The Spaghetti Warehouse in downtown Akron, where pasta, pizzas, sandwiches and more are served in nostalgia-filled surroundings inside a former B.F. Goodrich building, is set to close May 17.
The restaurant posted on social media that this is “a goodbye that feels bittersweet, but also a celebration of everything we’ve shared.”
Michael Kim, president of Spaghetti Warehouse parent company The One Esca Group, said the main factor in his decision to close the restaurant is declining traffic coming into downtown Akron. .
Kim said the restaurant at 510 S. Main St. – known in its Goodrich days as Building 33 – was taking in $2 million in annual sales prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Last year we didn’t even hit a mill,” he said. “This year, it hasn’t started that well, either. Some of it admittedly has to do with the weather, we’ve had a brutal winter. But the traffic has gone down so dramatically. The number of University of Akron students is starting to deplete. It’s a combination, a lack of events driving people to downtown, fewer students at UA. The decrease in our sales has been quite dramatic. We probably lost half of our clientele.”
GPD Group plans to move into Spaghetti Warehouse building
The Spaghetti Warehouse’s lease on the building is set to expire in 2027. Neighboring GPD Group, an architecture and engineering firm, announced this past December that it had plans to use the structure for its own operations.
Representatives from GPD Group could not be reached for comment on whether the closure of Spaghetti Warehouse would accelerate its plans. GPD Group has more than 900 employees across 14 offices.
Final week will include lunch, dinner through last day
Kim said he wanted to give customers one final week to come and have a meal at the restaurant, which has been opened in Akron in 1993. The restaurant will offer a reduced menu, serving lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and dinner from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. The restaurant will operate in a “fast casual model,” where customers will order at the register, and then sit anywhere they wish in the restaurant and have their food brought out.
Kim said the timetable is designed to provide employees a chance to seek work elsewhere before the restaurant closes.
Kim said it is possible that Spaghetti Warehouse will find another location in the region despite unsuccessful searching so far.
“For about a year, year and a half, when we heard about GPD taking over the building, we started looking around,” Kim said. “But we just could not find something we loved. But we are always open to listening.”
There are two other Spaghetti Warehouse locations in Ohio, in Toledo and Dayton.
Reporter April Helms can be reached at ahelms@thebeaconjournal.com
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron’s Spaghetti Warehouse bowing out, cites declining customer base
Reporting by April Helms, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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