Joe Squared, the North Avenue pizza parlor once featured on the Food Network, will close next month after nearly two decades in business.

The restaurant’s collective of worker-owners shared the news to Instagram Thursday afternoon in a note that acknowledged the challenging conditions faced by many local restaurants post-pandemic.

“The restaurant landscape has changed drastically since COVID, and, facing lower turnout, higher expenses, and a lack of resources, we have likely reached the end of our journey,” they wrote.

Reached by phone Thursday, Nic Johnson, the vice president of the collective, said the group wanted to spend the last month focused on community and fond memories despite the recent hurdles.

“We’re trying to make it more celebratory than melancholy, though obviously it’s bittersweet,” Johnson said.

Joe Squared will be open through the end of December and will continue to operate as normal until the doors close.

Known for square pizzas and risotto, the restaurant first opened near the corner of North Avenue and Howard Street in 2005. A decade later, founder Joe Edwardsen packed up the pizzeria and moved it to a new and larger spot a block away, at 33 W. North Ave.

The restaurant earned praise from “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” host Guy Fieri, who in 2014 named Joe Squared’s bacon and clam pizza as one of the best he had tasted on his Food Network show.

It was a gathering spot for local students and artists, who put on shows in the pizzeria’s basement performance space, Downsquares.

Jack Danna, the director of commercial revitalization for the Central Baltimore Partnership, which works in the Station North arts district where Joe Squared is located, said the pizzeria helped to lure other businesses to the neighborhood.

“It really spoke to the DIY mystique of the district: Let’s get it done, let’s take a chance,” Danna said. “They really positioned North Avenue for where we’re at today. They certainly laid the foundation for other things to follow.”

Among the recent additions to the arts district are popular restaurants and bars like Alma Cocina Latina, Foraged, Le Comptoir du Vin and The Royal Blue. The 60,000-square-foot North Avenue Market building, which takes up nearly an entire city block across from the pizza parlor, is on track for a revival after being sold to a new arts partnership. The Mobtown Ballroom, a longtime Pigtown dance hall, recently announced it will leave Southwest Baltimore to become one of the North Avenue Market’s first tenants.

News of the pizzeria’s closure is “heartbreaking, and it is a loss, because it has been an anchor for so long,” Danna said. “However, putting the eye towards the future indicates a lot of great reasons to be successful.”

For a time, there were two Joe Squareds. A second location opened at Power Plant Live in 2011, boasting a “coffee house-meets sushi-bar vibe, with long counters at the bar and along the art-covered walls,” according to a review in The Baltimore Sun. The Power Plant Live location later closed and was replaced by Charm City Pizza, which was later succeeded by Underground Pizza Co., a Detroit-style pizzeria.

Despite its popularity, Joe Squared hit speed bumps faced by many restaurants at the onset of COVID-19. The pizzeria closed for months at the start of the pandemic before reopening in late 2020, with the help of a $150,000 federal disaster relief loan.

This time around, the pizzeria was run as a worker-owned collective, a model that gives staff a voice in business operations. The restaurant made changes to boost pay for its workers, such as splitting tips among all staff, including kitchen workers, as well as raising wages for front-of house employees by adding a $3 service fee to orders.

In their farewell note, the collective of worker-owners said they intend to roll out specials and host special events to mark Joe Squared’s last weeks in business. Johnson said the restaurant plans on hosting “a big blowout with tons of live music” during its final weekend.

“We are incredibly grateful for our wonderful community,” he and his colleagues wrote. “Without a doubt, we have some of the most amazing regulars in Baltimore, from the bar to the restaurant to the arts and music scenes that have welcomed us and thrived with us, we would not be here today without you, and we cannot express our thanks enough.”