Chipotle to Close All of Its Pizzeria Locale Stores

Pizzeria Locale, a small Denver-based fast-casual pizza chain backed by Chipotle Mexican Grill, will fire up its ovens for the last time on July 10.

Laurie Schalow, chief corporate affairs officer for Chipotle Mexican Grill, announced the shuttering of the brand, which had five stores, on July 5. “We have made the decision to close all five Pizzeria Locale restaurants on July 10 and dissolve the business,” she said in a media statement. “Impacted employees have been extended employment opportunities at Chipotle restaurants in the Denver area.”

Bobby Stuckey and Lachlan Mackinnon-Patterson—the team behind Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado—opened the first Pizzeria Locale in Boulder in 2011 and expanded to Denver the next year with a second location. By 2013, the Frasca team had joined forces with Chipotle to bring the woodfired-pizza company to more locations.

Fast growth was expected with Chipotle money behind the brand. And, in fact, other Pizzeria Locale stores opened in Denver as well as in Cincinnati and Kansas City over the next few years. But those out-of-state stores were closed in 2018 “to better focus on growth in our hometown of Denver,” Mackinnon-Patterson said at the time, according to Westword.

At the same time it closed the Pizzeria Locale stores in Cincinnati and Kansas City, Chipotle also closed dozens of its own underperforming locations around the U.S.

Beyond the statement from Schalow, Chipotle hasn’t explained why it’s terminating the Pizzeria Locale brand.