This Seattle chain has 24 restaurants in Washington. ‘Stoked,’ the 25th opens — in Eagle?

Getting its first taste of the Boise area, a well-known Seattle chain is grabbing a slice of Idaho’s economic pie.

Zeeks Pizza will celebrate the grand opening of a new full-service location Wednesday at 2826 S. Eagle Road.

The question is — why?

Founded in 1993, Zeeks has grown to two dozen locations serving “homegrown Northwest pizza and beer.”

All 24 are in Washington state.

So why Eagle for No. 25? What makes the Boise suburb so special?

Aside from being a potentially lucrative growth market in the Northwest— nothing. Zeeks is expanding into nearby states. The Eagle location had a franchisee ready to roll, said Dan Black, head of marketing.

“We are totally stoked,” he added. “We had toured Boise, and we knew about Eagle. We looked at a bunch of locations and are super happy with the place we landed on. We are really, really excited to be there.”

Zeeks will welcome customers from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on grand opening day. It will sell lunch slices from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Happy hour runs from 3 to 5:30 p.m. “Whole pies, wings, salads, breadsticks, beer, wine and cider all day long,” Zeeks proclaimed on social media.

Beer, dough

Zeeks isn’t just about pizza. It has “a reputation as being the best craft beer joint in pizza,” according to its franchisee recruitment website.

The restaurants don’t brew beer, but they sell plenty — including exclusives made in collaboration with breweries.

“We call our place ‘pizza pubs’ because they feel as much like pubs as anything,” Black explained. “We have relationships with basically every brewer in the Northwest.”

Zeeks plans to work with Idaho breweries to create special beers for the Eagle restaurant, he said.

As for food? Zeeks emphasizes quality ingredients — and dough. “While most pizza dough is fairly bland, ours is flavorful and savory,” Zeeks explains online. “It has a West Coast, sourdough bite. Here’s a very Zeeks fact: Our pizza dough is stiff and a bit hard to work with because it doesn’t stretch easily. On the other hand, it tastes amazing! Our dough is good enough to stand alone.”

You can build your own pie at Zeeks, but customers often choose from signature creations on the menu. The Cherry Bomb ($36 for a large, 17-incher in Spokane) includes tomato sauce, mozzarella, Mama Lil’s Sweet Hot Peppas, double Italian sausage, parmesan and fresh basil. Another popular choice, the Buffalo Soldier ($32 large), features a ranch base, mozzarella, buffalo chicken, Mama Lil’s Sweet Hot Peppas, fresh jalapeños, gorgonzola and fresh cilantro — served with blue cheese dressing on the side.

Zeeks also sells gluten-free pizza.

Delivery historically has made up about half of Zeeks’ business, Black said. (In 2022 and 2019, Zeeks paid drivers a total of nearly $700,000 after lawsuits alleged it didn’t disclose how much of its delivery charge was paid to drivers, according to The Associated Press.)

The Eagle store will offer delivery, carryout, catering and seated dining.

“The restaurant’s about 3,000 square feet,” Black said, “but it’s got an outdoor patio that adds another 800 or so.” He estimated Zeeks’ overall seating capacity at about 100.

Zeeks will feature traditional table service. For carryout and delivery, customers will order online or use the Zeeks app. “We’re a regional, local place, but the ordering is as sophisticated as it gets,” Black said. ”It’s as good (of) a digital experience as you’ll get with a pizza place.”

Franchising, growth

Although Zeeks opened its first franchise store in 2005, the company didn’t get “serious” about the concept until 2017, Black said in a phone interview. The company now owns six stores. The other 19, including Eagle’s, are franchises.

“Oddly enough, as COVID hit, our franchising really took off,” Black said, “and we expanded out of Seattle — and this is all in the past 15 months or so — to Bellingham in the north, Tacoma in the south, Spokane in the east, and now Boise.”

Future plans include Idaho, Oregon, western Montana — and even southern British Columbia, Black said.

Idaho newcomer or not, Zeeks Pizza should fit in with its outdoor-sports-friendly, “fuel your stoke” branding and catchphrase.

“We’ve always positioned ourselves as the Northwest pizza place,” Black said. “I think that’s been brandwise and culturally. But it’s about to become real geographically as well.”