Tomaso's in Norton changing hands after a half century of serving up Italian food
For decades, Tomaso's Italian Villa founder Betty Thomas ran a tight ship at the Norton restaurant.
It was an establishment where her children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren worked — a place where family gathered and some of life's biggest events occurred.
It was where she took what she learned as a teen working at Angie's Italian Restaurant, started by her parents, and built a thriving business just down the road.
"For 69 years, I've been doing this," she said Wednesday.
On Sunday, the Thomas family matriarch will bid arrivederci to the restaurant built in 1973 that became an instant hot spot in southern Summit County. A local business owner purchased the restaurant and intends to keep the name and menu for now, Thomas said.
Thomas and a large family contingent gathered Wednesday to talk about Tomaso's, its faithful customers and the belly dancing incident of 1989.
'Fast and furious'
From the beginning, the restaurant Thomas and her husband built was a popular establishment.
"It started fast and furious," said Kym Thomas-Rohrbach, one of Thomas' three children.
All three worked at the restaurant at one time or another, followed by their children.Even great-grandson Vinny Zimmerman, 9, helped out. He liked it so much, he said he'd run the restaurant if his great-grandma gave it to him.
Lately, the restaurant has scaled back its hours — adjusting to changing customer habits since the COVID-19 pandemic.
But it was different back in the '70s.
"We used to be open, when we first built, to midnight," Thomas said.
On weekends, it would stay open until 1 a.m.
Back then, a spaghetti with meat sauce cost $1.75 and a large pepperoni pizza $2.15. The house special of homemade lasagna would break the bank at $2.50.
It was a different era, when Italian food was gaining in popularity and pizza was the next big thing, on its way to becoming a staple of the American diet. Other Italian food establishments began populating the area, including one that had some help from Thomas' father.
"My dad taught Tony Parasson how to make pizza," Thomas said.
Pizza, pasta and a family gathering place
Through the years, the restaurant became the place where the family gathered, sharing time with each other and with loyal customers.
"It's hard to differentiate between friends and customers any more," said Thomas' son, Greg Thomas.
"Every family function revolves around the restaurant," said Thomas' youngest daughter, Lezlie Thomas.
She remembers a particular call 20 years ago while she was working at the restaurant. She found out she was going to have twins.
"My mom (bought) a big apron that said, 'Tomaso's future pizza workers.' "
Betty Thomas was right. Mitch Oliver, now 19, and twin Jude both worked at the store. Mitch Oliver still does.
Elmo, a proposal and a live performance
For his part, Mitch Oliver remembers a childhood birthday when Elmo, the Sesame Street character, made an appearance at the restaurant.
Grandson Michael Rohrbach remembers a day in 5th grade when he and some classmates fired up the ovens to make pizzas for a cooking project.
Granddaughter Niki Zimmerman, a nurse practitioner for Akron Children's Hospital, was proposed to at the restaurant.
She accepted.
Zimmerman said staff at the hospital count on her to bring Tomaso's food to work.
"I'm the pizza girl," she said.
And, then, there's the belly dancing incident.
"On my 30th birthday, we had a packed dining room and a 300-pound belly dancer walked in," said Greg Thomas. "… (She) did her whole routine."
He also remembered how his sister Lezlie would sleep and watch television under the cash register when she was a child.
"On holidays, we would come down here and bake our Christmas cookies," Lezlie Thomas said.
Time for other things
It was time to sell, said Thomas. Time to make room for family outside the restaurant.
"It (the restaurant) totally runs your life," said Greg Thomas.
"We don't go out on the weekend, we don't go to movies," Betty Thomas said.
Still, she said, it was difficult to move on.
"I would still be working if I wasn't this old," she said.
Now she'll have time to go to Vinny's baseball games and Frankie's gymnastic matches, she said.
Her leadership of the family will continue, even if Tomaso's is in other hands, said Kym Thomas-Rohrbach.
"Our mom is the light of our lives," she said. "...She is inspirational."
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Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Tomaso's Italian Villa owner Betty Thomas sells Norton restaurant
