Fireside Pies sold to Genghis Grill

, the totem of artisanal pizza pies in Dallas when it was founded 10 years ago in a cottage on Henderson Avenue, was recently sold to the owners of Genghis Grill and is no longer part of Consilient Restaurants (Hibiscus, Victor Tangos, The Porch, AF+B).

The casual pizza-centric restaurant was in the midst of an expansion when Consilient’s operational pot splattered a few weeks ago and resulted in Consilient CEO Simon Tristan parting ways with the company he founded. The FP  sale to Genghis includes the original Dallas Fireside Pies, plus locations in Grapevine, Plano and Dallas, but not the Fort Worth location. That restaurant, which debuted as a Fireside Pies, was recently rebranded as 13 Pies and readied for expansion into foreign markets (Atlanta and Houston, which we revealed a few months ago here).

Oddly, Simon invested in Genghis Grill in 2003 then took over operational control of the company when the fast-food operator fell into bankruptcy.

“It ended up being the single worst business decision I’ve ever made,” Simon told DFW.com in 2012.  In the story that profiled Simon, author Andrew Martin wrote:

When Genghis’ owners defaulted on the loan, Simon felt compelled to take over the company and try to salvage a gradually collapsing investment. Soon he was up to his eyebrows in tangled franchise issues, closing various stores, before eventually selling the entire brand to a franchisee.

It might also have been the deal that nearly shot a small arrow in his almost brotherly relationship with Consilient’s founding chef, Nick Badovinus.

“We were so the wrong group of guys to tackle that Genghis Grill deal,” says Badovinus. “I didn’t go to culinary school and work for Phil Romano and Dean Fearing to then work with an organization that pours high-fructose corn syrup over some substandard meat or frozen shrimp. It’s just not my type of food business. And it was certainly not in the job description when I took the gig with Consilient.”

Interesting turn of events.

Consilient’s brain trust did not return a call for comment.