Bruno’s, a West Lafayette and Purdue landmark, closing this week

After 70 years, Bruno’s Pizza will make way for work on a $250 million redevelopment project. Yearlong search doesn’t find a new home for a Purdue favorite. Last day is Wednesday

The fact that Bruno’s Pizza, a family-owned West Lafayette mainstay and Purdue landmark, would be out of its Brown Street location by this spring wasn’t a secret.

Plans for a $250 million redevelopment near the corner of North River Road and State Street were announced in early 2023, promising to swallow a handful of businesses in the process.

What turned into a poorly-kept secret this week was that time was about to run out on Bruno’s before the Itin family could find a new place in West Lafayette to relocate. Word that the last shift for Bruno’s, as the Purdue community knew it, was coming soon spread quickly around town this week, as fans piled in to get one last pizza.

Orlando Itin, one of three siblings who ran the restaurant their father started in 1955, said the plan had been to close in early February to give time to clear kitchen and dining equipment and sell the extensive collection of Purdue memorabilia that fills the dining room floor and walls of Big O’s Sports Room.

“We thought we might be able to go quietly,” Orlando Itin said Tuesday night. “Guess not. … Early February was even earlier than we thought.”

On Monday and Tuesday, pizzas – rationed to get Bruno’s deeper into the final week with enough dough – sold out in just over an hour.

The family decided the last call for Bruno’s Pizza and Big O’s Sports Room would be when doors open, for carry-out only, at 4 p.m. Wednesday at 212 Brown St.

“It’s so bittersweet,” Orlando Itin said. “We’re trying to keep people happy up until the end. But we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. … End of an era, everyone’s been telling us.”