EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was originally published on Richland Source in 2015.
Had you gone to this address on Lexington Avenue 60-plus years ago you would have found a hardware store. It was a franchise called Gambles, and sometimes went by the name Dillon’s because he was the owner.
Though the hardware store didn’t last long, the building entered immortality in 1957 when it became the first pizza joint between Cleveland and Columbus. As the founder, Joe Hess, was quick to notice:
All my cronies
Want pepperoni’s.
