Clean Sweep?

Serious Pizza Owner Mike Turley Responds To Anamanaguchi's Hate-Filled Twitter Rant.

Last Wednesday night was kind of a weird one in Deep Ellum — at least so far as pizza relations in the neighborhood go.

Some background: After offering up a high-energy, intensely well-received set at Dada earlier in the night, New York City-based eight-bit punk outfit Anamanaguchi ambled across Elm Street in the direction of the popular Serious Pizza joint, only to be turned away at the door because they'd arrived at the pizzeria too late. The members of Anamanaguchi, none too pleased about this, then took to their social media accounts, lashing out at the restaurant on Twitter and even going so far as to post a Vine of one of their members peeing onto a Serious takeout box.

Anamanaguchi's position: Even though the spot claimed to be closed, their lights were still on and there were still slices under the heatlamps that they could've sold; after multiple attempts to convince the store to toss a couple slices the band's way regardless, the band got chased out of the store by a broom-wielding employee; and also, whatever, Serious' pizza looked like it sucked anyway.

Only, well, Serious owner Mike Turley says that's not exactly how things went down.

“I read the story,” Turley tells us of our post on Anamanaguchi's distaste for his pies and the way his business handles itself. “It read like the emotions of a 14-year-old girl. It's funny. I just thought, 'This is ridiculous.' But it also wasn't true.”

Curious about what really happened late on Wednesday night — and concerned that an employee of his may have actually chased a potential customer out of his spot while swinging a broom in said customer's face — Turley says he checked his restaurant's security camera footage. What he found wasn't nearly as violent a scenario as Anamanaguchi claimed.

“There was definitely no broom-chasing,” Turley says. “The guy was sweeping after we'd closed at 11. They came in 20 minutes late and our registers were already off. But they still came back three times.”

Turley concedes the following, though: Without any sound in his security footage, he can't be entirely sure what went down or what was said on Wednesday night.

Regardless, he's not too worried about it either way.

“It's all a big joke,” he says. “It's nothing serious. I was laughing the whole time I was reading the story. Talking to my employees, I don't think it was that dramatic. Honestly, I really wanted to see the broom thing. But that was definitely not true. It's all on video, and that's not on there.”

Meanwhile, Turley did admit to having checked out Anamanaguchis' music. But he declined to comment with his thoughts on their sound.