The Great Pizza Debate:

Has Technology Killed The Family Pizza Joint?

Review of Pie Five Pizza, Pieology, MOD Pizza

After much prodding and after seeing Pie Five, Pieology, and MOD Pizza pop up at nearly a dozen locations across the St. Louis area, Stlpizzaguy decided his blog would not be complete without addressing the newest pizza craze sweeping the country: fast-casual pizza. Thanks to advances in oven technology and the availability of locally sourced ingredients, these restaurant chains may become as ubiquitous as Walgreens. After all, pizza is America’s favorite food.

So what has changed that should make Pizza Hut, Dominos, Papa Johns, and even the local family pizza place worried?  Every single fast-casual pizza place credits new oven technology as the critical component to their business. Even as recent as 2010, no ovens existed that could cook a high-quality pizza quickly enough. Dough technology has also evolved so the new ovens keep proof time, blend, and protein content stabilized.

In 2015, the fast-casual industry rose by 11.5 percent, outpacing the remainder of the restaurant industry’s growth of 4.1 percent.  Business experts credit most of that growth to assembly line style, custom-built pizza. Three of the five fastest growing brands in the Top 500 Chain Restaurants were fast-casual pizza chains Blaze Pizza, MOD Pizza, and Pieology Pizzeria.

For a little history lesson on fast-casual pizza, Pie Five is considered a pioneer and the catalyst for the industry. Pie Five is owned by Rave Restaurant Group, who also owns Pizza Inn. In the summer of 2010, Pizza Inn was looking for ways to expand and former CEO Charlie Morrison proposed entering the fast-casual niche. The problem was no chain had been successful with fast-casual pizza.

TurboChef, a manufacturer of rapid-cook ovens, approached Pizza Inn with their conveyor oven that fully cooks a pizza in two minutes and delivers consistent results. The oven combines conveyor and convection technologies, including multiple fans that blow hot air at speeds up to 60 mph. Computer-controlled modules help direct the hot air flow toward a cover plate with holes, and the air flows out in jets, which is then balanced for even baking, browning and crisping. Pie Five's oven can reach a temperature of 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Both MOD and Pieology use a stone oven that cooks pizzas at 800 degrees. 

After this short history lesson, I encourage you to try Pie Five, MOD Pizza and Pieology. The pizza quality at these chains is actually decent, but the Sistine Chapel was not painted in a day. I’m afraid pizza is like art, where the average person can easily confuse expensive pieces of art and well-done forgeries. Stlpizzaguy will lay out the case for these innovative new pizza places. Pizza lovers can decide for themselves whether they are the real deal or phony.

Pie Five Pizza (located in Chesterfield and Richmond Heights) 

Pie Five was a pleasant experience as my pizza was completed in 2½ minutes. The toppings on the 11-inch pizza for $6.99 were definitely fresh. Walking into Pie Five reminds me of walking into Subway, seeing all the toppings out in the black containers, you pick what you want, and your pizza is ready to go. Except that the first question they ask you at Pie Five is, “What type of crust do you want?” The dough is balled up and ready, but I could tell the lack in quality by the dough. I’m a big dough boy, and at the end of the day the freshness of the crust matters. On their pan pizza, you can taste the dough is not fresh, high quality stuff, but instead slightly spongy.  Pie Five offers thin, pan, and gluten-free crust. Because this is St. Louis, they also offer and advertise Provel cheese as an option. All Pie Five Pizzas are cooked using a combination conveyor/convection type oven, literally making the kitchen look like a mini-assembly line.

Famous St. Louisian Yogi Berra loves pizza as much as Stlpizzaguy. Pie Five uses this as wall decor. 

This is a pepperoni pan pizza from Pie Five.  

