With its completely customizable pizzas and myriad menu options for people with dietary restrictions,
it's no surprise that Blaze Pizza is becoming so popular.
From its history to future endeavors, this is the untold truth of Blaze Pizza.
If you've ever been to a Chipotle restaurant location,
then you know how fun it can be to customize your burrito or burrito bowl with various meats,
veggies, salsas, and other toppings.
Well, it turns out Blaze Pizza is modeled after fast-casual restaurants like Chipotle.
According to Inc., the goal was to create the "Chipotle of pizza," and by the looks of it,
its founders have accomplished what they set out to achieve.
When you walk into a Blaze Pizza location, you'll step right up to the counter and tell
them exactly how to build your pizza. You'll get to pick your sauce, cheeses, meats, veggies, and
"finishes," which is Blaze Pizza's word for the various little extras you can get on your pizza.
Whether you're into a pizza with classic red sauce or you like to live life on the
edge by adding goat cheese to your pie, you can pretty much do whatever you want at Blaze Pizza.
Lots of companies partner with celebrities to endorse their
products - these sponsorships usually relate to the celebrity's profession,
like playing professional sports or looking beautiful while walking down a runway.
In these instances, the company pays the celebrity to endorse the product or service.
But in other cases, celebrities are so intrigued by an idea that they actually
decide to invest their own money to help it succeed. Such is the case with LeBron James,
an early investor in Blaze Pizza. He even gave up a deal with McDonald's in order
to back the pizza chain, but it seems his risk has paid off. According to SBNation,
James' initial $1 million investment in 2012 had grown to $35 million by 2017.
"Oh my God."
"Hi, how are you? How’re you doing?"
"Oh my God."
"I’m Ron. Nice to meet you. Blaze right now
is offering a large shareable pizza with real ingredients."
And how does James like his pizza, you might be wondering? When he's hungry, he'll add as
many as 16 toppings to his pie! Having James on board has undoubtedly helped the fast-growing
restaurant chain become so successful, too. After all, James has some serious star power,
with more than 68 million followers on Instagram alone, and he posts about Blaze Pizza quite often.
Blaze Pizza is led by chef Brad Kent, an accomplished culinary mastermind with a
serious food background. Kent started his own catering business while he was in college.
He then went on to earn a degree from the Culinary Institute of America.
He holds a degree in food science and nutrition, according to Zagat.
Kent also opened his own pizza shop, Olio Pizzeria, and helped Trader Joe's develop some
of their snack food items. Over the years, he's developed his own delicious pizza dough recipe,
which somehow manages to be both soft and crunchy at the same time.
Kent is the real deal and he lends his expertise to Blaze Pizza locations all over the country.
“So we press your dough fresh for you. And then we walk you down the line as
you assemble your pizza with exactly the toppings that you want on it.”
If you've ever eaten different styles of pizza, then you already know that not all crusts are
created equal - far from it, in fact. The crusts made by Blaze Pizza are also unique,
in that they're fermented for at least 24 hours.
Blaze Pizza's dough is made with filtered water, unbleached flour, yeast, extra virgin olive oil,
and just a sprinkle of salt. This simple dough is then allowed to hang out for 24 hours to let
the yeast do its thing, which ultimately leads to air pockets in the dough. The result is a crispy,
light crust that serves as the perfect base for all of Blaze Pizza's many toppings.
Blaze Pizza also makes gluten-free dough, keto crusts, and cauliflower
gluten-free dough. So even if you've got certain dietary restrictions,
like a gluten allergy or intolerance, you can still enjoy their pies.
Pizza can be a pretty conservative and simple food if you want it to be - red sauce,
mozzarella cheese, a little basil, boom, you're done. But the folks behind Blaze
Pizza are taking a totally different approach, offering unique and artisanal ingredients that
go beyond the standard cheese, pepperoni, and supreme menu items offered at most restaurants.
In addition to fun toppings like Italian meatballs or garlic pesto sauce, the culinary
team at Blaze Pizza isn't afraid to experiment with some outside-the-box ingredients, too.
Blaze Pizza recently created a pizza with White Claw,
the popular alcoholic seltzer drink. Instead of adding the usual water to their pizza dough,
they substituted mango White Claw. The alcohol cooked off while the pizza was
in the super-hot oven, leaving behind just a tiny hint of mango flavoring.
If you've ever made pizza at home, then you know that when you're starving, it can feel
like it takes forever before all the cheese has finally melted and the crust gets crispy.
Not at Blaze Pizza. In fact, the pizza cooks at Blaze Pizza restaurants only bake each pizza for a
maximum of 180 seconds - three minutes, to be exact - because the oven is so incredibly hot.
Blaze Pizza's ovens can reach temperatures of up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit,
which essentially flash cooks each pizza in record time.
Because of this, each location can churn out more than 200 pizzas an hour.
The team at Blaze understands the oven inside and out,
including where any hot spots might be located - they know if and when they need to move the
pizzas around to get the perfect level of doneness. The specially trained crew
of people who bake the pizzas are called pizzasmiths or pizzaiolo, an Italian word
that literally translates to "someone who makes pizzas in a pizzeria." How very appropriate.
Blaze Pizza takes its commitment to using only the freshest ingredients
very seriously. In 2017, the popular pizza chain decided to completely stop
using ingredients that contained artificial flavors, colors, preservatives,
and other additives. They also stopped using high-fructose corn syrup at all restaurants.
They called this bold move the "Keepin' It Real" initiative. It took them 18 months to find new
suppliers and work with existing suppliers to find sources for all-natural ingredients.
