Chain bringing 'fast-casual pizza' to Naperville, Schaumburg

Defining the concept of "fast-casual pizza" is the biggest challenge for a restaurant chain planning to open its first suburban store in next February on 75th Street in Naperville.

Pie Five Pizza, a Texas-based chain established in 2011, finds customers often don't know how to categorize its offerings when new stores open up, said Chris Smith, senior vice president and a former Naperville resident.

Is it take-and-bake? Delivery? Carryout only? A more formal sit-down pizza place? None of the above?

"One of our biggest challenges is letting people know what we are," Smith said. "They don't know what fast-casual pizza is."

Smith said Pie Five offers customers the freedom to choose their own ingredients for a 10-inch personal pizza that can be ordered, paid for and cooked in five minutes. Instead of having to order a bigger pizza and share it with others, sometimes running into issues with who prefers which toppings, pizza fans can walk down Pie Five's assembly line and design their pie exactly how they like it, Smith said. Ten recipe pizzas also are on the menu available on four crust varieties - artisan thin, classic pan, Neapolitan whole grain and gluten-free.

"Pizza is really hot right now in the industry and it's all based around the create-your-own type of concept," Smith said. "Pizza is probably just behind hamburgers as the most popular food. But people are not accustomed to what fast-casual is and personal-size pizzas done this quickly."

Using a conveyor oven instead of a traditional deck oven allows Pie Five employees - 30 of which are expected to be hired soon for the Naperville store - to cook each pizza in 140 seconds with a consistent taste each time, Smith said.

The Naperville Pie Five will be in Springbrook Prairie Pavilion at 2531 W. 75th Street just east of Route 59. Smith, who formerly worked with Chipotle, said Pie Five is aiming to do for pizza what the fast-casual Mexican chain did for burritos. And as a former Naperville resident who lived just south of where the new restaurant will open soon, Smith said he thinks diners in town will enjoy the new option.

"I know Naperville really well and we know that the folks in Naperville really will take to this concept," Smith said.

After the Naperville store opens in February, Pie Five plans to open 16 others in the area, including a Skokie restaurant in March and a Schaumburg location in April. It's part of an expansion into the Chicago and Minneapolis markets next year for Pie Five, which now has 31 restaurants in states such as Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Utah and Virginia.