This post was updated April 3 at 3:18 p.m.
A Westwood pizzeria is reopening Wednesday.
800 Degrees Woodfired Kitchen is relaunching its Westwood location with a new franchise operating partner after closing in October. It will remain at its original location on Lindbrook Drive in Westwood Village.
Anthony Carron opened the 800 Degrees franchise’s first location in Westwood in 2012, serving custom-made Neapolitan-style pizzas. The restaurant chain has three other locations in Los Angeles, as well as 11 more in Nevada, Florida, New York, Japan and the Middle East.
The chain updated its menu to include rotisserie chicken and other woodfired foods in February 2018. According to Eater LA, Carron said they originally closed the Westwood location because its infrastructure could not accommodate their expanded woodfired kitchen concept, but they planned to return to the area in the future.
Lenny Rosenberg, the new location owner and franchise operating partner, said 800 Degrees has planned to relaunch in Westwood for a while and has renovated the location to better integrate equipment necessary for producing woodfired goods.
“We’ve been retrofitting the store to have an expanded menu that included woodfired chicken to complement the woodfired pizza,” Rosenberg said.
800 Degrees has changed its menu to offer options beyond pizzas such as salads, salmons and more woodfired items. It will also offer vegan options that were not available before, Rosenberg said.
The restaurant will now also offer delivery through third-party services such as DoorDash, UberEats and Postmates.
Some students said they were enthusiastic about the pizzeria’s return, while others said they had not heard of it before but would consider giving it a try.
Kaley Powers, a fourth-year fine arts student, said she is excited to have the restaurant back.
“I loved 800 Degrees, I thought they had a lot of good quality ingredients and especially being vegan, they had a lot of great options and were really accommodating,” Powers said. “I also liked the vibe, and the location was really convenient.”
Varun Sivashankar, a first-year mathematics student, said he had been to 800 Degrees before they closed and plans on returning.
“I quite like the pizza, it’s one of the best I’ve ever had, and it has an interesting concept where you get to see the pizza being made right there,” Sivashankar said. “One of my friends wanted to try it out, so I’m probably going to go with them.”
Cristina Padilla, a first-year cognitive science student, said she had not heard of 800 Degrees before but will consider giving it a try.
“Since I have a food account on Instagram, I am interested in trying new food out. So if I could hit up the place that would be awesome,” Padilla said.
Rosenberg said he hopes for a great turnout on opening day.