Schaumburg Pie Five Pizza Co. store closes
Only one Pie Five Pizza Co. location remains open in the Chicago suburbs - a new location in Oak Brook - after another franchisee who sued the company decided to shutter his Schaumburg store.
Owner Carl Dissette said he decided to close the fast casual pizza restaurant at 1428 N. Meacham Road this week after corporate officials at the Texas-based chain refused to allow delivery service for that store, which he believes would increase sales. The chain is doing a trial run of delivery at certain locations.
A Pie Five Pizza executive told Dissette in an email it would be "difficult" to do until he dropped his federal lawsuit. Otherwise, he'd have to wait for the official systemwide rollout.
Dissette closed his franchise location at 1219 W. Golf Road in Rolling Meadows in late December - just days after filing suit against the company for fraud and breach of contract, and three months after the restaurant's opening.
In March, Pie Five officials closed their corporate-owned stores in Palatine, Glenview, Skokie, Algonquin, Naperville and Oak Lawn, saying they wanted to focus development on their growing markets. That leaves the franchise store at 537 Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, which opened last month, as the only Pie Five in the area.
The chain, which started in 2011, entered the Chicago market in early 2015, offering customizable pizzas in five minutes.
A federal judge last week allowed Dissette's lawsuit against Pie Five and parent company RAVE to continue. Dissette alleges in the suit the company overstated financial figures to make the restaurants appear more attractive, while, in reality, the company is losing money and its stock price continues to dip.
The company has declined to comment on the suit.
Dissette, one of the first Jimmy John's franchisees in Chicago in the 1990s, still operates four Pie Five stores in Indiana and one in Iowa, while another Iowa store remains under construction.