Bloomington, IN - Cafe Pizzaria, known for its quality food, convenient location and great customer service closed its doors Wednesday, August 28, 2024 after just over 70 years of service to the Bloomington Community. Though the building now sits vacant on 405 E. Kirkwood Ave, the life and atmosphere around the business remains intact. 

 

The business sign, standing proudly over the now abandoned building is hard to read from the weather and fading over the years. You can just barely make out the words “Pizza” and above it, “since 1952.” In the windows you can see the neon lights, which at one point shown through the windows reading things like “Pizza,” “Stromboli Submarines,” and “Bloomington Original Pizzeria.” 

 

As the sound of people chattering and cars rolled by, a man walked by the building and said to his three friends who surrounded him, “It’s a shame they closed.” A while later a car drove down the streets of Kirkwood, and while passing the old pizzeria a passenger shouted out the window, “If they fuckin don’t reopen this pizzeria dude, I will be so sad.” 

 

The restaurant obviously had a large impact on the greater Bloomington community. When they announced their closing online, many took to reddit to voice their opinions of the closing. One user named ‘sho_biz’ commented, “I’m just heartbroken, grew up with that spot from a kid to being in college to going back for nostalgia. I would really love to get one last strom and house salad again.” 

 

One former employee even recalled the environment in the restaurant, the burns they had on their arms from bringing out the pizzas and the familiar customers they would see. They recalled how John Mellancamp had come in with his ex-wife, daughter and her boyfriend after it had been announced that his daughter was pregnant. The former employee remembered, “it was a really quiet table.” 

 

Cafe Pizzaria was not the only of its kind to close recently. The Irish Lion, a Bloomington local Irish Pub that had been open since 1982 closed its doors May 17, 2024. 

 

Sitting next door to the Pizzaria, the Village Deli, which had been rumored to close and be replaced with new high-rise apartments, bustled with customers and service, emphasizing the emptiness of the pizzeria next door. 

 

Taped to the inside window of Cafe Pizzaria was a note, left by the owners addressed to the Bloomington community. It reads, 

 

“Dear Bloomington, we have decided that it is time for us to retire and have more time to focus on family. 

 

Thanks to all our loyal customers over the past 70 years! 

 

We especially like to thank all of our employees. You have been exceptional and we love each and every one of you.” 

 

For many Bloomington residents, this was the only form of warning that the restaurant was closing. Tyana Pascoe, an employee at the Monroe County Public Library right next to Cafe Pizzaria, sat at one of the now unused tables at the pizzeria eating her lunch one day. She  remembered that many of her co-workers would visit the restaurant often for their lunch breaks. Pascoe recalled the cheese pizza, or maybe Hawaiian, she couldn’t remember, that she had gotten the last time she was there. Remembering the smell of pizzas cooking in the back. “It was good, and I was sad when I found out that it closed,” Pascoe said. 

 

But unlike many locals, younger IU students, like Juniors Riley Ramirez and Kendall Tanquilut, did not get the chance to try out the famous Cafe Pizzaria as much as they would have liked. 

 

Ramirez recalled their sophomore year when the two were talking down the streets of Kirkwood and passed Cafe Pizzaria and thought, “how have we never ate here before, it’s so cute.” 

 

While it is unfortunately too late for Cafe Pizzaria, many Bloomington citizens worry that luxury apartments and fast food chains will soon replace more and more of the town. Tanquilut stated, “I don’t want to go to like Five Guys, I don’t want to go to Chipotle. I want to go to like try other restaurants and I think that’s what makes it exciting.”