Eastlake, Ohio News

Longtime patrons at Biagio's will feel right at home in new location
News-Herald, January 7, 2010 by Brandon C. Baker

Joe Cappadonna and family are relieved it's finally over.

The family that runs Biagio's Donut Shop & Pizzeria in Eastlake spent months preparing for their relocation by developing design plans and enlisting movers who brought a tow motor to transport everything from the shop's steel fryers and washers to the hundreds of pounds of flour they use every day.

Now, owner Joe, his father, Biagio, and the others are back to business as usual while settling in after the big move — it covered a whopping 100 feet.

"Yes, we only moved 100 feet across the parking lot, but we needed the parking space," said Joe, who operates the shop with the help of his mother, Mary, and sister, Laura Freiberg. "Our business has probably tripled since then."

The Cappadonnas and about 20 employees finally went the distance three weeks ago, following the conclusion of a six-month construction project that gives the crew about 1,600 more square feet to maintain machinery and make pizza and famous treats like their Polish paczki. Traveling such a short distance to open anew might sound odd, but it's actually something Joe wanted to do for years. That's because the space had never amounted to more than a lot for Handy Rents rental trucks, and the widening of Vine Street a few years ago chopped off much of Biagio's parking space for customers.

Joe said the nearly 50-year-old business also will add on a drive-through window in the spring and construct more visible signage.

Besides those advantages, though, the new Biagio's location likely will serve as a reminder of its long-standing prior home.

"You wanna know what's weird? We have the same exact setup in here," Joe said. "The paneling is identical to the paneling over there. We have the same tables, same everything. We wanted to make it familiar."

The flooring and counter tops are new, however.

Either way, excitement is rampant for the new location, perhaps even more than the family expected, given the proximity. Eastlake Mayor Ted Andrzejewski plans to stop by today as part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and members of the Western Lake County Chamber of Commerce are invited for coffee and doughnuts.

"I like doing what I do, but stuff like that just makes it all the better," Joe said.

The younger Cappadonna said the family's dedication and desire is a reason patrons keep coming back. Visitors like Joan Burke of Eastlake rhetorically asked what other doughnuts actually exist in the area, while Richard Vesey, a Willoughby resident who has been going to the shop since the early '70s, said familiar faces would have followed Biagio's across the parking lot, across town or anywhere else.

"You see the same people in here every day, so you know something's right," Vesey said.

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