The fast-casual pizza market continues to bubble and boil, both locally and nationally. Firenza pizza—whose tagline is “Pizza Like Never Before”—is planning to enter the St. Louis market later this fall.
A Virginia-based chain of fast casual pizzerias that delivers high-quality, artisanal pizzas baked in only three minutes, Firenza will build its first metro area store at 20 Allen Avenue, the former location of SanSai Japanese Grill in Webster Groves. SanSai CEO John Kim, who also owns the Wasabi Sushi Bar restaurants, closed the restaurant in April. The new pizzeria should open in 75 to 90 days, according to Pernikoff Construction Company, general contractor for the project.
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The three-year-old Firenza (the Italian name for the city of Florence is Firenze) currently operates 12 units and three more are in development, including the one in Webster. (For those keeping score, there are at least five current players in the local fast-casual pizza game: Blaze Pizza, Crushed Red, MOD Pizza, Pieology, and ‘ZZA Pizza + Salads.
Firenza’s owners, Dave Wood and Dave Baer, have more than 60 years of experience in the pizza business. To be successful in the crowded fast-casual segment, they felt they had to come up with a twist—so they came up with several.
For starters, they selected a gas-fired, live-flame, stone-hearth oven, which maintains a more even temperature than wood-fired or electric ovens. For the dough, they elected to use super-fine Caputo “00” flour, imported from Naples, Italy; it’s the flour of choice for Neapolitan-style pizzas. The result is a crust that’s crispy and crunchy yet airy, like the best Neapolitan pies.
Firenza offers a choice of sauces. The most popular uses crushed fresh tomatoes from a Northern California farm. A family-run company also provides the cheeses, including traditional and fresh mozzarella or a mozzarella-provolone blend.
There are 10 signature pizzas, available in two sizes: a 10-inch for approximately $9 and a 14-inch for about $17, as well as a build-your-own option. A handful of salads are also available, as well as five varieties of oven-baked wings and three kinds of breadsticks (regular, cheesy, and topped with cinnamon-sugar for dessert).
The restaurant measures just more than 3,000 square feet—slightly larger than the Firenza template, which franchisee Steve Imrie considers a plus. The wife of Firenza’s CEO used to operate a chain of frozen-treats stands in Florida, he explains, and still owns the rights to the name: Ziggy’s Frozen Treats.
“They were just waiting for the right spot to revive it, and we all believe we have found it here,” Imrie says of the family-friendly suburb.
The concept within a concept will serve what Ziggy’s calls gelati, a combination of gelato and soft-serve. (Custard can be used as well.) The concoction can be ordered from an inside counter or a walk-up window. Firenza’s Webster Groves location will be the first with an ice cream option.
As with most fast-casual pizza chains, Firenza is social media–savvy and offers myriad promotions. Every time a new location opens, for example, the first people in line win free pizza for a year. And next June, look for the “Free Pizza for Dad on Father’s Day” promotion, “because he can’t eat a new tie.”
