CLEVELAND — Ohio City Pizzeria on Lorain Avenue has been in business since 1982, but come Saturday, Aug. 10, the neighborhood staple will toss its last pizza.
"I am overwhelmed with gratitude by all the support and love that I've gotten," said General Manager Jeffrey Puchmajer, who started three years ago as the kitchen manager for the pizza shop.
After West Side Catholic Center, the nonprofit organization that bought the pizzeria five years ago, made the announcement, phone orders have been non-stop.
"Normally, we have pizza on Fridays, and so we decided, OK, this is where we'll get pizza from this Friday," said Deyampert Giles, a longtime customer.
Lauren Budin, who lives in the neighborhood, told News 5 that she discovered Ohio City Pizzeria just a few weeks ago.
“I think it's really disappointing," said Budin. "We've been literally getting takeout like once a week since we found it and now it's gone.”
West Side Catholic Center bought the pizzeria as part of the workforce development program, which hired people who struggled to find work because of their backgrounds.
Executive Director Michael Bernot told News 5, "We wanted to measure the profitability and impact of this as a program extension."
However, Bernot said that Ohio City Pizzeria missed both metric marks in a competitive post-pandemic pizza market.
"So we made this tough decision to make sure that we're stewarding the resources to the West Side Catholic Center, keeping that 47-year mission as viable as possible," said Bernot, who told News 5 that the workforce programming will continue.
"And as a result of opening this restaurant, we now have a Culinary Academy, which is going strong and will continue on beyond this," said Bernot.
