Sometimes, success comes with a temporary price.
After being named a Top 100 Place To Eat by Yelp, R Town Pizza in Reno, Nevada, was mobbed by eager customers. The shop estimated that business quadrupled last week after the news of its accolade broke. As a result, in order to give employees some much needed rest, the shop announced via its social media channels that it was closing Monday, January 29.
“We want to thank everybody that has made this last week what it is,” the shop owner, Marvin Kinney, wrote. “That has made this little business what it is. Awestruck is the word…That said, due to a variety of factors including the level of business we achieved this weekend we need to close for a day and reset. We are starting to get behind to a point where it will be detrimental to try and continue.”
R Town Pizza, a Detroit-style shop in Reno, was one of seven pizzerias named to Yelp’s recently released list. One of the shop’s most popular menu items is the D Sting, a spin on the famous Bee Sting from Roberta’s: vegan hot honey drizzled over soppressata, a cheese blend, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and house-made red sauce.
Related: What Are the Elements of an Authentic Detroit-Style Pizza?
As the weekend rolled around, R Town Pizza’s boost in business happened to collide with the NFC Championship game Sunday, which the Detroit Lions were participating in for the first time since 1991. In anticipation of this, Kinney had to announce on social media that the pizzeria could not longer take online or phone orders due to the volume in the shop.
“We are too busy with our dine-in customers to be able to keep up,” Kinney wrote. “Of course no matter what people are still trying to order and it’s defaulting to tomorrow and [no] matter how much I communicate this, we will disappoint someone… we are currently taking it moment-by-moment and trying to stay as agile as possible.”
In his posts on social media, Kinney appeared to be sincerely grateful and also very concerned about letting his loyal customers down. It was clear he wasn’t taking anything for granted.
“Thank you so much,” he wrote in the post about closing on Monday. “This has been an amazing journey so far. And we cannot wait to continue [to make] some of the best damn pizza that we can. See you Tuesday.”
