Claydough's Pizza Closes

A well-liked eatery in East Brainerd has closed it's doors and yes, you can blame it on the economy.

Claydough's Pizza just could not get enough of the local economic pie to stay open, leaving a family and several employees with a bleak outlook this holiday season.

Two years ago Clay Warren and his family lived the American Dream of starting their own business. They used savings and some loans to open their pizzaria at the corner of East Brained and Graysville Roads. Claydough's Pizza developed a loyal base of customers, but the tanking economy has eaten away at the family's slice of life.

"We're very scared about that just because we don't know what to do, it's a tough place to find a job," Warren said.

It was tough for Warren to stand in a now empty pizzeria when he met us Wednesday afternoon. There's no smell of pizza cooking, no customers and no income.

Warren developed the Claydough's concept and a menu of specialty pizza's that people in East Brainerd loved. But the signs of trouble began last fall.

"When the stock market had the crash you could see sales drop by 60-to-70 percent in one week and it stayed that way for two weeks," Warren said.

During the first few months of this year customers came back, feeling better about spending money to eat out. But another downward slide began during the summer, with the last six weeks becoming dismal. People are still very nervous about spending money.

"You could just feel people sitting at home on their hands going, I don't know what's going to happen," Warren said.

Of course the future is very uncertain for Warren and his family, now that they've had to close the business. That uncertainty extends to his now-former employees who came by Wednesday to get their last pay check.

"I guess Claydough's is different from any other job because we're family, everybody knows each other, it was like family and now going out of business is sad and hard," employee Stephanie Smith said.

Smith is among eight employees out of a paycheck. Some have children, who we found playing with Warren's children in the now-empty kitchen. The closure of Claydough's Pizza will impact a dozen people directly and even more indirectly as they spend less money while looking for work.

"There's a grieving process that goes with basically losing a business, a decision made, because you put your heart and soul into it," Warren said.

While Warren struggled to keep Claydough's Pizza open he donated about $5,000 to charities and they too will feel the affect of the closure.

Before opening his pizzaria Warren was in real estate. But that's a struggling market too and he's looking for just about any work he can find to support his family.

For Thanksgiving he's grateful for all the people who enjoyed Claydough's Pizza the last two years.