Organic Pizza Comes to Leawood, Kansas

By: Pizza Fusion | 10 Shares 374 Reads

Fort Lauderdale based Pizza Fusion opens Kansas' first location

March 03, 2009 // Franchising.com // Leawood, Kans.,- Pizza Fusion, pioneer of environmentally-friendly restaurant service and the first ever organic pizza franchise, recently opened its doors in Leawood at 4800 West 135th Ste 250. This young, hip restaurant chain, specializes in gourmet, organic pizza, sandwiches, salads, and deserts, in addition to an extensive beer and wine list. Upon receiving organic restaurant certification, Pizza Fusion will be the first organic certified restaurant in the area. Entrepreneurs Ted and Kathee Kramm are the franchisees behind Pizza Fusion's new Leawood location.

"Pizza Fusion enhances Leawood's restaurant portfolio with a gourmet approach to pizza making that the community has never experienced before," Kathee Kramm, explains. "Pizza Fusion's addictive organic pizzas are the best I've ever tasted. We look forward to introducing Leawood residents to Pizza Fusion while earning they're favoritism with our delicious, organic food, eco-friendly mantra, and community involvement."

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 specifications, delivering their food in company owned hybrid cars, and offsetting 100% of their power consumption with the purchase of renewable energy certificates (among many other things), Pizza Fusion is setting the standard for sustainable restaurant practices as the most eco-friendly restaurant in America.

Furthermore, 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 people with selective diets. Pizza Fusion was recently recognized by PETA as a top-10 vegan-friendly pizzeria in America for their variety 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 expand into Kansas," Vaughan Lazar, president and co-founder of Pizza Fusion, continues. "We know Ted and Kathee will represent Pizza Fusion well while introducing Leawood residents to a new, delicious way to support the environment. We're proud to welcome them into our dedicated family of franchisees."

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 LEED certified restaurants reduce water waste by 40 percent and electricity consumption by 20 percent annually.

Pizza Fusion's restaurants feature a number of unique, eco-efficient products, techniques and designs. Pizza Fusion restaurants' eco-elements include using a cradle-to-cradle approach to manufacture countertops from re-used glass bottles from other Pizza Fusions, bamboo flooring, 30% recaptured industrial concrete, ceiling panels made from 74% recycled aluminum cans and 24% post industrial metals, non-VOC paints, insulation made from recycled blue jeans, ceiling baffles made from recycled composite board, 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.

Ted and Kathee Kramm live in Overland Park with their four children. Ted attended the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Kathee has a Bachelors Degree in Nursing from the University of Kansas. Kathee is a native of the area and Ted has been here for nearly 17 years. The entrepreneurial duo also own and operate a specialty pharmacy company that cares for chronically ill patients across the country. Ted is the General Manager of the Blue Valley Red Sox and is proud to boast a three-year state championship streak. When they are not working, the Kramms love to travel and especially enjoy the Virgin Islands and the Northern East Coast. In their free time, you'll find them taking in the outdoors with gardening, landscaping, and golfing.

Pizza Fusion is considering likeminded franchise candidates to open 40 planned locations throughout Kansas over the next five years.

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.

###