What's For Dinner? On Thanksgiving Eve, Roseville Pizzerias' Business is Booming

On Thanksgiving Eve, business is booming for Roseville pizzerias.

The owner of Aurelio's Roseville franchise, 2827 Hamline Ave., said she expects her shop to post nearly double the sales of a typical day. She said the big attraction of having restaurant pizza today is that families can keep their kitchens clean for all of the cooking they have to do on the Thanksgiving holiday.

Aurelio's, which features dine-in eating, isn't the only pizza place baking and making a lot of dough today.

According to industry trade publication Pizza Today, Thanksgiving Eve is the fourth busiest day of the year nationally for pizza parlors, topped only by Super Bowl Sunday, New Year's Eve and Halloween.

Across the industry, pizza shop sales on Thanksgiving Eve are 35 to 40 percent greater than a typical day, according to Pizza Today magazine.

At Davanni's in Roseville, a spokeswoman said she was too busy to even talk about how buisness her restaurant is tonight.

But not every pizza place was basking in Thanksgiving. Early into this Thanksgiving Eve, business has been flat at the Old Chicago in Roseville, said Darcy Nelson, the restaurant's manager. "It's not busier than normal," he said.

For Aurelio's Roseville store, however, Thanksgiving Eve is historically its third busiest day for business, according to Michelle Moore, a spokeswoman for Illinois-based Aurelio's, which has 43 stores in six states.

Kirk Mauriello, Aurelio's director of franchising, added that Thanksgiving Eve is the company's busiest dine-in day of the year. He attributed that to Aurelio's reputation as a family restaurant that attracts family gatherings prior to Turkey Day.

Of its 43 restaurants, Aurelio's only has one (the Roseville location) in Minnesota. But Mauriello said his company is looking to open more restaurants here.

Aurelio's is Pizza Ltd. was founded in 1959.