Oath Pizza — the Boston-based, fast-casual pizza brand —declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Oct. 22 and will be liquidating its assets one year after closing all of its corporate locations. The Next Level Pizza-owned small chain estimated that it had under $500,000 in assets, and was up to $50 million in debt.
Oath Pizza was founded on Nantucket Island in 2015, and over the next couple of years, had become a promising emerging chain. The company secured $4.5 million in funding in 2016, and announced a strategic partnership with Aramark in 2018, with plans to accelerate growth across the Northeast, particularly on college campuses, especially through franchising. Oath Pizza distinguished itself from other fast-casual pizza chains with its grilled thin-crust pizza style and focus on sustainability as a certified humane restaurant company.
Per Technomic data, at its peak in 2022, Oath Pizza had 17 locations open in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California, and more. Last November, Oath Pizza began shutting down locations, and as of the end of November 2023, the company had shuttered seven restaurants, as reported by Nantucket Current.
According to a complaint filed by investor James Alpi in May 2023, Oath Pizza’s CEO Andrew Kellogg declared the company insolvent in November 2022 and began to “usurp the company’s assets,” (including funds from investors), leaving it “as a shell” of what it once was.
The complaint stated that Kellogg was supposed to implement a recovery plan to sell its assets and liquidate Next Level Pizza, but instead he “deterred potential bidders while covertly planning to sell the company’s assets to himself.” Kellogg then allegedly sold Next Level Pizza’s assets to Oath Pizza, effectively selling his own company to himself. Next Level Pizza was then allegedly left with no assets to pay its creditors.
By the time of the bankruptcy filing, the company had closed all corporate locations, and the only restaurants left were a few independent franchisees, including a couple of university campus locations.
Contact Joanna at [email protected]
