Ohio has lost another longtime local eatery amid a wave of restaurant closures across the state. Leonardo’s Pizza in Akron’s Ellet neighborhood closed on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, ending a tradition that stretched back to the late 1960s.
Owner Ken Ilg announced the immediate shutdown on Facebook that morning, citing “out-of-control food and energy costs,” according to the Akron Beacon Journal. For customers who had made Leonardo’s part of their takeout routine, the news meant there would be no final weekend to stop in for one more pie.
A neighborhood fixture since the 1960s
Gene Barker founded Leonardo’s in the late 1960s on a lot diagonally across from what would become its longtime home. In 1980, Ted Bare purchased the business and moved it to 334 Darrow Road, near Newton Street. The pizzeria remained at that address for the rest of its run.
Ilg bought Leonardo’s in June 2023, inheriting a shop with decades of history in Ellet. It was chiefly a carryout business rather than a large sit-down restaurant. Inside, two black booths with pink tabletops offered customers a place to wait, and a claw machine filled with plush toys stood nearby.
The stone oven and a crust worth remembering
Leonardo’s made its pizza preparation a point of pride. The restaurant’s own website described pizzas baked in its original stone oven, with dough prepared fresh each day. It also emphasized using fresh vegetables instead of canned ones and a specially blended cheese called Cianciola.
In an earlier interview with the Akron Beacon Journal, Ilg said Leonardo’s was particularly well known for its crust. Its chicken and pepperoni pizzas were popular, while the broader menu gave regulars other reasons to order: burgers, sandwiches, chicken dinners, fish, pasta and salads.
Among the offerings were Lil’ Leo burgers, a nod to the area’s old Thacker’s Hamburgers. That combination of traditional pizzas and familiar comfort foods helped give the shop an identity beyond its name and address.
Rising costs bring an abrupt ending
Ilg’s October 13 message blamed climbing food and energy expenses for the decision to close immediately. The announcement came just over three years after he took ownership of the nearly six-decade-old business.
There is one distinction for pizza fans elsewhere in the Akron area: a Leonardo’s location in Fairlawn once operated as a franchise, but that agreement ended about a decade ago. The Fairlawn business and the original Ellet pizzeria were no longer part of the same operation.
For Ellet, the loss is a neighborhood tradition as much as a pizza counter. From dough mixed each day to pies coming out of the old stone oven, Leonardo’s held on to the details that made it recognizable through changes in ownership. After nearly 60 years, the Darrow Road shop has served its last order.
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