Dining Services is launching pizza as a permanent Pond St. Grill menu item on Super Bowl Sunday. Pond St. Grill will officially begin serving the pizzas Sunday at noon for pregame festivities, said Legia Abato, marketing manager for Dining Services.

Although the pizzas are not yet advertised on the menu, Pond St. Grill began serving them Monday, said Rick Flores, general manager of Dining Services.

The night was successful and more than 100 pizzas were sold, Flores said.

After Sunday, Pond St. Grill will offer pizza every night as a regular-menu item, Flores said.

Students will be able to order pizza at the grill or call in orders ahead of time so their pizzas will be prepared when they arrive, Abato said.

Dining Services hired Chris Poulos, a 15-year pizza chef, to handle the orders.

The 16-inch pizzas range from $12 to $15 depending on toppings, Flores said.

Pizzas will be sold by the pie rather than by the slice because Pond St. Grill does not have an area to hold the cooked pizzas, Flores said.

“Orders usually take from 12 to 15 minutes to prepare,” Poulos said, “because the orders are sent directly to me.”

The pizzas begin with a Freschetta self-rising crust and then fresh toppings are added, executive chef Joel Branch said.

The ingredients, including peppers, meats and fruits, are roasted and prepared each day by the cooking staff at Pond St. Grill, Branch said.

After the pizza is taken out of the oven, Poulos brushes a garlic butter on the crust to ensure flavor from beginning to end, Branch said.

Dining Services provided taste-testing to students a week prior to unofficially introducing pizza Monday to the Pond St. Grill menu, Flores said.

Breanne Felty, a freshman nursing major, said the pizzas tasted different than other brands.

“I thought it was very good because it was different than the Pizza Hut pizzas,” Felty said.