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LATEST NEWS

5/23/13

This is my last week as owner of Chester Cab Pizza, just 12 days shy of 31 years.

I just want to thank all of our customers who have supported us. My manager of 14 years, Dess Ivanov, will be taking over the business, and I wish him all the luck in the world. Dess came here from Bulgaria about 15 years ago, was valedictorian at MCC and RIT, owns his home and has a beautiful family. Through hard work and commitment, he will now own his own business, and has created an opportunity to live the American dream.

We know customers have a lot of choices, as we have counted 30 pizzerias in a 3 mile radius of our Park Avenue store. I can guarantee you that Dess will work hard to win you over and make Rochester's long standing pizzeria a continued success.

-Howard Nielsen

GREAT NEWS

Park Avenue's oldest and best pizzeria will remain open!

NEW NEWS

UPDATE:

To our faithful Chester Cab Pizza customers,

I am sorry for any confusion concerning our announcement last week. Things are moving pretty fast here. I was going to close Chester Cab Pizza at the end of this week, but our long time manager Dess Ivanov has made a last minute purchase offer, which I'm happy to accept. He will have an uphill battle and I wish him all the best of luck. So if the community wants Chester Cab, and he continues to make great-tasting pizza, it should work out for the best.

There is a possibilty Dess will close down for a week to make his own personal touches to the store. Stay tuned as the pizza world turns! :)

-Howard Nielsen

OLD NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Rochester, New York - March 5, 2013

It is with a heavy heart that owner and founder of Park Avenue's Chester Cab Pizza is slinging his last pizza. The store, located at 707 Park Ave, had just surpassed its 30th year in business.

After living in Chicago, Nielsen introduced stuffed pizza baked into a pan to Rochester in 1982. Also, he was the first in the area to put spinach, broccoli, and tofu atop a pizza. And most recently, Nielsen came up with a 2.5 gram fat per slice, which tastes great.

Nielsen states that even though sales have been steady, "...it is the rising expenses that took us to the point of unprofitability. In past years, I have noticed that our margins were going down but decided to keep the business afloat for better days to come."

It's not big news like a Kodak or Xerox closing, but Nielsen has prided himself in keeping the store open seven days a week, only closing two days out of the year. Also, he is proud that his pizza shops have created over 2000 stepping stone jobs and put hundreds of thousands of dollars back into our government -- tax dollars which go on to provide jobs for our county, state and country. Chester Cab Pizza is just a cog in the capitalism wheel that purchases its product from a wholesaler, who buys from the manufacturer, who buys from the farmer. That is free enterprise at its best, and that is what keeps Americans working.

Nielsen was just a 21-year-old ambitious kid with a young family to feed when he opened the doors to The Pizza Station opposite Seabreeze Park on Culver Road. The early years it was just a day to day battle to make a small living. "It was the start of what I call my Harvard business and life education. I used to make pizzas and had work weeks of 80-100 hours. Between my wife and I, we pulled in a profit at times of $400 per week. If you combined our hours, I think it worked out to about $3.33 per hour. We had no safety nets. I figured I was turning a profit, I believed in the stuffed pizza, and that if I could make the best pizza in Rochester, everything else would fall in place." Nielsen says in the past 30 years, he has seen numerous pizzerias open and close, and he feels very blessed to have made it this long.

During the mid 1970s, 80s, and 90s, Park Ave was a magical place. Real estate agents were busy and every city neighborhood wanted to be the next Park Ave. "I love Park Ave, especially during spring and early summer, when the college kids come home and the street comes alive. People come from all over to get a taste of it."

Looking back, Nielsen has a few regrets. "The City of Rochester generally has been fair to my business. I have been on Park Ave under the administrations of four different mayors. Many times, local merchants have addressed the issue of lack of parking, especially during peak season. Nothing has really changed, which may indicate that parking ticket revenue is too great for the city to give up."

"I probably could keep Chester Cab Pizza going for a while more. But when I see the mandates that businesses will be required to comply with by 2014, I figure those would be the mandates that would break the camel's back. So why wait, my work is done. Why delay the inevitable?"

"There's a perfect storm brewing, involving a number of factors. There are higher fuel and food costs (due to mid-west droughts and corn ethanol mandates), higher labor and health care requirements, and a hostile New York State business environment. With high unemployment and U.S. Labor salaries being stagnant, I did not feel we could push the prices to the customer any higher."

"It just seems to be the right time to shut it down and say good-bye to my customers and employees and thank them."

Chester Cab Pizza will be closing in the upcoming month.