Chipotle-backed pizzeria to open in Cincinnati

The fast-food pizza concept Chipotle has developed in partnership with two Boulder, Colorado, restaurateurs is opening in Cincinnati this fall.

Kenwood will be the location for the fourth Pizzeria Locale, which serves customized Neapolitan-inspired pizza put together in an interactive serving line and baked in two minutes. There are two in Denver, and one will open in Kansas City in July, just before the Kenwood location.

The fast-pizza format is not an unusual one, but Pizzeria Locale has some clear distinguishing characteristics that stem from its beginnings in fine dining. For instance, each pizza will start with dough mixed and naturally fermented in each restaurant. The recipe is flour, water and salt. Some of the flour is from a special variety of wheat grown in Oregon that provides a starter for natural yeasts that raise the dough overnight.

That's a bread-making technique associated with artisianal, labor-intensive bread bakeries, not with fast food pizza.

Pizzeria Locale is a joint venture between Chipotle and the two owners of Frasca Italian restaurant in Boulder. They are Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson – who was a James Beard Best Chef Southwest – and Bobby Stuckey, two-time James Beard winner for best wine service. Their second restaurant, also in Boulder, was the original Pizzeria Locale, a full-service pizza restaurant made after visiting and studying traditional pizza in Naples

Steve Ells, founder of Chipotle, was a customer and fan and worked together with them to transform the full-service restaurant into a new fast-serve restaurant concept.

"We want to serve the same food you get at our full-service fine-dining pizza restaurant for less money," Mackinnon-Patterson said. "A margherita pizza made with great ingredients at the original pizzeria is $13. We can serve the same pizza for $5.50. It is fast food with an extraordinary dining experience."

In addition to classic and custom-topped pizzas, Pizzeria Locale will have hand-tossed salads, meatballs and freshly sliced prosciutto on the menu.

"Fine dining is all about the details," said Mackinnon-Patterson, so prosciutto will be sliced on the best kind of slicer, and the wine will come from Frasca's own winery in Italy, kegged so that air never reaches it and served on tap. All the prep and all the cooking will be done at the restaurant level, not in a commissary, including their butterscotch budino.

Their partnership with Chipotle allows them to access the systems and ideas that have made that chain so successful. They will share the sourcing standards epitomized by Chipotle's "Food with Integrity" slogan, said Mackinnon-Patterson. "We'll also incorporate their amazing people culture."

The Cincinnati restaurant will be located in an old Johnny Rocket's in Sycamore Plaza at 7800 Montgomery Road. McKinnon-Patterson said they chose Cincinnati because a smaller market was a place where they felt they could practice and develop their brand of "retro-restauranting," where every customer matters. They also wanted a restaurant with a growing and developing dining scene.

Editor's note: We have updated the story to correctly identify the location of the restaurant.