LaRosa's History
REAL ITALIAN FLAVOR. REAL FAMILY RECIPES.
For 70 years, LaRosa's has served up real Italian family recipes to our communities and Guests. Today we continue to be your #1 family pizzeria and Greater Cincinnati's favorite Italian restaurant. We know our reputation is only as good as the food we serve, so it's great that thousands of Guests agree that our food simply can't be beat.
You and your family can enjoy our famous family recipe pizzas and other Italian favorites for dine-in, delivery, or carry out. With over 40 menu selections in all, you get just the right amount of variety to make sure everyone enjoys the Italian food favorites they love.
LaRosa's truly is YOUR neighborhood family pizzeria. Here, we have a history to please and prepare the pizza and other Italian favorites that people like you have enjoyed for generations. Of course you can also choose other LaRosa's favorites like calzones, hoagys, pasta, desserts, and more. Here, you always have a choice!
SERVING UP SMILES SINCE 1954.
In 1954 Buddy LaRosa opened his first family pizzeria on Cincinnati's West Side. His Sicilian-born father told him he was crazy. "You gonna sell pizza? ‘Med-i-gans' never gonna buy pizza from you," he said. Who could argue with him? After all, back then many Americans hadn't even heard of pizza.
As sons will do, Buddy went ahead with his plan anyway. So began the story of LaRosa's Family Pizzerias. And it's a bona fide, star spangled Great American Success Story!
The Start of Something Great
Inspiration sometimes comes from the least likely situations. For Buddy, it was the annual summer festival at his family's San Antonio Italian Catholic Church. As a fundraiser, he made some pizzas using his Aunt Dena's recipe to sell at the festival. They were a huge hit.
This success gave him an idea. He scraped together $400 and, with a couple of partners and his Aunt Dena's pizza recipe, opened "Papa Gino's"- his first family pizzeria. It gained a fast following among high school kids and families from the growing western Cincinnati suburbs, who made the place a favorite hang-out. Within the first few years, Buddy's partners left the business and he renamed it LaRosa's.
SPREADING THE LOVE FOR LAROSA’S
In the following decades, Buddy grew LaRosa's by franchising restaurants to people he knew and trusted. His first franchise owner, Ed Eilers, knew LaRosa's because he supplied the company's hoagy buns. Eilers noticed how often he was making deliveries, and recognized a good thing when he saw it. In time, LaRosa's Pizzerias grew to serve dozens of neighborhoods throughout Cincinnati, Dayton, Northern Kentucky, and Southeast Indiana.
Entrepreneurial Spirit Drives Innovation
The same entrepreneurial spirit that drove Buddy continued to drive LaRosa's successes. In the early 1980s, LaRosa's began home and business delivery service. Other pizza competitors did too. But unlike them, LaRosa's delivered virtually everything on its menu...which we still do today with over 40 menu items.
Already a great place for a dine-in meal, in 1991 we launched our "One Number" to make ordering your lunch or dinner hassle-free. Today, customers anywhere in our service area can call 513-347-1111 or 888-LAROSAS (toll free). All calls go to our Guest Service Center... not a busy, noisy kitchen. So customer service representatives can focus on taking your order quickly and correctly.
Starting in 2003, Guests anywhere in LaRosa's service area could order online for carry out and delivery at www.larosas.com. It's a great way to see the entire LaRosa's menu and create your order at your own pace.
At the end of 2013, we launched our Mobile ordering platform so our Guests could have the ability to order from any mobile device, anywhere in our service area. And, in early 2014 we introduced our Mobile Ordering App for Apple and Android devices. We continue to improve our Mobile Ordering App experience based on feedback from our Guests.
DAD WAS WRONG!
70 years after serving its first Guest, LaRosa's is the number one pizza in Cincinnati and has begun to expand its reputation regionally. “Dad’s not around anymore,” Buddy says. “But if he was, I’d tell him ‘Dad, look at us now!’”