Aaron Landry

Zpizza’s Napoli, originally uploaded by Aaron Landry.

Zpizza is a Laguna Beach-based chain championing California-style pizza. California-style, as Slice describes is that “the crust is more a vehicle for unique toppings and striking flavor combinations not typically found in Italian cuisine.” Zpizza’s menu fits the description.

Their first location in the Minneapolis area recently opened and Ian, Nick and I decided to check it out. It’s in a strip mall adjacent to a grocery store and the decor is like an upscale slice shop mixed with a Noodles & Company — one orders and pays at the counter, you fill your own fountain drink and your pizza is brought out in ten minutes. They also keep hot slices for ordering quickly: I saw some classic pepperoni but they had some vegetable combination and pineapple slices ready to go. A great model for lunch. They have WiFi as well if you’re bringing your work with you.

We ordered the Napoli, which is a derivative of the Margherita. We chose to have it with the whole wheat crust which we found to be soft and rather sweet. Ingredients tasted fresh and the sauce was strong on the garlic — no complaints from me though. Just a right amount of cheese for me as well: not loaded on like most pizzas in the midwest. Very tasty and we all left satisfied. Our bill was $22.61 for the pizza and three drinks.

Ordering at Zpizza has a number of options I’ve never heard of on a pizza before: pili pili oil, spiced veggie burger, truffle oil and sweet corn for example. You can also replace the sauce with BBQ sauce, chipotle pesto, Thai sauce and others. One could easily never have the same pizza twice here.

I’ll be back.

Zpizza
1607 County Road C W
Roseville, MN 55113
651-633-3131