Popular South Slope pizzeria announces it is closing immediately
ASHEVILLE - A popular pizza restaurant on the South Slope announced on Facebook it is closing after just over a year of operation.
Harvest Pizzeria, which featured gourmet, farm-to-table wood-fired oven pizzas at its 39 Banks Ave. restaurant, said Nov. 26 on Facebook that it will not reopen after Thanksgiving.
"Due to an exhausting legal battle and after some serious soul searching on the best path forward. It is with an extremely heavy heart that I wanted to reach out to let the community know that Harvest Pizzeria Asheville will not reopen for business after the Thanksgiving break," said the message, attributed to Kelly Leu, who, with husband Jon, owned the restaurant.
Harvest Pizzeria Asheville opened Oct. 25, 2021, the first Harvest location outside of Ohio, where it had three sites at the time of the Asheville restaurant opening.
In the Facebook post, Leu also cited threat of eviction and an inability to find another business partner as reasons for the closure.
Here is the rest of the Facebook post:
After an inability to reach a reasonable rent structure with the landlord and an inability to obtain additional capital or a partner without an economically viable lease, the landlord has requested that we voluntarily vacate the premises or get evicted. I chose the former.
The culmination of the rent requested and the labor required to run a massive 7300 square foot restaurant space in post pandemic conditions, made the business model for a future HPA insurmountable.
I wanted to deeply and sincerely thank each and every one of you who has supported HPA this last year. Thanks for the love Asheville!
Kelly Leu on the Harvest Pizzeria Asheville Facebook page
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Asheville's Harvest Pizzeria announces it is closing immediately
