Pizza chain opens location in downtown East Lansing

Snap Custom Pizza, a restaurant that specializes in quick and easy made-to-order pizzas and salads, has opened up shop in downtown East Lansing at the former Cosi location.

The East Lansing spot is the second Snap Custom Pizza in Michigan. Snap previously opened near the University of Michigan’s campus in September. The Philadelphia-based restaurant has 10 locations nationwide.

Jennifer Leary, general manager of Snap in Philadelphia, said sales have been good at the new East Lansing shop.

“It’s been a lot busier than our Ann Arbor store,” Leary said. “East Lansing took off a lot better right in the beginning, so our sales are good and they’re growing day by day.”

She said Snap has been wanting to expand to larger college campuses.

“About a year and a half ago, we opened on Penn State’s campus and that was kind of a beast of a store, so the owners and the investors wanted to start looking at more colleges with higher student amounts,” she said. “We also wanted to branch off the East Coast a little bit and kind of start spreading little by little.”

Snap offers 11-inch signature and custom pizzas, salads, grain bowls and mozzarella breadsticks. Gourmet soups are also being offered at the East Lansing location, a first for the pizzeria chain.

Leary said what makes Snap “unique” from other pizza places in the area is that it makes all of its ingredients — including their cheeses, doughs and sauces — fresh and in-house every day.

Leary said Snap is also dedicated to making customers feel welcome in the store and making a good service experience.

“I know we get compared a lot to Blaze Pizza, but, personally, I think what sets us apart is our customer service; our attention to detail and how much we put into our product,” she said. “Our big focus is on the customer service experience. We don’t want to treat every customer just like they’re somebody getting rung up at the register.”

Snap Custom Pizza

301 E. Grand River Ave., East Lansing

Sunday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

snapcustompizza.com, (517) 977-0732