800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria Heats Up Chicagoland's Dining Scene with Regional Grand Opening October 9

One of the West Coast’s hottest pizza concepts, 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria, is bringing its popular fare to the Chicago area on Friday, October 9, when it opens its 10th location in the world at Evanston’s Sherman Plaza, 812 Church Street. Created by Founder and Executive Chef Anthony Carron (formerly Corporate Executive Chef of the Michael Mina Restaurant Group) in partnership with Umami Restaurant Group and Allen Ravert, 800 Degrees combines a delicious blend of speed, quality and value. The menu offers a variety of specialty and create-your-own wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas, salads, fresh made burrata and small bites, served in an elegant surrounding at an affordable price. 800 Degrees’ dining concept is truly experiential, allowing guests to see and interact with workers tossing dough, spinning pizzas in live fire ovens, slicing prosciutto on antique meat-slicers, pouring beer on tap and offering samples of gelato and 800 Degrees branded-products.

Developed to bridge the gap between mass-market delivery pizza and epicurean sit-down, full-service pizza restaurants, Carron relies on his fine-dining background to source only the best toppings and ingredients from Italy, local organic farmers, and artisan producers. The result is in the numbers: after opening its Westwood Village location in January 2012 to rave reviews, 800 Degrees has been turning out, on average, 800-1,200 pizzas per day, serving 300,000 pizzas in its first year from a single location, and is credited with starting the “assembly-line” pizza phenomenon.

800 Degrees’ menu highlights a “create your own” assembly line concept allowing the guest to choose their own crust (Original Neapolitan, Crispy, and Gluten Free), base (Margherita, Bianca, Marinara, and Verde), and toppings, a variety of 14 proteins, nine cheeses, and 21 vegetables. There are ten specialty pies (including Sausage and Peppers, Quattro Formaggi, BLT, Carni, and Spicy Meatball) created for those who would rather let the Chef do the work. Locally sourced burrata pairings (Beets and Balsamic, Tomato and Pesto, Artichoke and Olives, and Prosciutto and Melon), gourmet salads (Gorgonzola, Caesar, and Chopped), and small bites (Meatballs, Truffle Cheese Bread, Prosciutto and Mozzarella, and Broccolini) round out the menu.

About 800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza

800 Degrees Neapolitan Pizza’s mission is to be the best in class of a new generation of assembly-line pizzerias; serving only the finest in wood-fired Neapolitan pizza in elegant surroundings at an affordable price. Each build-your-own personal pizza is prepared to individual guest’s liking and baked in about a minute in an 800-degree wood-burning oven, right before their eyes. For more information, visit www.800degreespizza.com.