Baozza's Balls of Doughy Joy Crowned Winners of Best Alternative Pizza for Second Year Running

After a single round of ferocious voting, Beijing has once again chosen the singular pizza-baozi mashup crew of Baozza as the winners of the Best Alternative Pizza for the second year running.

Up against a mixed bag of delicious pizza spinoff items, including Dongli Brewery's Baobing Pizza, Jay Food Dream Factory's Pizza Torch, Frost's Pizza Bagel, The Great Outdoors' Pizza Dumplings, and La Pizza's Fengshui Pizza (read more on those here) it was Baozza who would once again prove victorious, buoyed by a strong following that seemingly congealed as soon as the two-man team stepped onto the scene in 2016.

The East-meets-West combination of pizza fillings housed in the doughy casing of a steamed bread bun is the stuff of stoner heaven, and although it seems like a simple trick, Baozza have proven their dedication to honing the craft via their regular renewal of flavors and expansion of the company. 2018 will be no different and includes moves by Baozza to see their wares enter Chinese supermarkets. That's right, these may soon be in a Jingkelong near you.

Below, co-founders Alex Cree and Loren Heinold describe to us their steady moves on establishing world baozi domination.

Can you tell us a little about what you guys have been up to recently? How was 2017 for the Baozza team?
A lot’s happened in 2017: Retail test concepts at Sanlitun Soho and Xiguan Hutong, plus some epic events like the Pizza Festival … but perhaps most important has been our work behind the scenes preparing Baozza for scaled production. Baozza’s launching a packaged foods line this year. We’re very excited; we’ll be launching with classic margherita, pepperoni, barbecue chicken, and spinach cheese.

Our goal is to bring Baozza to as wide an audience as possible across China – think freezer aisle, online grocery delivery, and specialty retailers (like Cheers Wines!). We’ve spent a lot of time at a gorgeous fully-licensed production facility improving our products and we think the result is actually even better than what we’ve served in our restaurants. They’re very good – better quality dough and fillings, larger size, and more consistent shape. We’ll be rolling out frozen four-packs before the end of January – so no more having to travel outside in the cold and no more having to wait for deliveries. Baozza will finally be easy to get your hands on!

You’ve successfully snagged our Best Alternative Pizza award two years in a row – what do you think you owe the success of Baozza to?
With all the location changes/closures, we’re just happy people still remember us! That said, a big part of developing and maintaining our unique flavor and consistency has been due to our staff, namely our two Baozza Masters who were with us in 2017, Xiao Wang and Gao Jing. Even though we’ve been transitioning into mass production, it was their hand-wrapping and overall prep skills that got us through our first phase serving fresh Baozza in Beijing. We’re very grateful; you might have met them if you had the chance to visit our locations.

What’s the weirdest thing that you’ve considered putting in a Baozza? Have there been any experiments that surprised you with how well they turned out?
Weirdest? Corn, mayo, and prawn … If we ever go in this direction, you (the readers) all have our permission to publicly denounce us and make us perform self-criticisms.

Good stuff? Chorizo and green chilis, Naked Nut Butter, and pulled pork have all been yummy. And a big hit was the dessert Baozza at [the since deceased] Gulu Bazz – banana, marshmallow, and Nutella with chocolate chip dough soaked in rum and flambéed … pretty sure we’re among the only people in China to have ever rum flambéed a baozi. We’ve got a big pipeline of new flavors we will slowly release once we are firmly out on the market.

Now that you’ve secured victory, where can people get a hold of one of your delicious Baozza around town?
We’re currently on the menus at both Café Zarah (set of three for RMB 42) and Paddy O’Shea’s (set of four for RMB 55). Also, we’ll soon be at Cheers with both frozen and freshly-steamed Baozza, and we’ll slowly start to roll out over a few grocery stores and online platforms throughout the rest of the winter.

And finally, what do you have planned for Baozza in 2018?
Expect to see us finally start to grow, not just in Beijing but in Shanghai and possibly some other cities. We’ll also likely be re-booting our retail kiosk concept this year, but this time much sleeker and professionalized – we’ve had dozens of franchise inquiries from all over China and even some other countries in Asia. With luck, by the end of the year you’ll be able to find us online, in the freezer aisle, and in our own Baozza express joints!

More stories by this author here.
Email: tomarnstein@thebeijinger.com
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Photos courtesy of Baozza