Fired Pie, an Arizona-based fast casual pizza company founded in 2013, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the District of Arizona. The company is seeking to restructure its business under Subchapter V, according to court filings.
Its parent company, FPOT LLC, lists $500,000 to $1 million in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities in its petition. There are currently 14 Fired Pie locations on the company’s website, all of which are company-owned. The company did not outline specific reasons for filing the petition.
Fired Pie is part of a fast casual pizza category that exploded after the Great Recession, driven by brands like Pie Five, Blaze, Mod Pizza, Pieology, Uncle Maddio’s, and PizzaRev. In 2016, the category began to saturate, leading to a bit of a shakeout. That same year, however, Fired Pie received an investment from former Patina Restaurant Group president Frederick Wolfe.
But the category – which features a model in which customers choose their own toppings – struggled some more during the pandemic and has largely retrenched since. Earlier this year, Mod announced it had closed dozens of locations to explore improvement to its capital structure and, in July, was sold to Elite Restaurant Group. Earlier this month, Oath Pizza declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
That said, fast casual pizza certainly isn’t the only category struggling this year in which a record number of restaurant bankruptcies have been filed, according to the Wall Street Journal. This list includes Original Harold’s Chicken, Red Lobster, BurgerFi, Tijuana Flats, Roti, Hawkers Asian Street Food, Bucca di Beppo, World of Beer Bar & Kitchen, Tender Greens and Tocaya, Melt Bar & Grill, Rubio’s Coastal Grill, Sticky Fingers, Boxer Ramen, Oberweis Dairy, TGI Fridays, and more.
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]
