For decades, Luigi’s, the iconic Akron pizza and spaghetti joint, has had late, late-night hours, staying open until the wee hours of the morning on Fridays and Saturdays.
Beginning Jan. 1, Luigi’s plans to trim its night hours by two hours, closing at 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday and at midnight the other days of the week.
“It was a big decision,” said co-owner Tony Ciriello, who is the third-generation operator of the family business begun by his grandparents Nick and Rose Ciriello in an old steakhouse on North Main Street in 1949.
“We’ve always been known for having late-night hours,” Tony Ciriello said. “But there’s a time for change and it’ll be a good change,” allowing late-night employees to get home earlier.
Table tents listing the new hours began appearing last week. But word already was out that beginning Jan. 1 customers would no longer be able to get Luigi’s eats, including the restaurant’s signature salad buried under mozzarella cheese, as late as they can now.
While the restaurant is trimming hours at the end, it will open earlier on Saturday and Sunday. That’ll be good news to the hordes of hungry customers who line up on the weekends, waiting for the doors to open.
The eatery will open 90 minutes earlier — at 3 p.m. — Saturday and an hour earlier — at 3 p.m. -- Sunday.
Ciriello said the hours change “is not a financial thing” and business is good. Even late-night business has been fairly consistent, though it is down from years ago, when nearby “Howard Street was bustling,” and rubber workers and other late-night shift workers stopped by after they clocked out.
The change, he said, “has everything to do with your whole social life. … We’re just trying to get everybody into a more normal shift, a normal lifestyle.”
Ciriello, noting many of his employees have long tenures, said, “We’re getting tired.”
Luigi’s employs about 70 to 75 full- and part-time workers, and the change in hours will not result in any layoffs, he said.
Why now? Ciriello said he and family members have for years talked about trimming the late-night hours. With revenues continuing to grow, he and family members said that beginning next year seemed like a good time to finally make the change.
Even during the Great Recession, Ciriello said, “we didn’t feel [the slowing economy] too much.”
He said he thinks that was true for a lot of established restaurants and bars.
Luigi’s began amid a heyday for downtown Akron nightlife. Ciriello pointed out that Luigi’s original hours were 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. Nightclub entertainers and theater performers were among those who visited the restaurant for after-hours meals.
Tony Ciriello has been handling daily operations for at least 20 years, taking over for his uncle Mickey and his mother, Marie Keith. Both remain active in the business, Ciriello said.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com.