Anybody who knows me knows that one of my favorite things in life is pizza. It would be a sad thing indeed to live in an area that did not offer good pizza.

When I moved to Farmville back in 2016, I was incredibly grateful and delighted to find great pizza options in town.

I don’t know if it’s official, but I consider the three major pizza chains to be Pizza Hut, Domino’s Pizza and Papa John’s Pizza. Back in Suffolk, I had been accustomed to having all three nearby, and Farmville has afforded me the same great situation. It has even added Little Caesars Pizza recently.

I also love having access to pizza that reminds me of the kind I enjoyed when I visited New York City years ago. I consider that access a pretty tall order that has no guarantee of being fulfilled, and yet I have been thrilled to discover that it has been fulfilled by Pino’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria.

There’s another restaurant I’ll put in a similar category that I was introduced to this summer, and that is Perini Pizza, which has been outstanding.

For the purposes of this column, I’m focusing on Farmville, but for the sake of completeness, I have also really enjoyed Vito’s Italian Restaurant in Cumberland.

However, my “perfect pizza storm” has been broken up with the recent announcement that the Papa John’s Pizza location in Farmville has closed. Papa John’s operated out of a little building at 1107 E. Third St., and I had gone there quite a few times in my two-and-a-half years in the area.

I’d like to thank Papa John’s for the food service it provided to lovers of pizza in the area.

My sadness, however, is mixed with the hope that its absence is just a temporary situation. Here is the statement issued from the Papa John’s corporate office that Staff Reporter Emily Hollingsworth included in her story: “We’re grateful to all of our loyal customers and are interested in reopening this location or another location in Farmville with a qualified franchisee partner in the future.”

Something to look forward to!

TITUS MOHLER is the sports editor for The Farmville Herald and Farmville Newsmedia, LLC. His email address is Titus.Mohler@FarmvilleHerald.com.