Hanover — The owner of Everything But Anchovies, the pizza shop that has fed generations of Dartmouth College students and Hanover shoppers, has closed the restaurant’s doors for good.
EBAs President Maureen Bogosian said the decision to pull the plug on the pizza restaurant, which has been on Allen Street in downtown Hanover for 38 years, was made early this morning. It came with little warning to patrons and employees.
“It was a tough decision, but it was a smart decision,” Bogosian said outside of the restaurant this afternoon.
She declined to discuss why EBAs closed, but said there were “multiple reasons.” Earlier this month, she told The Dartmouth that a Domino’s Pizza restaurant, which opened in West Lebanon last fall, had cut into EBAs’ late-night deliveries by about 20 percent from the midnight to 1 a.m. hour.
Her immediate concern, she said, was the business’s 48 employees. Bogosian is working with the state of New Hampshire to help set them up with other employment, she said.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper, a Dartmouth Class of 1991 alum and this year’s commencement speaker, tweeted, “It was a small pizzeria, but there were those of us who loved it. RIP EBA’s.”
The impact of the closing was felt throughout the town today. Several customers, young and old, either stopped by to grab lunch or to confirm the talk that EBAs had tossed and baked its last pizza.
Each person was met by Bogosian and her sister, Amanda Dowd-DeRoy, who were sitting on a bench in the sunshine and broke the news with a warm embrace and an EBAs T-shirt.
“It’s an institution, and it’s the last place you’d think would close,” said Gabe Loud, a Hanover High School senior who stopped by with two of his friends to see if the news was true.
Russ Walker, a student at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business, also came to verify.
“I didn’t believe it was true,” said Walker, who ate at the restaurant on Monday. He said he will forever miss the homemade ranch dressing, which he bought by the bottle, as well as the dragon juice wings. “It’s so sad, so disappointing.”
Patrons also mourned not only the restaurant, but its well-known jingle that has been played on Upper Valley radio airwaves for decades: “I’m a real hungry man, I don’t want to hear no jive, I need a sub or pizza if I’m gonna stay alive, I pick up the phone and dial 643-6135, it’s Everything But Anchovies.”
Jordan Eastman, of West Fairlee, said he has been a full-time manager at EBAs since December. He worked until 4 a.m. this morning and awoke in the early afternoon hours to learn that he had lost his job.
“I didn’t know anything about it,” the 21-year-old Eastman said. “I had no warning, and I could be out of a job for a couple of weeks.”
Eastman said he is upset with the way his higher-ups handled the situation. He said he knew there was some “financial trouble” but “they didn’t make it seem like anything like this.”
“I don’t know the details, but usually when employees leave they give two weeks’ notice. You would think it would be mutual,” he added.
Several neighboring business owners said they were both sad and shocked to hear of the closing.
Jack Stinson, owner of Stinson’s Village Store, said he heard through the grapevine this morning. He recalled eating at the restaurant in his younger years and said the owners would always toss him a lifeline if he ran low on tomatoes, cucumbers or the like.
“It was the greatest little spot,” he said. “And they grew it to huge proportions.”
Stinson said it was not uncommon to see large groups of students pour into the restaurant in the summer as well as college athletes coming off buses after playing in sporting contests at Dartmouth.
Dartmouth spokeswoman Diana Lawrence said the restaurant will be greatly missed by many.
“EBAs was a Hanover institution and we are very sorry to see it close,” Lawrence said by email. “The loss will be felt especially by Dartmouth athletics, which used the restaurant for banquets, to host visiting teams, and during periods when college dining was closed, and by alumni who remember it fondly and made a point of stopping by while visiting campus.”
EBAs opened in 1979, and over the years expanded not only its menu but its interior space. The restaurant also served alcohol, offered dine-in, take-out, catering, and had a breakfast buffet. It also offered delivery, which took a hit when Domino’s opened, Bogosian told The Dartmouth.
In mid-January, EBAs extended its closing time by an hour to 3:10 a.m. on weekends, perhaps to compete with Domino’s, which stays open until 4 a.m. Bogosian told the student newspaper that EBAs noticed an impact on late-night sales immediately.
“Every time a new restaurant opens, we feel the competition,” she said at the time.
Bogosian and Dowd-DeRoy are part of the Dowd family, which has run other businesses in the Upper Valley, including Mickey’s Roadside Cafe in Enfield.
EBAs leased space at 5 Allen Street from Raven Bay Associates LLC, whose registered agent is Stephen Buskey. Messages for the landlord were not returned, but Bogosian said she is “working together” with Raven Bay to tie up loose ends.
Although downtown Hanover still has two other pizza shops — C&A’s and Ramunto’s — many who saw EBAs as an Upper Valley icon left empty-handed today.
Christopher Salvatoriello, of Hanover, stopped by mid-day to grab a sandwich but soon learned he wouldn’t be getting lunch at EBAs.
“I’ve been eating here since I was a kid,” he said. “I love this restaurant.”
Jordan Cuddemi can be reached at jcuddemi@vnews.com or 603-727-3248.
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Posted online Tuesday at 2:52 p.m. Updated at 8:52 p.m.