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Blaze Pizza, whose backers include LeBron James, to open more Maryland locations

Los Angeles-based brick oven pizza chain Blaze Pizza, whose early investors included LeBron James, has a new franchise agreement to open three locations in Prince George’s County, Maryland.

It did not identify the new locations. The restaurants are franchised to Kevyn Scott of Gome Restaurant Group, also a Charleys Cheesesteak and Wings franchise operator in Maryland.

The new Blaze Pizza location. (CREDIT: Blaze Pizza)

Blaze Pizza has existing locations in College Park, Laurel, Towson and Westminster.

Blaze Pizza was founded in 2011. Its restaurants sell custom made-to-order pizzas cooked in brick ovens. The ordering is similar to Chipotle Mexican Grill or &pizza, in that customers move down a line of ingredients and tell the counter workers which ones they want. Its menu lists five house-made doughs and more than 35 different toppings.

Most of its packaging is recyclable, compostable or made from post-consumer reclaimed materials.

It currently has more than 340 restaurants in 38 states and six countries.

The company is also in aggressive expansion more right now. Virginia is one market where franchise opportunities are available, as well as Texas and Colorado.

Shares fall in Asia, with Kospi down 5.2%, while oil prices jump

BANGKOK (AP) — Shares slipped Wednesday in Asia after Wall Street pulled further from its all-time high as artificial-intelligence stocks resumed their decline. South Korea’s Kospi led the regional retreat, dropping 5.2% to 6,515.97. The two biggest companies benefiting from the AI boom tracked losses for their U.S. rivals. Samsung Electronics shed 6.9%, while memory chipmaker SK Hynix tumbled 7.9%. In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 sank 2.6% to 65,703.78. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong lost 0.4% to 25,382.66, while the Shanghai Composite index shed 1.5% to 3,927.70. Taiwan's Taiex fell 1.4%, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.4% to 9,083.70. Apart from renewed jitters over criticism that AI-related stocks have shot too high, rising oil prices also were clouding market sentiment.
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