BGSU Dining has announced that all on-campus Marco’s Pizza locations will close permanently on Nov. 25. Marco’s will be replaced by “Wild Pie,” a BGSU Dining pizza brand.
The decision came after BGSU Dining violated their contract with Marco’s Pizza by allowing Starship Robots to deliver Marco’s products, according to the Director of Marketing and Communications for BGSU Dining, Jon Zachrich.
“Early September 2020, Marcos LLC informed BGSU Dining that robot delivery of Marco’s product was a violation of our franchise agreement established in 2012, as Marco’s had given ‘Marco’s Pizza’ delivery to BG community exclusively to the local franchisee,” Zachrich said via email.
BGSU Dining began negotiating a resolution with Marco’s in late September to keep the pizza chain on campus while also using Starship for delivery. On Monday, a resolution was not met and both parties agreed to go their separate ways once students head home on Nov. 25.
Marco’s Pizza, which first opened in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union in 2012, will transition into Wild Pie over winter break.
The switch to a BGSU Dining-owned brand is to provide flexibility to the services that the new restaurant will provide.
“BGSU Dining chose to replace Marco’s Pizza with ‘Wild Pie’ our own branded concept, so that BGSU Dining would control menu options, price points and delivery options,” Zachrich said.
[[inline_image_identifier 9a752ec280d4caf1d693f9d0901d4844.png]]
For students who mainly rely on Marco’s for their late hours, Zachrich said Wild Pie will also be open late into the night for orders.
“Wild Pie will be replacing Marco’s as our late night option and it will give us the ability to expand the menu further than what was possible with Marco’s Pizza,” he said.
After being a chef at the university for six years, Executive Chef Jared Dreyer is now in charge of developing new recipes and testing new ideas for Wild Pie.
According to Dreyer, students “can expect the classic pizza shop experience with a twist.”
“We are doing what can best be described as a Roman Style pizza,” Dreyer said. “It is similar to a Detroit Style pizza but it isn’t as deep or bready.”
He continued, “I think the most exciting thing is that it really is a different style of pizza that you don’t see around here.”
In addition to pizza, Dreyer said Wild Pie will also be serving chicken wings, chicken chunks, salads, foldover sandwiches and cheese bread.
Wild Pie is set to open Jan. 4, 2021 at both the Falcons Nest and Kreischer locations.