Pieology (Located in St. Charles, Creve Coeur, South County) 

My friend Tim Heimsoth lives at the Streets of St. Charles in an apartment, and he eats a 11.5 inch pizza for $8.45 at Pieology weekly. Pieology pizzas are cooked in a stone oven in less than 3 minutes. In my opinion they have the best crust of the three. If you walk in to order a pizza, you are easily able to see the nutrition facts on the menu. They also offer online ordering if you want to carry-out. Earlier this year, Panda Express bought a minority stake in Pieology to prove that orange chicken and pizza can be friends.  

Tim Heimsoth enjoys a chicken, bacon, and ranch pizza at Pieology.

My pizza from Pieology: sausage, pepperoni, and jalapenos. 

MOD Pizza (located in Ladue, Kirkwood, Ellisville, Cottleville, Wentzville, Lindenwood) 

MOD is an acronym for Made On Demand. For only $7.87 you get an 11-inch thin crust pizza with all the toppings you want and every other modification you might desire. Their pizzas are cooked in approximately three minutes in a stone oven that reaches 800-degrees Fahrenheit. They have a tasty hot buffalo sauce that is almost too spicy. Again, the toppings are fresh. Although the pizza is decent and the crust is crispy on the edges, the middle is almost too thin and spongy.  Some pizza lovers have been turned off by their extra-thin crust, but their robust expansion is saying otherwise. Also, they have a cool MOD Squad marketing campaign, and they encourage community involvement with pictures of employees volunteering at local charities on a wall at their location. Every year for one week they donate $1 from every pizza to a local charity of the employees choosing.

MOD Pizza uses a super-hot stone oven to cook their pizzas in approximately three minutes.  

I ordered a pepperoni, sauasage, and jalapeno pepper pizza from MOD. 

THE BOTTOM LINE ON FAST-CASUAL PIZZA

"In Stlpizzaguy’s world all types of pizza--fast-casual and old-fashioned slow pizza--can peacefully coexist."

PROS:

Customization: have it your way. No charge for extra or outrageous toppings. At some pizza places, the charge for extra toppings is steep. Toppings at all the places taste very fresh. Kids and adventurous people will especially like fast-casual pizza. 

They may actually make a pizza faster than Jimmy John’s makes a sub sandwich. The wait time at Pie Five was 2 and ½ minutes.

They would be great to have at airports. The ovens are small enough to fit in airport kiosks.

Great for a person on a short lunch break. When I worked at Omega Plumbing Company in college, we used to go to Imo’s when we only had 30 minutes for lunch. Most of our lunch time was wasted waiting for our pizzas to cook. With the fast-casual pizza place, you can spend more of your lunch time eating pizza and relaxing. 

Great place to take kids. Kids are often pickier about what type of pizza they like, and are forced to eat toppings their parents like. At the fast-casual pizza places, kids can get exactly what they want.

Lower calories. Generally, personal pizzas are lower-calorie and are a form of portion control. Pieology Pizzeria is smart in advertising their calorie content, and many pizzas there are below 800 calories.

CONS:

Slightly lower quality. The dough at these places is all balled up and ready to go. I noticed that the dough was spongy when I ordered Pie Five’s pan pizza and did not taste fresh. Other issues were a large bubble on one of my pieces at Mod Pizza. But overall, the quality is up there with the other pizza chains. It’s smart of Pieology and MOD to only offer thin-crust pizza, so you can’t taste the quality of the dough as much as you can taste the fresh toppings. And there is always the old aphorism: you get what you pay for. 

More automation, less labor intensive. Most of the fast-casual pizza places use an oven controlled largely by a computer. I like the idea that a human has some involvement in the creation of my pizza.

National chains, and franchised. Stlpizzaguy personally prefers local, non-chain restaurants. I am also worried that the fast-casual places may replace mom and pop, and other higher-end pizza places. But in Stlpizzaguy’s world, and we can only hope that in our world, all types of pizza can peacefully coexist. 

Coming up next, look out for my guide to different types of pizza ovens, a review of Mellow Mushroom, and of course more of Stlpizzaguy's top 10 pizzas in St. Louis.