Country Pizza owner told to vacate by Feb. 26

Country Pizza will be changing hands later this month after the business owner and landlord couldn’t agree on rental terms going forward.

Country Pizza is in the same building as Lincoln Petroleum on Lincoln Road. Cindy Murphy (granddaughter of Doherty’s founder Matthew Doherty) and her husband Dennis sold the property and the gas station/car repair business in 2023 to 161 Lincoln LLC headed by John Frangieh, who runs Lincoln Petroleum. According to Harry Kyros, owner of Country Pizza for 29 years, Frangieh recently told him that his rent was going up by $1,000 a month, but still on the previous month-to-month basis rather than a multi-year lease.

Kyros said on Feb. 7 that he told Frangieh, “I’ll pay the thousand, but I want a lease.” But Frangieh declined to offer him a lease and told him needed to be out of the building by Feb. 26, leaving him with two options: moving his ovens and other equipment into storage while seeking another location, or selling the business, Kyros said. Frangieh has offered to buy it, but for “pennies on the dollar,” he added. “It’s going to cost me thousands of dollars just to get [the equipment] out of here. His intentions are to squeeze me out.”

Reached on Feb. 9, Lincoln Petroleum assistant manager Paul Traniello said that 161 Lincoln LLC was purchasing the business from Kyros and that the plan was to keep it open.

“The business is not busy and it’s not that profitable, and it’s not our fault,” Traniello said. “Expenses have gone up, so we have to go up on the rent.”

The business will stay open during a transition period while “a few changes” are made, such as the ability to accept credit cards and perhaps some menu tweaks, according to Traniello. “We’re going to make it more profitable… [but the changes] are not going to be drastic,” he said. Referring to the move away from Kyros as business owner, “that’s the only difference,” he added.

“I’d sell it to him if he gave me something close to the asking price, but he’s trying to steal it. He’s holding the cards because he owns the building,” said Kyros, adding that he is almost 60 but had planned to run Country Pizza for several more years. “I’m going to start [a new business] now… or get a job?” he said skeptically. “I feel like crying.”

Reactions on LincolnTalk over the weekend ranged form disappointment to outrage, with at least one resident advocating a boycott of Lincoln Petroleum and others suggesting a GoFundMe fundraising campaign.

“The Lincoln people are so nice… the support from them is unbelievable. People been coming in and calling me, coming in, wanting to know if it’s true,” Kyros said. As for the idea of raising money to somehow aid in negotiations or storage and moving expenses, “I’ll talk to him and see. Something’s better than nothing.”

If Country Pizza closes, it will be the third business in Lincoln that has recently made such an announcement. Bank of America said in November that it would be leaving the Mall at Lincoln Station as of March 2026, and Weston Nurseries said last month that it had closed its Route 117 location as well.