Blaze Fast-Fire’d Pizza, a leading fast-casual artisanal pizza chain, has opened its new flagship restaurant in Disney Springs at Walt Disney World Resort. Known for its chef-driven recipes, the 150th Blaze restaurant debuts in an architecturally innovative structure that was designed specifically for this location.
Blaze’s menu centers on its artisanal “build-your-own” pizzas, to which guests can add any toppings for one flat price. In addition, the restaurant features fresh-made salads, a variety of lemonades and aguas frescas,, real cane sugar sodas, and a large selection of craft beer and wine. Driven by its commitment to “Intelligent Choices for Our Pizzas, People & Planet,” all dough is made in-house, pizza and salad ingredients are free from artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives, and the restaurant uses only eco-friendly packaging.
At 5,000 square feet, the new restaurant is much larger than a typical Blaze Pizza and will feature two “blazing” open hearth ovens and two guest service lines. The restaurant has seating for 200 and will accept the Disney Dining Plan.
“Our mission at Blaze is really simple: we’re taking pizza back to its roots,” says Jim Mizes, president and COO of Blaze Pizza. “By making dough in-house, carefully sourcing ingredients, and cooking by fire, we’re giving guests a great way to enjoy artisanal pizza in mere minutes.”
“We are excited to be part of the new Disney Springs expansion where we get the chance to introduce our custom-built artisanal pizzas to guests from around the world,” says Rick Wetzel, co-founder of Blaze Pizza. “True to Disney’s high standards, we have built an amazing flagship restaurant that will include interesting architectural elements, great service, and fantastic meals.”
Located in the heart of Town Center, the newest neighborhood in Disney Springs, the new Blaze Pizza restaurant honors the Disney tradition of storytelling by tying into the Disney Springs’ turn-of-the century Florida theme, with a building modeled after an 1850’s-era sawmill that has undergone a contemporary design renovation. The structure showcases the evolution of wood construction, from early, traditional timber framing to modern-day feats of high-strength wood engineering. To highlight the change, the restaurant uses single species wood in the open kitchen and ordering area, including lumber milled from a Cypress log felled over 200 years ago and reclaimed from Florida’s Apalachicola River. Materials then transition to multi-species wood in the indoor dining room, with tables and benches arranged to mimic logs entering the structure from the adjacent spring. The design marks a final evolution on the outdoor patio, which features furniture made from eco-friendly, reclaimed wood and sawdust composite. The capstone of the restaurant is a large, covered patio that cantilevers over the waterfront, where guests can dine. Award-winning Los Angeles designer Ana Henton worked with Morris Architects to bring the project to life.
