Slice Chain Two Boots Seized for Unpaid Taxes at Yet Another Location

The Hell’s Kitchen location of Cajun-ish pizza chain Two Boots has closed after being seized by the state for unpaid taxes — the fifth location nationwide to have either a temporary or permanent closure this year.

Public records show the Hell’s Kitchen location owes the state nearly $33,000, and a message on the slice shop’s website says the closure is temporary. An employee from the pizzeria’s West Village outpost confirmed the Hell’s Kitchen spot closed due to financial reasons and says the restaurant aims to reopen next week. Update: Two Boots owes a total of $173,426 for its Hell’s Kitchen location and another $132,961 for its Midtown East store, a spokesperson for the state tax department tells Eater.

Two Boots owner Phil Hartman tells Eater the lease is up in Hell’s Kitchen and that he’s “trying to work it out,” adding that the restaurants are working on “multiple lease issues” right now.

A similar closure message is pasted on the website for Two Boots’ Midtown East location at 337 Lexington Ave, which also recently shuttered. The latest tax warrant shows the restaurant owes the state about $8,500 for that location, although warrants for nearly $30,000 were filed between February and March 2018.

It’s been a financially turbulent year for the long-standing pizzeria, which has grown into a wide network of slice shops spanning Manhattan, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Jersey City. Two Boots’ Upper East Side store closed in August, and last month, the West Village spot was also seized by the state over unpaid taxes, Patch reported. The West Village location has since reopened. Two Boots now operates seven locations in NYC, including the two recently shuttered ones.

Two Boots has run into trouble in Los Angeles too: It recently closed one of two locations there, and the last remaining one was temporarily shut down by the LA County Health Department in November.