Furber Plaza has a new pizza joint — Mountain Mike’s Pizza is set to open today, Dec. 29. The pizzeria will be going into the former Mary’s Pizza Shack space. According to Mountain Mike’s, the first 200 customers to place orders with the new location will receive a mug branded with the Mountain Mike’s Pizza logo.
The Cloverdale location is owned by Santa Rosa-based Chandi Hospitality Group, which also owns and operates 14 other pizza locations in the North Bay, as well as Santa Rosa’s Bollywood Bar & Clay Oven and Beer Baron.
In an October interview with the Reveille, owner Sonu Chandi said that the group had long been in talks to open up a Mountain Mike’s in the shopping center.
“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,” Chandi said. “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.”
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.
In October, Chandi said that he believes the more simple menu offerings of Mountain Mike’s will lead to the restaurant being more sustainable.
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.”
Initially, Chandi Hospitality had planned to open up its Cloverdale Mountain Mike’s location in the third or fourth week of November.
In a press release from Mountain Mike’s on Tuesday morning, Chandi addressed how the restaurant plans to operate during the current stay-at-home order, which bars restaurants from operating with in-person dining, outside or otherwise.
“Despite these unprecedented times, we are proud to begin serving Mountain Mike’s signature pizzas to the Cloverdale community in the safest way possible,” said Chandi. “Delivery and carry-out are not new to us, this is what we’ve been doing for over 40 years, but we have added additional levels of safety and convenience like tamper-proof packaging, contactless delivery and curbside pickup to give our new guests the peace of mind they deserve.”
Once dining rooms are permitted to reopen indoors, the restaurant will be able to offer more than its food — the Cloverdale location has the eatery’s most updated restaurant design, a fully dedicated arcade room, patio and 11 big screen TVs throughout.
“We are looking forward to the day we can welcome the community into our new restaurant so they may fully experience what Mountain Mike’s is all about, but in the meantime, we are excited to begin serving Cloverdale residents our legendary pizza in the comfort of their own homes,” Chandi said.
The new Mountain Mike’s restaurant is located at 1143 South Cloverdale Boulevard and can be reached by telephone at 707-669-5060. Hours of operation are Sunday through Thursday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
