Leonard “Ben” Toia, the former owner of Leona’s pizzerias and restaurants around Chicago, enjoyed simple pleasures, according to his family.
He found serenity with a bag of bread crumbs and the company of geese, squirrels and ducks — even if those who ran the golf course next to his northwest suburban home did not.
He didn’t let the kids beat him at ping pong on the basement table, relishing his victories by running around afterward, arms raised, and proclaiming himself “winner and still champion!”
If he loved you, he’d smile and hold the sleeve of your coat for a moment as you tried to put it on, cheekily obstructing the process.
“He wasn’t one of these guys who had a boat or golfed,” his daughter Jacquie Toia said. “He was all about his work and his family.”
Mr. Toia died April 5 after a stroke, according to his family. He was 94.
After he graduated from Waller High School, now Lincoln Park High School, he joined the Marines.
Once he got out of the service, he returned to Chicago, working as a printer for Popular Mechanics magazine.
He liked the pizza at a neighborhood spot called Leona’s at 928 W. Belmont Ave. Even more than the pizza, he liked Sue, the owner’s daughter.
He became a regular. And, after a few months, she warmed to Mr. Toia, who by then owned a neighborhood tavern in Ukrainian Village.
After the couple got married, Mr. Toia’s mother-in-law convinced him to get out of the bar business and come work at the pizzeria.
Eventually, Mr. Toia ran Leona’s. In the 1970s, his son Leon joined him in the family business. In the 1980s, his son Sam did, too.
The trio opened a second location on Sheridan Road in Rogers Park. More followed. By the time Mr. Toia retired in the mid-1990s, Leona’s had more than a dozen locations in Chicago and elsewhere in Cook County. The family sold the business in 2013.
“When my dad started, he was the guy in the apron running the neighborhood pizza place, making pizzas, taking orders,” said Sam Toia, who is now president of the Illinois Restaurant Association. “When me and Leon got involved and we expanded, Dad oversaw daily ordering.”
Mr. Toia was born June 28, 1930, during the Depression, to Salvatore and Josephine Toia, immigrants from Italy. She was a homemaker. He worked in maintenance for the city of Chicago, fixing streetcars.
They lived on the Near North Side in an area that was home to many people who came to the United States from Sicily.
Throughout his life, Mr. Toia repeated several things to his children that stuck with them. Like: “A dollar saved is a dollar earned.” “The right road is often the hard road.” And: “Life is full of peaks and valleys; enjoy the peaks because the valleys are right around the corner.”
Mr. Toia didn’t want his only daughter, who studied nursing in college, to follow her brothers into the family business, much to her chagrin, and insisted on driving her to a job interview at what’s now Lurie Children’s Hospital shortly after she graduated from the College of St. Teresa.
Mr. Toia wanted her to try her hand at something else before deciding whether to get into hospitality.
“I had such a bad attitude,” Jacquie Toia said with a laugh. “I am still at Children’s.”
One of the only times she remembers her father getting angry with her was when she accompanied her parents on a Mediterranean cruise for his 70th birthday. Jacquie Toia said she lost track of time while shopping for boots, causing her family to miss a deadline for a shuttle back to the ship.
“He was so mad,” she said. “He never got mad, and I said, ‘Do you want to see my boots? Do you want to see my new boots? Do you want to see them?’ And he finally broke a smile.”
Mr. Toia, who loved his German shepherds and poodles, raised his family in Portage Park before moving to the northwest suburbs.
“He was just a very gentle but steady-as-she-goes kind of guy, the backbone, making sure we were safe and secure, he was everything,” his daughter said.
Though Mr. Toia went by Ben, it wasn’t his given name. His mother began using the name because of her affinity to St. Benedict, a Catholic saint of Italian origin.
Mr. Toia is survived by his wife Sue, sons Sam and Leon, daughter Jacquie, four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Services have been held.