Blaze Pizza will expand to East Lansing

EAST LANSING - Blaze Pizza, the Chipotle-inspired franchise that can make a pie in three minutes, is opening a location in downtown East Lansing.

Blaze will open sometime this spring in the State News building at 437 E. Grand River Ave., according to a company news release.

The restaurant, which sells 11-inch pizzas for $7.95 regardless of the number of toppings, opened its first Lansing-area location in the Frandor Shopping Center in June. Pizzas are cooked in an 800-degree oven.

The 3,200-square-foot restaurant will seat 80 people.

Blaze Pizza first opened in Irvine, California, in 2012. It currently operates 153 restaurants in 32 states. There are seven other locations in Michigan with another planned for Auburn Hills.

Contact Alexander Alusheff at (517) 388-5973 or aalusheff@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexalusheff.