SERVIN' UP HISTORY

It was 35 years ago when Vince Rinehart, then a junior journalism major, first set foot in Ledo Restaurant in Adelphi with a group of fellow students.

He still remembers being taken by the restaurant's simple and homey atmosphere, where several other university students and many older customers were also dining that evening. He remembers how quickly that large rectangular pizza topped with provolone cheese disappeared after it arrived at their table. He remembers how his friends raved about the pizza's crust in particular, comparing it to that of a pie or tart.

Although Rinehart ate in the restaurant only a few more times during his college career, he said he and his friends would bring carryout Ledo's pepperoni and mushroom pizzas back to their dorms at least once a week. He chuckled as he recalled being chased by a student eager to snatch some of his pizza as he was carrying it to his room.

"It was a real treat," he said, describing it in an e-mail as "heaven compared to the dining hall."

These days, however — with a plethora of dining options lining Route 1 — not many students make the trip out to Adelphi for pizza anymore. This reality has led Ledo's owners to bring one chapter of the restaurant's long and celebrated legacy to a close, and prepare to usher in the beginning of a new chapter by bringing their famous pizza closer than ever to a new generation of Terps in downtown College Park.

Sunday, the landmark pizzeria, which had remained virtually unchanged since it opened in 1955, shut its doors in the Adelphi Shopping Center off University Boulevard. Restaurant owners plan to unveil Ledo at its new home in the ground floor of the Knox Road public parking garage the week of Aug. 9, where it will finally stand within walking distance of the university.

"This is about securing our future for another 50 years," Ledo's co-owner Jimmy Marcos told The Washington Post in September.

Ever since the College Park City Council approved the restaurant's lease last September, city officials have expressed excitement over Ledo's anticipated arrival in downtown College Park, and their enthusiasm has continued as the planned opening date approaches.

"People will come from all over, and the generations of people who've eaten at the original location in Adelphi will come, and it will be an incredible success," District 3 Councilman Mark Cook said.

Despite a sense of nostalgia for the original establishment, Rinehart said he considers the decision to move the restaurant closer to the university to be a smart business venture.

"Every business has to adapt to changing times to serve its customers," he said.

As a student in the mid-'70s, Rinehart witnessed the glory days of Ledo Restaurant. The restaurant opened 55 years ago under Tommy Marcos Sr., who has since passed ownership onto his sons Tommy Jr. and Jimmy.

As Tommy Marcos Jr. told The Diamondback in 2006, Terrapin basketball fans were notorious for spending two hours in line for the restaurant's trademark rectangular pizza throughout the 1970s. The distinctive pies were not only popular among the hungry student population, but also made regular patrons out of sports legends such as Yogi Berra and Johnny Unitas, Marcos said.

In fact, 1976 university alumna Gayle King would remember her days at Ledo 30 years later and feature the restaurant as one of the best pizzerias in the United States on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2006.

Today, however, not many students seem to even know about Ledo Restaurant. And for those who did know, the Adelphi pizzeria was simply too far away.

However, Ledo's move downtown may very well change all that. Several students — particularly fans of the Ledo franchises, which are no longer affiliated with the original restaurant but share its recipes — have already expressed interest in the pizzeria once it opens downtown.

"The reason I didn't go before is because I didn't have a car," sophomore cell biology major Somdutta Mukherjee said. "But now it will be more accessible, so yeah, I'd like to go."

Junior criminology and criminal justice major Kevin Hillman, however, who did not think much of the Ledo franchises, said he'll pass.

"There are other places that serve pizza that I would rather go to, like Ratsie's," Hillman said.

District 2 Councilman Bob Catlin said although Ledo's arrival to the downtown garage will be a valuable asset to the redevelopment of the area and will likely provide a welcome boost to the underused parking structure, he did not expect it to attract many students.

"It will be more of a destination restaurant for the non-student population, which we never really had in downtown College Park," Catlin said.

Cook, however, said Ledo may be in for a boom in student popularity now that it's about to be just a short walk away.

"Location, location, location," he said.

villanueva at umdbk dot com