Rose Metropolis Pizza, one of many San Gabriel Valley's greatest locations for wild pies, closed its flagship Rosemead location on Sunday, Might 26, after 15 years in enterprise. Proprietor Brian Nittayo tells Eater {that a} 40 p.c hire improve and the owner's unwillingness to barter prompted the closing. Rose Metropolis Pizza has earned a loyal following for its creative menu of New York and Detroit-style pies, household environment, month-to-month showcase of native artists and periodic pop-up collaborations. The household pizzeria continues to function a location in Covina, which opened in 2021.

Rose Metropolis Pizza's unconventional menu — impressed by Nittayo's Filipino and Thai heritage and LA's various communities — has at all times been its greatest draw. Signature menu gadgets embrace pizza topped with al pastor, beer, and even Taiwanese popcorn hen. “We spent a number of years on ours [al pastor pizza] Recipe and Alex Garcia of Evil Cooks had a giant hand in serving to us refine it,” says Nittayo. “Our elote pizza is one other one which jogs my memory of ready for elote man to come back to my neighborhood. I needed to start out promoting it within the restaurant, however we determined to make a pizza topping as an alternative.

A portrait of Brian Nittayo wearing a black t-shirt, black apron and a Dodgers hat at Rose City Pizza.

Brian Nittayo.

Two slices of pizza on parchment paper, on a paper plate, both are on a brown plastic tray at Rose City Pizza.

Rose Metropolis Pizza has earned a loyal following for its creative menu of New York and Detroit-style pies.

Nittayo made the tough determination to shut the Rosemead location as the shop's gross sales have been regular however not sturdy sufficient to cowl the hire improve. “We're each angle to attempt to keep open,” he says. “Individuals have had their first dates right here, and are available again years later to say they're married. I really like attending to know folks and being a part of their tales. I really feel like that's the appeal of a mother and pop that he leaves

Nittayo and his father, Boone, opened Rosemead Pizzeria in 2009 in a strip mall off the ten Freeway. Nittayo needed to “do one thing completely different” after graduating from Cal Poly Pomona in 2001, and the timing was proper together with his father retiring from working a fuel station he owned. “To start out a pizzeria was my father's thought,” says Nittayo. The household discovered the pizzeria location a number of doorways down from a Chilly Stone Creamery in addition they operated. When Nittayo's father died in 2015, he was decided to proceed the legacy and opened a second location in Covina in his father's honor. “I at all times needed to make him happy with me, so I simply continued with what we began,” she says.

Whereas Nittayo is disenchanted to depart Rosemead, he’s centered on Covina, positioned quarter-hour away. “We purchased the Covina location in 2021, so we're our personal house owners. It was a flower store and now it's Rose Metropolis,” he says. “My dad had a Unocal 76 fuel station and throughout the road from us is a 76, so it's like he's at all times watching me from throughout the road.”

Rose Metropolis Pizza is open every day from 11 am to 9 pm at 602 N. Grand Avenue, Covina, CA 91724.



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