Sbarro's pizza-by-the-slice ruled mall food courts — until the malls emptied

Sbarro was founded in 1956 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn by Italian immigrants Gennaro and Carmela Sbarro as an Italian salumeria. In 1970 the family opened their first location inside the Kings Plaza Shopping Center, pioneering the mall food-court pizza-by-the-slice concept that would define the chain for decades. Sbarro grew into one of the largest pizza chains in the United States, operating over 1,000 locations at its peak, primarily in shopping malls and airports.

In 2007, Sbarro was acquired by MidOcean Partners, a private equity firm, in a leveraged buyout that loaded the company with debt. The timing was disastrous — mall traffic began a long-term decline as consumers shifted to online shopping, and Sbarro's core market — the American mall food court — started contracting. The company also faced rising competition from fast-casual pizza chains and changing consumer preferences. On April 4, 2011, Sbarro filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

Sbarro emerged from bankruptcy in November 2011 after restructuring and ceding ownership to lenders, closing 25 locations. But the turnaround never materialized. On March 10, 2014, it filed for Chapter 11 again, this time closing 182 locations and moving its headquarters from New York City to Columbus, Ohio. The company has since stabilized at roughly 600 global locations, but operates as a shadow of its former self — a cautionary tale of a mall-dependent business model meeting private equity leverage during the retail apocalypse.