PizzaRev, which sounds like a very cool youth minister, has around 50 stores. California-based Pieology, which counts other very good basketball player Kevin Durant as an investor, has roughly 150 locations.
#Blockblock blaze pizza mod#
It’s not even the only one with backing from an NBA legend.īlaze’s main fast-casual pizza competitor, Washington-based MOD Pizza, has 430 stores in the US and the UK.
#Blockblock blaze pizza update#
They now have over 300 locations, and told QSR they hope to have 500 by 2021.īlaze’s sit-down, beer-inclusive approach to pizza puts it in a completely different category than the likes of Domino’s, Pizza Hut, and Little Caesars, as does the highly personalized experience of ordering their “artisanal” pizzas, which come flying out of the oven quicker than you can say “30 minutes or less.” It basically exists in a weird middle ground between a fast-food pizza experience and a sleek, modern update of a family pizzeria. From there, Blaze’s growth exploded, with Technomic naming it “fastest growing restaurant chain ever” after they opened 200 locations in just 5 years.
But Blaze got its biggest boost in publicity when LeBron James (as well as other famous folks like Maria Shriver) invested in the company and became a public spokesman. My guess is it just said, “Chipotle, but Pizza.”Ī year later, they opened their first two Blaze Pizzas simultaneously in Pasadena and Irvine, converting giant wood-fired pizza ovens into giant gas-powered pizza ovens, which would be easier to control and replicate while still cooking pizzas in 180 seconds. Frustrated, they went to Chipotle, and there, watching the assembly line, they had an epiphany: “We should do this for pizza!”Īs legend has it, they then sketched the business plan for Blaze right there on a Chipotle napkin. PIzzas cook in 180 seconds in an oven reaching temperatures of 900F | Blaze Pizzaīlaze was the mind meld of the Wetzel’s Pretzels founders, who were driving around Pasadena, California, hankering for a pizza place to conduct a lunch meeting in 2011, but didn’t like the options. For this mall.” And then she motions for me to put my credit card into the machine. She stares into the distance for a long time, so long in fact that I briefly turn around to see if she’s staring at something in particular. “Yes,” she tells me without making eye contact, as she folds my son’s Batman shirt (and cape!). “Have you ever been to the Blaze Pizza here?” When I get to the counter, I ask the Gap employee. As I am at a fragile, basic point in my life, I also stop into the mall’s Gap Kids to buy my 2 year old a Batman shirt with a cape attached. It’s a modern mall, which I know because they have both açaí bowls and a Lids. To get to the nearest Blaze Pizza, I have to drive 17 miles to a mall.
Read Kevin's previous reviews of Jersey Mike's, Panera Bread, Lemonade, and Chipotle and check back in every other week for a fresh takes on more chains.
#Blockblock blaze pizza series#
The rising fast-casual trend is defining how Americans eat today, and in this series we’ll look at the food, history, decor, and branding of fast-casual chains to see what these restaurants are really trying to do, and where this is all going. Editor’s Note: Welcome to Too Fast Too Casual, a new review series where our National Writer-at-Large Kevin Alexander takes a close look at both classic and up-and-coming fast-casual chains.
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