On the menu, this means that you won't find any nitrites in Blaze Pizza's cured meats,
nor will you find any artificial preservatives in the popular chain's salad dressings or sauces.
Blaze Pizza locations also began offering Blue Sky cane sugar sodas
and began using barbecue sauce made without corn syrup. They promise that pizza-lovers
will be able to taste - and appreciate - the difference that all these changes have made.
Blaze Pizza is truly a modern restaurant chain, through and through. They understand the values of
their customers - mostly young people, including Millennials and Gen Z-ers - and they're putting
their money where their mouth is. All Blaze Pizza locations use 100 percent eco-friendly packaging.
This means that every single food storage container, soda cup, and utensil is recyclable,
compostable, or made from post-consumer reclaimed materials. In 2019, the popular pizza chain
also started getting rid of plastic straws, replacing them with new domed lids instead.
According to the Blaze Pizza website,
"Forks, knives, cups, lids - even those cute little containers that
hold the salad dressing - were thoughtfully chosen
because they left a smaller footprint than most commonly available choices.”
Blaze Pizza wants everyone to feel comfortable at its restaurant locations, so the chain partners
with award-winning restaurant architect Ana Henton to create a warm, welcoming vibe.
The goal? To design restaurants that add "dimension" to your experience and
exteriors - fire pits, bright lights, funky patterns - that also help tell the Blaze Pizza
story, according to the company's website. Restaurant locations typically range in size
from 2,200 to 3,000 square feet, with even more space included in the outdoor patio. The
restaurant locations play college alt-rock music to help keep things lively and upbeat for diners.
For her part, Henton specializes in designing restaurants both large and small.
She's formally trained as an architect and holds a master's degree from Princeton University.
She also cut her teeth by working at top-notch architecture firms before
launching her own business, Ana Henton Designs.
People just love Disney. Even grown adults flock to the Disney theme parks on a regular
basis to meet characters, ride the rides, and just generally enjoy the whimsical atmosphere
and the warm weather. Perhaps that's why the Disney Springs location of Blaze Pizza is so
wildly successful. Every day, thousands of people visit this restaurant located in Disney Springs,
which is basically like a large, outdoor Disney-themed shopping mall near Orlando, Florida.
In fact, this location is so busy that it can produce up to 3,000 pizzas per day.
Blaze even argues that it's likely the busiest pizza joint on the planet. The company calls
this their "flagship location" and you can see from pictures just how massive it really is.
This specific location was designed with high-volume pizza-making in mind,
ensuring that hungry diners can get in and out in a jiffy without getting too hangry along the way.
Let's face it, we all have those days where we just don't feel like leaving the house,
especially not to visit a busy restaurant packed with people.
If you don't feel like putting on pants or you just don't want to run into someone you know,
consider the fact that you can now make your very own Blaze Pizza at home.
The popular pizza chain offers take-home pizza kits at participating locations. Even if you
don't have a 900-degree pizza oven at home, you can still enjoy a warm and delicious pizza pie.
The kits come in varying sizes and include everything you need to get cooking,
including a ball of dough, dusting flour, pizza sauce, and up to seven toppings. Chef
Brad Kent also hopped on YouTube from his home kitchen to explain exactly what you need to
do to make the perfect Blaze Pizza at home.
There are more than 300 Blaze Pizza locations in various states around the country.
Now, they're also taking their build-your-own-pizza franchise overseas,
with new locations in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. All told, there are
four international locations so far, and Blaze Pizza promises that even more are in the works.
You can expect to see Blaze Pizza locations opening in the near future in Mexico,
Asia, and Europe, according to an interview a Blaze Pizza executive gave to Skift.
The company hopes to expand to a total of 1,000 locations around the world by 2022, an ambitious
goal that also aligns with the company's plans to go public in the same year. The chain operates
with a franchise model, with each new location taking about 20 weeks to design, build, and open.
In addition to their diverse crust offerings,
Blaze Pizza can also accommodate diets like the keto diet or the vegan diet.
Since people following a vegan diet don't eat any animal products,
you might be wondering how on earth a pizza chain could possibly accommodate them.
Well, Blaze Pizza has found a way to do it and make it delicious to boot.
Their vegan pizza can be made with a vegan spicy chorizo, soy-free vegan cheese, and tons of fresh
vegetables. Three types of their standard dough - original, gluten-free, and high-rise - are also
all vegan anyway, so there's no need to ask for a special crust if you're vegan or vegetarian.
For keto dieters, the chain offers a special crust that has just 6 grams of net carbs.
Of course, you'll still need to factor in any carbs in the toppings you choose,
but this is a great start nonetheless. The keto crust is made without flour,
which Blaze Pizza's chefs have replaced with flaxseed, cheese, and eggs.
The people who work at Blaze Pizza locations around the country genuinely seem to enjoy their
jobs. It's a fast-paced environment, so every shift flies by in the blink of an eye. Plus,
the company encourages its employees to be themselves when they come to
work - they want their employee's authentic personalities to shine through, so long as
they are offering top-notch customer service and making delicious pizzas at the same time.
The company often promotes from within, with employees rising through the ranks
to the positions of shift leader, then manager, then corporate.
And for employees who want to be their own boss,
they can easily apply to open up their own franchise location, too.
Blaze Pizza's franchise fee is between $20,000 and $30,000 per store, with a continuous payment of
seven percent of sales to go to advertising and royalties, according to the company's website.
As a franchise owner, you'll spend two weeks training at their headquarters in Pasadena,
California, then two weeks training at your store.
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