As of last week, students with a late-night craving for mac and cheese and pizza will no longer have to compromise. Newly opened Wheel Pizza will offer pizza topped with mac and cheese, among other variations, as a part of the regular menu.
The owners of Kilroy's on Kirkwood opened Wheel Pizza, Bloomington's newest pizza-by-the-slice place, on Aug. 14 at 430 E. Kirkwood Avenue.
"We sold pizza in this same location before, but it was just something we kind of threw together to be honest," general manager Jared Clemens said. "Now, we want to really focus on the quality of our pizza."
The brand-new pizza shop was built as part of the renovations to create Kilroy's Recess. Open from 11 a.m. to 4 a.m., it will be providing pizza for both Kilroy's on Kirkwood for their Friday special and Kilroy's Recess, Clemens said. Depending on how that goes, they may provide pizza for Kilroy's Sports Bar as well.
College students without their own kitchen are excited to have a pizza place that is not only quick, but serves quality pizza too, sophomore Sean Massura said.
"I'm really excited to try it," Massura said. "It's gotta be better than DiGiorno's."
Their menu features more than 21 different New York-style pizzas in 12-inch pies, 18-inch pies, or by the slice. Customers can order custom pies, which take 15-20 minutes to make. They also offer garlic cheese bread, side salads and ranch made from scratch.
"My favorite pizza is definitely the Mac and Cheesa," employee Madison Mann said. The Mac and Cheesa is their best-seller with five different types of cheese and elbow macaroni.
Additionally, they offer classic margherita, pepperoni and sausage and also have less common-flavors such as the Mediterranean and the BLT. Wheel Pizza will soon be offering cannolis for dessert and may eventually serve bottled beers, employee Mehgan Truesdel said.
Most of their traffic so far comes during late-night hours, Clemens said. Now that students are back and might want to stop in between classes, he said he expects business to pick up during the day.
They sold out of pizza with a line out the door from 12 a.m. until 2 a.m. this past Monday, Mann said. While the doors are usually kept open, the new shop features two walk-up windows for when things get busy.
"If the line gets too long or things get too hectic inside the shop, we can close the front doors and use the walk-up windows to serve our pizza," Mann said.
Kilroy's partnered with Johnny Gilbreth, owner of Pizza Tree, a pizza-by-the-slice place in Columbia, Missouri, Clemens said. Kilroy's was inspired by Gilbreth's concept of serving slices all day long and wanted to bring this idea to Bloomington.
The owners approached Gilbreth with the idea to open a similar shop in Bloomington and began working to perfect their business plan, Clemens said. The interior is bicycle-themed, offering a slice of IU culture with your slice of pizza.
