A Lakeville, MN landmark has closed its doors and we have the story first folks!
After the Lakeville Planning Committee meeting I had to stop at the grocery store and pick up some doggy treats and various other small items. On my way home I decided to swing by a local favorite known for bad service and horrible food, Divinci’s Pizza…
At first glance I immediately knew there was something wrong with this restaurant.. There was a napkin through the door handles, both their large neon “open” sign and the inside were dark, and there was a large yellow sign stuck to the glass doors! On closer inspection, the yellow sign was written notice not to enter the property without permission. Strange.
Strange until you take a step back and look through some of my webserver logs and pay special attention to the frequent and numerous searches since 9/21/05 for Divinci’s Pizza related items. Faegre and Benson, a Minneapolis based law firm with multiple branch offices in other states, (who represent 15+ Fortune 500 companies located in Minnesota as well as the region’s largest bank, retailer, and newspaper), have apparently been doing some Divinci’s Pizza related homework including checking out links from RussellFreedom and my very own website http://www.lazylightning.org!
internet.faegre.com - - [21/Sep/2005:16:08:44 -0500] "GET /?q=node/28 HTTP/1.1" 200 10761 "http://www.russellfreedom.com/DivincisPizza" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)" internet.faegre.com - - [21/Sep/2005:16:09:49 -0500] "GET /?q=node/28 HTTP/1.1" 200 10761 "http://www.russellfreedom.com/DivincisPizza" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)" internet.faegre.com - - [22/Sep/2005:09:04:09 -0500] "GET /?q=node/28 HTTP/1.1" 200 11051 "http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-43,GGLD:en&q=divinci%27s+" "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)"
My first thought was obviously litigation against me for my First Amendment protected comments and reviews, but today’s events possibly point to a different explanation…
I immediately call Kim and let her know of the situation as I understand it. She has a couple ideas of her own and suggests we head back to the location where I first posted this fine piece of photo blogalism… That place was Divinci’s Pizza and Woodfire Grill in Lakeville, MN!
Kim took photos of the infamous yellow notice and I took photos of the building. After a quick side trip to Blue Sky Creamery, Kim stopped in at another pizza joint in the same strip mall as Divinci’s Pizza and asked if they knew anything about their competitor. The girl behind the counter said that within the last week or two they had closed down due to the owner owing big money to numerous people including his employees! Perhaps Faegre and Benson represent the bank that the owner borrowed from? We may never know.
What we do know, from this post on my website is that Divinci’s Pizza was open at least 11 days ago (9/11/05). What a crazy turn of events in 11 days, huh?
So, instead of taking my advice here to better their internal service, I was ignored and Divinci’s Pizza failed in their mission to remain open long enough for plover to make his second visit.
Well, good riddance Divinci’s Pizza. I have proven the power of the Internet and word of mouth. Take notice local restaurant owners, I will pwn you if I feel that my service or food sucks!
What will I do now you ask? Perhaps concentrate my efforts elsewhere or maybe even give up blogging all together — nah, Divinci could only be so lucky ;)
See all the pictures from today here.
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September 23rd, 2005 at 1:20 am
Complete and utter pwnage to such a level that has never been seen Carter administration.
Divinci’s Pizza, don’t let the door hit ya where the good Lord spilt ya.
September 24th, 2005 at 7:27 pm
Jerry mother f***ing Garcia would be ashamed of you.
I noticed that a local pizza joint had no business. Looked on the internet to find your complete diss on this local dive.
It appears that the pizza joint, had even less class than the little GYRO place just around the corner. The pizza joint is closed. I am sure the Gyro place is not too far behind.
This also makes me wonder, how many Jamba Juices can you sell in a cornfield in Lakeville to make rent on a brand new building, much less taxes and payroll?
Did you see the new copper clad building (another pizza joint) that is going up in the same parking lot?
Now customer service is one thing. Not being able to count to a dozen is another. Getting stiffed by a boss for labor already done is an atrocity. Snotty, fat, food critics with and attitude and access to a computer is another thing!
At least some small business owners are trying to cut a niche into the “American Dream” of being a fat f***ing franchise with cookie cutter staff, building and recipes. GOD BLESS THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER.
GO shovel Buffalo Wild Wings and all the Perkins you can jam in your cake hole!
The really scary thing, is critical hogs like you NEVER tip well, even if you are impressed with service. You will make it up to them by a favorable review on your gluttonous little blob blog. Your low rez pictures of your chubby snarfing companions really suck.
Thanks for telling me what happened to divincis, but F*** OFF and get on a bike you fat f***.
Whine about the seat wedged in your big ass. Write a blog about that.
September 25th, 2005 at 8:58 am
At least some small business owners are trying to cut a niche into the “American Dream” of being a fat f***ing franchise with cookie cutter staff, building and recipes. GOD BLESS THE SMALL BUSINESS OWNER.
I greatly appreciate local businesses and always attempt to eat there before any chains (please see my visits and positive reviews of Carbone’s and Piccolo’s). Problem is, as you are obviously aware, is that there aren’t many in the South Metro and very poor attempts at creating new restaurants isn’t going to change that situation.
The really scary thing, is critical hogs like you NEVER tip well, even if you are impressed with service.
Perhaps that’s true for OTHER “critical hogs” but not for me. If service is done in a way that I feel is acceptable they get 15%. If we are a larger group or they have gone above and beyond what is necessary or are in other ways exceptional then they usually get 20 to 25%. I have tipped as high as 50%!
In the future, let’s at least try to attempt to talk about what we *DO* know, ok?
September 25th, 2005 at 6:35 pm
My comments were scathing and should not have been directed to you or your buddies. I am sorry.
Last week, while at a local dive, a family of four sat at the table next to us. The produced two coupons before ordering and were kindly informed “only one coupon could be used at a time”.
The man at the table ranted that he wanted two checks! So he could use both coupons.
I would have told them they would have to sit at different tables. The guy was such an ass, you could see the face of his woman and children. I would bet my next paycheck that he did not tip a cent!
There was only a couple of reveiws of locally owned and operated / non franchise joints you have visited. TRY THE LONGBRANCH in Farmington. Their Chimi’s are to die for. IT is owned by the same folks that own the Depot Bar and Grill in Faribault. Awesome.
Or for Pizza “Teds Pizza” and they make a killer Gyro.
All the best on your ventures.
September 25th, 2005 at 6:39 pm
Thanks for the tips! We’re always looking for new and interesting places to eat. We’ll make sure to showcase more of the places we eat — anything to make our readership happy.
September 29th, 2005 at 2:35 pm
An unsurprising end to an unhappy tale. Oh, well, I guess they saved me the $$ I would have spent being disappointed this winter trying them for one last time. But it sounds like I should give Blue Sky a shot.
September 29th, 2005 at 3:57 pm
Blue Sky was ok. I am quite partial to Carvel soft-serve but because Minnesota lacks Carvel and instead caters to various other establishments (DQ and Cold Stone seem to be most prevelant) the closest I can get is surprisingly Mc Donalds. I miss Carvel.
If someone is out there reading this — please bring back the road-side Carvel stands that I enjoyed in my childhood!
September 23rd, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Tes’s Pizza Farmington has been closed for a week or so. I have fallen for their gyros, chicken alfredo pasta, chicken cesar salad, bakklava and their Alfredo chicken pizza with breakfast bacon is to die for! Plus they were super neat people that own and worked at Ted’s Pizza.
What happened? Does anyone know?
I miss their food, but also on a community level!
September 26th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Looks like Ted’s owed some money as well as their is a sherrif’s notice of Eviction on the door. I personally won’t miss them , but hate to see a local business fail.