Albany

New York is now devoid of Cicis Pizza.

The pizza chain's Albany location at 145 Wolf Road is closed, according to a notice posted on the front door, and the state's two other locations are also closed.

It's unclear when the restaurant closed, though it could be because of an increase in the minimum wage, according to another notice posted outside. On Dec. 31, the general minimum wage in upstate New York went up from $9.70 to $10.40 per hour. For fast food workers upstate, the hourly rate went up from $10.75 to $11.75.

"The result is that fast food restaurants in New York State are having to choose between shutting down, laying off workers, or raising our prices," the notice said. "We prefer not to lay off our staff, and we have too much loyalty to shut down at this time without doing everything else possible to survive."

The restaurant raised its prices "slightly" and previously-posted or published prices are invalid, according to the notice, which also thanked customers for their patronage and apologized for the price increase.

The Cicis Pizza location in Watertown, a city in Jefferson County, announced it was closing in a Facebook post on Jan. 8.

"It is with great sadness that we announce, we've decided to close our doors," the post read. "Thanks to our wonderful customers and staff, we will miss you all tremendously."

In a Facebook post the same day, the franchisee, Kirk Gilchrist, wrote that "the high cost of labor, the bad summer weather and then the horrific weather of December and the slowness of winter business is just too much to overcome."

The Watertown restaurant closing was first reported by the Watertown Daily Times. According to a previous article by the newspaper, Gilchrist was also the franchisee of the the now-closed Cicis Pizza location in Evans Mills, a village in Jefferson County.

miszler@timesunion.com • 518-454-5018 • @madisoniszler