Upper Crust closes, Pizza Joint opens in Evans

The pizza has flipped from one side of Washington Road to the other.

Last week, as owner Nick Dzendzel was closing the doors of The Upper Crust restaurant on Towne Centre Drive, Pizza Joint employees and contractors were putting the final preparations on the Augusta business' second restaurant in the old Fat Man's West building on Washington Road in Evans.

After almost seven years in business, The Upper Crust opened its doors to the public for the last time Oct. 30.

Owners were clearing the restaurant of supplies Tuesday.

The sign out front announces that the building is for sale or lease.

"We did good business here and enjoyed Columbia County and Evans," Dzendzel, the restaurant's owner, said. "We just didn't do quite the business to support the real estate."

Dzendzel said the restaurant earned "marginal profits," but it did not make sense to continue to operate the business at those profit levels.

Dzendzel, a Hilton Head Island, S.C., resident, said an upscale restaurant would have a better chance for success at the former pizzeria location.

Dzendzel owns three other Upper Crust restaurants, all in South Carolina: on Hilton Head Island, in Bluffton and Charleston.

He said the Evans restaurant, his fourth, is not closing but moving.

Dzendzel said he is "90 percent certain" the move will mean a second location in Charleston.

"It's all worked out for the best," Dzendzel said. "We've met so many great people, great customers. It just had to end."

An employee of Pizza Joint who answered the phone at the new Evans location said staff were busy Tuesday preparing the restaurant for a Saturday opening.

As of Thursday, the sign out front still read Fat Man's West.

Pizza Joint owner Michael Schepis did not return calls for comment as of press time.

Also closing in recent months in the Evans Towne Centre was Castaway's Restaurant in the Publix shopping center.