Blaze Pizza

Located at 4522 West Wendover Avenue in the Wendover Commons shopping center Greensboro, Blaze Pizza offers made-to-order pizzas. Keto and vegan options (including cauliflower crust) are available as is online ordering.

Like Pieology, Blaze is all about flexibility and speed. You pick your size (11 inch or 14 inch) and then customize the dough, sauce, cheese, meats, and vegetables or choose from eight or so favorites. Everything gets thrown into an uber-hot (“fast fire’d”) oven and comes out in under five minutes. In theory, this would make for an efficient way to quickly churn out crowd-pleasing food. In practice, however, it is chaos incarnate.

My wife and I ordered online for in-store pick-up and arrived to find a line of others who had done the same. Most got their pizzas quickly, but one customer had been waiting for a half hour. Our delay wasn’t nearly that long, thankfully, but there was a noticeable gap between the receipt of our first pizza and the receipt of our second. A roving manager expressed concern and made a good-faith effort to make sure everyone left happy, but his was not an easy task. In fact, the same could be said of the entire crew. Everyone we observed seemed to be working hard pounding out dough knots, lifting pizzas in and out of ovens, calling out orders, etc. And despite all this hustle and bustle, Blaze still struggled to keep pace with demand.

That bit of calamity aside, however, the food was better than expected. We went with 11-inch meat lovers and hot links pies as well as a two-pack of dough knots. The knots were legitimately some of the best I’ve ever had: just the right proportion of chewy and crunchy with plenty of flavor. The pizza wasn’t world-beating, but it was satisfying. The ingredients were tasty, and while the crust was nothing special, it was at least evenly cooked.

For those seeking hot, fresh pizza in a hurry, Blaze could be the answer if you catch them during a slower time. But if you’re in for a wait regardless, go a few miles down Wendover and try Uncle Maddios.