UPPER CRUST - Blaze Pizza

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LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL
THE
Volume 34, Number 25
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COMMUNITY
OF
BUSINESS
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June 18 - 24, 2012 • $3.00
Rivals Hope to Land LAX Duty Free Landlords Don’t
RETAIL: Big names line up local
Dig Subway Plan
backers to aid concession bids.
CONSTRUCTION: Pair tap
By JAMES RUFUS KOREN Staff Reporter
Seriously, folks:
Bob Hope Airport
may change its
name again.
CEQA to bury Metro project.
Remember the big food fight at Los Angeles
International Airport a few years ago? The one that
pitted local celebrity chefs against each other over
who would get to broil burgers for travelers?
Get ready for another. Except this time, instead of a
fight over restaurant and retail concessions, it’s a battle
for the privilege to sell billions of dollars worth of
duty-free booze, tobacco and clothes to free-spending
By ALFRED LEE Staff Reporter
Some of downtown L.A.’s biggest players are
taking on the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority over a planned subway route that would
tear up a major Financial District thoroughfare.
Owners of City National Plaza, the Westin
Bonaventure hotel, Citigroup Center and the California
Club are balking at the prospect of years of construction on their three-block stretch of Flower Street.
The owners have tried to play down the dispute,
but months of negotiations have broken out into
legal wrangling. And it even has prompted developer Jim Thomas, chairman and chief executive of
City National Plaza owner Thomas Properties
Group Inc., to employ a legal strategy usually
PHOTO BY THOMAS WASPER
Please see RETAIL Page 76
Doing Duty: DFS at LAX international terminal.
PAGE 3
News &
Analysis
Please see CONSTRUCTION Page 75
Mall Owner Sold
On Century City
How Scott
Davids made his
special effects
firm … well,
special. PAGE 5
REAL ESTATE: Westfield
plans expansion, new HQ.
By JACQUELYN RYAN Staff Reporter
Real
Estate
Hollywood’s first
office building
since Great
Recession
ready to break
ground. PAGE 71
MAIL TO:
PHOTO BY THOMAS WASPER
Round and
Round: Paul
Hibler works
on a pie at
Pitfire Artisan
Pizza in
West Hollywood.
The Westfield Group is gearing up for a $500
million makeover of its Century City shopping
center – already one of the top performers in the
country – at the same time it plans to move its U.S.
headquarters closer to its prized outdoor mall.
The Sydney, Australia, mall developer is slated
to sign a lease with landlord JP Morgan Chase &
Co. this month to move from its longtime
Brentwood offices into the Century Plaza Towers,
at 2029-2049 Century Park East.
“Similar to Westfield’s Sydney headquarters,
where the office is ‘on top of the shops,’ the objective is greater proximity to a flagship property,”
Please see REAL ESTATE Page 77
UPPER CRUST
Pizza places vie to spin artisan pie into dough
By BETHANY FIRNHABER Staff Reporter
B
EFORE Nancy Silverton opened Pizzeria
Mozza in 2006, there were few places
Angelenos could go to find the kind of handcrafted artisan pizzas she serves. But pizzerias dishing up similarly styled pies have been popping up all
over Los Angeles lately, and more are in the oven.
Pitfire Artisan Pizza, for example, a small Venice
chain with five locations, will nearly double by opening four more pizzerias in the next 18 months.
SPECIAL REPORT
BANKING & FINANCE
Awash in Cash
Though his Pitfire predates Mozza, cofounder Paul Hibler said he gives Silverton credit
for popularizing artisan pizza in Los Angeles.
“We’re eight years older than Mozza, but I
think they really started this,” he said. “Nancy
really opened the eyes of people in Los Angeles.”
Other pizza restaurants slated to open this
summer include dinner-oriented Italian places
Soleto and Trattoria Neapolis, opening by the
L.A.’s private-equity firms have
$33.5 billion in uninvested cash,
near an all-time high. Money is
flowing in from investors seeking
big returns, but private-equity
firms just can’t find enough good
companies to buy. Read about their
dilemma in this special report.
Please see DINING Page 74
BEGINNING ON PAGE 21
74 LOS ANGELES BUSINESS JOURNAL
JUNE 18, 2012
Dining: Pizza Makers Pursue Slice of Artisan Pie
Continued from page 1
end of the month in downtown Los Angeles and
Pasadena, respectively. In addition, two Blaze
Fast Fire’d Pizza locations, a fast-casual concept
by Rick and Elise Wetzel of Wetzel’s Pretzels,
will open in Irvine in July and in Pasadena in
September. Another fast-casual pizza concept,
800 Degrees, opened in Westwood in March.
While chefs seem to be running to get a
slice of the artisan pizza pie, those who have
been around longer said it’s not that easy.
Hibler said chefs can’t expect to succeed if
they haven’t taken the time to learn how to
craft a good pizza.
“You don’t just buy a pizza oven and start
making pizza, then expect that it’s going to be
good,” he said. “It’s a craft like any other; it
requires time to develop your style. You can’t
skip to the end.”
Rick Wetzel said that’s why he and his wife
hired L.A. chef Bradford Kent of Olio Pizzeria
& Café to help develop the menu for Blaze.
