Pie Five Pizza Co. has awarded a 10-unit franchise deal to Lonnie and Connie Young and Curt and Carrie Currell, who will bring the fast-casual concept to the greater Louisville area (including southern Indiana) and Lexington.
Before you start bellyaching that “Louisville already has enough pizza,” question whether we have enough of it made to order and fast. (Survey says … No we don’t!)
Fast causal pizza means customers come to the counter, choose a crust type and move down the line giving pizza makers their toppings choices.
The “five” in Pie Five alludes to transaction times that total about 5 minutes. Given the chain’s use of crusts that are parbaked multiple times a day, it can deliver such speed by baking pizzas in about 2 minutes.
Check averages are around $7 per person.
The Youngs are Louisville natives who brought McAlister’s Deli to Kentucky in 2001. They sold those franchises for a tidy sum and are now pouring that dough into Pie Five.
Though just a few years old, Pie Five has been named a 2013 Top 50 Restaurant Brand of the Year, a 2012 Hot Concepts winner by Nation’s Restaurant News and one of “10 Hot New Restaurant Chains from Established Brands” by Forbes.com.
According to Young, other Pie Five franchisees in the cue are operators of Panera Bread and Five Guys restaurants. Awfully good company, we’d say.
Young hasn’t decided where he’ll put his first unit in Kentucky, but we’ll let you know where and when that happens.
