Organic Growth
Pizza Fusion Finds Solid Sales In Organic Liquid

    The two old friends thought it might be fun to channel three of their passions — pizza, healthy eating and the environment — into a restaurant concept with a “common sense business model” that would benefit the customer, the employee and the environment alike.
    “We’ve been friends since college and kept in touch,” Lazar says. “(Gordon) was in real estate, and I was in design and printing at the time. We’d always talked about doing a business together, but it had to be something we both had a passion for. Sometimes jobs can get a little boring after 10 years.
    “We both contemplated opening a lounge or a restaurant concept, and nothing really sparked those creative juices,” he says. “And then one day, we talked about doing a pizza lounge, because everyone loves pizza. We heard about the pizza lounge trend, where it’s a bar and a pizza place.”
    And the soundness of the pizza concept in general was appealing.
    “You don’t see too many pizza places going out of business,” Lazar says. Still, the idea wasn’t enough to get the pair moving.

Common Sense
    “We started toying around with different ideas, and one of them was, instead of having delivery drivers in their beat-up cars polluting the air, let’s do something with hybrid cars,” Lazar says. “The car actually came before the organic concept, but that wasn’t enough to really get us going.
    “We realized we were onto something. If we were going to do it, let’s send a message that we wanted to do our part for the environment, so we bought three hybrid cars.
    We decided that we wanted to take it one step further. “I was eating about 25 percent organic at the time, so we thought that would be a great fit,” Lazar says. “You can’t eat organically unless you’re living at Whole Foods or making all your meals at home.”
    It was then that the all-organic concept of Pizza Fusion was born, and the first small unit opened in February 2006. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Pizza Fusion offers not just organic pizza, but organic beer and wine
as well.

Heart Behind the Hype
    “The cool part about it for us is that we’re not doing this for marketing or the trendiness of it,” Lazar says. “We’re doing it because it just makes sense. It’s not a marketing thing, but it does help. I’m not going to lie; it’s been great for business. But it’s something that we believe in. Since we started the whole concept, I’ve gone 100 percent organic at my house. Pretty much everyone here in the office is driving a hybrid. There is some trickle-down that does happen. People do take note of it.
    “The business model, more than anything, is really what’s gotten everyone’s attention. Instead of regular paper plates and plastic knives and forks, we use plastic knives and forks made from corn fibers or sugar fibers. They’re fully compostable. We offer a recycling buy-back program for our boxes. We offer 25 cents for anyone who brings their boxes back. All of our uniforms are made with 100 percent organic cotton.
    “We purchase renewable energy certificates to offset the power in our stores. All of our cleaning supplies are environmentally friendly. We have a lot of integrity in what we do.”

The Beverage Program
    The same consumer interests in the food at Pizza Fusion are the same desires that make the chain’s beverage selection an easy sell.
    “There’s no pesticides used, no chemicals, no preservatives,” Lazar says. “You just know you’re putting something better into your body.
    “We’re really big on the little guy. That’s the mentality of a lot of these microbreweries and these smaller organic breweries. That’s true of the wineries we’ve been dealing with.” Presently, Pizza Fusion carries Butte Creek organic beers from California, including a lager, pilsner, a porter and an IPA.
    And those not enjoying their pizza with an ice-cold brew are complementing it with a glass of vino.
    “We started out with a few signature wines,” Lazar says. “We went with one winery called Frey. They’re very big in the organic industry as a no-sulfites-added wine. Stellar is the other one, which is also no-sulfites-added. We’re in the process of extending and growing the wine menu, because there have been so many great organic wines that are coming about.” Pizza Fusion also carries Cooper Mountain, Badger Mountain and Cooper Hill wines.
    For now, Pizza Fusion’s alcohol beverage offerings remain just beer and wine.
“We’ve found traditionally that beer and wine works best with pizza and doesn’t require an expensive license,” Lazar says.
    So logical is the appeal of the organic beverage offerings to the Pizza Fusion organic-seeking demographic that with each new location, the concept begins gradually taking on more attributes of a bar, in addition to its core pizzeria identity, to accommodate the interest.
    “The Fort Lauderdale, store which opened up not too long ago has seats for about 30 people, and that’s much more of a lounge atmosphere,” Lazar says. “It’s very hip and very trendy.
    “When we get into different areas, the footprint of the store grows a little bit more,” he says. “We’re getting ready to do the Palm Beach Gardens store, which is just north of West Palm Beach. It will have an area in the corner for live entertainment and will cater to more of a bar/lounge feel, where you can come in at 11 p.m., bring a date and get organic dessert and organic beer and wine and just hang out.”

Better Off
    “People ask, ‘Are you afraid people are going to knock off your idea?’ and I say, ‘I hope so,’” Lazar says. “The more people who start eating like this and thinking like this and running their businesses like this, the better off we’ll all be.”