LeBron James-backed pizza chain closes all Toronto locations but one

A pizza chain backed by NBA legend LeBron James is slowly disappearing from Toronto, with only one location in the city left.

The long-gone year 2015 seems like it was a simpler time, doesn't it? The most heated fights online were over whether that one dress was white and gold or black and blue, the world would soon be introduced to a new crop of Star Wars movies and, over here in Toronto, we welcomed our very first location of Blaze Pizza.

Sure, Toronto was already home to hundreds of assorted pizza chains at the time, but "pizza is bae" rhetoric was just then reaching its pinnacle, so any excuse to try a new slice was a welcome one, indeed.

It also helps that, south of the border, NBA superstar LeBron James was already a known fan of the chain, franchising a swath of locations in Florida.

The chain launched its Canadian expansion in Toronto to much fanfare that same year, with local fans flocking to Sankofa (then Yonge-Dundas) Square to try the build-your-own-pizza concept for themselves.

It was ostensibly a success. The chain went on to open additional Toronto locations on John Street and in North York, further expanding to the broader GTA and across Canada.

Nowadays, though, it looks like this once-raging blaze is slowly being snuffed out, as Blaze Pizza's original Yonge and Dundas location has officially shut down, joining the John Street location, which quietly closed in recent years.

A notice posted at Blaze Pizza Yonge and Dundas confirms the closure. Photo submitted to blogTO.

"Thank you! for 10 fired up years," a note posted in the window of the Yonge and Dundas location reads, encouraging fans to visit the last remaining Toronto location at Yonge and Sheppard.

Toronto isn't alone in losing its Blaze Pizza locations. The chain's website also lists Ontario locations in Oakville and Burlington closed, on top of shuttered locations in Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I and B.C.

Could this signal the end of Blaze Pizza in Canada altogether? Is pizza truly no longer bae? The answer to the first question is a simple "not yet," while the second is an emphatic "absolutely not."

Blaze Pizza continues to operate locations in Ontario at Yonge and Sheppard and Vaughan Mills, while hundreds remain open and firing pies across the United States.

Blaze Pizza has not responded to blogTO's request for immediate comment on the closures or the future of the chain in Canada.

Blaze Pizza's Yonge and Dundas location was formerly located at 10 Dundas St. E.