Both of &pizza's Center City locations in Philadelphia have gone dark, leaving just one store in the city standing at 3925 Walnut Street in University City. The shop at 1800 Walnut Street, on the corner of 18th and Walnut, shut down a few months ago, while the location at 235 S 15th Street, at 15th and Walnut, closed sometime in early November.
According to 94.5 PST, which first reported the closures, signs posted on the doors of both shuttered stores direct customers to the remaining University City location. The station said it reached out to &pizza for comment on why the Center City shops closed and had not heard back. &pizza's own location page lists the surviving University City shop at 3925 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, near the University of Pennsylvania campus.
A Shrinking Footprint Beyond Philly
The Center City closures are part of a broader contraction for the fast-casual pizza chain, per the station's report. &pizza now has 39 locations remaining companywide, down from an earlier peak of nearly 60 stores, and the chain has also closed shops in Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel, New Jersey, along with a few locations in the Washington, D.C. area.
The Cherry Hill and Mount Laurel closures drew attention back in mid-2024, when mybeachradio.com reported that stores at 801 Haddonfield Road and 10 Centerton Road, Suite 201 had abruptly closed, with the reason left unclear. The same report noted that rival MOD Pizza had closed its own Cherry Hill and Marlton locations in March 2024, seemingly due to poor business.
What Might Be Behind the Closures
No official cause has been confirmed for the Philadelphia shutdowns. The article speculated that &pizza's business may have changed as employees increasingly work from home, and noted that some customers pointed to strong competition in the Rittenhouse neighborhood as a possible pressure point — though that remains customer speculation rather than a confirmed explanation.
Center City's retail environment has faced real strain since the pandemic reshaped commuting patterns. A 2022 report from Bisnow found storefront vacancy across Center City at 17% after the first half of that year, compared with just 6.4% at Philadelphia shopping centers over the same period, and foot traffic by nonresident workers sitting at only 56% of 2019 levels by the end of August 2022.
From Rapid Growth to Retreat
&pizza's Philadelphia story once pointed in the opposite direction. The chain's first area location opened at 1430 Walnut Street on October 13, 2016, marking its first expansion outside Washington, D.C., according to phillymag.com. Five years later, the company's CEO told Restaurant Business the chain planned to open about 40 new stores by the end of 2022 — an ambition that stands in sharp contrast to the shrinking footprint now being reported in Philadelphia and beyond.
