New Boise pizza chain primed to reach Top 100

Teya Vitu//February 9, 2016

Westside Pizza opened on Overland Road in November and is now moving its corporate headquarters next door. Photo courtesy of Westside Pizza.

Boise has inherited a 29-restaurant chain from rural Washington that expects to break into a list of the Top 100 pizza companies in the country in the next year or two.

Westside Pizza opened a pizzeria on Overland Road in November and is opening the company’s first corporate headquarters on the same property a few blocks west of Boise Towne Square.

Jason West launched Westside Pizza in his hometown of Colville, Wash., in 1996, and in eight years opened the next two Westsides in Bainbridge Island and Bremerton. More smalltown Washington eateries followed and, since 2012, West has signed on five franchisees in far northern California.

Westside Pizza arrived in Idaho in July 2014 in Star with the Boise restaurant following in November 2015.

“We plan to open five or more in the Treasure Valley,” West said.

The closest thing to a corporate headquarters for Westside Pizza has been a training restaurant in Chelan, Wash. West just sold that restaurant to a franchisee at the end of January. The Boise store on Overland will now serve as a company training center and it will be the only company-owned Westside Pizza. The rest are all franchises, West said.

The 3,000-square-foot corporate office will have a staff of about 12, most hired locally.

“We are taking the next step in looking like a real business,” West said. “This is the first time we have had a conference room. It was just the growth. We have grown 40 percent a year three years in a row.”

Westside Pizza founder Jason West (right) and co-owners Rodney Nelson and Aaron Olson all moved from Washington to set up the corporate HQ in Boise. Photo courtesy of Westside Pizza.

The annual revenue is $16 million. According to the trade Group Pizza Today, the No. 100 pizza company has $19 million in annual revenue.

West is moving to Boise from Auburn, Wash. Co-owners Aaron Olson, the operations manager, and Rodney Nelson, the franchise relations manager, have relocated to Boise from Chelan and Spokane.

Boise is the biggest city with a Westside Pizza.

“We are looking to expand south and east,” West said. “It’s a central location. It’s a beautiful location. It’s not super expensive. It’s easy to get into the airport.”

West has Utah and Arizona in mind for Westside Pizza expansion.