Pie Five Pizza Co. has closed all its company-owned locations across Chicago, just two years after the quick-service pie chain opened its first local restaurant.
A spokesman for the company, which is a unit of Dallas-based Rave Restaurant Group, said Wednesday that the closure of seven Chicago restaurants was an “operationally necessary decision to focus development on our growing markets.” One restaurant in Schaumburg, operated by a franchisee, will remain open. And the company is still planning to open a new location in Oak Brook next month, one of 40 new restaurants planned this year.
Pie Five allows customers to personalize their pies and cooks them in just over two minutes. It was one of several quick-service pizza chains that came into the Chicago market in recent years, including Blaze and Mod.
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Blaze Pizza co-founder Rick Wetzel said in a statement that he doesn’t believe the closures are a sign that customers aren’t responding to the concept, but rather a natural evolution of the niche.
“History shows that in hot new categories — like coffee, smoothies, burritos, burgers, bagels and frozen yogurt — you start with way too many players and a wide range of executions, then a short list of leaders emerge and the rest just fade away,” said Wetzel, who is also the founder of Wetzel’s Pretzels. “The closure of the Pie Five restaurants is simply part of the process to wean out the weaker brands.”
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