Pie Five Pizza Says 'Bye Bye' To Oak Lawn After Abruptly Closing

OAK LAWN, IL -- A fast food pizza restaurant is closing a year after it set up shop at Oak Lawn’s Stony Creek Promenade. The fast-casual pizza joint boasted a design-it-yourself pizza, allowing customers to get unlimited toppings prepared in less than five minutes.

Oak Lawn’s Pie Five Pizza at 10916 S. Cicero Ave. next to Mariano’s is closing, as well as other franchises around the Chicago area. All but one of the Chicago-area franchises are being shuttered without notice, including locations in Palatine, Glenview, Skokie, Algonquin and Naperville, Crain’s Chicago Business reported.

The Oak Lawn location opened in January 2016 and was the first Pie Five franchise to open in the south suburbs.

Pie Five parent company Rave Restaurant Group based in Dallas, TX, has reportedly lost $7.9 million on a $14.8 in revenue this past quarter, reports said.

Jami Zimmerman, a spokeswoman for Pie Five, told Crain’s that the restaurants "just didn't take off in Chicago the way (executives) expected." The restaurant chain says it will focus on other markets in the best interest of the brand and shareholders.

According to the Daily Herald, Pie Five is also being sued by a Chicago-area franchise owner Carl Dissette for breach of contract and fraud. The lawsuit alleges that Pie Five and Rave overstated financial figures to make the restaurants seem more attractive, when Pie Five was actually losing money.

Dissette’s Pie Five location in Schaumburg will remain open. The company still plans to open a new location at 537 Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, the Daily Herald reports.

At one time three such fast casual restaurants where consumers could customize their own personal-sized pizzas operated concurrently in Oak Lawn. Pizza Studio closed a year after opening last year. Only Blaze Pizza remains open at 6230 95th St.

Photo: Opening day at Pie Five in January 2016