Just 7 Months After Opening, Eastern Iowa Pizza Restaurant Closes

Just 7 months ago, I went to the opening night of a new pizza place that was an exciting addition to the Quad Cities.  But, like many other restaurants in the same location, this one has also closed.

Owner Had New Ideas For The Pizza

Inferno Pizza and Pints was located at 2561 53rd Avenue in Bettendorf.  The same spot where Mio Russo Sicilian Pizza was located.  That pizza place lasted about a year having just closed in April of 2023.

Former owner Brian Islami is no stranger to the restaurant industry.  Brian also owns the Flilp's Pancake House locations.  After traveling to Italy, he tried to bring Italian-style pizza to the Quad Cities.

So Why Didn't Inferno Last?

Inferno had a 4.4 on Google reviews.  This is very good in this modern keyboard critic world.  It had a 5.0 on Yelp...but that was with only 1 review.  And it had a 5.0 on Facebook with 8 reviews.  That's really good!

As you can see above, the now former menu prices were reasonable for that type of pizza dining.  It's not like this is chain-delivery pizza.  It was hand-crafted.  And compared to other restaurants in general in Bettendorf the prices seemed fair.

As somebody who drove by the building regularly, I can say that it seemed always to have cars in the lot.  I'm not sure how many were eating and drinking, but there were cars until today.

The Food Was Good!

The times I went the food was good.  If you are a fan of Italian-style pizza.  Again, this isn't your normal fast-delivery pizza.

The intersection of 53rd near 18th is busy.  Plenty of traffic seeing the sign on the building.

So good food, reasonable prices, good location, and even solid reviews in this mostly negative world of online reviewers.  Why did it close in 7 months?

Get our free mobile app

That location has now been 4 different restaurants in the last 5 years.  The stigma of the building can turn people away.  But again, always seemed to have people there.  And there was no indication as to why in their Facebook post announcing they were closing.

Maybe when the "For Lease" sign is back on the building I'll give it a call.  If a business isn't staying open, it's because they aren't making money.  Maybe the people leasing that building need to understand that and lower the rent so the next person who gives it a try can last longer than 7 months.  Good luck to you.