated). Ask sellers for mesh count and wire diameter. |
| Size | Buy at least 1 to 2 inches over the target size. The goal here is a 16″ pie to fit a 16″ stone. A Sept. 2026 poster ordered one cut to about 17″. |
Ordered (Nov. 2026)
- Lianart 304 stainless wire mesh, 20 mesh, 23.6 × 47.2 in. The listing gives a 1 mm hole and 0.3 mm wire, so it matches the target above. One sheet is large enough for several 16″ rounds with room for the folded rim.
- HURRICANE 3-inch sheet metal hand seamer, so no need to hunt for one I might already own.
Sizing and folding the edge
A hand-folded rim is what makes the screen rigid and keeps raw wire ends away from you.
- Cut off the existing folded edge with aviation snips (vtsteve, stated).
- Mark the new diameter with a compass or a 16″ stone as a template (plan).
- Refold to the new diameter with a hand seamer (vtsteve, stated). A round tool to smooth the folds also worked (stated).
- File any cut ends and check that nothing snags (plan). Wear cut-resistant gloves.
Tool. A hand seamer is required (see Ordered, above). A poster confirmed the edges are simply folded over with a hand seamer, and showed a resized screen with a flat double fold along the rim (2018 photo).
Seasoning
One builder seasoned a screen with grape seed oil at 450°F for about 30 minutes (stated). Results were still pending. I plan to do the same, wiping the oil on very thinly so it does not pool in the mesh.
Baking plan
- Preheat the oven with the stone on the lowest rack for at least 45 minutes at its highest setting (plan).
- Open the dough with oil, as at Gaby’s (stated), onto a seasoned screen.
- Dress it on the screen. Slide the screen onto the preheated stone.
- After the crust sets (about a third of the bake, plan), slide the pie off the screen to finish directly on the stone, as the pizzerias do.
- Rest the pie on a rack, not on the screen.
Why a mesh screen helps: TXCraig1’s 16″ screen (Sept. 3, 2025, stated)
TXCraig1 bakes in a built-in wood-fired oven and reported these results with a 16″ folded-edge mesh screen:
- A regular screen forced him to pull the pie early, or it picked up screen marks and a screen-baked texture. The mesh screen lets him leave the pie on as long as he wants without either.
- With a regular screen his deck was effectively limited to about 675°F. With the mesh he runs 750°F and prefers the result: a delicate, crisp crust with a very light crumb.
- Pizzas release from the mesh almost on their own.
- A minor downside: the rolled edge makes the center bake slightly differently from the rim.
- His next change is about 10 more seconds on the screen at 750°F. He pulled his first pie too soon and struggled to get top color.
His dough: 62.5% hydration Caputo Pizzeria flour, 2.8% salt, 2.0% lightly melted beef tallow, 0.032% IDY, mixed by hand, 450 g per 16″ pie, 12 hours at 78°F all in balls. His oven is far hotter than a home oven, so treat the timings as a guide, not targets.
Expectations, quoting hammettjr: a home oven will not give you a copy of the pizzeria pizza. Treat the first bakes as experiments.
Experiment log
| Bake | Screen | Dough / hydration | Oven temp | Time on screen | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Open questions
- What is in the second YouTube video, and what do both videos show about oiling and when the pie leaves the screen?
- How much extra diameter does the fold take? Cut the disc 1 to 1.5 inches oversize and test on scrap mesh first.
- Does the pie finish on the screen or directly on the deck? One account says deck, and it is not confirmed for Gaby’s.
- Does the mesh pattern on the crust underside survive a home oven’s heat?