Sizzle Pie at 457 Graham Ave. (via Sizzle Pie on Yelp)
Dec. 29, 2017 By Nathaly Pesantez
Sizzle Pie, the pizza restaurant with roots in Oregon, has closed its two Williamsburg locations.
The 457 Graham Ave. site, which opened in January, and 357 Bedford Ave. site opened shortly after have closed for business today, according to Bob Peyton, the director of operations for Sizzle Pie.
Peyton was at the empty Sizzle Pie location on Graham Avenue, and did not reveal why the two Brooklyn restaurants closed.
Neither Brooklyn location is listed on Sizzle Pie’s website, and the Bedford Avenue location is listed as “permanently closed” on Yelp.
Sizzle Pie’s 357 Bedford Ave. location today.
Sizzle Pie, known for its metal rock aesthetic and unconventional pizza variations, was founded by Michael “Mikey” McKennedy and Matt Jacobson in 2011 in Portland. The restaurant has grown in popularity over the years, and was met with much buzz when news of its expansion to Brooklyn was revealed.
Sizzle Pie also won the 2016 Pizza Today Independent Pizzeria of the Year award.
The pizzeria’s closing appears abrupt, as three jobs listings were posted earlier this month seeking cooks and counter staff for the Bedford Avenue location.
In a statement, Jacobson said the two locations closed on Dec. 28, and cited three reasons for their decision:
“We had a great year in New York and it was a blast. But the immense travel costs, a challenging labor pool and extremely high staff turnover in New York all combined to make for an unsustainable long term business for us. We want to thank everyone who welcomed us with open arms and all of the New Yorkers who said our pizza is legit. We will truly miss you all. Come see us in Portland and the Pacific Northwest any time. Party on!”
Update 12/19 7:14 p.m. – Statement from Sizzle Pie co-owner added.
Sizzle Pie’s Graham Avenue location today.
Featured Events
12 Comments
Barbeq Manufacture Pizza Oven/BBQ Grill/Fire Pit in 2001 Years, Our Factory Can Provide Cheap Price and Good Quality Product Around the World, Currently, Main Market is Germany/Poland/UK/US, Quality Inspection Standard is in Accordance with Fr ance/Germany. Our products look so cool and have hundreds of styles and sizes for you to choose. In this way, you can meet different requirements in different places. I believe there will be styles that you love!https://www.barbeq.co/bbq-grill
Yeah, i hafta agree. Pizza wasnt great. Too bad so sad for Portland.
Yeah this place was a joke lol. Not real NY pizza from not NYers. Good riddance.
It’s not a big deal but they did offer a “half slice” — a slice cut down the middle for about half price, which is nice when you want a snack but not a whole slice. I can’t believe I’m writing that. But that’s what I did like.
So they showed up with their shitty pizza, thought they were so great that they were going to just takeover all pizza business in Williamsburg by opening TWO locations at once, didn’t so as well as they thought (surprise!) closed up shop abruptly and then blamed the whole thing on their employees with their closing statement citing “a challenging labor pool and extremely high staff turnover in New York.”
Give me a fucking break. Their pizza was overpriced shit and blaming it on their staff is about the shittiest, classlessiest move I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Go back to Portland and take your shitty pizza and bullshit narcissism with you, gents. Not only was pizza shitty and your attitude bad, your aesthetic was like a bad millennial facsimile of real gen-X rocker pizza joints like Escape from New York and Two Boots. Good riddance!
Sizzle Pie didn’t try to compete on price at all, they were the most expensive non-luxury pizza in New York. Their only concession on that was their happy hours where you could get $5 off a large pie, but even then it was still more expensive than every pizza place around it, including direct competitor Vinnie’s.
She means white hipsters. Sizzle pie sucked keep it real!
Bad management will always cause a business to fail. Sounds like they never really knew what they were doing if you ask me…
Sad they didn’t mention how many of their employees were thrown to the curb! Or the bad managing skills killed business! They should be more honest!
I’d say ‘upper management skills’ to be honest.
They had no corporate presence in NYC. In their defense they never claimed to be New York style pizza. They did have a few awesome employees, some hipsters some BK natives. They also had some really shitty employees also some hipsters and some BK natives. The menu did seem to cater to hipsters and didn’t reflect Brooklyn or NYC. They tried to hard to be something they aren’t. And their moniker “Death to false pizza” seemed to be a self prophecy.
It’s a shame they didn’t give their employees any notice. WHO DOES THAT during Christmas?!
“Hey can you work Christmas Day? You get time and a half”
“Thanks for that we’re closing”