Whichever way you slice it, the battle of the “healthy” pizzas has begun.
US brand NKD Pizza returned to the UAE last week after a year away following a break-up of Taylor Swift proportions with the local franchise owners, Robbie Vitrano and Ian Ohan.
Vitrano and Ohan went on to launch Freedom Pizza last year, with a multigrain crust pizza, locally sourced ingredients and some hilarious mission statements on the side of the pizza boxes. (Ohan did not respond to requests for comment for this article.)
NKD, which has undergone something of a rebrand, has opened a restaurant in Dubai’s Motor City, the first of three expected to open this summer.
The brand is known for using organic ingredients and a “10-grain Ancestral Blend” crust. The restaurants in the UAE will be operated directly by the US company, with franchise agreements for restaurants in Bahrain and Kuwait opening later this year.
“We have the original menu,” Edward Rizk, president of international operations, told tabloid! ahead of the opening. “We have the Ancestral Blend that no one has but us. It’s an NKD Pizza registered brand that no one uses, no one is allowed to use, and no one can use, but NKD Pizza. Our flour and dough is ours and it’s the same as what was there a year ago.”
Rizk adds that the reason for leaving was “at a certain moment we did not see eye-to-eye on certain things, we ended the franchise agreement, said thank you, shook hands and walked away”.
Expect 20-25 outlets in the coming five years across the UAE, and Brewla “craft” ice-pops in stores (they are a sister company of NKD).
