Attorney Who Took on The Upper Crust Bought The Harvard Square Location, May Rename It 'The Just Crust'

Shannon Liss-Riordan, an attorney who sued local pizza chain The Upper Crust on behalf of exploited workers, now owns the company's Harvard Square location, and plans to give employees shares of the restaurant. Liss-Riordan won a bid for that store in an auction yesterday along with a local business owner acting as an investor, and they're thinking about renaming that shop "The Just Crust." Which is a little bit like a peaceful, contemporary take on drinking wine out of a goblet made from your defeated enemy's skull.

And how are the people of Boston responding? Headline from a Globe editorial: "Upper Crust pizza case now topped with poetic justice." Headline from a post on UniversalHUB: "Revenge is a dish best served cold - and covered in tomato sauce and cheese." You get the idea. The chain went bankrupt in October 2012, and Liss-Riordan wasn't the only one to walk away with their own pizza shop after yesterday's bidding. In fact, one of the key players in the series of controversies that brought the company down picked up four. The Globe reports that "a private equity firm with ties to ousted founder Jordan Tobins won leases for four restaurants." Wait, can he do that? Maybe not: Liss-Riordan "said she believes there are questions about whether Tobins, through a third-party firm, can buy the Upper Crust locations because of an injunction prohibiting him from transferring assets."

Whether he gets to keep them, Tobins scored the South End, Lexington, Watertown and Wellesley locations. The parent company of Pizzeria Regina bought the location near Fenway Park. Prediction: it will become a Pizzeria Regina.

Presumably, The Just Crust would serve more than just crust.

· Upper Crust chain divide up at auction [BG]
· Upper Crust pizza case now topped with poetic justice [BG]
· Revenge is a dish best served cold - and covered with tomato sauce [UH]
· All coverage of The Upper Crust on Eater [~EBOS~]