Riccardo Ossola has six children at home and a pizzeria that’s not paying the bills. Now he’s closing Raven Pizza, located in Parrish, Florida, for good on July 12 because, as he explained in an Instagram post, the kids “need their dad more than Parrish needs pizza.”
“I still believe in miracles,” Ossola wrote. “I still believe in the future. But for now, I have nothing left to give this business.”
Ossola laid out his pizzeria’s challenges in two different social media posts—one on Instagram and one on Facebook—and in an interview with the Bradenton Herald. The bottom line: Since he took over Raven Pizza a year ago (July 2024), nothing he’s tried has turned business around—thanks largely to Hurricane Milton, which laid waste to the region last October.
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In the Facebook post, Ossola wrote, “I tried everything—searching for a new location, looking for a partner who could help carry the weight, opening up my heart and vision to anyone who believed in what Raven Pizza could still become. But the numbers from a year marked by disasters made belief a hard sell. And while I believe with all my heart that God has a plan and that His timing is perfect, I’m also a father of six beautiful kids (the seventh may arrive while I’m typing this). They deserve a dad who’s not constantly overwhelmed and stretched thin. They deserve my presence more than I need to hold onto a dream I can no longer carry.”
It’s unusual—and poignant—for a pizzeria owner to divulge the details behind such a difficult decision. But Raven Pizza, as it turns out, faced an uphill climb in the wake of Hurricane Milton, the most intense Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever recorded over the Gulf of Mexico.
It’s a 30-year-old restaurant, but it has gone through several owners since it was founded in 1995. Brad and Sandy Meilink bought it from the original owners in 2018, made some tweaks to the menu and installed new equipment but kept the focus on carryout and delivery. A year later, Brad Meilink told the Bradenton Herald, “We get probably 150 new customers every month.”
Ossola undoubtedly had high hopes when he bought the restaurant in July 2024. Then, in October, Hurricane Milton blew in and tore the building’s roof off completely. Ossola had to close down for several months, losing many staff members in the interim. He also lost a business partner “who walked away at the worst time.”
Battered but unbowed, Raven Pizza reopened in January 2025. “We kept pushing, we rebuilt, we rebranded, we reimagined Raven Pizza,” he wrote on Facebook. “But sometimes even your best isn’t enough.”
“I did it with passion from day one, and I really believe in the potential of the place because it’s the first pizza restaurant in Parrish,” Ossola told the Herald in a story posted on July 3. “We have a huge customer list, we have a phenomenal crew, and our customers—we have people that [have bought] from us for the last 17, 20 years.”
Even so, the prolonged shutdown after the hurricane proved devastating, Ossola said in that interview. “You can imagine staying closed for 14 weeks. The loss of profit was huge. Plus, we lost customers, and I had to reinvent the staff.”
When Ossola says he “tried everything,” he means it. He launched a new app, online ordering system and loyalty program. In just a few months—even while the pizzeria was closed—he built a database list of more than 30,000 customers and sent them updates and offers via email and text every day.
He also added a Nutella pizza for dessert, the Raven Calzone, and 10” star-shaped and bear-shaped pizzas for children, along with Truffle Parmesan and Black Garlic Garlic Knots.
“We stopped using processed stuff and started using real butter, real garlic (minced at the order) and premium Italian products,” he explained on Facebook.
And still the numbers just didn’t add up. Now with a seventh child on the way, Ossola has to move on to provide for his family. “We’ve fought hard. Really hard,” he told Raven Pizza’s Facebook followers. “But this isn’t just about closing a business. It’s about saying goodbye to a legacy, a community, and a vision that so many of you helped build.”
He concluded, “Thank you for believing in this little corner of Parrish. Thank you for showing up over and over again. Thank you for being part of something that, even if it’s ending, was absolutely worth it.”
