After just under a year in business, Pizzino (pronounced pit-ZEE-noh), the fast casual pizza joint located at 7600 Wydown in Clayton, is closing its doors.
Owner Jim Zimmerman announced the closure last Friday via Facebook, citing failure “to hit the revenue targets needed to continue operations,” which usually means “slow sales.”
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The closure is unfortunate, as Pizzino’s offerings are unique and impressive. Zimmerman, a former executive for Cahokia Flour Co., had tinkered with pizza crusts for 20 years. Pizzino’s signature crust is an individual (6” X 9”) oval (below) that gets grilled before being topped and finished in a 650 degree brick oven (a 12” round version was added later). The other style is a focaccia-based, pan pizza, that we said here, “may just be the lightest focaccia in town”.
The accoutrements (Tuscan bean dip, eggplant tapenade, homemade soup) were solid, as were the desserts (bags of spiced nuts, Zimmerman’s wife Vicky’s chocolate chip cookies, and Rosa del Deserto, a decadent chocolate/hazelnut/corn flake concoction).
So what happened? With so much apparently going right for the place, why the closure? Zimmerman says he will spend the next couple of months “looking at the numbers trying to figure out exactly what went wrong.”
Some will say it’s the location: Pizzino’s street address is on Wydown, but the store is actually located 100 feet off of Wydown, facing a residential side street. The small sign (right) may not have been large enough to catch a driver’s eye. (Prior to Pizzino, the space was home to the first Missouri location of Newport Beach-based zpizza. It closed after a 14-month run.)
Others might say the product was too esoteric, that the pizza business is led by a handful of mainstream players, most of which appeal to families, so not offering a 14” or 16” pie may have limited Pizzino’s reach.
And although the place was praised by local foodies and critics (which it was), that’s not enough to assure long-term survival.
Or maybe the pizza was too expensive: ovals sold for $8.75 (on average), the 12” rounds were $19.00.
Or poorly marketed: it costs money to generate demand for a slightly off-kilter product, which is difficult for a small operation. Advertising is expensive as well…every mom and pop restaurant will tell you that.
So will Pizzino reappear…maybe in a less expensive format or in another part of town? Zimmerman is keeping that door open: “We may regroup and resurrect parts of it, “ he said wistfully. “You may see our name again.”
Pizzino
7600 Wydown
314-240-5134
Hours (restaurant closes permanently on December 5):
Tue-Thu: 11 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Fri-Sat: 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.
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