James Markham has helped launch three different fast-casual
concepts, including MOD Pizza ( modpizza.com) in Seattle,
Pieology ( pieology.com) in Southern California and the afore-
mentioned Project Pie. “I think it’s universally appealing,” he
says. “People want to be able to get it the way they want it. You
can’t get it exactly the way you want it when someone’s making
it in the back kitchen.”
What took pizzeria operators so long to come up with the
idea? “As we were developing Top That! Pizza, we were wonder-
ing the same thing,” Walderich says. “One possible reason is
that pizza operators over the years have been afraid of losing
money due to the assumption that guests would overload their
pizzas with too many expensive ingredients. Or perhaps they
just flat-out didn’t think of it since pizzas have been done the
same way for all these decades. So many pizza places focus on
delivery, convenience and cheap pricing and achieve a good
level of profit, so why change?”
Technological advances helped pave the way, too, Walderich
observes. “There have always been wood-fired ovens that can
cook pizzas in as little as 90 seconds. But the advent of the
Turbo Chef ultra-fast impinger oven really set things in motion
because of its ease of use and affordability.”
You know an innovative concept has broken through to
the mainstream when the big chains hop on the bandwagon.
Dallas-based fast-casual eatery Pie Five Pizza ( piefivepizza.com)
is a Pizza Inn Holdings company, while Sbarro ( sbarro.com),
long known for its low-priced pies served in malls and air-
ports, recently opened Pizza Cucinova ( pizzacucinova.com) in
Columbus, Ohio. But the pizza giants don’t have the field to
themselves. Matt Andrew, co-founder and former president of
Moe’s Southwest Grill, launched Atlanta-based Uncle Maddio’s
Pizza Joint ( unclemaddios.com), while Smashburger master-
minds Tom Ryan and Rick Schaden, as previously mentioned,
brought Live Basil Pizza to life in Denver. Even Buffalo Wild
Wings has gotten into the act, purchasing a minority stake in
PizzaRev ( pizzarev.com) in Los Angeles. All of these companies
have aggressive growth strategies, and the Wetzels’ Blaze Pizza
has even attracted well-connected celebrity investors, including
Maria Shriver and LeBron James.
The Old-World Ways
Of course, no one knows the concept of “better pizza” like
the pizzaioli from Naples, which may explain why Neapolitan
pizza has become booming business. “Neapolitan is still really
big, and it’s getting bigger,” Wiener says. Neapolitan authenticity means following strict rules dictating quality and origin
of ingredients, dough making and proofing methods, even the
size and specs of the wood-fired oven. But that hasn’t discouraged celebrity chefs—such as Nancy Silverton, Mario Batali
and Mike Isabella—from signing on, notes Jay Jerrier, owner
Fast-casual pioneers like Lori Walderich, co-founder of Top That! Pizza,
have empowered customers to take control of their dining experience.
This chart shows the steady growth of
the pizza business around the world
between 2010 and 2013.
0
30.000
60.000
90.000
120.000
150.000
Total
Independents
Chains
201320122010
World Growth of Pizza Industry
(in billions of USD)
118.082
41.117
76.370
125.048
46.340
78.707
131.720
49.254
82.465
Source: © Euromonitor International