A pizza joint called MidiCi closed in Dallas on Dec. 9. The restaurant was a Neapolitan pizza shop located in West Village, a shopping center in Uptown Dallas. Its quick-cooking pizzas were topped with ingredients like shrimp scampi, chicken pesto, eggs and bacon, as well as more classic options like pepperoni and cheese.
Robert Bagwell, president of Urban Partners, says the restaurant was "fraught with problems." His company places tenants in West Village, and he felt that MidiCi "just didn't seem to be well thought out, once we watched the way it operated."
The West Village restaurant was open for eight months and was located near The Magnolia movie theater.
MidiCi is a franchise, and at least three franchise groups have been involved in the business in Dallas-Fort Worth. The one franchisee involved in the West Village restaurant did not open any other MidiCis in D-FW, confirms Jon Maurer, director of field marketing for MidiCi, but the brand will likely expand.
The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2018, according to the Franchise Times, three years after its founder sold more than 500 franchises. In the past few years, quick-cooking Neapolitan pizza franchises have proliferated across Dallas-Fort Worth. There's Blaze Fast Fire'd Pizza, MOD Pizza, Spin! Pizza and more. Blaze, in particular, is planning a 20-restaurant expansion in D-FW right now.
Another set of franchisees currently operate a MidiCi in Euless, and Southlake resident Michele Martin expects to open a MidiCi in mid January in Preston Hollow.
A MidiCi was slated to open in Addison, but that plan has been nixed, confirms Mary Rosenbleeth, the director of public communications for the Town of Addison.
Martin says her MidiCi store, at Walnut Hill Lane and Central Expressway in Dallas, is finishing construction now and will start curing its pizza ovens next week.
"Whenever I got introduced to the brand, I really fell in love with it," she says. "I love that it's authentic Neapolitan pizza. I love our ingredients are going to be the highest quality in nature. It's a beautiful finish out ... and it's a very different service strategy." (Guests order at the counter, then get help from a server after sitting down.)
When asked how many MidiCi's would open in the future, Maurer didn't give a number, saying via email, "Currently we are excited about opening this location [in Preston Hollow] and we are looking forward to seeing MidiCi grow."
