What’s new, hot and next? Spin Neapolitan Pizza for one.

Nation’s Restaurant News has selected the Kansas City-based specialty pizza chain as one of its 50 “Breakout Brands,” all featured in its Jan. 28 special edition: “Meet the concepts shaking up the restaurant marketplace.”

Brands had to range in size from a couple of units to 75, have an interesting point of differentiation, and have demonstrable expansion plans. They also had to be generating excitement among consumers, their operator peers and potential investors.

Spin’s breakout factors: Differentiated service and hot culinary niche. Experts called their service model “premium fast casual.” By having servers available to take additional orders after the main dish order is taken up front, the company encourages incremental sales because customers don’t have to leave their tables to order desserts or drinks, the article said.

Spin’s service style and menu selection, which includes soups and salads, also helps it compete with other fast casual chains.

“Philosophically, we believe that building strong local restaurants is really important when building a strong national brand,” said co-founder Gail Lozoff in the article. “It’s really building from the inside out.”

Spin was founded in 2005 and now has five restaurants in the metro with a sixth location under construction. The company’s first franchisee plans to soon open the first of 37 Spin restaurants planned for Southern California.

Other chains on the Breakout Brands list include Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, which recently entered the market with a location on the Country Club Plaza, and Bar Louie, which has two area locations.