1929 Pizza & Wine Owners Receive Death Threats Amid Festival Cancellation

Wood River Mayor Tom Stalcup says "work is being done on a compromise"

Aug 28, 2023 at 10:40 am

BRADEN MCMAKIN

Matt and Amy Herren own and operate 1929 Pizza and Wine in Wood River, Illinois.

The owners of Metro East businesses 1929 Pizza & Wine and C&B Boiled Bagels say that they have received death threats in the wake of a festival cancellation that some view as the co-owners' fault.

The problems began last Tuesday, August 22, when the Wood River Enrichment Network posted on Facebook that it was cancelling the fifth iteration of its Annual Wood River Food Truck Festival, which would have taken place on Saturday, October 7, in downtown Wood River, Illinois. Though the organizers did not cite a reason for the cancellation, right away commenters began pointing fingers at Amy and Matt Herren, referring to them as owners of local pizza and bagel spots.

When one commenter asked for the reason for closure, another wrote, "Apparently the owners of the bagel place and the pizza place (same owners from my understanding) are mad because it 'disrupts' business for them with the street being closed."

Another person chimed in, "I know if I owned a pizza spot I would see the potential and I’d buy or build a cart and sell slices out of the front. Perfect opportunity to let someone try your new spot and drive future sales. But instead drives a wedge into its own city. The same city that approved its business/liquor license, the same city that would be its primary customers. Seems like they’ve not thought much about it….. (might be the bagel shop and not the pizza spot 🤷🏼)."

Things quickly turned vitriolic, with Facebook commenters calling the business owners "shit bags" and "rude."

And the ugliness didn't stay online. Matt Herren told the Riverbender that he and his employees soon began receiving death threats, that some people threw bottles and fruit at the store and that others protested in front of the business.

He also insisted that he had not asked for the festival to be cancelled. “I have no idea why they canceled their festival, all I know is that we have been turned into somebody’s scapegoat,” Herren said to the Riverbender.

Yet Herren also provided some context for the rumors. The entrance to the couple's C&B Bagels opens onto what would have been the festival grounds. Herren said he'd asked a festival organizer, Melissa “Missy” Bell-Yates, to push back the event, reschedule it or move it, but she declined. At that point, he reached out to city officials to intervene. Soon after, the event was cancelled.

Last week, Wood River Mayor Tom Stalcup issued a statement on Facebook saying the city would be providing more oversight on similar events going forward, but that "work is being done on a compromise."

"I’m grateful that we have so many passionate business owners and residents that are committed to the revitalization and growth of our city," he wrote. "Sometimes when you have passionate people doing great things, you experience some growing pains."

As the RFT's Cheryl Baehr wrote in a rave review earlier this month, the Herrens opened 1929 Pizza & Wine in a long-vacant building after being encouraged by the city's mayor and police chief. Matt, a California native, is the co-founder of Goshen Coffee; Amy is from Edwardsville, spent years working in New York but later returned to the Metro East and opened the restaurant Fond in 2008.