Domino's to Get All Trendy With Open Pizza Kitchens

Watch your backs, trendy restaurants, because Domino's Pizza is about to unleash its epic re-design complete with chalkboards, and, oh yes, an open kitchen in which customers can watch pizzamakers — some of them mustachioed? — toss dough. AnnArbor.com has a look inside one of the first remodeled franchises, which is reportedly part of the pizza chain's ongoing efforts to revamp its image and capitalize on carryout sales. Domino's CEO Patrick Doyle explains that customers wanted to be able to see their pizzas being made, so the chain created these open kitchens in "really kind of the old pizzeria tradition."

So what else is new at the new Domino's? Well, there's some added seating, interactive activities for children, a refrigerated grab-and-go section, and chalkboard walls upon which customers will probably write or draw lewd things. This is all getting started with a handful of franchises in Ann Arbor and Seattle, though the LA Times reports that Domino's plans to overhaul the entire Seattle market by midyear. And lest anyone suspect this whole Domino's pizza-dough-tossing thing is little more than a marketing ploy, Doyle insists to the LA TImes, "This is the way we always made our pizzas. A lot of people just had no idea. ...It was sort of one of those lightning-bolt moments where we said, 'Gee, maybe we should show them.'"

· Domino's Pizza Rolling Out New Look [AnnArbor.com via HuffPo]
· Domino's Hopes Customers Flock to 'Pizza Theater' [LA Times]
· All Domino's Coverage on Eater [-E-]