50-year-old pizza chain closes all restaurants, files Chapter 7

Pizza should be the perfect food for challenging economic times.

It’s filling, relatively affordable, and comforting. You can feed a family of four a pizza meal for under $30, and most people (kids, especially) will be happy with the choice.

That has not meant every pizza chain has thrived. Both Pizza Hut and Papa John’s are closing hundreds of restaurants, while Americans have made a notable change in their dining habits.

“While food-service remains dominant with nearly two-thirds ordering carryout monthly, delivery has declined from 61% in 2022 to 55% in 2025, according to the 2025 Technomic Pizza Consumer Trend Report. The most telling shift: 25% of consumers report eating more frozen pizza instead of restaurant options due to price increases.”

In a broad sense, pizza chains have struggled after a Covid-pandemic boom.

“In 2024, the pizza segment struggled significantly, with Technomic’s Top 500 Restaurants data showing 61% of pizza chains experienced declining sales. Only one pizza brand — Fort Worth-based pizza buffet chain Mr. Gatti’s Pizza — managed to achieve double-digit growth. This downturn in pizza sales contrasted sharply with the super-competitive coffee segment, where 88% of chains saw positive sales growth,” according to Nation’s Restaurant News.

Now, Gina Maria’s Pizza has followed the closure of all of its restaurants with a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.

Northern Brands, which has been doing business under the Gina Maria’s Pizza brand name, filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on March 26, according to court documents on PacerMonitor.

“Gina Maria’s Pizza abruptly closed its four western Twin Cities locations in October without offering a reason,” according to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing means the brand intends to liquidate, not restructure.

More pizza stories from TheStreet:

“Northern Brands Inc. — which operated Gina Maria’s Pizzas locations in Chanhassen, Eden Prairie, Edina and Plymouth — has nearly $2.9 million in liabilities and about $64,000 in assets, according to court filings. The filing lists Porfioro Godinez as the company’s authorized representative of debtor. It lists Phil Godinez as CEO,” the Business Journal added.

A California pizza restaurant using a similar name is not included in the filing and appears to have no relation to the entity that filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

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• Gina Maria’s Pizza abruptly closed all four of its Twin Cities locations, Chanhassen, Eden Prairie, Edina, and Plymouth, in October 2025, with the chain announcing on its website that it had “officially closed its doors,” according to Bring Me the News.

• The closure came with little advance warning. All restaurant phone numbers now play an automated message saying the locations are permanently closed, Bring Me the News added.

• Gina Maria’s was a longtime local favorite originally founded in 1975, according to EPLocalNews.

• Local coverage notes that the sudden closures reflected broader restaurant industry pressures in the Twin Cities area during late 2025, according to Eater Twin Cities.

• Debtor: NORTHERN BRANDS, INC., doing business as Gina Maria’s Pizza, the corporate entity behind the pizza chain.
  Case Number: The bankruptcy was assigned Case No. 26‑41005. Assets: The petition reported assets in the range of $0 to $100,000. Liabilities: The filing listed liabilities in the range of $1 million to $10 million. Filing Type: This was a voluntary filing initiated by the debtor (the company). Court: U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota. Sources: Bankruptcy Observer, PacerMonitor

“Roughly one in ten people eats pizza every single day. It remains one of the most affordable, shareable, and reliable foods in the country. What changed is the customer tolerance for mediocre pizza (aka chain pizza),” Slice.com reported.

The pizza-industry website asked more than 100,000 people for predictions on what 2026 would bring for pizza, and this is what they had to say.

• The emphasis on digital ordering will rise even more.

• Foot‑traffic‑only shops won’t survive. 

• The $1 slice era is officially dead.

• AI phone support will become an industry norm, versus a nice-to-have.

Consumers in 2026 will be looking for new menu items and more of what they haven’t tried yet.

“Food trends move four times faster than pre‑2020 and shops need to adapt. When an influencer posts about a new flavor or topping, customers expect to see it locally within weeks. Shops willing to do this will get the business,” the pizza business website shared.

Papa John’s CEO Todd Penegor, speaking at the annual ICR Conference in January, thinks a return to simplicity is part of the solution, Nation’s Restaurant News reported.

“We’ve made our restaurants really tough to operate,” he said. “We’ve added a lot of SKUs over the last few years, and a lot of rhythm-breakers. We’ll take a look at some of the lower-moving SKUs and pull them out of the rotation. We want to sprinkle in some great innovation around the core menu…We really need to get back to being the best pizzamakers in the business.”

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This story was originally published by TheStreet on Apr 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Restaurants section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.