Dallas-based Pie Five Pizza Co. will open a franchise location in Dover this fall, part of the company’s move to the Middle Atlantic. The company’s signature product is a 145-second pizza made with artisanal ingredients.
The Pie Five model allows customers to choose their ingredients, select one of four crusts and one of seven sauces, and get their pizzas in less than three minutes. The stores also offer tossed salads in bowls made of pizza dough.
Mashoor Awad, a Middletown restaurateur, is the franchisee. Awad has been in the restaurant business in Delaware for 20 years. He started with a Subway in Dover in 1995 and expanded to four Subway outlets before he sold them and bought five IHOP restaurants, which he currently owns.
Awad, who paid a $25,000 franchise fee for the Dover store and an undisclosed amount for development rights in four states, said the Pie Five combined with the IHOPs will appeal to consumers, who seek out different types of food at various times of the day.
Awad purchased the Pie Five development rights for Delaware, Maryland’s Eastern Shore, six counties of Pennsylvania, and six counties of New Jersey. He said he is currently looking for building sites in Wilmington, Newark, Middletown, and at the Delaware beaches. As a franchisee of Pie Five, he is responsible for royalty fees, marketing fees, plus the construction costs.
“Everyone loves pizza,” he said. “I believe with our busy schedules and the need for customization for every little thing, Pie Five has a product that will work for everyone – speeding up the service for pizza with better-quality ingredients, and you can customize it any way you want at a very reasonable price.”
Pie Five, a subsidiary of Rave Restaurant Group Inc., currently has 47 locations in 13 states, with more than 400 announced company-owned and franchise units in development.
“The Pie Five brand is on fire,” said Randy Gier, CEO of Rave. “We’re pumped to be bringing the Pie Five experience to the Northeast – home of some of the most discerning pizza customers in the country.”
