Florida based Pizza Fusion continues West Coast expansion with Santa Monica opening
May 13, 2009 // Franchising.com // Santa Monica, Calif., - Pizza Fusion, pioneer of the environmental and organic restaurant movements, will be opening its fifth California location in Santa Monica at 2901 Ocean Park Blvd. Ste 123 in June, followed by another location in West Hollywood at 7950 W. Sunset Blvd., Suite 104. Restaurateur David Whitworth is the franchisee behind Pizza Fusion's new Santa Monica location.
"Pizza Fusion's socially conscious values represent everything Santa Monica is about," David states. "I'm excited to bring area residents a delicious, healthful means of minimizing our impact on the environment. Pizza Fusion's delicious, organic pizza will be excellent addition to Santa Monica's already impressive restaurant portfolio." Pizza Fusion, whose motto is 'Saving the Earth, One Pizza at a Time,' practices a world-centric approach to their entire existence, including their restaurants' build-out, service and overall operations. Through building all of their restaurants to LEED standards, delivering their food in company owned hybrid vehicles, and offsetting 100% of their power consumption with the purchase of renewable energy certificates (among many other things), Pizza Fusion is pioneering the sustainable restaurant movement.
Pizza Fusion is the first and only restaurant chain to mandate third-party organic restaurant certification at all its locations. Beyond its organic menu offerings, Pizza Fusion also offers a number of options for selective diets. Pizza Fusion was recently recognized by PETA as a top-10 vegan-friendly pizzeria in America for their number of vegan menu items, including casein-free soy cheese, breadsticks, brownies, sandwiches, and more. Furthermore, Pizza Fusion has quickly become a popular restaurant among the celiac community for their extensive selection of gluten-free pizza, brownies, and beer.
"We're very excited to enter the Los Angeles area while expanding our presence in California," Vaughan Lazar, president and co-founder of Pizza Fusion, continues. "We're proud to have David as a part of our family. We know he will represent Pizza Fusion well while introducing Santa Monica residents to a more delicious means of supporting the environment."
In the United States, restaurants are the top electricity consumer among retail businesses, accounting for 33% of the total consumption. Each restaurant produces an average of 50,000 pounds of waste per year. Pizza Fusion's restaurants reduce water waste by 40 percent and electricity consumption by 20 percent annually. The chain's restaurants feature a number of unique, eco-efficient products, techniques and designs. Pizza Fusion restaurants' eco-elements include countertops made from recycled glass bottles from existing Pizza Fusions, ceiling grid made from 75% recycled aluminum and 25% post industrial metals, low VOC paints, USG Gypsum Board made from pre-used drywall, insulation made from recycled blue jeans, low voltage and low heat lighting, furniture made from reclaimed wood and much more – all the way down to the 100 percent post consumer toilet paper in their bathrooms.
David Whitworth brings 25 years of restaurant experience to Pizza Fusion, including 18 years as a restaurant owner in the Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades markets. In addition to Pizza Fusion, David also owns Pinocchio In Cucina Deli in Pacific Palisades, where he's lived for the last 18 years with his wife Theresa and two sons Sean-David and Savan. He supports local community sports through various sponsorships and coaching a little league baseball team. David is a member of the Pacific Palisades Chamber of Commerce and looks forward to participating in Sustainable Santa Monica – a non-profit organization centered on environmentally sustainable business efforts. David graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.S. in Business Management.
About Pizza Fusion
Founded in the best interest of the individual and the environment, Pizza Fusion combines a fresh, organic menu with an industry-leading environmental approach to restaurant service in chic dining destinations built to LEED certification standards. Pizza Fusion specializes in a full-service approach to gourmet pizza, ciabatta sandwiches, salads, desserts, and organic beers and wines, all in their purest form - untainted by artificial additives, such as pesticides, preservatives, antibiotics and hormones. With numerous franchises opening across the U.S., Pizza Fusion is pioneering the organic and environmental restaurant movement as the most eco-friendly restaurant in America.
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