“He has spent years in front of the oven, and
he brings that to our chain,” Wetzel said. “It
gives us a big advantage. That’s why I think I’ll
be one of the guys who come out on the other
side. It’s easy to get into the pizza business, but
it’s hard to make a really good pizza.”
Innovative Dining Group will open
Soleto shortly. The company currently owns
and operates 11 restaurants in Los Angeles,
including Sushi Roku and BOA Steakhouse
restaurants. Lee Maen, a partner at
Innovative, said he has a lot of respect for
people who have perfected their pizza skills.
But even though making pizza is a departure
from what the company has done in the past,
he believes the restaurant will be successful.
“I don’t think it’s easy to come out of
nowhere and do something great,” he said.
“But it definitely happens.”
PHOTO BY THOMAS WASPER
Standing the Heat: Paul Hibler in kitchen at West Hollywood’s Pitfire Artisan Pizza.
What’s behind the popularity of artisanal
pizza in Los Angeles today? First, diners are
demanding higher-quality ingredients. Second,
pizza restaurants have wide profit margins.
Restaurant consultant Jerry Prendergast in
Culver City said chefs are opening pizzerias
because food costs for pizza are low and
those savings can be passed along to diners.
“People are looking for bargains, but
they’re looking for something that’s exciting
and interesting, too,” he said. “Artisan pizza
gives them that chance.”
Both 800 Degrees and Blaze are geared
toward bargain hunters and the lunch crowd.
They’re fast-casual concepts that allow diners to
customize each pie by means of an assembly line
process, similar to Chipotle Mexican Grill. L.A.
chef Anthony Carron collaborated with Umami
Restaurant Group to open 800 Degrees.
Pizzas at both Blaze and 800 Degrees will
cost diners about $7 each on average, and a
pizza at Pitfire runs about $10. Mozza pizzas
are more expensive, ranging from $11 to $19.
But with more than 67,000 restaurants
across the nation, pizzerias are the biggest
dining category in the United States.
Sandwich places (including Subway) and
burger joints (including McDonald’s) are the
second and third biggest, with 56,000 units
and 47,000 units, respectively.
Darren Tristano, executive vice president
at Chicago market research firm Technomic
Inc., said that even though the numbers might
suggest there’s little space for new pizza players, there is room at the table for those
responding to changing consumer tastes.
“The pizza market is very mature. It’s very
saturated,” he said. “But it’s also a staple in
American consumers’ lives. What we’re starting
to see is a demand for better quality on the consumer side being met on the restaurant side.”
Artisan pizza is defined as crafted with
dough made from scratch, topped with highquality ingredients, then baked for a short time
in a very hot oven, usually wood-fired. Most
artisan pizzas are loosely based on the classic
Italian pizza from Naples, characterized by a
thin base crust and a thicker, bubbly outer crust.
Hibler opened Pitfire’s first pizzeria in
1997 with co-founder David Sanfield to sell
artisan pies in North Hollywood. The company opened its most recent restaurant in March
on Fairfax Avenue in West Hollywood.
Now, after five restaurants in Los Angeles
County, the pizza company is expanding its
horizons. Three of the four restaurants the
company is planning to open will be outside
the county; one each in Newport Beach, San
Diego, and in or near Oxnard. The fourth will
be in Manhattan Beach.
But while Pitfire grows, Hibler said he
wants to avoid giving the restaurants a corporate feel. That’s why the company hires different designers to create a different look for each
restaurant – in contrast to a chain such as L.A.based California Pizza Kitchen, which is
working to reclaim its former popularity.
“Eating pizza is a communal experience,”
he said. “You can’t have a shiny corporate
joint and expect people to feel that.”
The Newport Beach location, which will be
one of the first two new Pitfire pizzerias to launch,
is just around the block from a second Pizzeria
Mozza, which opened at the end of last year.
Hibler said he doesn’t think the two will
compete for customers.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “There’s plenty
of room for a couple of goofy artisan pizza
guys down there.”
Consultant Prendergast said that he doesn’t
think the market for artisan pizza in Los Angeles
is oversaturated yet, but that day is not far off.
“We have a large population, so I’m not
sure we’re at the stage where we’re overwhelmed yet,” he said. “We have a little ways
to go, but at some point it’s going to be time
for someone to open something else.”
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The following company is doing business as Comostreet.com. 8258 Billowvista Dr. Playa
del Rey, CA 90293. This business is being conducted by 1). Tricia A. Len, 8258 Billowvista
Dr. Playa del Rey, CA 90293. 2) Leslie Len Meis, 8828 Pershing Dr. #137, Playa del Rey, CA
90293. This statement was filed with the County Clerk of Los Angeles on May 17, 2012.
Published on, 5-28-12, 6-4-12, 6-11-12, 6-18-12. Notice - this fictitious business name
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The following company is doing business as Bonterra Consulting, 225 South Lake Ave, Suite
1000, Pasadena, CA, 91101.This business is being conducted by Bonterra Consulting LLC, 2
Executive Circle, Suite 175, Irvine, CA 92614.This statement was filed with the County Clerk of
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fictitious business name statement expires on, May 23, 2017.A new fictitious business name
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