Arizona diners are saying goodbye to several longtime food spots this month, and each closure comes with its own kind of local heartbreak.
From a piece of Tempe wing history dating back to 1979 to a 24-year family Italian restaurant in Ahwatukee and another Native Grill & Wings location in Sierra Vista, these are not just routine restaurant shutdowns. They are the kind of places that became part of family routines, game-day traditions and neighborhood memory.
The latest losses come after other recent Arizona restaurant goodbyes, including a beloved Phoenix pizza restaurant that closed after 52 years in business.
Now, three more Arizona favorites are leaving regulars with one less familiar place to go.
Native Grill & Wings in Tempe
Native Grill & Wings in Tempe closed on June 15, 2026, after 47 years, ending a major chapter for one of Arizona’s homegrown restaurant brands.
The Tempe restaurant at 1301 E. Broadway Road, on the southeast corner of Broadway and Dorsey, carried special meaning because it was the last remnant of the brand’s original location. The story began in 1979, when New York native Floyd Anderson and his wife Judy opened the restaurant as Native New Yorker at McClintock and Baseline. The name was a wink at Floyd’s New York roots, and the wing-and-sports-bar concept gradually grew into a Valley institution that expanded to roughly 25 locations across the region.
After Floyd died in 2009, the business passed to the Andersons’ three daughters — Jami Lee, Sherri Lind and Linda Tritschler — who carried on the family legacy. The brand was eventually rebranded as Native Grill & Wings, but the Broadway and Dorsey Tempe location remained tied to the chain’s origins.
For longtime customers, this was not just another wing place. It was a game-day stop, a student hangout, a neighborhood sports bar and a casual family restaurant rolled into one. A restaurant that lasts nearly five decades becomes part of a city’s background. People remember watching games there, meeting friends there and ordering the same wings or pizza year after year.
That is why the Tempe closure feels like more than a business decision. It marks the loss of a piece of local restaurant history — the literal last link to the original Native New Yorker.
Bell’Italia in Ahwatukee
Bell’Italia in Ahwatukee has also shuttered after 24 years in business.
The Italian restaurant at 4909 E. Chandler Boulevard, on the southeast corner of Chandler and 48th Street, was known for East Coast-style pizza, family recipes and Thursday pasta nights. For many Ahwatukee diners, it was the kind of neighborhood restaurant that did not need to be flashy to matter.
Bell’Italia opened in 2002 under owner and chef Mario Caputo, who built the restaurant with his family. Over two decades, it developed a loyal following for its red sauce, East Coast-style pies and gluten-free options. After Caputo’s unexpected death in 2021, family members kept the ovens running and the restaurant operating despite the loss.
The end came quietly. According to Mouth by Southwest, the restaurant has shown a “temporarily closed” sign for several weeks, but staff members say they have been told the shutdown is permanent. No official statement about the closure has been announced yet.
It had the familiar appeal of a local Italian spot: pizza boxes, pasta dinners, family meals and regular customers who knew exactly what they liked. After more than two decades, Bell’Italia had become part of the area’s dining routine — the kind of restaurant people returned to after school events, workdays, youth sports and ordinary weeknights when cooking at home was not happening.
When restaurants like that close, the loss is personal. It is not about losing a trendy reservation. It is about losing a place that quietly helped hold a neighborhood together.
Native Grill & Wings in Sierra Vista
Sierra Vista has also lost its Native Grill & Wings, another longtime gathering spot in southern Arizona.
The restaurant at 3950 Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway opened in 2015 under franchisees Marcus and Cindy Teufel, who at the time operated three Native locations. Over about a decade, the Sierra Vista store became a community fixture for wings, burgers, drinks, games and easy group meals — casual enough for a weeknight and familiar enough to become part of local routine.
For residents, the loss hits differently because smaller cities often have fewer long-running casual restaurants where sports fans, families and coworkers all cross paths. A place like Native Grill & Wings fills a specific role: it is where people go for wings, burgers, drinks, sports on the TVs and group meals that don’t require a reservation.
That kind of restaurant can become beloved not because it is fancy, but because it is dependable. For Sierra Vista regulars, the closure means one less longtime gathering spot in town — and it caps a tough month for the Native Grill & Wings brand specifically, with the Tempe origin store closing the same week.
Arizona keeps losing familiar places
These three closures are different, but they share a common theme.
Native Grill & Wings in Tempe was the literal last piece of the original Native New Yorker story, opened by a New York transplant in 1979 and run by the founder’s daughters for the past 17 years. Bell’Italia was a 24-year Ahwatukee Italian favorite that survived the unexpected death of its founder. Native Grill & Wings in Sierra Vista was a 10-year community sports-bar fixture in a smaller market with fewer alternatives.
Together, they show how painful it can be when familiar restaurants disappear.
Some places become beloved because of the food. Others become beloved because of the people, the memories and the role they play in everyday life.
This month, Arizona is losing more of those familiar places.
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