By Dawn Pearson
Faster then a speeding tomato, more powerful than a flying pepperoni … what is it? It’s Blaze Pizza now open in Carmel!
The new 55-plus-seat, fast-casual restaurant, 12697 N. Pennsylvania St., across from the Meijer shopping center, allows guests to create their own custom, artisanal pizzas at lighting fast speed, all for just $6.95 each with their pizzasmiths and an open-flame pizza oven.
“The generously sized 11-inch personal pizzas are then sent to a blazing hot open-flame oven – the centerpiece of the restaurant – where dedicated pizzasmiths ensure that the thin-crust pies are ‘fast-fire’d’ in fewer than 180 seconds,” Executive Chef Brad Kent stated. (They call Kent The Pizza Whisperer.) “Each restaurant makes its own dough from scratch which requires a 24-hour fermentation period to produce his signature light-as-air, crisp crust.”
Blaze Pizza’s menu also features signature salads, fresh lemonades and house-made “S’more Pies.” For pizza fans with specific dietary needs, Blaze Pizza offers a gluten-free dough and vegan cheese. The restaurant features outdoor patio seating, a selection of wine and craft beer, and online ordering.
“The Carmel community loves pizza, but they really haven’t had a good way to enjoy a quality pie without the wait,” Kent said. “Blaze Pizza is all about letting folks enjoy custom-built artisanal pizzas at crazy fast speed. It’s a concept I’m thrilled to lend my expertise to.”
According to Joshua Levitt, of Morgan Marketing & Public Relations, Carmel has been on their list of new markets for Blaze Pizza.
“Actually, under our partnership with Blaze, we’ve been looking at Carmel for quite some time and were very pleased to be able to lease the space near Meijer,” Levitt said. “Carmel has everything that we look for in a choice location, business, residential and a very strong community.”
The process and concept is what will set Blaze Pizza apart from their competition according the Darla Bowen, marketing director of Blaze Midwest.
“It’s really three-fold first the process of making our dough and the quality of the fresh ingredients is key, the fact that everyone gets to put exactly what they want on their very own 11-inch pizza is also unique to Blaze and last but not least, once you’ve created your pizza masterpiece our blazing hot oven it’s done in three minutes or less,” Bowen said.
They are very excited to open in Carmel and will work very hard to become a part of the community too.
Bowen explained their charity and community involvement.
“We choose to support programs and charities that are unique to each of our locations. Our mission at is to ensure that we give back to the community that supports us. We spend a great deal of time looking for opportunities to become involved. Our favorite way to do this is to host fundraising events that return 20 percent of the net sales back to the group that has organized the event. It can be a school group, youth group or even a team that is looking to raise money for a walk or run.”
