In early January, California-based quick casual pizza chain Blaze Fast Fire'd Pizza reported that Millennial Restaurant Group, a partnership between franchise veterans Junior Bridgeman and Jim Patterson, has signed an agreement to develop 30 Blaze Pizza franchise units in Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky. With the addition of Millennial, the build-your-own pizza concept now has agreements with 23 franchise partners that include commitments to build 240 restaurants in 19 states and Washington DC over the next three to five years. Currently, Blaze Pizza has ten restaurants open in California and the Midwest, and plans to open 45 new units in key markets across the country in 2014. The 45 new restaurants will be a combination of franchisee-owned and company-owned units. Millennial Restaurant Group is jointly controlled by Bridgeman and Patterson.  Bridgeman, a former NBA player, is also the owner/operator of 125 Chili's and 195 Wendy's restaurants. Patterson, the founder of Rally's Hamburgers and Long John's Silvers, is the owner of 40 Wendy's restaurants. Wayne Albritton, former CEO of Rally's Hamburgers, will be the franchise group's Managing Partner. Blaze Pizza uses an interactive assembly line format that allows guests to create their own custom-built artisanal pizzas at fast speeds. Each pizza starts with the eleven-inch crust that is pressed fresh from a proofed dough ball. Then guests travel down the interactive assembly line to ‘co-create’ a signature pizza or design one of their own, choosing from more than 40 fresh-made sauces, hand-selected vegetables and a variety of artisanal meats and cheeses. Then, each custom-built pizza is ‘fast fire'd’ in a hot oven and ready in two to three minutes. The prototypical restaurant is 2400 square feet with seating for about 60 guests.

CATEGORY:   Quick Casual

Chain Name:  Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza

Company Name:  Blaze PizzaLLC

Street Address:   35 N. Lake Ave. Suite 710, Pasadena, California 91101

Tel:  626/584-5880                    Fax: 626/440-0090

Email:  info@blazepizza.com  & franchise@blazepizza.com      Website:    www.blazepizza.com

Menu Specialty:  Artisan pizzas on assembly line format, signature salads, fresh lemonades, craft beer and wine.

Introduced:  Mid-2012 in Irvine, California

No. of Locations:  Ten in California & Midwest.  Agreements in place for about 240 across the U.S.

Areas of Operation:  National

Types of Location:  Urban street-fronts, Shopping center pads & end caps, Mall food courts, Lifestyle/Entertainment/Transportation centers, Mixed use projects, adjacent to University.Medical facilities

BusinessType (corp., franchise, jv):   Franchises

Size Req’d:  1800 to 3000 sq. ft., ideal is 2000 to 2400 sq.ft. with patio,  food courts – 700 sq.ft. with 22 ft. frontage

Special Requirements (patio, drive-thru, etc): Patio, Within two miles- population of 40,000 or more, daytime population of 20,000 or more, median household income of $60,000. Co-tenancy with grocery, theatres, medical, educational, etc.

Contact Name:  Elise Wetzel, Rick Wetzel – Co-Founders

Jim Mizes – President, COO

Rod Lucio – Vice President, Real Estate (626/318-2170 rod@blazepizza.com)

REAL ESTATE REPRESENTATIVES:

FRANCHISE REPRESENTATIVES:

Related Chains: 

Last Report:    Restaurant & QSR Expansion Report #109   Last Update: