From the E-Mailbag #2: D'Agnese Restaurant/Pizza

At the very end of my series on the Deutschof (which ran back in May starting here), I asked if any readers wanted to share a reminisce or story about a Lorain business they had a personal connection to.

Kelli D'Agnese responded with a nice comment about her family's restaurant legacy in Lorain.

Kelli noted, "My grandfather was Peter D'Agnese Sr. of D'Agnese's Restaurant. My father and his brother were in their late teens at the time. He also had a popular sandwich shop on Root Road in the 70's. Growing up people would always comment about the subs there."

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D'Agnese Restaurant and Lounge was one of the businesses that was at the former Deutschof location at 651 Broadway.

D'Agnese's Pizza was located at 916 Root Road, which is still kind of unbelievable to me. If you drive past the location today, all you see are houses (which makes you wonder what kind of zoning was in place back then that allowed a business there). But I do remember getting subs there around 1978 or '79 – and they were really excellent. (They were the first hot subs I ever had, after growing up on cold cut subs from Meyer Goldberg's.)

Here's a vintage phone book ad for the D'Agnese Restaurant and Lounge.

And here's one for the pizza and sub business, circa 1977.

Thanks for sharing, Kelli! I'm sure many other Lorainites have fond memories of your family's restaurant and pizza & sub shop. Family businesses like yours were the heart of Lorain in its glory days.

I also believe that family businesses have to make a comeback for this city and country to ever bounce back.