The. Matchcover Storyteller

It’s only about a 20-25 minute drive from our convention headquarters in Richfield to Papa Joe’s just north of Akron, but at one of our mealtimes, you could go celebrate this matchcover and 94 years of Akron Italian restaurant tradition.   (Yeah, it’s a reach, but bear with me….)

August and Aletta Iacomini opened a tiny restaurant called “The Florentine Grill”  in their living room in 1932 but soon changed the name to “Iacomini’s”.   August also had 3 sons, all of whom wound up working in the family business as it grew; great-grandsons remain involved to this day..

Then son Joseph branched out with his own son Gene to open L’il Joe’s Pub in Bath Township with another spot in Hudson Township in ’73.  Papa Joe’s opened in 1986; the original Iacomini’s had closed in 1985