Watch this video in which Barry Braden tells us about Pizza Fusion in Hillcrest.

Opening a restaurant isn't easy. I know. We opened Sea Rocket just over a year ago. If I had a friend ask me "should I open a restaurant?", I would almost certainly answer by saying no. Opening a restaurant is incredibly risky and stressful, especially when the restaurant isn't just about the bottom line, but is also about being environmentally responsible. This high level of risk and stress means fewer people in the environmental food movement opening restaurants which limits how quickly the movement can grow.

Through the years, I've been involved in franchising which is one of the fastest ways businesses can grow and spread their business practices across the country. With food franchises, that normally means spreading practices that have a catastrophic effect on the environment.

When a business decides to franchise, they take a business concept, test it, refine it, and then create a system around it (store design and construction, computer systems, training, marketing materials, vendors relations, etc.). To grow, the franchise will have sales people go out and spread the word. Franchisees will pay a franchise fee and ongoing royalties to be part of the system.

Imagine this situation for a second...you're mid-career and you've managed to buy a house and save some money. You care about the environment and do lots of things in your personal life to reduce your impact on the world. Then there is a change in your life that makes it so that you're no longer working (you move, your company lays you off, your military career is over, etc.) What's next? You'd like to start a business, but you've never run your own business and want some help. You start looking at franchises. What if there were actually mainstream franchise options that would help you open a food business that was designed in an environmentally friendly way?

Pizza Fusion is one such franchise. They design their locations to LEED standards and source their food from more responsible providers like Applegate Farms (meats), Specialty Produce (organic and regional produce), and Bay State Milling (organic flour). And they do many other things to reduce their environmental impact.

From what I've observed, most unique neighborhood places with lots of character don't operate with any elevated sense of environmental responsibility. Also, they most often serve the same industrial food as the big chain restaurants. Fortunately, there are some places that purposely change that habit. Pizza Fusion, just like Sea Rocket Bistro, isn't perfect, but they are miles ahead of the vast majority of restaurants out there. The difference is that they have the potential to make an enormous impact on how people eat across the country, not just here in San Diego.

I've seen the environmental food movement framed too often as "independent & local" versus "corporate & national" which confuses the true issues and limits its potential to grow. A corporation is a larger group of people working together. And sometimes a larger group of people is needed to get the project done, whether that project is building a windmill farm to generate electricity or a branded network of pizza restaurants that care about the environment and the quality of food they serve. The environmental food movement needs to use the tools of business to spread its practices throughout our culture, and restaurant patrons need to judge businesses based on their merits, not on the often misleading aesthetics.

Don't look for Sea Rocket franchises in the future...our concept is a little different in that we focus on foods purchased directly from farmers, ranchers, and fishermen here in San Diego. That's not something that lends itself to transferable systems or franchising. However, it is possible to franchise a restaurant that purchases regional organic produce, as well as organic flour and non-factory farm meats so I applaud Pizza Fusion for doing so, and encourage you to check them out. Not only is their operation efficient and sustainably crafted, but their space has a warm, contemporary atmosphere, and the pizza...well the pizza is amazing!

We've got a stack of 20% OFF coupons to Pizza Fusion on our console table at the bistro, so come by and pick one up, then go say hello to Barry for us.