KFC Opened a NYC Pizzeria to Celebrate the Arrival of 'Chizza,' a Fried Chicken-Pizza Mashup

Fried chicken and pizza are two of the most beloved food items globally, but they don’t always go together. At KFC restaurants in countries including the Philippines, Thailand, India, Mexico and Spain, diners have long been able to experience the best of both worlds through a hybrid called “chizza.”

Now, hungry fans across the U.S. will also have a chance to order the indulgent delicacy at certain KFC locations from Feb. 26 through March 31. To celebrate its stateside debut, the Yum! Brands chicken chain and its creative agency, MullenLowe, transformed KFC’s popular 14th Street Manhattan restaurant into a classic New York pizzeria.

KFC and MullenLowe redesigned the exterior and interior of the store by adding details including neon signs and the quintessential celebrity wall that appears in many pizzerias. The restaurant exclusively served complimentary chizzas—two fried chicken filets topped with marinara sauce, mozzarella and pepperoni—along with beverage options from its partner, Pepsi.

Along with the free eats and Instagram-able atmosphere, fans who lined up for the experience also scored chizza merchandise when they signed up for the brand’s new rewards program, which launched in early February and allows customers to unlock free food, personalized offers for discounts and other deals through the KFC application.

“Because pizza is an iconic New York City food, and we feel as though we are disrupting the pizza industry with KFC’s newest mashup, we thought it would be clever to disrupt and transform one of the most iconic KFC locations in Manhattan into the world’s first Chizzeria as an ode to the Big Apple’s beloved and most well-renowned food,” Enrique Camacho, senior vice president and group creative director at MullenLowe, told Adweek.

To whet fans’ appetites before the popup, KFC also ran five spots across TV, digital and social, including a 15-second video featuring viral TikTok star Bad Granny as a disapproving Italian nonna (grandmother).

“Chizza has been a global bestseller across all of the amazing markets we have at KFC,” said Anna Faktorovich, vp, brand management at KFC U.S. “We wanted to bring the best of that into the U.S. market, which is really an amazing mashup. It’s fried chicken and pizza—the two things that universally are loved.”

The chizza is KFC’s latest limited-time menu offering. Previous products have included a chicken and doughnut mashup and the return of the Double Down, a bunless sandwich consisting of bacon, cheese and sauce nestled between two fried chicken filets.

Check out the article in Adweek here.