Inside Pappou's Pizza Pub as customers say goodbye after nearly 50 years in Delaware County

The wings were frying, drinks were poured and nearly every seat was filled as customers packed Pappou's Pizza Pub in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, for one final goodbye on Sunday.

The longtime Morton pub, known for its wings and inside-out pizzas, its family atmosphere and generations of regulars, served its final customers Sunday after nearly five decades in business. Monday marked the first day its doors were closed for good.

For Lisa Levasseur, whose family owns Pappou's, the final day meant saying goodbye to people who had become much more than customers.

"They know every inch of my life," Levasseur said. "And I know every inch of theirs."

Levasseur started working at the family business at age 12, and her own kids have grown up in the space.

"Every customer has remembered my daughter climbing on the stools and making a fuss," Levasseur said. "She was the funniest little kid here. She used to go and have meals with them."

Levasseur said Pappou's is also where many love stories began. She met her husband there when she was behind the bar, and he was a customer.

"He was 21!" Levasseur said.

Regular Victoria Cook also met her husband there, in the early 2010's. He was a bartender at the time.

"He thought I was pretty, he liked my laugh, he said some really nice things, and it's been love ever since," Cook said.

But Cook said it's not just the love of her husband she gained from Pappou's.

"I met some of the greatest people here — they were all at my wedding," she said. "It's such a family vibe."

The heart of the business has always been family. Levasseur's father opened Pappou's in 1979. It takes its name from the Greek word for "grandfather." 

Levasseur said her father, Alfred Giomboni, always wanted to own a restaurant. Her grandfather, George Kirfides, was a former barber. Kirfides encouraged Giomboni to start a business of his own.

"We named it after him," she said.

Eventually, Levasseur took over the business, along with her brother, Victor Giomboni. Now, 47 years later, Levasseur is grieving the family dream coming to an end.

"We never made it back from COVID," Levasseur said.

Levasseur said the family spent years trying to keep the restaurant going as business and the surrounding community changed.

"We tried our hardest. It's just things change. Community changes," she said.

Pappou's is not alone in continuing to feel financial pressure years after the height of the pandemic.

The 2026 Small Business Credit Survey from Fed Small Business — an organization that analyzes Federal Reserve Data — found that small business performance has improved significantly from pandemic-era lows but still has not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels.

"Times are changing," Levasseur said. "[Customers] don't come to local establishments the way they used to."

Restaurants are also operating in a considerably more expensive environment. The National Restaurant Association reported in July the average restaurant's total operating expenses have risen 36% since 2019, as businesses contend with higher costs for food, labor, utilities, occupancy and other expenses.

For the people who worked at Pappou's, the effects were personal.

Andre McPherson has spent 25 years frying the wings that became one of the restaurant's signatures.

"Ever since COVID, it killed the business," McPherson said.

The job also provided him with stability for a quarter-century.

"It helped pay my mortgage," he said.

Looking around at the crowd that turned out for the restaurant's final day, McPherson couldn't help but wish it had come sooner.

"I see the crowd out here and I wish they was coming here like this for the last three months," he said. "We'd still be open."

Levasseur said this week is going to be tough, but as she looked back on what her family built, she was trying to focus on the fact that she was able to give her customers notice so they could all bid farewell Sunday.

"We were able to say goodbye to everybody, instead of shutting the door and putting a sign up," she said. "It was so much better that we were able to say goodbye."