A leaky roof and landlord problems will soon close down the world’s only pizzeria/pizza museum, Pizza Brain in Philadelphia, after 12 years in business.

Founded by Michael Carter, Joe Hunter, Ryan Anderson and Brian Dwyer, Pizza Brain has been blowing minds in Philly’s Fishtown neighborhood since 2012. It’s a most peculiar hybrid: part neighborhood pizza joint centered around Hunter’s inventive thin-crust pies with names like Buffy, Ollie and Henrietta, and part museum showcasing pizza-related artwork, photos, memorabilia, collectibles, books, records, toys, antiques and various surprises stuffed in drawers around the building.

Nancy Cartwright, the voice of Bart Simpson, signed a script of The Simpsons for Pizza Brain, while John Kricfalusi, creator of Ren & Stimpy, contributed an original signed drawing.

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Pizza Brain started as an art show for pizza lovers. “It was such a smashing success that the idea evolved over the summer into, ‘What about a pizza shop?’” Dwyer told PMQ in 2013.

“It was really the fascination of trying to create what we understood to be the only pizza shrine or the only pizza culture museum that exists….[and] celebrate the ever-evolving culture of pizza,” Dwyer said.

Carter added, “We had the collection long before we had the building, so [the pizzeria] was actually secondary to the collection.” Dwyer continued, “But we also knew, exactly out of the gate, that if we were going be a pizza museum and serve pizza, it had better be damn good. So…a large part of our formative time together was really [spent] figuring out how to make the kind of pizza that we felt was deserving of a pizza museum.”


In a case of Pizza Brain drain, Dwyer eventually left the company over a business dispute with his partners, but Pizza Brain has remained a hotspot for hipsters and pizza geeks alike. It also became a favorite for school groups and day camp outings. Children from neighborhood schools have contributed their own pizza-themed artwork for Pizza Brain, and celebrities like Rupert Grint of Harry Potter fame have dropped in for a slice. As of now, the pizzeria has more than 22,100 followers on Instagram and 1,500 Facebook fans.

So why is Pizza Brain on the wane? The current owners laid out the problem in a recent newsletter to their loyalty members.

“Know we did not make this decision to leave here lightly,” they wrote. “But in the behind-the-scenes realm of our world, we’ve been in a pitched struggle with our landlord over our lease renewal and much-needed repairs to the home in which Pizza Brain lives. This includes efforts to modify our pre-negotiated lease and a years-long effort to have a roof leak fixed. That leak became so pronounced, cascading water would pour from the floor above into our store with each rain, eventually creating extensive [problems] and physical damage to the store, leading to L&I building violations. Likely, any of the ongoing issues you can imagine that come from water being where it should not [be], we are dealing with. It has become clear to us we need to move elsewhere.”

The Pizza Brain owners said they’re “already dreaming, planning [and] working on what is next! We are hopeful our goodbye from this location will lead to hellos from our next one.”

No firm closing date has been set, but the pizzeria/museum is likely to wrap up operations by the end of May or in early June.

Writing for Philly Voice, Jason Sheeran said Pizza Brain wasn’t his favorite pizza shop in the city, “but the place was strange, nerdy, loud and made by people who are 100% committed to their love of pizza. And you just have to respect that.”

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