LeBron James-backed Berkeley pizza shop closing permanently

In addition to being one of the greatest basketball players of all time and co-owning the tequila brand with Draymond Green, LeBron James is also a part-owner of the Blaze Pizza chain. There are six locations in the Bay Area. Now, with Berkeley closed, only five remain.

SFGATE reached out to Blaze Pizza but did not hear back from the publication. It’s unclear when the venue will officially close.

The pizza chain has 300 stores in North America and is known for its fast-cooking wood-fired pizzas. It’s also one of seven pizza chains that never freezes its dough and makes it in-house every day.

The name Blaze is already quite famous. Two months ago, Blaze Pizza sued a Bay Area barbecue restaurant for trademark infringement. Blaze BBQ, which has restaurants in Fremont, Sacramento and Salida, apparently submitted an application to use the “Blaze” name in May 2021. The pizza chain asked the barbecue restaurant to “abandon its registration application” in July of that year. The company has not changed its name or logo, which is also similar to that of the pizza chain, according to the lawsuit filed.

In San Francisco, the Blaze Pizza store is located at 3251 20th Ave., in the Stonestown Mall, just across the street from San Francisco State University.

Editor’s Note: This article was updated at 2:00 pm on August 31, 2023, to reflect the correct number of Blaze Pizza locations in the Bay Area.