Today found me at Blaze Pizza in Valley West Mall in West Des Moines. I'd heard about the downtown location, but had not made it a point to head that way yet. Now that a location opened up about 14 blocks from where I work there were very little excuses left to not check them out. Blaze is not in the food court. It's on the West side of the upper level and has it's own entrance from the parking lot. If you enter from the parking lot you're actually entering from the rear of the store and have to make your way to the front. There was way more seating than I expected to see made up of booths, high tops, and lower tables.
I checked out their web site earlier this morning and decided to try their online ordering system. It's an easy system and it lets you choose your pickup time and build your pizza with their ingredients or to choose a pre-built template. Blaze offers three crust options: original, high-rise (+$2), or gluten free... If you choose to order online your pizza is pre-built, but not pre-cooked, before your arrival. Once you let them know you're there they put it in the oven so it's fresh baked.
I let the gal at the register know I had arrived (I was WAY early) but my order was already in the process of being built. I had a small issue with the online payment system...it didn't want to process my debit card for some reason, but it went through at the register just fine. To the right of the registers they offer bottled drinks and I saw a self-serve fountain machine there as well.
While I was waiting a member of the staff was standing near me and I struck up a conversation with her. I was kind of amazed watching the building and cooking process in the combination of online orders and walk-up customers coming in. Annie explained they make all their dough fresh every day and that oven is built for optimal cooking conditions inside and runs between 540 and 570 degrees (don't quote me on this). This allows them to cook fast and move a large quantity of product. In the course of our conversation she said that there are over 200 Blaze locations now nationwide and it all started with the owners of Wetzel's Pretzels. One day they really wanted pizza, but knew they didn't have time so they went to another nearby option...a Chipotle. As they were watching them assemble their food it was a light bulb moment...and thus the concept of Blaze Pizza. After a bit Annie excused herself to continue taking care of business. She thanked me for my interest and for coming in...and she gave me a 2 for 1 coupon for my next visit.
Now to the pizza. It was pretty darn good. Way better than Little Caesars and other lower price point grab-and-go pizzas. I picked the original (thin) crust and a variety of toppings (the spicy red sauce, cheeses, meats, and vegetables). The pizza was very similar to 515 Pi and other thin stone oven pizza I've had. Much faster than 515 Pi, but Blaze Pizza is operating with a much larger oven...not something available in a truck. The ingredients looked and tasted fresh. I'm not a huge fan of stone oven pizza because they don't always heat evenly and the pizza can be burnt on one side and underdone on the other. This was the case with my pizza today... You can see it in the pictures. I just about edited the photo and cropped it a little, but then I decided to leave it for transparency. I ate all of it...and it looked a worse than it actually was on that slice or two. It didn't really taste too burnt. And they'd already given me a 2 for 1 coupon...
The total with tax for my build your own pizza was $8.43. Again...very similar to what I remember paying at 515 Pi for a similar sized pie.
Yes it's a chain, but it's a good concept, and they execute it well. I have a feeling this will be the first of many trips to Blaze Pizza for me as long as they keep operating out of Valley West Mall. For some reason a lot of food service businesses don't seem to stay open in that mall for very long... I hope Blaze does well there. read more