Monday, March 14, 2011
Mysteries Cibo Pizza's Mystery Sign
Posted by Vance Lauderdale on Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 10:13 AM
For those of you who have yet to to read the March column, Cibo was a short-lived pizza chain in Memphis, and in my typically thorough telling-you-more-than-you-asked manner, I even tracked down the addresses of all the branches in town. According to old telephone directories, one of them was located at 4495 Summer, close to Perkins. But they all closed years ago.
So what am I to make of this photograph, submitted by my pal Pat Rohrbacher, showing a genuine old Cibo's sign mounted on a pole behind Grahamwood Cleaners, close to the intersection of Summer and Graham, which is quite a long way from Perkins? As far as I know, no Cibo's was ever located here. Furthermore, the sign isn't even visible from either Summer or Graham.
Now, just as soon as I can borrow a quarter for the pay phone, I'll call the folks at Grahamwood Cleaners to see what they know about it. I'm pretty sure I dropped some change in the sofa here . . .
Comments (4)
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It's not as if it was a sign worth preserving either ... not like the missing "Peter Pan Grocery" one I miss. Nice to have an item on Pizza Pie for "Pi Day"
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The Peter Pan Grocery sign is now right next to the front door of the Children's Museum of Memphis (CMOM) at Central and Hollywood.
I owned a Cibo Pizza Franchise in Akron,Ohio in 1963. While visiting a casino in Pittsburgh this past winter The food court contained a Cibo Pizza . I was curious as to whether or not they were the same . Armed with the memphis area only my search led to your article which I found very interesting. I even have my grand opening ad a a copy of the menu
Cibo Houses seem to still exist in Michigan, so it probably was a national franchise. But its fate seemed sealed when it in some way was joined to another ill-fated Memphis venture called Little Pigs of America, which sought to open franchised barbecue joints across the country. I don't think the companies were the same when founded, but by 1962 they had merged into one entity, headquartered in the Columbia America Tower downtown. A google search of the comapnies will reveal lawsuits and more lawsuits, many from angry franchisers. I'm not sure what all went wrong, but probably at the root of it was the simple fact that people didn't like the food!
