Great Thin Crust Pizza!

As I’ve documented many times on this site, our search for top notch pizza here in East Tennessee has been continuing for many years…

So it was quite a surprise when we discovered high quality thin crust pizza at a semi-fast "fast casual" food restaurant chain!

This is the new Pie five Pizza Co. restaurant in Knoxville. 

As per the company’s website, “Pie five Pizza is a trend-setting, fast-casual concept offering individual handcrafted pizzas with fresh ingredients made-to-order and prepared in less than five minutes.”  The first Pie five Pizza opened in Fort Worth Texas in 2011.  This franchised chain now has almost 100 locations in 24 states plus the District of Columbia.  Another 400 stores/restaurants are planned and under contract!

This is the menu board that customers see as they enter a Pie five Pizza location.  You can build the pie that you want, you can try one of their special pies, you can pick a combo and there are salads, bread stix and sweets too…

Much like Blaze Pizza, you can select the ingredients for your pizza and watch it being built.  All pizzas are personal 7 inch creations and in almost every instance, the cost per pizza pie is $7.49.

This is the back portion of the dining room.  It is a large fast casual restaurant, that’s for sure.  Almost all of these tables in the back dining area were marked 'reserved'.

Did I mention that the reason that Pie five Pizza has ‘five’ in its name.  Similar to Blaze Pizza, your pie is ready to eat 5 minutes after it goes into the pizza oven!  Now that is ‘fast’ casual…

I did make one little mistake when we ordered our meal.  The server behind the counter asked if we wanted any extras such as a salad or breadstix… I said, “What the heck!  We’ll have an order of cheesy breadstix.” ($4.99)

I didn’t expect this cheesy, buttery and decadent 6 or 7 inch creation.  Its bread in a pan smothered with cheese and butter…and extra butter was provided for ‘dipping’.  Yikes!  Both Laurie and I liked this creation but we agreed that it would have been a better side for a pair of dinner salads…

Laurie ordered a crispy artisan thin crust Margherita Pizza.  I watched the counter server work the dough and apply a roller to the crust to ensure it would be thin enough… Thin crust pizza is our favorite!  Then he added olive oil, Roma tomatoes, minced garlic and basil before popping it into the oven.

Laurie thought that this was the best thin crust pizza she’s had here in East Tennessee.  The crust was thin, firm and crisp.  You aren’t filling up on bread. (Unless you blindly order those darn breadstix too!)

She would have liked a little more garlic on her pie but when the server was making her pie, she was getting our drinks. 

I designed my own thin crust pizza.  I added extra garlic, Italian sausage, pepperoni and bacon to my creation.  It was very good indeed!  I haven’t had a better thin crust pizza in East Tennessee… We shall return that’s for sure.  We just wish that a Pie five Pizza outlet closer to our home!  This location is a good 40 minute drive for us.

Just to let you know, after those breadstix we both took home some leftover pizza!

FYI…Pie five Pizza has a frequent diner program where you get points for every pizza you order and those points earn you free pizza.  This Pie five Pizza outlet is located at 9316 Kingston Pike (US Hwy. 11) in Knoxville Tennessee.  Phone: 865-394-9091.  Company Website: https://www.piefivepizza.com/.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by to see what we’ve been up to!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave