After nearly 60 years, Paul's on Fifth restaurant closing permanently

GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio (WCMH) -- The owner of a restaurant north of Grandview Heights that has weathered almost six decades in business has decided to close its doors.

Paul Panzera will be shutting down his diner, Paul's on Fifth Avenue, on Sunday, his oldest son Anthony told NBC4. Anthony explained his father made the decision for a "collective of reasons," including the changing restaurant industry after the pandemic as well as the demand of running one at 76 years old.

“It is impossible to put hard number on it, but when we estimate, we’ve served something like 7 million meals. As my father would’ve said: not too bad," Paul said. "Now on to the next adventure -- whatever that might be."

Paul's on Fifth grew through the 1980s with his recipes offering Italian wedding soup, lasagna, veal, chicken, and pasta dishes. Anthony noted that when his father launched Paul's on Fifth, there were only six other restaurants nearby. As that number grew, Paul adapted the restaurant's menu in more recent years to help ensure it still stood out.

Paul's on Fifth later traded its dinner menu for breakfast and lunch diner-styled food, including omelets, home fries and other unique recipes. Anthony explained that certain customers and workers' quirky creations became menu staples, like the "Dennis" sandwich. "Joe Fries" came to be after a cook consistently burned home fries, and "Callahans" were created by a woman who would order omelet fixings on fries.

The closure of Paul's restaurant marks the latest in his history as a chef and first-generation American. He has a term as president of the Columbus chapter of the American Culinary Association and an accreditation as a certified executive chef under his belt. Anthony also said his father was a mentor to many apprentice chefs over the years.

All of that came from humble beginnings. Paul was born in Italy and immigrated to the U.S. at age 7. While his mother worked at an Italian restaurant and his father in the Marble Cliff Quarry, Paul started work at a local Italian bakery. While in high school, he later turned the bakery site into his first restaurant in 1966. He ran Paul's Pantry restaurants in multiple parts of Columbus before being drafted into the Vietnam War.

Upon returning, he eventually launched Paul's at Fifth Avenue in 1979 at its 1565 W. Fifth Ave. location. It grew in popularity through the 1980s and 1990s, and Anthony said that also gave rise to Paul's Catering service, which lasted until 2005. In 2024, it was the last restaurant left under Paul's management.

The Panzera family will still have a name in the restaurant industry, albeit under a different owner. Anthony confirmed that a sibling of Paul's, whose last name changed with marriage, started Panzera's Pizza close by. In fact, he noted the pizzeria predates Paul's on Fifth by four years. Franklin County Auditor records showed Fred Lombardi owned the pizzeria property from 1992 to 2007 when Carlo Lombardi bought it for $300,000.

Auditor records also show the change of hands that Paul's on Fifth went through in the last four decades. Charles Calvert owned the property until his son Charles Jr. acquired it in June 2004, but Paul bought the restaurant outright from him the next month for $475,000. In 2021, an LLC called 1565 West Fifth Ave. took ownership of the property at no cost, and still held it as of Tuesday.

Anthony grew up in Grandview Heights and worked in Paul's for decades, but more recently moved into his own business format of real estate. But he always had one leg in Paul's, in what he called his "volunteer shifts."

The son said Paul's has seen an influx of customers hoping to get one last bite in at the diner before it closes. While he said many of Paul's regulars expressed sadness at the closing announcement, he viewed this positively, in a way.

"It's only sad because it was great," Anthony said. "When you've done something that right for so long, is it sad? People are really expressing their emotions this way."