2 days ago
Iconic Italian restaurant shutters after 45 years, leaving regulars heartbroken
An iconic Michigan restaurant has closed after 45 years, leaving locals heartbroken.
Moro's Dining, a beloved Italian institution in Allen Park, shut its doors for the final time earlier this month.
The restaurant drew diners from all over the Detroit district hungry for its shrimp scampi and veal, Minestrone soup and flambéed desserts.
'We are closed but would like to thank you for all your prayers and well wishes,' disappointed customers were told via the restaurant's answering machine.
'Chef Thomas Moro is doing fine,' the voicemail added reassuringly.
Thomas Moro, owner and chef at Moro's Dining, put the restaurant up for sale back in 2022.
'I am over 70 years old,' Moro told the Detroit Free Press at the time.
'It's about time to throw the towel in.'
One regular wrote on Facebook that she confirmed the restaurant was permanently shut after seeing a 'closed' sign on its front door.
'So sad to see Moro's in Allen Park has closed down,' she wrote. 'The owner retired. Someone buy this place!!!' Ginger Miles Lickorai wrote.
'Moro's has been our "family night out" restaurant for decades now,' another longstanding customer wrote in tribute on Reddit.
'When I was little they had a singing waiter and the table side flaming desserts delighted everyone I ever took there,' the customer recalled.
'We hate to see it go, but I hope the Moros enjoy their retirement, and that their dedicated and hard working staff all find somewhere to land.'
Moro began his cooking career washing dishes at Mario's in Detroit's Midtown back in the 1960s.
He soon worked his way up into the kitchen, working first as a line chef doing prep work and butchering.
In the 1970s he joined the Navy as a chef and conducted two tours of Italy where he learned authentic Italian cooking.
The Allen Park institution drew diners from all over the Detroit district
The restaurant was famous for its flambéed desserts
After returning from the Navy, he worked at a variety of top Michigan restaurants and set up his own catering company.
Finally in 1980, Moro had saved enough money to open his own restaurant in Allen Park.
It comes as another iconic family restaurant also closed its doors earlier this month.
Oscar's Taco House shut up shop after 63 years of serving authentic Mexican cuisine in San Antonio, Texas.
Earlier this year another institution, MacLeod's Restaurant in Bucksport, Maine also closed, ending a 45-year run.
Family-run restaurants and larger chains have been closing in their droves in the last several years as they face a rising cost of doing business.
Several big-name restaurants — including Hooters, Red Lobster, and TGI Fridays — have all shuttered hundreds of restaurants and declared bankruptcy.
Food prices have skyrocketed, leaving the companies with higher costs to run their locations.
Meanwhile, middle-class shoppers, the core audience for the chains, have cut back on discretionary spending as they pay higher prices at the grocery store.
Combining lower revenues with higher costs to stay alive has given several brands a poison pill.
Meanwhile, other restaurant staples, like Denny's, Outback Steakhouse, and Cracker Barrel have all reported shrinking sales and cut back their year-long forecasts.
