GREAT BARRINGTON -- In this town, everyone has their favorite Baba Louie's pizza pie.
But after 25 years of knowing their favorites were a quick walk or drive away, residents will soon have to travel to Hudson, N.Y., to get their "woodfired all-natural sourdough pizza."
Owners Paul and Eileen Masiero are closing the Railroad Street restaurant on March 1. Their other Baba Louie's restaurant at 517 Warren St. in Hudson will remain open.
"Cheers to a wonderful adventure that has come to its end," the couple said in a Feb. 5 note on their website.
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Paul Masiero told The Eagle the decision to close came on the heels of an impasse over the lease with his landlord, Richard Stanley.
It is unclear what will replace the restaurant in the corner storefront, according to Stanley.
The Masieros expanded the restaurant to 100 seats in 2019 by moving the cramped Main Street business to the corner Railroad Street location that had previously been leased by the restaurant Allium.
The couple opened a successful Pittsfield location in 2010, and closed it five years later to "spend more time with family," according to previous Eagle reporting. They continued to operate Ugly's Gluten Free Bakery, which sells sourdough pizza crusts and other products wholesale, as well as another bakery that makes the regular sourdough crusts and products. Paul Masiero said he will continue to focus on these bakeries and grow them.
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In early 2024 the Masieros put the entire pizza "empire" -- as their real estate listing said -- on the market for $2.5 million. It included the Great Barrington lease at 42/44 Railroad St. as well as the Hudson location with its two-story building.
"These folks just want to retire," their real estate agent, Steven Weisz, said of the Masieros last year. "They've done it for a while. They want to pass it along while the business is running very nicely."
At the time, Weisz said there had been "a fair amount of interest, both from the New York City area as well as from the West Coast," but that some potential buyers were interested in just one of the locations rather than both.
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Paul Masiero said that he's closing the Great Barrington location because he and Stanley could not "come to terms on the negotiation, and I felt that the price was a little high."
Masiero said he wanted a one-year lease, but that Stanley wanted him to sign a five-year lease with "two five-year options."
Stanley said that for the last few years he had been flexible with the Masieros' need for short lease "extensions," and that he was "happy to go along with it, given how long he's been in business."
The price the Masieros were asking for the business was too high and "unrealistic," Stanley said, noting that this factored into the situation. "It's a good business, but at the end of the day it's worth only what someone will pay and as a business the numbers have to make sense."
The restaurant is a Berkshires icon that Masiero said will be missed.
"I've had so many customers come in and tell us how sad they are," he said. "We just really wanted to hand it off to someone who could keep running it."
He also feels for his longtime employees, now out of a job. On their website, the Masieros thanked their staff for their "kindness, grace and hard work," and thanked the community for creating so much "joy and connection that it will be what we miss most in our next chapter."
They also thanked their three children who have "supported, endured, participated, laughed and cried right along side us."