SF pizza restaurant with recipe loved by Obama closes permanently

The original location of the Bay Area’s famous cornmeal deep-dish pizza is closing after nearly 20 years.

Little Star Pizza, at 846 Divisadero St. in San Francisco, announced on Instagram that it will be closing permanently at the end of the year. SFGATE confirmed the closure with owner Brian Sadigursky.

“If I’m honest, it’s pretty simple: Sales were down and costs were up and I wasn’t able to make it,” Sadigursky told SFGATE. “I’m just kind of done bleeding.”

In June 2023, Sadigursky spoke with SFGATE about the “parasitic” nature of delivery apps and how they have a chokehold on restaurants in this city. While he doesn’t solely blame delivery apps for the demise of his restaurant, he does believe they made it increasingly difficult to turn a profit.

“The apps are triple-dipping,” he explained. “They’re getting commission from the restaurant, they’re charging the consumer and they’re getting [more money from the restaurants for] placement in the app. If you don’t play their game and advertise or do promos, they’ll find somebody who will and give them better placement. Consumers just don’t know about it.”

He continued, “At the end of the day, I’m paying them thousands of dollars in commissions and I’m paying myself a big zero,” though he did acknowledge that they played a positive role in helping Little Star get through the toughest part of the pandemic.

The Divisadero Street location opened in 2004 and introduced a cornmeal crust to the city that helped launch a mini Bay Area cornmeal crust empire with offshoots Blue Line Pizza, serving mostly the South Bay, as well as The Star, which serves mostly the East Bay, but also Portland, Oregon. Only two Little Star Pizzas will remain — one on Valencia Street in San Francisco and the other in Albany, Calif. Interestingly, there have always been rumors that former President Barack Obama loved the cornmeal-crust deep-dish pizza, too. Sadigursky confirmed those rumors.

As the story goes, Sadigursky’s old neighbor, Chris Sommers, loved the cornmeal deep-dish so much that he asked to buy the recipe from Sadigursky to open up his own pizza restaurant in St. Louis, using the Little Star recipe. According to Forbes, during a campaign stop in Missouri, Obama is said to have asked a staffer to pick up some pizza for the crew. The staffer decided to pick his own favorite spot, Pi (from Sommers), and Obama declared it “the best he ever had.” Sommers was then asked to visit the White House and cook the pizza for Obama after he won the election. Pi Pizzeria now has two locations, one in St. Louis, and the other in Washington, D.C.

As for Sadigursky, he doesn’t know what he plans to do next and the official closing date is “fluid,” though it will happen before the end of the year. For now, he’s going to take some time to reflect and figure out how to help his employees land safely.

“I’ve just had amazing people walk through those doors, whether it’s people from the neighborhood, or staff, or out-of-towners who just had a lovely experience and raved about it,” Sadigursky said. “It felt good to be kind of in the fabric of a community.”