Old School Pizzeria served its mozzarella sticks for the last time at the Levee on Nov. 15.
In April 2014, Old School Pizzeria took over for Nauti Dolphin as the Levee’s food supplier.
When asked prior to their closing, Marc Lee ’17, an employee of Old School Pizzeria in the Levee, said, “[Nov. 15] will be the last day of business for the on campus pizzeria. Their contract was not renewed.”
According to Assistant Vice President of the Office of Conference and Event Management Matt Dinnan, the decision was a collective one between the University and Old School Pizzeria.
“The services they were providing were not sustainable for the University or for them … in regards to financial considerations, quality considerations and service considerations on both parts,” said Dinnan. “There were some concerns that the University had with quality of service, speed of service and quality of food as well. They had some challenges sustaining their business as well.”
Students were not made aware that Old School Pizzeria would be no longer serving the Levee.
“I’m honestly shocked. I feel like it’s definitely a big part of the campus,” said Alfonso Garcia ‘18. “A lot of people go there, especially during the weekends. I feel like they have a lot of events going on there. I don’t know why they would close it.”
“You’re the first person I’ve heard that it’s closing from, so I don’t think they did a good job letting people know that it was closing,” continued Garcia.
According to Dinnan, the reason for the sudden closure was up to Old School Pizzeria.
“They were going to be here either until Thanksgiving or until the end of the semester, but they decided that they weren’t able to continue their business, so they notified [the University on Nov. 16] that they effective immediately were not going to be able to continue operations.” However, the bar at the Levee will remain open.
Dinnan also spoke about plans for the Levee’s future.
“What we’re looking to do is provide temporary pizza service to the students post-Thanksgiving for the few weeks prior to exams, and then certainly in January,” Dinnan commented. “I think there might be two types of services. One provided to the students who go to the Levee in the late afternoons and evenings until exams begin and then something for second semester.”
Dinnan added that the University hopes to have a more permanent vendor in place by September 2017.
The owners of Old School Pizzeria declined to comment.
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