Sweet Basil’s Pizza closing in Cedar Rapids

Cedar Rapids restaurant Sweet Basil's Pizza Pie will close Feb. 29.

Owner Angela Kobusch said the restaurant only has three employees - herself, her mother Sheryl Kobusch and one other person - and they are all ready for new opportunities, with other jobs or, in Sheryl Kobusch's case, retirement.

'Mom is supposed to be retired. She's ready to kind of enjoy life all the time,” Angela Kobush said.

This was a second life for the pizzeria, which founders Basil and Lynn Hadjis first opened at 2874 Mount Vernon Rd. SE in 2005. They closed in at the beginning of 2012, and Angela Kobush took over the restaurant a few months later and reopened it.

She said there still is a possibility Sweet Basil's could live on - the building and the business are both for sale.

Saying goodbye is bittersweet, she said.

'All our customers have been really great, especially the ones we see weekly that are really loyal. We'll miss them,” she said. 'It's been a lot of fun. I've enjoyed it. It's just time for something that will give me a retirement plan.”

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