Ollie Reynolds to close Pizza Loco to embark on new projects

The restaurant, located in the Oakwood suburb of north-east Leeds, will close at the end of the month having been at the site since 2019.

Writing on social media, Reynolds said that the closure would free up his time and enable him to embark on “two large and exciting new projects”

“It’s been excruciating to come to terms with closing here as I owe so much to all my Oakwood customers and staff old/new, but I have face facts that to keep the Oakwood site running, I’d need to work there full time,” he wrote.

“And with two large and exciting new projects and a new food concept to launch this year, this is the only way to have a fighting chance of making them successful.

Pizza Loco gets its name from a custom-built pizza locomotive, which features a wood-fired oven in place of the firebox, that Reynolds adopted in 2014. It serves ‘neo-Neapolitan’ pizza and panuozzi - respecting the Neapolitan methods of pizza making but disregarding the strict toppings list - at its restaurant as well as at a kitchen residency at Meanwood Tavern in Leeds, and from its pizza locomotive at events across the north of the country

The restaurant’s residency at Meanwood Tavern will continue.