Popular pizza dining chain files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy again

Most pizza lovers have their favorite restaurant that serves their preferred pie. Often, their favorite pizza parlor is a single, local establishment popular with regular clientele.

Sometimes their favorite could be a well-regarded local or regional chain, and sometimes it's a larger, national pizza chain.

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Competition for the pizza dollar has been fierce between local, regional, and national chains, since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the industry has faced economic challenges over the last year that have forced many restaurant chains to reorganize their businesses in Chapter 11.

Huge Pizza Hut franchisee EYM Pizza L.P., which at one time operated 142 Pizza Hut locations in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, South Carolina, and Wisconsin, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in July 2024 and sold 77 of its restaurants at a bankruptcy auction.

Domino's Pizza franchisee, People First Pizza Inc., on March 26, 2025, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to reorganize its business, facing over $500,000 in disputed claims. The franchisee planned to continue operating the restaurant.

Small pizza chains file for bankruptcy

Popular rock and roll-themed pizza restaurant franchise Zeppe's Tavern in Newbury, Ohio, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 31, seeking to reorganize its business.

The Zeppe's Tavern & Pizzeria chain, which consists of 13 locations in Northeast Ohio and one in Naples, Fla., was established in 1986 by Led Zeppelin fan Joe Ciresi, according to the restaurant's website.

The founder combined his love of tasty food and rock and roll, featuring rock and roll videos and live music in the restaurants.

Financial distress led East Coast pizza chain Bertucci's Restaurants to file for Chapter 11 protection three times in seven years, with the first time in April 2018. It filed a second time in December 2022, when it operated 31 restaurants and had 15 restaurants when it filed a third time in April 2025.

Fiorella Pizza has filed for bankruptcy three times on behalf of its locations.

Image source: Shannon O'Hara/Getty Images

Fiorella Pizza chain files for bankruptcy protection

Finally, San Francisco wood-fired pizza restaurant chain Fiorella has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy for a third time in three months to reorganize another location and continue operating.

Project Pizza Polk LLC, which operates the chain's pizza and Italian restaurant location Fiorella Polk on San Francisco's Polk Street, filed its Subchapter V petition on July 2 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California, listing $100,000 to $500,000 in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities in its petition.

More bankruptcy:

The debtor's largest creditors include Retail Capital LLC, doing business as Credibly, owed over $232,000; Lightspeed Capital Inc., owed over $181,000; inKind Cards Inc., owed over $86,000; and California Department of Tax & Fee Administration, owed over $57,000.

The restaurant's affiliate Project Pizza LLC filed a Subchapter V petition on May 20 for its flagship location, Fiorella Clement, listing $50,000 to $100,000 in assets and $1 million to $10 million in liabilities in its petition.

Another affiliate, Project Pizza Sunset LLC, on April 1, 2025, filed a Chapter 11 Subchapter V petition on behalf of its Fiorella Sunset location on 9th Avenue in San Francisco.

The restaurant chain did not reveal reasons for filing the bankruptcy petitions.

Fiorella also operates a location in San Francisco's Noe Valley neighborhood on 24th Street, but it has not filed a separate Chapter 11 petition at last check.

The restaurant chain's partners Boris Nemchenok and Brandon Gillis opened the first location on Clement Street in 2016, followed by the Russian Hill location on Polk Street opening in 2019. The partners opened the Sunset location in 2021 and Noe Valley restaurant in 2024.