AT KONZ PIZZA YOU CAN EAT PIZZA IN A CONE
Dessert is double-stack ice cream, with soft and hard creams in a dish
New businesses and non-profit organizations open regularly in Saskatoon.
Today, the Starphoenix talks to Jignasa Patel and Hardik Rabari, co-owners of Konz Pizza: an innovative pizza franchise where you can eat pizza just like you would an ice cream cone. And, for dessert, Konz offers double-stack ice cream — with both soft serve and hard ice creams together in the same dish.
Konz Pizza has franchise restaurants across Western Canada and the Saskatoon Broadway location opened on June 11. Another Saskatoon location, under different ownership, can be found in Confederation.
Q What makes Konz Pizza unique?
Jignasa Patel: The concept. Whenever we think about pizza, it's a round shape and, when you cut it, it's in slices. But this one (is) unique — pizza in a cone. It has a cone shape and all the toppings inside.
Hardik Rabari: If someone wants to eat pizza, it's really handy if you can just hold on with your hand. It's a pizza you can eat like ice cream. It's very easy. You can walk around and you can have it, instead of sitting in a restaurant or in a car.
If you go with your family to (a standard) pizza store and you order one large pizza, you'll get just one flavour. There might be a person who wants to eat a different flavour, because everyone's choice is different. So in our store, if one family comes in, if they decided to (each) have different flavours, they can.
Q How would the taste of Konz Pizza compare to your typical pizza?
HR It's very similar. It's like pizza. We do have flatbread pizza as well. It tastes the same.
Q What attracted you to start Konz Pizza?
JP I heard about pizza in a cone. Then I researched about being a franchise. There were Canadian franchises — local franchises (in Western Canada), not a big chain. They have a lot of stores in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, also in Winnipeg and they're going to Ontario as well. In Saskatchewan, ours is the first location to open. The second location to open is in Regina and the third one is Confederation (in Saskatoon).
Q What else is on the menu besides pizza?
JP We also have tater tot poutine, salad, pasta, mac and cheese, pressed pizza, flatbread pizza, spaghetti, and ice cream milkshakes and more items. A unique thing we have in ice cream is we have double stack — it means hard and soft ice cream together.
HR The base is hard ice cream and the top is soft ice cream. And you can choose any ice cream for the hard ice cream.
Q How easy or difficult was it to start Konz Pizza?
HR We opened in June, but we were planning to open in February. But because of pandemic we decided to not open, because it would be hard to survive at that time. Then in June we decided we can open for takeout and delivery.
JP Starting during COVID was definitely a hard time. We were not able to do a grand opening because of COVID. We don't want to have customers waiting for a long time in a line. Once everything is settled down we're definitely going to do that, to give customers a good deal with a grand opening.
Q What do you love most about owning Konz Pizza?
JP The concept I love the most, plus the franchise is local, and not being a part of a chain with a big bunch of other franchisees. HR For us, it was really exciting because it's a brand-new concept — we haven't seen pizza in a cone in Saskatchewan before.
Have you recently started or moved a new business or non-profit organization in Saskatoon? We want to hear your story. Please email citydesk@thestarphoenix.com.