News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Cookeville’s Gondola’s Pizza House has closed after being in business since 1968.
Lambros and Helen Lainos have operated the Italian restaurant for the past five years. Helen Lainos said COVID did play a role, but the deciding factor was changes to the Jefferson Avenue location.
“There is a road being widened. We are going to lose six parking spaces,” Lainos said. “We have an old building. We own the business. We don’t own the building. The owners of the building, the original owner passed away. His children wanted to double our rent. Cost prohibited for what we are trying to do.”
The T-DOT widening project is estimated to take about 2 years to complete and stretches from Walmart to Bunker Hill Road. Lainos said support for the business was there but going take out only during the COVID shut down was also a financial hit.
“Our takeout increased,” Lainos said. “We made pay roll. We made our money but not what we make when we have the doors open, and people come in.”
Lainos said she thanks patrons for the support over the years, but at this time, there are no plans to reopen at a new location.
“We have four generations that come into that shop,” Lainos said. “It was a very hard decision. It was a very soul seeking decision. We spent a lot of time over the table having coffee in the morning trying to decide what to do, when to do, how to do. So, this was not an easy decision to make. We will miss all of our friends and our customers.”
Lainos said the Livingston location also closed last year due to finances during the pandemic.
“Our Livingston customers would visit Livingston. Our Cookeville customers would visit Cookeville,” Lainos said. “So we were basically doing twice the work for the same amount of money. COVID played a big part in that one, as well.”
