This weekend, a locally-owned Italian restaurant served its last trays of pizza and bowls of pasta.
After roughly seven years in business, Toni’s Italian Restaurant has closed its doors in Olathe, with the owners citing impending construction along the I-35 and Santa Fe corridor as the reason.
The restaurant’s last day was Sunday
- Toni’s occupied a space at 1808 E. Santa Fe St., just across the street from the Town Square Shopping Center.
- Owners Toni Curri and Mario Maloku opened the restaurant in 2018.
- The restaurant is known for popular Italian dishes like chicken piccata, eggplant parmigiana, spaghetti carbonara and shrimp pomodoro.
What’s going on at I-35 and Santa Fe?
- Via social media, the owners said the closure is “entirely” due to the planned overhaul project at the nearby Santa Fe Street and Interstate 35 corridor.
- The roughly $200 million project aims to improve safety and flow of traffic at the juncture with a new interchange, new auxiliary lanes and other improvements.
- Other businesses in the area have been impacted, too, a result, they say, of the impending work. The Double Nickel Bar & Grill closed on Valentine’s Day weekend, and local bike shop Bikes For the Likes of Us moved to a space downtown.
- “Saying goodbye to our Olathe location has been incredibly difficult, not just for our guests but for us as well,” Toni’s owners said via a Facebook post. “These last few days have been bittersweet, and it’s hard to walk away from a place filled with so many memories.”
Toni’s still has one more location in Johnson County
- Though the Italian eatery is leaving Olathe, it still has a second location further north in Shawnee.
- That location opened its doors in December 2024.
- Previously, that space at 22716 Midland Dr. was occupied by breakfast eatery Flapjacks ‘n more, which was open for roughly a year before it closed in October 2024.
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