Mary’s Pizza Shack to close Dixon, Novato, Napa locations due to rising costs, declining revenue

Mary’s Pizza Shack announced last week it will permanently close its Dixon, Novato and Napa locations with declining revenue and rising food and labor costs driving part of the decision.

The company announced the closures in a Facebook post, saying it was a “necessary action” despite hoping to keep these locations as the company moved forward.

“We made this decision to close the locations with heaviness; it was heart-wrenching,” family ownership of Mary’s Pizza Shack said in a statement to The Press Democrat.

“However, this decision will help Mary’s continue to be a strong company for the community as we have been for over 60 years with three generations of family leadership.“

The California pizza chain with headquarters in Sonoma has been serving recipes by founder Mary Fazio’s father since 1959 and continues to be owned and operated by Fazio’s family.

Family ownership said it has no plans to close its remaining nine locations in Sonoma County, Vacaville and Fairfield.

Gift cards purchased at the affected locations will be honored at all open locations.

According to the statement, the closures are a result of declining revenue from customers eating and staying at home more often and increased expenses, including the use of third-party delivery platforms, such as Grubhub and DoorDash.

“Dixon, Novato, and Napa were locations whose volume never returned to pre-COVID numbers while food and labor costs increased, to the point where maintaining their operations was no longer financially viable,” the family said in its statement.

Mary’s Pizza Shack employees working at these locations were offered transfers to other locations. Those who did not want to transfer and had worked at Mary’s for over a year were provided severance pay for up to four weeks, depending on length of employment.

Mary’s Pizza Shack announced its plans to restructure the company this past summer when it closed its restaurants in downtown Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

Rather than being a single company that operated 14 locations in Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties, Mary’s Pizza Shack locations will operate as individual, family-owned and operated restaurants, publicist Jacob Perez told The Press Democrat in May.

“We want to have owner-operators with day-to-day decisions at the store level and building intentional relationships with the local community,” Perez said.

“When a family member steps into a restaurant as the owner, from the top down the expectation is that they will provide the same food quality and service, but do it in a way that's sustainable for the next generations.”

You can reach Staff Writer Sara Edwards at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @sedwards380.