A pizzeria that served Akron's Ellet neighborhood for decades shut its doors abruptly last week, leaving longtime employees scrambling and customers wondering what happened to a place many considered a neighborhood fixture. Leonardo's Pizza, located at 334 Darrow Rd., closed permanently on Tuesday, October 13, and employees say they were notified on Monday, October 12.
The restaurant announced its immediate closure on social media, according to 614NOW, catching staff off guard just days before the news broke. As reported by Fox 8, employees said they were notified on Monday, October 12, that the restaurant was closing immediately, the day before the shutdown. Owner Ken Ilg, who bought Leonardo's roughly three and a half years before the closure, had hoped to carry the pizzeria's tradition forward for another generation, per 614NOW.
Instead, Ilg pointed to an economy that simply would not cooperate. He told Fox 8 the business could not keep pace with out-of-control food and energy costs. Employee Scott Thayer put it more bluntly, telling Fox 8, “Can't afford to stay open, rent goes up, the cost of materials goes up, utilities have gone crazy.” Ilg called the closing the toughest decision he has had to make, the station reported.
A Recipe That Outlasted Several Owners
Leonardo's history stretches back decades, though accounts of exactly how far differ. Fox 8 reports the restaurant originally opened as Brick Oven Pizza in 1968, while WKYC cites the shop's own social-media page in reporting that Leonardo's was founded in 1980. If the 1968 date is correct, the pizzeria had operated for more than 50 years; under the 1980 founding date, it had operated for about 46 years by the October 2026 closure. Through several changes in ownership, it stuck to the same handwritten family recipes passed down from its founders, the station's report notes.
That continuity is part of what made the sudden shutdown sting for the people who worked there and the customers who kept coming back. Leonardo's is now joining other businesses along Darrow Road that sit closed or boarded up, according to the same Fox 8 account, a visible sign of strain along a commercial strip that has already lost several tenants.
A Tough Year for Northeast Ohio Restaurants
Leonardo's closure lands amid a rough stretch for the region's dining scene. About 400 restaurants and other service-related businesses in Northeast Ohio closed in 2025, even as nearly 600 new ones opened, according to News 5 Cleveland. Industry leaders told the station that profit margins remain especially tight for smaller operations like Leonardo's, squeezed between rising costs and shifting customer habits.
Inflation has leveled off overall but remains at a record high for key restaurant staples like beef, per that same News 5 Cleveland report. Convenience has also become increasingly important to diners, adding further pressure on traditional sit-down and carryout spots to adapt or fall behind. Ohio Restaurant and Hospitality Alliance president and CEO John Barker told the station he expects continued attrition in 2026, suggesting Leonardo's is unlikely to be the last Northeast Ohio restaurant to close its doors for good this year.
Similar pressures have surfaced outside Ohio as well. A Golden Corral in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley also closed recently, with operators citing rising costs that made continuing operations no longer financially possible, according to WFMZ. For now, the Ellet neighborhood has lost Leonardo's, a pizzeria that outlasted multiple owners but, in the end, couldn't outlast the economy.
