Fresh vs Frozen Pizza Dough: Why Westside Pizza Chooses Fresh Every Time

Fresh vs Frozen Pizza Dough: Why Westside Pizza Chooses Fresh Every Time

Ever take a bite of pizza and think, "This is...fine"? Not bad, not great, just...fine? That cardboard-adjacent texture, toppings that taste separate from the crust, a density that sits heavy instead of light? Yeah, that's frozen dough talking.

Let's be honest: frozen dough is everywhere because it's easy. Make it once, freeze it for months, thaw when needed. Operationally brilliant. Culinarily? Not so much.

Here's what happens when you freeze pizza dough.

Water freezes. Ice crystals form. Those crystals tear through the gluten structure like tiny knives, shredding what makes dough elastic and capable of holding air. The yeast—those little organisms responsible for flavor and rise—either go dormant or die. Up to 50% of them don't survive the trip to the freezer and back.

So when that dough finally gets stretched and baked, it's working with damaged gluten and weakened yeast. The result? Dense. Chewy. Barrier-like. Your sauce, cheese, and toppings sit on top instead of melding into the crust. You're eating layers, not a unified bite.

Fresh dough is the opposite of all that.

Active yeast, intact gluten, ongoing fermentation. It's alive. It rises properly, creating those beautiful air pockets that give you a light, airy crust. The structure is open enough that flavors integrate—sauce seeps in, cheese melts through, every bite tastes cohesive. Fresh dough doesn't just hold toppings; it becomes part of the experience.

So why don't more places do it?

Because fresh is demanding. You can't make it once and forget about it. At Westside Pizza, dough is made multiple times every day—1 to 2 hour rise time, then refrigerated until someone orders. Nothing sits longer than 24 hours because they're constantly cycling through batches. It requires planning, timing, and a commitment to never cutting corners.

And it doesn't stop at dough. What's the point of perfect crust if you're topping it with mediocre ingredients? Westside sources vine-ripened tomatoes from California, grates mozzarella fresh daily, chops vegetables every morning. Fresh isn't just a dough decision—it's a philosophy.

"But can't you just add extra yeast to frozen dough to fix it?"

Some places try. They'll add one and a half times the normal yeast amount, or incorporate oil to minimize ice crystal damage. But here's the thing: you're still starting with compromised dough. No amount of band-aids restores what freezing destroys at the cellular level. You can mask it, but you can't fix it.

The choice is simple, really.

Frozen dough is convenient. Fresh dough is better. Westside Pizza chose better. They're not claiming to be the only ones doing it right, but they are drawing a line in the sand: just okay pizza parties aren't a thing. Not here.

People notice. Consumer demand for premium pizza experiences keeps growing because diners are tired of settling for "fine." They want the kind of pizza that makes them slow down, that makes Tuesday night feel a little less like just another Tuesday.

Ready to taste what fresh-made-daily actually means?

Check out the menu at https://westsidepizza.com/location/richland/

Your taste buds will thank you.

Westside Pizza - Richland
City: Richland
Address: 1759 George Washington Way
Website: https://westsidepizza.com/locations/richland/