Antonio?s Closes After 25 Years in Johnson

Antonio’s Italian Restaurant in Johnson closed on New Year’s Day after serving free meals to everyone who showed up that day.

“It kept me from having to feed it to the dog,” says Paula Bongo, who, along with her husband, Anthony Bongo, opened the restaurant Aug. 1, 1974.

“I was feeding them, but when they got the bill, they didn’t have a bill,” she says of the New Year’s Day feast.

Paula Bongo was cleaning out the refrigerator because that was to be her last day in business. Antonio’s had been a landmark in Johnson for a quarter of a century.

Located in a house in a residential area (at 6003 Ball St.), eating at Antonio’s was more like dining in the home of an Italian family than in a restaurant.

Paula Bongo says Antonio’s hasn’t turned a profit since 1990, the year before Anthony Bongo died.

“It’s always been a tough way to make a living,” she says.

Bongo says she kept the restaurant open because it was a family tradition. Since closing the restaurant, she has been working as a telemarketer.

Bongo says she thought closing the restaurant would upset her, “but, actually, I felt relieved.”

Bongo says she’ll keep some equipment from the restaurant and sell the rest. Without a restaurant, Bongo says, she has no use for a $3,000 ice machine.