On Jan. 22, 1979, an Italian man named Leo Sciuto opened his first restaurant. No, it wasn't, as you'd expect, an Italian food restaurant. He chose instead to serve up his favorite cuisine -- Mexican food. That night, the owner of Tio Leo's on Mission Gorge went home to his wife, Francis, a bit overwhelmed.
"I don’t know how many tacos I'm going to need to sell to make this work," recalled his daughter Annamarie Sciuto-Clark, the restaurant's current owner.
With 45 years in business, it looks like Leo found a way to sell enough tacos. But the restaurant's long run will soon come to an end. The last day of operation for Tio Leo's original location is Dec. 31, 2023.
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Leo Sciuto had been a business owner for most of his life, but his focus was nightclubs and bars. When his children came of age, he wanted something that they could work on together, something more family-friendly. So at 50 years old, he made a career change and became a restauranteur.
Simply, he chose Mexican food because he loved it, Sciuto-Clark said. So much so that every Saturday, the Sciuto family went out to eat at a different local Mexican restaurant.
"We’re all Sicilians, but God forbid as a Sicilian you went to an Italian restaurant. ‘What, your mother can’t cook?'" Sciuto-Clark joked.
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Sciuto-Clark started working at the Mission Gorge location at 19 and helped her father with bookkeeping. She learned the ways of the business, as did her siblings -- Frank, Joe and Angela -- two of whom similarly worked their way up from dishwashers and waiters to open their own Tio Leo's locations in Poway (12205 Scripps Poway Pkwy) and Linda Vista (5302 Napa St). Those, by the way, aren't going anywhere.
Because of that, it's more than a restaurant for the Sciutos. It's filled with family memories. One of Sciuto-Clark's favorites was her younger brother's 21st birthday, which they celebrated at the restaurant.
"It was just all being there at that 21st birthday and the irony is that Frank can officially go in the bar now," Sciuto Clark recalled. "Just being able to enjoy that success, which it was an absolute phenomenon that was happening.”
She remembers long lines of customers waiting an hour or more to get a seat in the dining room when the restaurant first opened. Within a few years, they were able to open their second location, then a third and a fourth in Del Mar that has since closed. Each of the siblings, except for Angela, took over operations of a separate location.
Leo Sciuto died during the COVID-19 pandemic but his legacy has lived on. Each of his 15 grandkids have worked at Tio Leo's, and although they're young adults with their own career paths, the idea of closing the original location has been difficult for them, Sciuto-Clark said.
The businesswoman is holding out hope this is not the end for the original Tio Leo's location, although the property is up for sale by the owners and it would take the right kind of entrepreneur for her and her siblings to pass the reigns.
"If there was somebody out there that has that entrepreneurial spirit [like our father], that says I want to keep it going," Sciuto-Clark said. "So my siblings are absolutely open to that conversation.”
The reason for the closure is in part that the property is being sold but it's also a good time for Sciuto-Clark to retire. She and her general manager, Barbara Perez, have been working there almost as long as the restaurant has been in operation.
Both say they were shocked by the outpouring of support they've received since word of the closure began to spread through the community and on social media.
"I will be 65 so it's pretty much a good time for me too," Perez said. But our customers are devastated, we have had people coming here since we opened. Some people come every Friday and they sit in the same booth."
Perez said when she took over as GM, she promised her predecessor she'd see it out through the end. As the face of Tio Leo's, she's built a relationship with diners that's unmatched.
"People always ask me why I’ve stayed so long and [it's because] I love our customers, I’ve done it because I love them,” she said.
Sciuto-Clark sees things a bit differently. While she, of course, thanked the customers for their years of dedication, she had others to appreciate.
"We would not have had the success that we did without some of the incredible loyal employees that have been with us for the long term."
