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It’s a shame. They have good pizza. But three bankruptcies in seven years is enough to test the loyalty of even the most loyal of loyal customers. So I doubt Bertucci’s latest survival plan as reported by the BBJ – switching from “legacy casual dining” to “fast-casual” dining – is going to work. Maybe that market terminology itself is part of the problem, or at least representative of the problem, to wit: Bertucci’s long ago became too corporatized, bouncing around from owner to owner, each trying to find that magical chain-restaurant sweet spot for a once quaint Italian eatery whose roots are in Somerville, Mass., not Anywhere USA or Airport Terminal USA. 

Bertucci’s would have been better off following the example of another local pizza/Italian eatery, Regina Pizzeria, which has contained its more modest expansion to the immediate Boston region. Even then, Regina had to declare bankruptcy in 2015. … Personally, I’m nervously eyeing the recent expansion of New Haven’s legendary Frank Pepe’s Pizza. Losing Pepe’s would be a national pizza-vore tragedy. …