Following months of frustration with repairs needed to the building they’re in, the owners of Pizza Aroma in Downtown Ithaca says they’ll be closing their corner eatery on August 20th after 25 years at that spot, and “hope to open at our new location around early-mid October.”

The iconic family-owned downtown eatery at the corner of South Cayuga and West Green Streets has signature offerings like a Mediterranean pizza or roasted eggplant pizza, with vegan soy cheese available, plus wings and calzones, and Salvadoran specialties that really set them apart from Ithaca’s other pizzerias.

“Luckily, we do have our next location finalized,” says owner Mauricio Rosa. Last fall, the family learned that structural problems with the building would have to be fixed for it to continue to be occupied by apartment residents and the ground-floor pizzeria. “We were told the work would only be on the building exterior and that it wouldn’t affect our business,” Rosa says.

Rosa created a GoFundMe in March when he says, “After waiting six months for the construction to start and remodeling the inside ourselves, we were recently told that we have less than three months to vacate the property.” Rosa told 14850 Magazine this spring that the landlord told the family contractors “will need to knock down the Green Street wall in order to make the necessary repairs to the building,” and that “she said she was being pressured by the City to make these repairs.”

According to Rosa, the pizzeria is the last remaining tenant of the building, whose apartment residents have all left. The fundraiser quickly hit a goal to help with the “unprecedented financial burden on our business” the process of building out a new location, moving, and not operating for weeks or months would impose.

The brick building that houses Pizza Aroma and several apartments in Downtown Ithaca. 14850 Photo by Mark H. Anbinder.

“It hasn’t been easy for us to find the time to plan, fund and execute all the decisions that had to be made. We have decided to raise our GoFundMe to help with the continuing rise of costs and time closed for necessary build-out.” As of Tuesday morning, the fundraiser is just shy of $29,000 raised of a new $50,000 goal, with 589 donations from the community.

• Donate to the Pizza Aroma GoFundMe

The Rosa family encourages fans to “stop by for a last visit on our beloved corner, say hello and get yourself a hot pizza” before the business closes at its original location on August 20th.

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