Grotto Pizza eliminates balloons and plastic bags, offers plastic straws by request only at coastal locations

The days of seeing pint-sized vacationers walking down the Rehoboth Beach Boardwalk with red Grotto Pizza balloons are over.

The Delaware-based pizza chain announced Monday it would eliminate balloon giveaways and the use of plastic bags for take-out orders at its 10 coastal locations in Delaware and Maryland. 

Plastic straws will be available only by request, as well.

The changes take effect immediately, says Heather Kenton, Grotto Pizza director of marketing.

In the past, each Grotto location had its own helium tank for the balloons, which would be given to children and used to decorate restaurants, especially at the beach with an aim of lure families into pizza parlors.

"There's been an environmental call to action from the community and culture in general toward making smarter choices plastic-wise," Kenton says. "Being in the coastal area, kids can let go of them and then they fly into the sky, so we wanted to do our part."

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The affected locations in Delaware include Rehoboth Beach (Rehoboth Avenue, North Boardwalk and South Boardwalk), Lewes, Dewey Beach, Bethany Beach, South Bethany Beach and Long Neck. Grotto shops on 125th and 14th streets in Ocean City, Maryland, will also largely ban the use of plastics.

Don't worry, parents. Crayons and a children's menu for drawing will remain at all locations.  

In a statement released Monday morning announcing the changes, Grotto Pizza Vice President Jeff Gosnear said the decision reflected "the role we play in reducing unnecessary plastic waste at our beaches, towns and waterways."

Delaware Center for the Inland Bays, the non-profit environmental group dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the local watershed, praised the move.

"We have three R's that everyone knows: reduce, reuse and recycle. Reduce is the first one for a reason," said Amy Barra, Delaware Center for the Inland Bays outreach and education coordinator. "Eliminating balloons and other sources of single-use plastic is a really good step and we applaud them."

Sherri L. Evans-Stanton, director of the Delaware chapter of the Sierra Club, echoed the sentiment.

"Individuals and businesses must reduce the amount of plastic trash along our precious coast and throughout the state. We applaud the efforts of Grotto Pizza," she said. "The Sierra Club hopes to see these efforts expanded throughout the state."

Kenton said the changes with plastics are limited to coastal locations due to the sheer number of visitors at the beach during the summer and the increased likelihood of balloons being lost outside.

Barra hopes Grotto will expand the plastics ban to the rest of its locations in the future: "Depending on where these other restaurants are, plastics can still end up in the watershed."

Grotto Pizza was founded in Reboboth Beach in 1960 and now boasts 23 locations in Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The chain will celebrate its 60th anniversary next year.

Got a tip? Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

Grotto Pizza facts and figures

1,400,000: Pounds of dough made by Grotto Pizza annually.

1,100,000: Pounds of cheddar cheese used each year.

450,000: Gallons of sauce used annually.

10,000: Pounds of dough produced in a single day in the summer at Grotto's Lewes commissary. 

$1.60: Cost of a cheese pie at Grotto Pizza when the first shop opened. (A large cheese pizza is now $15.99.)

20 cents: Cost of a Grotto Pizza cheese slice when the first shop opened. (A cheese slice now costs $2.50.)

1960: The year Grotto Pizza was founded on Rehoboth Avenue in Rehoboth Beach.

1963: Grotto Pizza opens a second location on the Boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach.

1967: The original Rehoboth Avenue take-out stand moved to its present location in what they call the “Arcade Building.”