Pizza lovers in Fresh Meadows can soon create their own personal pizza pie at Blaze Pizza, which is set to make its neighborhood debut.
Modeled after the Chipotle concept as a made-to-order approach to serving customers with exceptional quality, Blaze Pizza is expected to open its doors to the public in early to mid-June, said Lawrence Lessing, executive vice president of Lessing’s Inc., who oversees the franchise division of the company.
The site is currently in the early stages of development that was formerly occupied by RadioShack located at 187-12 Horace Harding Expwy., at the Fresh Meadows Place Shopping Center. This will be Blaze Pizza’s first location in Queens, said Lessing.
“We really like that the whole community converges there and it seems like there is a really good blend of residential people and students from St. Francis Prep, St. John’s [University] and Queens College,” Lessing said. “It feels like the whole community circles around that area and we felt that there was really good energy there.”
Blaze Pizza is a Pasadena, California-based chain within the fast casual dining restaurants category. It was founded in 2011 by Elise and Rick Wetzel of Wetzel’s Pretzels. With locations nationwide, there are a total of five Blaze Pizza stores in New York City — three in Long Island, one in Staten Island and another in White Plains.
At Blaze Pizza, customers can build their own 11-inch crust pizza with fresh made-from-scratch dough and choose from over 40 different menu toppings (meat, veggies, cheese and sauces) on the assembly line, said Lessing.
“It’s a completely clean menu. There’s no nitrates, no artificial colors … it’s high-quality ingredients,” said Lessing. “You can have any combination of toppings you want. It’s made custom for you. We put it in an oven at 800 degrees and it cooks at 180 seconds.”
According to Lessing, Blaze Pizza will have a normal grand opening, but on the second day the store will have “Free Pizza Day” from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m.
“Everyone that comes by can get a free pizza. It’s one per person,” said Lessing. “We’re just basically throwing a pizza party and giving everyone a free pizza and introducing ourselves to the neighborhood.”
Overall, Lessing said they’re “super excited” to be coming to the neighborhood.
“We love this site and we feel like this community and our brand are going to be a great fit,” said Lessing. “I honestly can’t wait. I think it’s going to be a really exciting fun opening. We’re pretty pumped up.”
