‘We Can’t Compete With Domino’s’: Pizza Brand Has to Close After 50 Years

Business has been booming in recent days at Armand’s Pizzeria & Grille in Rockville, Maryland. But it’s too little and far too late. The shop, the latest casualty of economic pressures plaguing independents, will close for good on June 20, despite a 50-year history in the area.

Armand’s is the last location of what was once a thriving chain called Armand’s Chicago Pizzeria, which boasted 14 locations across the DMV area at its peak. Lew Newmyer founded Armand’s in 1975 and reportedly introduced pizza delivery to Washington, D.C. And for that era and locale, he also made an unusual choice of pizza styles: Chicago deep-dish.

The story goes that Newmyer discovered and became obsessed with the deep-dish style during a visit to Chicago in the early 1970s. After asking local pizzeria owners for their recipe—and being turned away—he snuck out back of one restaurant and rummaged through its dumpster until he found the packaging labels for the key ingredients, such as flour, yeast and tomato sauce. He then devised his own recipe and opened the first Armand’s location.

“We’re really upset that we have to close,” Chris Sappe, co-owner of Armand’s Pizzeria & Grille, told Bethesda Today. He added, “The profit margin is so small, it’s just too much work to continue at the current pace.”

Sappe said the restaurant was facing a “substantial” increase in rent, although he initially believed he could work that out through negotiations with the building’s owner. “It’s tough, it’s very sad to go.”

In a separate interview with WTOP News, Sappe offered more detail about the reasons behind Armand’s closure. “Montgomery County is a tough place to have a family-owned business with minimum wage increasing, food cost increasing, obviously gas and everything else,” he said. “That affects everybody.”

He added, “We can’t compete with national chains like Domino’s or Papa John’s because they just push the food at such a low cost. We use fresh ingredients every day. We pay the extra money for the high-quality ingredients, but eventually you’ll price yourself out.”