Bruno's Pizza to reopen in West Lafayette, keeping family legacy alive with new generation

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — After Bruno's Pizza announced its closure in mid February , the West Lafayette institution announced Friday that it is planning a new location not too far from Purdue University's campus.

Sisters Angela McDonald, Krista Rodriguez and Holly Beattie announced Friday they would reopen their family's restaurant next to Brokerage Brewing Company on Covington Street in West Lafayette. Their father, Bruno Itin, said his daughters had been instrumental in running the family business over the past 10 to 15 years and is happy to see the restaurant live on through them.

"I am very excited for myself, too, to get back to doing what I love," Itin said. "Which is having fun making pizza again."

McDonald said she and her sisters are proud to carry on the legacy their grandfather, Bruno Itin Sr., started in 1955.

The new space, formerly housing Craft Eats by Brokerage Brewing Company, will have the capacity to seat about 55 guests, the sisters said, fitting the size and atmosphere the family had been looking for in their big move.

"It was the right location size and fit, and it's accessible to our customers," Rodriguez said. "We are super excited to be neighbors with Brokerage Brewing Company."

McDonald said that they are still working to decide how the restaurant will look; it won't be quite the same without the Big O's Sports Room , featuring a vast collection of Purdue sports memorabilia collected by their uncle, Orlando Itin.

"Big O's Sports Room was so much Orlando, which he will always be a big part of Bruno's, and he will definitely be present in the restaurant and be involved in a lot of ways," McDonald said. "We are still working through what the décor will look like. Over the years when we cleaned out the first Bruno's location, there were so many things we found up in the attic that we held onto, like cool light fixtures and different things, that we have more to work with than we know we'll have space for."

The family does not have a date set yet for reopening, but they are aiming to have doors open with pizzas going out by the first Purdue home football game.

"We are ready to get our hands back in the dough," Beattie said.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Bruno's Pizza to reopen in West Lafayette, keeping family legacy alive with new generation