Mulberry Street Pizzeria to Close at Resorts World, Cue the Drama
Mulberry Street Pizzeria will close at Resorts World in mid-September, we’ve confirmed.
Mulberry Street has been at Resorts World since pretty much the beginning. Resorts World opened June 24, 2021. Mulberry Street Pizzeria opened in the resort’s shopping promenade, The District, on Sept. 28, 2021, about three months later.
The plan is to bring in another pizza concept shortly after Mulberry is out. Which is just one part of what makes the whole situation awkward.
We first heard the Mulberry Street Pizzeria closure rumor on an Instagram account from a character called Bobby Khan. As an aside, we recommend you don’t go down the Bobby Khan rabbit hole. Afzal “Bobby” Khan is presumably a candidate for Nevada’s 1st Congressional District, along with being a convicted felon and former FBI fugitive, or as we call it in Las Vegas, Wednesday.
Our sources confirm the rumor not only about the restaurant’s looming closure, but also the circumstances.
Mulberry’s five-year lease was not renewed.
It sounds like this is part of a larger strategy on the part of the struggling Resorts World to boot out third-party operators and bring more restaurants in-house.
This could signal Resorts World shoring up its books for a possible sale.
There are rumblings leases may not be renewed with RedTail (a sports bar and arcade-style entertainment bar) or Dawghouse (a Nashville-style sports bar and live music venue).
We’re told Resorts World was creating some challenges for Mulberry Street Pizzeria, including requiring the restaurant to close on Tuesdays and Wednesdays since 2023. This was presumably intended to “spread the wealth” to other quick service restaurants in the resort, such as the Famous Foods Street Eats food hall, which has reportedly been operating in the red for years.
Mulberry Street Pizzeria fans can take some consolation in the fact the restaurant is actively looking for another location on The Strip.
We can only hope the restaurant’s tone-deaf Mike Tyson statue gets lost during the move. Don’t get us started.
The Resorts World location of Mulberry Street Pizzeria was the restaurant’s first outside California.
The main figure behind Mulberry Street is Richie Palmer, a Bronx native who started working in restaurants as a teenager. Palmer’s mother taught him to cook and he eventually found an abandoned bakery with an old brick oven in New York. He restored the oven and opened Modern Pizzeria in 1987.
After visiting Southern California, Palmer sold his New York businesses, moved west and opened Mulberry Street Pizzeria in Beverly Hills in 1991, according to the company.
The restaurant’s name is a nod to Mulberry Street in New York’s Little Italy.
Cathy Moriarty, the Oscar-nominated actress from “Raging Bull,” was Palmer’s girlfriend/fiancee and business partner in the early years, so she’s considered a co-founder. Palmer and Moriarty split romantically after Palmer became involved with Raquel Welch, whom he later married, but Palmer and Moriarty reportedly remained business partners.
Beyond Resorts World, Mulberry can be found in Beverly Hills, Encino and Sherman Oaks.
It’s a perfectly serviceable pizza, and the restaurant has a lot of character, so we hope they’re able to find another spot in Vegas, because The Strip is lacking in serviceable pizza. All the exceptional pizza is downtown. Just keeping it real.
Mulberry Street at Resorts World does a solid Sicilian slice despite the offensive statuary. pic.twitter.com/nFfrfqfDND
— Vital Vegas (@VitalVegas) June 12, 2022
We’ll keep an eye on what opens in the Mulberry Street Pizzeria space.
The good news is what’s next is rumored to be more pizza. We’ll let you know when we see proof.
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