Megan Lanasa is on a mission to create the perfect pizza with her new restaurant BricknFire Pizza Co., in Baltimore. (Photo: Megan Nadolski)

Baltimore

Megan Lanasa’s Mission to Make the Best Pizza in Baltimore

“The best way to describe pizza is there’s always something you can change about it,” says Megan Lanasa, co-founder and owner of BricknFire Pizza Co.

The entrepreneur is about to experience a big change of her own as she pursues her passion to make the best pizza in Baltimore, Maryland — or just about anywhere.

After spending three years towing a custom brick oven on a trailer in and around Baltimore, serving up wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas within minutes, Lanasa made a permanent home for BricknFire inside the Baltimore Marriott Inner Harbor at Camden Yard hotel in Summer 2016.

The hotel is just steps from Oriole Park, the Baltimore Convention Center, the University of Maryland Baltimore and University of Maryland Medical Center.

Lanasa was able to build out her first restaurant after winning Marriott’s CANVAS program, an incubator of local food and beverage businesses. BricknFire was the first winner.

Lanasa has roots in Baltimore, having grown up inside her parents’ the Breadery bakery, which will provide the dough for BricknFire, along with the base for sandwiches that will also be sold alongside the pizzas.

“I got my work ethic from my family,” she says, fondly recalling memories of helping her family make thousands of dinner rolls “for your family” the night before Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve.

Lanasa remains faithful to Charm City.

She describes Baltimore as “a melting pot,” and is attracted to its “casualness.”

Lanasa’s pizzas also represent the best Baltimore has to offer, with ingredients sourced from the Baltimore Farmer’s Market, which Lanasa calls “a hidden treasure.”

“You’re surrounded by this area of uncertainty but when you’re in the market it’s the safest experience,” she says. “You feel like you’re in this great community. Everyone’s there for one reason: to just come buy some great food and have this great sense of community.”

Opening BricknFire will enable Lanasa to “achieve my goals” of reaching “the next stepping stone of my business,” she says. “I want to keep growing.”

“This accomplishment is not only for myself but for my family and the Marriott team that has helped BricknFire get here,” Lanasa adds. “We all have been dreaming of pizza and it is finally becoming a reality.”

Lanasa will keep her brick oven, rolling out the trailer for special events. But she’s focused on making great pizza inside her new home.

“There’s an ongoing battle to create the perfect pizza,” Lanas says. “I don’t know if it’ll ever happen but you can try, right?”

It’s definitely worth a taste, at least.