Bia’s is considered fast-casual, but truly is a rapid, full-service concept. “Our goal is to get everything out to the table in 7 to 10 minutes,” Hasan says. Lunch customers are in and out in 30 minutes. Dinner customers tend to linger, encouraged by a large beer and wine list.

The menu is extensive too, offering a wide variety of appetizers, soups, and pastas in addition to pizzas, sandwiches, and salads.

The best-selling pizza is the Calypso, made with chicken or shrimp, spicy Caribbean barbecue sauce, and mozzarella cheese. Other favorites are the Margherita and the Orient Express, made with sesame oriental sauce, chicken, onions, mozzarella, and cilantro.

In strengthening its lunch, which now averages about 40 percent of sales, Bia’s added a line of flatbread sandwiches called Piadinas. Filling choices include chicken, turkey, tuna, artichoke, sun-dried tomato, pesto, olive oil, basil, and mozzarella and feta cheeses.

Salads are a popular item especially the Flash-fried Chicken and the Turkey Berry Bliss, which includes walnuts, bleu cheese, and dried cranberries.

The average ticket is $8 for lunch and $12 for dinner. Each Bia’s location serves about 250 people a day between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. (11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.)

The atmosphere in the 3,200-square-foot endcap units is casual-chic, with walls and trim in Tuscan yellow and blues and grays. “We are focused on upper-middle class income areas with offices close by,” Hasan says. “Our goal with this concept is to change pizza from a commodity into something special, like what Starbuck’s did with coffee.”