Lagomarcino’s closing restaurants temporarily to focus on seasonal sweets

Lagomarcino’s will close its Quad Cities restaurants through the end of the year beginning Tuesday, Sept. 19, to allow an understaffed workforce to concentrate on producing holiday sweets and treats vital to the company’s business.

In the Facebook post announcing the decision, the fourth generation confectionery’s owners stressed that Lago’s downtown Moline and Village of East Davenport stores still would welcome customers who are craving the “chocolates, caramel apples and ice cream” for which the business is well known. Lago’s Easter, Halloween and especially Christmas treats are a tradition for many Quad Cities families.

This isn’t the first time the worker shortage plaguing businesses across the nation has forced Lagomarcino’s to temporarily close its restaurants at 1422 5th Ave., Moline, and at 2132 E. 11th St., Davenport. The family-owned business made the same decision last year to ensure it could deal with the holiday sweets rush by shutting down its restaurants’ doors for the winter

A few of Lago’s Facebook posters lamented the restaurant’s closing this year, but most were supportive of the decision because they said it would ensure that Lagomarcino’s would once again produce the chocolates and other treats it has been providing Quad Citians with since 1908 in Moline and since November 1997 at the Village of East Davenport location.

The business was started in downtown Moline by Italian immigrants Angelo Lagomarcino and his wife, the former Luigia Schenone. The company’s confections are still being made in the company’s original copper kettle kitchen in the original Moline location and for many Quad Cities visitors, having lunch in one of the downtown location’s mahogany benches is a don’t-miss stop.

For more than a century, Lago’s has thrived as the business and its recipes have been passed down from generation to generation.

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