Pieology, The fastest-growing restaurant in America should terrify traditional pizza chains

Pieology is taking over America.

The fast-casual pizza restaurant is the fastest-growing chain in America, according to data compiled by Technomic.

Pieology has 60 units in 11 states. The company expects to nearly double that number by the end of the year. 24 new locations are anticipated to open by the end of the summer.

Pieology's founder, Carl Chang, told Business Insider the company started when he identified a problem in the pizza industry.

"Pizza for us was somewhat broken," Chang, who is the brother and former coach of professional tennis player Michael Chang, said. "Pizza used to be a celebration when you were with family and friends ... now it somewhat has become a bit more [of a] convenience food or a coupon food if you will." Pizzas from chain restaurants were often perceived as boring in an era of customization led by the fast-casual Mexican-food chain Chipotle.

Chang knew he wanted Pieology to include an "environment that created inspiration." For instance, a quote board in every store features inspirational quotes. He also wanted the restaurant to be a "celebration of food." Pieology seeks the appeal of customers by allowing them to customize their pizzas (making it similar to Chipotle) "" from wheat crust to gluten-free crust to vegetarian pizzas to dairy-free cheese. There are 40 toppings, and a custom pizza is $8 or less.

Chang calls everyone who comes to dine at Pieology a "pieologist." Chang uses several different vendors, and he encourages produce to be locally sourced as much as possible. The dough for the crust is made in-house.

Pielogy also caters to the local demographic and alters the menu for each individual community. For instance, it uses garlic from Gilroy, California, which Chang calls "the garlic capital of the world," in its local pizzas there.

As the company plans to expand to more locations, Chang faces challenges.

He views his competitor to be Blaze Pizza, another pizza chain with custom-made pizzas that threatens some big-name pizza brands. But Chang says Blaze's "goals are a number of units." "I guess that's a qualifier for winning," he added. "For me, it's a bit different." In the future, Chang simply hopes Pieology "becomes a brand of relevance, one that's recognized for truly making a difference at the local level." That's Pieology's secret: Keeping the focus on the community and individual while expanding so rapidly.

At the end of the day, Chang "" who always will try new variations of pizza but says his favorite is the "base product" (a cheese pizza) "" is simply proud of his business and what it means to him.

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