Uncle Joe’s Pizza and Restaurant has closed up shop on West Main Street after almost two years in business.
Scarce parking growing tighter every day made it a “tough spot” for a pizza parlor on West Main Street, especially without offering delivery services, owner Joe Sciara said this afternoon.
“I want to say I’m sorry and thank you for your patronage, but I couldn’t stick it out any longer,” Sciara said at the pizzeria this morning, where he and two workers were loading up a minivan with food and supplies. “I had to cut my losses.”
Uncle Joe’s Pizza opened up in downtown Riverhead in September 2014 after purchasing the location from Parto’s Italian Restaurant. It was the third location for Uncle Joe’s, which has another location in Mattituck and another in Hampton Bays, where it has been operating for more than 30 years.
A paper sign taped to the store’s front door Monday morning read, “Sorry for the inconvenience — this location is closed. Uncle Joe’s in Hampton Bays delivers to Riverhead.” Sunday was the Riverhead location’s last day of operations.
Sciara said he has been trying to sell the business over the past year and had a deal that he believed was going to closing but the potential buyer backed out at the last minute, he said. The property has been listed for sale since September 2015 on loopnet.com.
He said he regrets the restaurant’s decision not to offer delivery. “With the lack of parking down here, if you don’t do deliveries, you’re dead,” he said. The Riverhead restaurant was being run by his son, Claudio. The Mattituck store is run by his younger son Steve.
When it appeared the sale of the Riverhead business was going to be consummated, his son left for other employment, Sciara said.
“I’m 76 years old and I’m working seven days a week, sometimes 19 hours a day. The Hampton Bays restaurant has really been supporting this one all summer,” he said. “I just can’t do it anymore.”
Sciara said he’s leaving “tens of thousands of dollars” of fixtures and equipment in the restaurant and was not sure if building owner Frank Spatola, who owned and operated Parto’s at the location, would be reopening it himself or seek a new tenant.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Peter Blasl
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