Rob AriasThe iconic Rotten City Pizza may have sold its final slice after 17 years in Emeryville owner Jonas Bernstein has confirmed with us. Both Google and Yelp list the business as “Permanently closed.”
This might not be the end of the story though as employees are scrambling to see if they can make an offer to preserve the business under an employee-ownership model.
Opened in 2008
Bernstein, a Brooklyn native, first opened the New York-style pizza joint in 2008.
They quickly became a favorite of locals for their massive, thin-crust slices with quality ingredients. including Porchetta, Funghi, Salumi and other options.
The “Rotten City” name is, of course, a reference to the notorious Earl Warren quote about Emeryville in the 1920s as he battled the city during Prohibition. While not exactly embraced at the time, the “Rotten City” moniker is now celebrated by the city and embraced in the naming of the city’s cultural district.
“I took a bit of a gamble naming a pizza place ‘Rotten City.’” Bernstein told us in 2015 while opening The Branch Line Bar. “It ended up working out OK though.”
Bernstein initially considered closing up for good during the Pandemic but decided to keep it going for his employees and hope for a comeback. That comeback never fully materialized.
The spot remains popular, and few have questioned the quality of RCP’s product. But market forces have driven up the cost of ingredients in tandem with labor costs, and the price of a pie has steadily crept up.
The 1949-built property had been listed on the LoopNet commercial property website for awhile (asking price $2.9M) but Bernstein has since decided not to sell the property.
“I’m done with this side of the industry,” Bernstein provided when we reached out to him noting that he would continue to manage the 4,500 sq. ft., commercial kitchen that is part of the property.
“We rode the wave and it was good for a long time, but it eventually crashed,” he added. Bernstein validated the conclusion that many in the industry have come to that the economics of running a restaurant is broken. Bernstein expressed appreciation to the many employees that helped make Rotten City a success over the last 17 years.
The property is within the zoning for cannabis manufacturing, making its uses more flexible for tenants.
Bernstein has not completely ruled out rebooting the Rotten City brand at some point.
Employees Launch GoFundMe to Reopen
Some longtime employees are working to make an offer to purchase the business. Should they succeed, they would likely start fresh under a different brand.
The $10K they are targeting will be used to help cover the first 2–3 months of operating costs and give them some runway to ensure success.
The team will be on hand through Sunday to chat with loyal customers and reminisce. “We need your support, your ideas—and yes, your appetite. It’s time to SOS: Save Our Slice!”
Rudy’s Can’t Fail Cafe is a recent example of a local restaurant that closed only to return under employee-ownership.
The model can add complexity to running a business but offers many advantages including providing motivation to employees who have a stake in the company’s success that they didn’t have as employees.
Rotten City has that great Earl Warren headline t-shirt that seems somehow familiar.
The “Rottenest City” tees were designed by The E’ville Eye and can be purchased here:
https://evilleeye.com/shop/
Their pizza was always insanely expensive
Maybe charging $75 for a large pizza is not a great business model?
Kind of hard to stay in business when you have the highest minimum wage in the US and Sales tax is constantly increasing. Most restaurants fail within the first 6 months of opening, so I would say being able to stay open for 17 years is a pretty good business model.
Agreed. June’s Pizza and Pizzeria Violetta are much more reasonably priced “craft” pizzas, as it were. I have never gone to eat here because the price was absolutely prohibitive to both my wallet and general sensibility towards not feeling complete ripped off as I spend out to dine.
Yeah… the pizza was good but I haven’t been able to afford to eat there in years….