After 12 years, Aurelio’s Pizza in Naperville’s Springbrook Square is closing at the end of this month. Owner Celeste Wagner and her husband, Steve, announced the decision in a joint message . They cited financial difficulties following the COVID-19 pandemic as the deciding factor.
“The current business climate has been very rough and volatile for the restaurant industry,” their statement read. “The post pandemic inflation has brought unforeseen hurdles that eventually were too much for our business to bear and it has become impossible for us to keep Aurelio’s going.” In 2019, Celeste Wagner, owner of Aurelio’s Pizza in Naperville, left, and her cousin, Aurelio’s CEO Joe Aurelio, right, congratulated Alvin “Chip” Wagner for winning 60 months of free pizza to celebrate the restaurant chain’s founding in 1959.
(Suzanne Baker/Naperville Sun) The couple went on to say that it “has been a very difficult and emotional decision.” Speaking by phone Tuesday, Celeste Wagner said there’s been an outpouring of support from the community since the post went up. “My phone kind of blew up when we first announced it,” she said.
The restaurant’s official last day will be June 30. Online, their closure announcement was met with dozens of comments from people saying thank you, offering well wishes and expressing gratitude for all the years that Aurelio’s operated in Naperville. Wagner, a longtime Naperville resident, opened her local franchise at 1975 Sprin.
