After 25-Year Run, Pi Pizzeria Put Up For Sale By Marleys

After a 25-year run building one of Nantucket's most popular restaurants and pizza spots, Evan and Maria Marley are selling Pi Pizzeria on West Creek Road and preparing to retire.

The Pi Pizzeria property at 11 West Creek Road and the business's staff housing unit at 41.5 Nobadeer Farm Road were listed for sale together this week at $12.5 million.

"The long and short of it is, the buyer that we're looking for is the buyer who wants to take Pi to the next level," Maria Marley said. "We think that the brand is really solid, and we would like to see it live on. And I think that Evan, while he wouldn't be in daily operations, it would be important for him to set up the buyer. But it wouldn't be our thing. It would be the buyer. But I am retiring. I'm going to take art classes and make lightship baskets."

Evan Marley added "We want to see this carry on for the Nantucket community. I want this restaurant to be here for the long haul."

The interest expressed about the property so far has been "like wildfire," Evan Marley added. 

Pi Pizzeria was founded in 2001 in the back of a wine-and-cheese shop, the former Fahey & Fromagerie on Pleasant Street. Five years later, in 2006, the Marleys moved the pizzeria to their property on West Creek Road, where it became a full-fledged restaurant serving wood-fired, thin-crust Neapolitan pizza along with classic Italian-American cuisine. It quickly became one of Nantucket's most beloved and popular dining establishments, with lines of people out the door to get a table, and customers having to call hours in advance to claim a coveted takeout order.

Both the Marleys said their fondest memories of running Pi Pizzeria over the past quarter-century will be of their staff members.

"Our staff has to be thanked in the highest regard because without them, we wouldn't be who we are," Evan Marley said. "And some of my best memories were from opening day. I had run Pi Pizzeria at Fahey and Fromagerie out of the back of it, and started it in 2001. To have people accept the pizza that I made and what I wanted to bring to Nantucket with open arms and being so appreciative of the high-quality ingredients I brought to the table, that was great...We bought the building in '06, did some renovations, and opened the door, and there was a line out the door, just like there is right now. And it's January, in the dead of winter, you know? And we opened the door, and we had to close an hour and a half later because we were getting slammed. I'm like 'close the door! No more! Close the door!' And the next day we opened up and it's been cranking ever since."

The $12.5 million asking price includes the Pi Pizzeria business, the commercial property on West Creek Road, as well as the staff housing property on Nobadeer Farm Road. Cotter said it is being marketed as "The Whole Pi."

"They've been running it for 20-plus years, so they're looking to retire and to move on to the next chapter of their lives," the listing agent, J. Pepper Frazier's Courtney Cotter, told the Current. "As far as the restaurant, they would love to see it go to a buyer who wants to continue Pi and possibly expand it in the future. It's been an island institution for a long time."

"I think all options will be considered, and then they'll decide what's best for them," Cotter said of the Marleys. "I don't think at the moment it's clear-cut. They'd like to see Pi carry on, but I think they'll talk to other people and they'll consider all options. But they would really like to see Pi be carried on."

For Evan Marley, the success of Pi Pizzeria was the culmination of a lifelong obsession with pizza that began in childhood in Concord, Mass., and continued into adulthood.

"So I made pizzas in high school, and I worked for a second-generation Neapolitan family, and I've always loved pizza, obviously," Evan Marley said. "I'd drive way far out of my way to go to New York and New Haven, and I used to drive everywhere to try pizza and taste pizza. I just love making pizza. And I'm dyslexic, so I had a learning disability, so I didn't apply myself very well at school. But boy, once I got out of school at 2:30, I was right at that pizzeria, 3 o'clock till 10 every day, and I loved what I did. And people would come to me and tell me how great the pizza was, and it just encouraged me a lot. But I'd be at school, and people would tell me how stupid I was and how I'd never be anything, you know?"

"And then he married a second-generation Neapolitan girl," Maria Marley added with a laugh.