Tommy's Pizzeria Sees Drop In Sales

Sales at Tommy’s House of Pizza are down about 15 percent this year, after the City of Cambridge withdrew the permit allowing the late-night establishment to stay open until 3 a.m. according to the Tommy’s owner Mian Iftikhar.

The City changed the pizzeria’s closing time to 2 a.m. last spring in response to noise complaints from the eatery’s elderly neighbor.

Although Iftikhar still allows patrons to eat in the 49 Mt. Auburn Street establishment after the official closing time, he said he no longer cooks new pizza past 2 a.m.

He said the 2 to 3 a.m. window of time accounts for at least $200 of his daily business.

“This place is basically just for students, and the city just doesn’t understand,” he said.

Iftikhar has scheduled a hearing with the City of Cambridge tomorrow in a last-ditch attempt to restore his 3 a.m. curfew.

When Iftikhar and his wife Bushra bought the pizza business late last February, Iftikhar said he assumed the 3 a.m. closing time would not change.

“I thought the time would be grandfathered in,” Iftikhar said.

But when he applied for a permit under his name last April, Iftikhar said he was told the City would not grant a permit past 2 a.m.

Iftikhar said he considers himself entitled to the later closing time, since he bought the business under that presumption.

But last spring 40 Bow Street resident Genevieve McMillan had petitioned City Hall with complaints that late-night noise made living above Tommy’s House of Pizza intolerable.

“There are dreadful drunks shouting at the top of their voices and it makes sleep impossible,” McMillan said last June.

Iftikhar said he simply does not understand McMillan’s problem.

“In nine months here, we’ve never had any fights, never had to call the police,” Iftikhar said. “These are educated kids. There are no incidents.”

Besides, he said, the earlier closing time has only caused problems from students who refuse to recognize the new hours.

Just this past Saturday, he said, customers desperate for a slice of pizza at about 2:45 a.m. began pounding on the window and yelling.

Iftikhar said he allows customers who purchased pizza before 2 a.m. to stay past closing to finish their late-night meals at Tommy’s.

“If people are sitting and eating, it’s just so difficult for us to tell them to get out,” Iftikhar said.

But Iftikhar said he is then forced to keep the doors unlocked until all the customers leave and so students assume Tommy’s is still open.

“We can’t lock the doors, because if there’s a fire, God forbid, people would be trapped,” he said.

“Sometimes we try to put out the lights, but people just shout,” Iftikhar continued.

Iftikhar recently fired two employees who insulted students requesting pizza past closing time.

“I just can’t have people who are rude to my customers,” he said.

But the most pressing problem is the financial one, he said.

As he compared income with expenses on a yellow notepad yesterday, Iftikhar looked disheartened.

Under the previous ownership, he said the store brought in nearly $60,000 per month. This year, Iftikhar said he has made about $45,000.