As Tuscaloosa’s newest and only fast, casual pizza restaurant, Pizza 120 seeks to offer its customers everything from gluten-free pizza crust to candy dessert pizzas. The restaurant opened to the public Saturday, Aug.16.
“The problem with Tuscaloosa is that it doesn’t have an upscale, fast, casual pizza place. We thought we could fill that void,” owner David Kahn said.
At Pizza 120, diners can choose from eight different 10-inch signature pizzas, including a cheeseburger pizza topped with beef, tomatoes, lettuce, cheese and ketchup. They can also build their own pizza by choosing from an array of crusts (sauces, cheeses and toppings.)
Prices range from $5.99 for a plain cheese pizza to $7.99 for unlimited toppings. The restaurant takes its namesake from the two minutes it takes for each pizza to cook.
In just the couple of days since Pizza 120 opened, University of Alabama students have already taken the opportunity to try a slice from Tuscaloosa’s newest pizza joint.
“Eating at Pizza 120 was a wonderful experience,” said Will Kennedy, a junior majoring in engineering. “I was a huge fan of the broad selection of toppings and the excellent service. I can’t wait to eat (there again.”)
Tasker Hewitt, Pizza 120’s vice president of operations, said the idea behind Pizza 120 was to have all upscale and natural ingredients at affordable prices. To meet these goals, the restaurant imports cheese straight from Wisconsin and even imported their pizza oven from Italy.
“We wanted to come up with a dough that was a real upscale type of dough and we wanted our ingredients to be without fillers, expanders, MSGs, soy, all stuff that you’d find in a typical pizza,” Kahn said.
Kahn enters the pizza business with a vast background in franchise ownership. In 1990, Kahn brought the popular movie rental franchise Blockbuster to Northport. Within 18 years, Kahn opened 45 Blockbusters across Alabama (and Mississippi.)
After deciding to sell the successful franchise, Kahn purchased six Subway stores in Birmingham.
Upon selling those, Kahn traveled to Los Angeles to find a new idea that he could bring back to Alabama. He discovered the success of frozen yogurt shops and knew that this trend could be successful (in Alabama.)
Kahn’s vision became a reality with the birth of Yogurt Mountain in 2009. Yogurt Mountain’s quickly developed into a franchise, as well as a corporate store. In July 2013, Kahn sold Yogurt Mountain to Books-A-Million.
After selling Yogurt Mountain, it didn’t take long for Kahn to realize that he wanted a new project. So he flew back to Los Angeles to discover the latest trend. He discovered that people were obsessed with fast, casual pizza developments.
Kahn turned to Tasker Hewitt, a long-time general manager of California Pizza Kitchen in Birmingham. Hewitt decided to leave CPK to partner with Kahn.
Tuscaloosa’s Pizza 120’s audience stretches far from just (the University.)
“We built this for families, for individuals; we built it for students, for Greeks, for independents; we built it for everybody,” Kahn said.
