Lowertown restaurant to close over concerns for its employees’ safety

Big River Pizza, a long time wood fired pizza restaurant located in downtown St. Paul’s Lowertown made the announcement that it would be closing its business at the end of June.

Businesses come and go, but what stood out about the Big River Pizza announcement via Facebook was the reason for the closure: a “political and policy landscape in St. Paul” that makes it “increasingly difficult to ensure the safety of our employees.”

It is a particularly troubling development when a successful business located in our capital city has concluded that the policies of that very city have created a situation where the business feels unable to keep their employees safe.

Big River Pizza is located in Lowertown, in between Mears Park, CHS Field, and the MTC Light Rail Maintenance Facility. The closure will add to the deterioration of the downtown area that many have witnessed in recent years.

American Experiment and other sources have documented some of this decline, such as the closure of the Apostle Supper Club on June 1 and Saint Dinette on March 22.

Will Big River Pizza be the closure that wakes city leadership up?