What’s Good Here? Blaze Pizza in Harbison

Blaze Pizza sets the goals pretty high for a fast-casual restaurant.

They kind of have to – they’re endorsed by NBA superstar LeBron James.

At Blaze, customers can build their own pizzas by making selections from three sauces, nine types of cheeses, eight types of meat, 19 veggies and four finishing sauces – or they can get them all for the same price of $7.85.

All of the dough is made fresh and from scratch daily (including a gluten-free option) before fermenting for 24 hours and being used for pizzas the following day.

And they aim to cook the pizza in the restaurant’s special blazing hot pizza oven in 180 seconds.

“From the time you walk in the door to the time you get your pizza shouldn’t be more than 10 minutes,” said Blaze’s new restaurant opening manager Phillip Siratt, who has been at the restaurant’s Park Terrace Drive location off Harbison Boulevard training staff for last week’s restaurant opening.

Blaze accomplishes that quick-service goal using a blazing hot, open-flame oven – the centerpiece of the restaurant – where trained “pizzasmiths” ensure that the thin-crust, generously sized personal pizzas are cooked to perfection.

If customers don’t want to select their own toppings (most do – build-your-own accounts for about 80 percent of the franchise’s business, Siratt said), they can choose from one of eight signature pizzas. The most popular one of those is the barbecue chicken pizza, topped with marinated chicken, mozzarella, red onion, banana peppers, Gorgonzola and a barbecue sauce drizzle. The Meat Eater is a close second, featuring pepperoni and house-made pork-blend meatballs.

How did Blaze Pizza get its start?

Blaze was founded by Rick and Elise Wetzel, founders and owners of California-based fast food franchise Wetzel’s Pretzels.

While out for a quick lunch break one day, the Wetzels were craving pizza but didn’t think they had enough time to order and wait on a pizza to cook. So the couple stopped at a build-your-own burrito eatery and, while in line selecting ingredients, decided they could create a pizza eatery with the same build-your-own format and one that would cook a pizza quickly using special fast-fired ovens.

In 2012, the first Blaze opened in Irvine, Calif. The Harbison location is No. 109 for the franchise, which plans to open a second Midlands location in the Village at Sandhill in Northeast Richland this summer.

What else?

In a business that can go through countless containers of ingredients and goods each week, the Wetzels have made it a goal to decrease Blaze’s carbon footprint by using items like straws made from plants rather than petroleum, as well as using eco-friendly to-go packaging and energy-efficient LED lighting. The restaurant itself was built from recycled and sustainable materials, according to the franchise’s corporate office.

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In 2012, LeBron James signed on as an original investor in the Blaze parent company and bought franchise rights for Miami and Chicago. Last fall, the Cleveland Cavaliers forward decided not to renew his contract with McDonald’s and became the official spokesperson for Blaze.

“I believe in the company. I believe in their vision. I believe in what they’re all about, the authenticity of how they make pizza, how they run their business, and I wanted to be a part of it,” James told ESPN last fall. “You know, I’m excited to be partnering with them.”

Blaze plans to open 1,000 restaurants nationwide by 2022.

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 4:39 PM with the headline "What’s Good Here? Blaze Pizza in Harbison."