Breaking the Unwritten Rules of Pizza

Since launching in January, Topp’d Pizza has become a lunchtime favorite for the neighborhood around KU Medical Center. It’s located at 3934 Rainbow Blvd. in Kansas City, Kan., just across the street from the KU School of Nursing.

Owner Chad Talbott is no stranger to the pizza business. He was involved with the Pizza Street franchise for about 10 years as both a corporate trainer and a franchisee.

But when he went out on his own earlier this year, he decided to break a lot of the unspoken rules about how pizza is made and served.

At Topp’d Pizza, customers can customize practically every single detail of their order and watch as it’s assembled, the same way they can at a Chipotle or a Five Guys. All the ingredients are made fresh on site. “We don’t have a freezer,” Talbott said. “We don’t have a microwave.”

Still, the typical meal costs about $7 or $8 and is light enough for a quick lunch. It only takes Topp’d about 4.5 minutes to cook a pizza and get it out to a customer.

If things go well, Talbott said, he’d like to expand to another two to three locations in the next few years.

“I really saw a need to do something, to break out on my own.” // www.toppdpizza.com