Longtime Stratford pizza joint closing later this month
Posted Jun 5, 2026 03:07:48 PM.
Last Updated Jun 8, 2026 01:12:31 PM.
Brittany Sage has spent the better part of her adolescence and now early adulthood making pizza for the people of Stratford.
Her first real job at the age of 15 was at Vinni’s Pizza in the Stratford Mall. When the owners decided to retire five years later, Sage seized the opportunity and bought the business.
The now 30-year-old is mulling her next steps after she learned the business she’s dedicated her life to would have to close.
“At the end of February, I got an email from the mall owners, just three sentences in this email telling me that I had to be out by June 30.”
Sage said the mall planned to eliminate three stalls during renovations and would be replacing them with another tenant.
Sage explained that in 2022, the mall changed ownership, and when she tried to sign a five-year lease, she was informed of a rent increase. A month-to-month lease came with a smaller rent increase, so she took that option.
The last decade-and-a-half has seen major changes in the way people shop. The rise of online shopping means fewer people are heading to the mall, resulting in less foot traffic for those businesses.
“When I first bought the business, the mall was pretty full. We had Sears back then. We had Payless. We had Green Earth. We had all kinds of stores, and we were crazy busy here when I first started here,” said Sage.
Then the pandemic hit.
“It was really COVID. Nothing has really been the same since COVID at all.”
It’s a phenomenon seen among many businesses in the years since the world shut down. Sage said the pandemic forced her to incur nearly $100,000 in debt, just to keep the business afloat. And, she said the business never really bounced back.
Since announcing Vinni’s would be closing permanently, Sage said the outpouring of support has been amazing.
“Apparently the mall owners have had over 200 complaints. No one is happy about this at all. It’s not what the Stratford community wants or needs.”
She went on to say, “I’m just really thankful for all the love and support of the community. But everyone is so heartbroken. Every day I have people telling me that they miss me or crying in the grocery store because they are so upset about this.”
Sage said, she too is heartbroken.
“I have no shame in admitting that I have definitely shed a lot of tears the last few months. But it’s just really hard to let go of something that I’ve worked so hard for for the past ten years as owner, just being ripped away from me. This is my baby, and I’ll never be ready to say goodbye to my baby.”
Sage plans to take the summer off, her first vacation in over a decade.
Vinni’s Pizza will close permanently on June 20.
