THAT’S BUSINESS

Death of restaurant ends LR institution

— First, there was a Facebook plea on Sept. 28: “Villa fans - We are asking for continued community support. We have been around for more than 50 years now and aren’t ready to quit. ... We know the economy is bad right now, but we aren’t ready to throw the towel in yet.”

Evidently, that didn’t work.

On Wednesday, there was no plea, just this Facebook post: “The Villa is incredibly sad to announce we will be closing our doors after tomorrow.”

That had an effect.

“The floodgates opened,”Jeffrey Edwards, 52, a waiter at the restaurant for 12 years, said of the tide of customers Wednesday night.

Owner Ken Shivey has a passion for his work, his restaurant of 34 years. “I love doing this. I love the work I do,” he said.

Sitting at a table in the corner of The Villa Italian Restaurant in the Rock Creek Square Plaza in west Little Rock, Shivey said 2012 has been a killer.

Receipts indeed have fallen off a cliff. Through the first eight months of 2011, they totaled $1,187,897. This year, they totaled $490,488 through August, according to the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau, which collects a 2 percent tourism tax. Shivey is current on his payments to the bureau.

Why the nosedive? Shivey blames the chains and the economy.

Steve Thrower, of U.S. Foods in North Little Rock, on hand to lend support and bend his elbow a few times, said, “He needs help. I’ve been selling to him 20 years.”

Alan Saughey, 46, says he and his family have patronized the restaurant since it was on University Avenue years ago.

“I’m going to be burning up the phone to tell some folks about this,” Saughey said Wednesday, clutching a to-go bag and with tears starting to well up.

He was far from alone.

Thursday’s turnout dwarfed Wednesday’s as word had gotten out through news media reports, but mostly through the restaurant’s devoted patrons.

It was a wake.

Manager Suzanne Ryan, a 20-year employee, said, “The phone did not stop” Thursday. “We closed between 2 and 4because we ran out of food.” Dine-in and to-go business at lunch was eight to 10 times normal, she said. The staff has voluntarily worked for two weeks without pay, said Ryan, 61.

Ryan was trained by Marty Enderlin, who bought the restaurant with Shivey from the Calabro family, who founded it about 1960 on Hayes Street, now University Avenue. Enderlin died in 2006.

Given his age, 69, Shivey says he doesn’t want to take on debt to keep his business open. Asked why he hasn’t tried to sell it, he declined to answer,saying only that Thursday was the last day and he was weighing other options.

Shivey moved to the area from Cleveland with his family when he was 15, and soon fell under the spell of Italian food, pizza to be specific.

GIs coming home from the European theater of World War II brought with them an appetite for the tomato-paste pies they enjoyed in Italy. Pizzerias spread from the big East Coast cities inland.

Eric Harrison, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette restaurant historian and critic, recounts that Vincenzo “Jimmy” Bruno opened Bruno’s Little Italy in North Little Rock in 1947, and that it was virtually a nonstop family operation at various locations until last October, when Jimmy’s son Vince closed it at 315 N. Bowman Road. That news, by the way, was broken on Facebook. (Bruno’s Italian Bistro now occupies the space, though there is no family connection.)

There was something of a “cash mob” feel about the crowd at The Villa on Wednesday evening. That’s a phenomenon that has arisen during the economic slowdown when people decide they’ll give a retailer a shot of support by simply showing up, cash or plastic in hand. No word on how successful they’ve been.

Really, it depends on how you define success.

A napkin note said: “All of our major milestones and celebrations have been here. Mostly, we want to thank you, the staff, for your always wonderful service and smiles. Thom and Melinda.” If you have a tip, call Jack Weatherly at (501) 378-3518 or e-mail him at

[email protected]

Business, Pages 67 on 10/07/2012

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