Winter Garden fired up for new 1000 Degrees Pizza shop

WINTER GARDEN  If the thought of a custom, Neapolitan-style brick-oven pizza fired up at a crisp 1,000 degrees makes your mouth water, wait until it officially arrives in Winter Garden this summer.

Windermere residents Matthew and Caroline Peach are set to open their second 1000 Degrees Pizza franchise on West Colonial Drive in Winter Garden by the end of the summer. The pizzeria will be the newest neighbor to Culver’s, Wendy’s and Wawa.

The Peaches already own a 1000 Degrees franchise in Oviedo, as well as a few MAACO Collision Repair & Auto Painting locations in Orlando. Being Windermere residents, Matthew Peach said the two are looking forward to having a pizzeria closer to home. 

“We’ve lived in Ocoee or Winter Garden the whole time for 20 years, so we just like this side of town, and I’m sure (the pizzeria)  will get busy,” he said. “It’s kind of nice (to be closer to home). Being on this side of town you can deliver to all the new homes that they’re building in West Orange, plus to Windermere, Ocoee, Summerport Village (and more). It’s right in the middle of pretty much everything there on State Road 50.”

The Peaches signed their lease about a year ago and now are waiting for construction to begin on the plaza in which their new store will be located. Matthew Peach said he hopes to have 1000 Degrees open sometime in August.

1000 Degrees Pizza specializes in thin-crusted, Neapolitan-style brick-oven pizza, but it also serves Roman-style thick-crusted pizza, fire-roasted wings and create-your-own salads. Customers can build their own pizzas, which are then fired up at temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees in a Neapolitan brick oven.

But unlike traditional Neapolitan pizza found in Naples, Italy, 1000 Degrees Pizza’s crust is cooked throughout with a mild char and made from genuine Neapolitan-style flour.

The Peaches first decided to jump on board with 1000 Degrees to try something different from the MAACO shops.

“When I was living in L.A., they had a pizza restaurant called Blaze Pizza, and so I was kind of looking for the same type of concept,” Peach said. “I literally looked online for those concepts and found 1000 Degrees. We did our training and went ahead and opened the first one in Oviedo, and it’s going really (well).”

The Peaches are also looking forward to partnering with local schools and community organizations for fundraising and outreach nights and are planning to launch a delivery service from the Winter Garden location.