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In this 2007 file photo, elementary students attend Bella's Kids' Cooking Camp at Bella's Italian Grille in Celina.
CELINA - After 26 years, over 220,000 gallons of marinara and countless heaps of lasagna and pasta, Bella's Italian Grille will call it a day as a restaurant on Nov. 30.
However, owners Julie and Tony Fleck will operate the restaurant as an event space and continue on with their catering service through a partnership with Bruns Construction Enterprise (BCE).
All previous bookings for December and events slated for 2025 will be honored.
"It has been an incredible honor and privilege to serve this community for 26 years," the couple said in a joint statement. "We want to thank each and every guest, family member, employee, vendor and supporter who have been a part of our journey. Our restaurant was built on love, passion and a commitment to quality, and we couldn't be prouder of what we've accomplished together!"
Their decision to partner with BCE and close the restaurant was made based on combination of factors, including difficulty in maintaining a full staff and a desire to spend more time with family.
They look forward, though, to keeping alive Bella's legacy via the catering business that bears the restaurant's name. They will continue to cater all functions such as weddings, corporate events, family gatherings and holiday parties.
"In the next couple of weeks we're going to post on our Facebook and our website what the new catering menus will look like. They're going to have a lot of the same items that are on our catering menu now," Julie Fleck said.
The menu of the catering service, along with that of the forthcoming event space that will rent out rooms for various occasions, will be pared down as it would be impossible to keep over 70 items in inventory.
"So we're going to scale that back but (we'll) have a good enough variety that if people want perhaps Italian or they want American or any other nationality of food, we can cook anything," she said. "We've been Italian American for 26 years, so it will be exciting to try some different recipes."
Julie and Tony Fleck each grew up around the food business. Her grandparents owned Cole's IGA in Celina and his family at one time owned 7th Street Carry Out in Coldwater that served pizza and other items.
"My grandparents owned an IGA store, and I (took on) all facets whether it was wrapping meat, doing produce, so I kind of grew up in a food businesses," Julie Fleck said. "But my first job was at the Willow and the Orchard Tree and of course we worked with friends, had a good time, so it was a wonderful experience."
But the couple didn't necessarily have a dream of owning a restaurant.
"If people say, 'Well, how did you get into this business?' I say, 'Insanity.' I had a moment of insanity that, 'Oh, that would be fun.'"
When the Club Cafe in downtown Celina went up for sale, the couple purchased it in 1998 and operated the business under the same name for six months before settling on Bella's Italian Grille. Bella means "beautiful" in Italian.
"Honestly, because I have a marketing degree, and there's no other Italian restaurant," she said of the impetus to start a traditional Italian restaurant. "It's something that no one else had."
The restaurant was an instant hit.
"It was a transition back then because all of the guys that would come to the Club Cafe every morning would sit and stay and drink coffee," Julie Fleck said. "We decided to just do lunch and dinner instead of breakfast."
The restaurant offered two specials, one Italian and one American, just like it does today.
"We're in an agricultural community," she said. "People want their pork chops, their stakes, and some people in the family want pasta or they want something similar. We tried to cater to the biggest (base) we could."
The Flecks outgrew the confines of their downtown location after three years. After coming in one afternoon and learning of the couple's dilemma, Jim Welch later that evening told them he was willing to sell Welch's Restaurant at 1081 West Bank Road.
They struck a deal and filed the papers the next day for the business that in the 1950s was known as Midway Resort on Grand Lake.
"We did it in three days," Julie Fleck said about turning Welch's into the new Bella's Italian Grille. "We had an army of people. My father-in-law got a team of people to paint the outside in three days."
The walls were painted inside, and a crew cleaned out the kitchen and got everything ready to go. Soon, throngs of people wanted to check out the new restaurant that opened in April 2002.
"We were making marinara at midnight," she recalled. "I'm not talking like a gallon, I'm talking about 50 gallons to get us through a day. It was just insane. The first month was a constant wait of people wanting to get in. I probably gave away $1,000 in gift certificates in the first week alone just to say, 'I'm sorry it took so long.'"
The restaurant would experience a series of ups and downs over the ensuing years.
"It was so much fun when we moved out here because we had literally tripled in size, not only in size of our building but also in staff," she said. "The first couple of years obviously we hit a lot of milestones. We hit some sales milestones, we hit number of guests, and that's when we started our catering."
The Flecks updated the menu every two-and-a-half years but a core group of items remained consistent throughout the restaurant's run.
"Lasagna's been our No. 1 seller for 26 years, with chicken Alfredo immediately behind it," she said.
Coming in after those items is citrus chicken and shrimp scampi Alfredo.
The restaurant has its fair share of regulars who dine weekly as well as those who conduct business over a meal or seek sustenance after a day out on the lake.
"It's going to be difficult not to see some of those people on that regular basis, but it is a life change and it's a change that my husband and I have chosen to make," she said. "Once COVID hit, things changed immensely. I contend we have the best staff of any restaurant in the area. They are loyal, dedicated, committed, but getting staff has been a challenge."
Yet Bella's is regarded as more than just an eatery. It's a gathering spot for friends and families, a venue for special occasions and a key part of the local community, the Flecks said.
"We've had 50-plus people get engaged here, and we love participating in that," Julie Fleck said. "We've done some crazy things like hiding rings in pieces of cake or dropping them in glasses of champagne. Especially our table with the round window - that is a crowd favorite for anniversaries because people will say, 'This is where we got engaged.'"
The restaurant has also provided first-time jobs for many locals and served as an entryway into the restaurant business for others.
"Over 700 people have worked for us in 26 years," she said. "We have some people that come and go pretty quickly, but some of my managers have been here 18, 21 years. Our bookkeeper has been here pretty much since the beginning."
But there have been difficult times to weather through as well, such as when the state ordered the lake closed to all activity in 2010 because of algal blooms and the COVID pandemic that broke out in 2020.
"COVID was quite possibly the worst six months of my life and the lives of my staff because within 24 hours we had to lay everyone off but five people," Julie Fleck said.
The restaurant offered carryout and delivery services throughout the state-mandated shutdown before reopening its patio and dinning room in mid-May 2020. It was deemed an essential service, one that the community appreciated and reciprocated in spades.
"And that year was one of our better sales years, from May through the rest of the year, because everyone wanted out," she said. "This community supported restaurants. We had people saying … 'Here's a thousand dollars. I want gift cards. Let's help get you through this period - and they did."
As Bella's prepares to close its doors at the end of the month, the Flecks and their staff encourage guests to come by at least one more time to enjoy their favorite dishes and share memories.
"Though this is a difficult decision, it's time for a new chapter, and we're forever grateful for the memories we've created," the couple said.
