Customers on high-protein, low-carb diets can skip the crust and still get the pizza flavors they love with the new Specialty Pizza Bowls from Toledo-based Marco’s Pizza.

Marco’s says it’s “the first national pizza delivery brand” to offer this crustless variation on a pizza. It debuted on March 9 as a permanent part of the chain’s menu.

The Specialty Pizza Bowls come in three varieties—Deluxe, All-Meat and Garden—with a suggested menu price of $8.49. According to a company press release, the bowls reflect the portions of a medium specialty pizza.

“The Specialty Pizza Bowl is everything you love about pizza minus the crust,” said Marco’s Senior Vice President and Chief Experience Officer Steve Seyferth in a press release. “While other brands have developed gluten-free or make-your-own products in the QSR space, this concept is bold and refreshing—it will transform the way people eat and enjoy their pizza.”

Pizza bowls have been around since at least 2016. In that year, Venezia’s Pizza, with multiple locations around Arizona, introduced its crust-free Pizza Bowls in varieties like the Combo (pepperoni, Italian sausage crumbles, green peppers, mushrooms and mozzarella) and the Diavolo (grilled chicken, bacon, jalapenos, onions, mozzarella and a spicy pizza sauce).

In 2018, the Manchester airport location of British fast-casual chain PizzaLuxe came out with a breakfast version of the pizza bowl. But their bowl featured pizza dough baked into a bowl shape and filled with favorite English breakfast ingredients such as bacon, sausage and eggs. And Dells Pizza Lab, located in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, rolled out its own pizza breakfast bowl in 2017.

Seyferth said Marco’s pizza bowls will “give pizza lovers another option to eating their favorite food. With more than one-fourth of the population tossing and wasting the crust of pizza and the popularization of [pizza] bowls, this product is an ideal fit. Marco’s officially gives you permission to eat pizza with a fork.”

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