New pizzeria slated to open in late November
The vacant restaurant space in Cloverdale’s Furber Ranch Plaza that once held Mary’s Pizza Shack will soon be home to another, larger pizza chain. Mountain Mike’s Pizza is heading in with an anticipated opening date in the third or fourth week of November.
The restaurant is owned and operated by Chandi Hospitality Group, a Santa Rosa-based group that owns and operates 14 Mountain Mike’s locations as well as Santa Rosa’s Bollywood Bar & Clay Oven and Beer Baron.
The group decided to open a location in Cloverdale to help add variety to the local food options.
“We were presented with the site almost three years ago. We thought about it back then, at that time we were busy with a couple of other opportunities. We did consider it back then when it was initially brought up to us” said Chandi Hospitality President Sonu Chandi. “We had been negotiating before the pandemic with the landlord, but as soon as COVID hit we put it on pause — we were nervous just like any other business with what was going to happen.”
Chandi Hospitality’s businesses were hit hard for the first two weeks, but then sales slowly ebbed back toward where they had been.
“We saw that our numbers were back and we went back to conversations in early May,” he said.
An agreement was reached in August, and from there Chandi’s team has worked to break ground and make the renovations needed to open up shop. While the building had foundational features from its previous tenant, it was renovated to fit with the Mountain Mike’s stylistic brand, and a game room was added.
“As a company we’ve grown — we started with Sonoma County and then we’ve gone into Mendocino County and even in Humboldt we opened a site earlier this year. We saw a very successful opening in the middle of the pandemic for our Eureka site,” said Chandi. “Mainly because our food is very friendly for take-out and delivery.”
Mary’s Pizza Shack closed down its Furber Ranch Plaza location in the summer of 2018, citing a rise in labor costs and modest foot traffic. The pizzeria had been in the plaza for 10 years.
Chandi said that he believes the more simple menu offerings of Mountain Mike’s will lead to the restaurant being more sustainable.
“We just focus on pizzas and do a really good job with pizzas. We don’t have a bunch of other menu items, except appetizers … and a fresh salad every day,” Chandi said.
While the group has been heading north with its newer Mountain Mike’s ventures, Chandi said that the decision to open in Cloverdale was in part due to the already limited pizza offerings — the only pizza place in town is locally owned Papa’s Pizza on North Cloverdale Boulevard.
“Cloverdale doesn’t have a lot of options at this time,” Chandi said. “That’s even more of a reason for us to go into a smaller community like this where there is less competition. We want the place that’s already there to do well and (this will) hopefully bring an exciting option.”
He added that the location will also have local beer and wine.
According to a press release from Mountain Mike’s Pizza, the opening of the new pizzeria will bring approximately 14 new jobs to the community.
Navigating virus restrictions
Opening another location of a business can come with its challenges, and businesses that open in 2020 are being met with an additional challenge — navigating restrictions put in place by COVID-19 health orders.
Chandi said that there’s already a plan for outside and socially distanced dining once the Cloverdale location opens up.
“You’ll see throughout all of our locations that we’ve opened in the last few years, we’ve done a good job of building patio seating and outdoor seating,” he said. “We do focus on dine-in experience … we rely on local teams, we rely on local gatherings. We know it’s going to take some time for that business to come back, but we are preparing for that. In the beginning we’re going to have a nice setting on a patio that guests can enjoy when we start out.”
“We’re thankful for the opportunity. We’re excited to come to this small community. You’ll see us brothers working in there for time to time and for us, we’re committed for the long term and we’re excited to become part of the Cloverdale community,” Chandi said.
