'It really is an honor to my wife': Tyeger's Pizza Parlour serves final pizzas before Christmas
Dec 23, 2024
BLUFFTON, Ind. (WANE) -- Tyeger's Pizza Parlour will be serving its final pizza before Christmas as a way to thank the community and honor Tyeger Walton's late wife, Amy.
In an initial post on the pizza parlour's Facebook page, Walton announced that he was unsure what the future holds for Tyeger's Pizza Parlour.
"The brain, heart and soul of Tyeger's, my wife Amy, suffered a spontaneous brain bleed last Friday night. She has been in the ICU in Ft. Wayne since then. We appreciate the messages of support we have received thus far and are saddened to share that it is a day to day situation with no real good outlook," the post read.
In a later post, they announced that their final dinner services would be on Monday Dec. 23 and Tuesday Dec. 24.
The reason for the closure, Tye Walton, co-owner of the pizza parlour said he didn't want to continue it without her. Walton told WANE 15 Monday, that his wife had unfortunately passed away due to the medical situation.
The pizza place opened its doors in 2008 after Tye and Amy Walton vacationed in Ireland, where their families are from according to a review from restaurant critic Ryan DuVall with the Journal Gazette.
"We grew up with a pizza place in your neighborhood and when your school traveled to another school you took over their pizza place," Walton said. "There wasn't any local pizza place here, they were all chains, even though they were locally owned... so we wanted something to be representative of here."
Walton honored his wife Monday night with the Meatloaf pizza, a pizza crafted with her personal meatloaf recipe.
"My wife and I, I mean she's the brains behind it all, she came up with all the pizza months and all the recipes, I'm just a face," Walton said.
Not only was the pizza a fan favorite but serving it a final time was Walton's way of giving back with Christmas around the corner.
"We wanted to have one last time to serve the community, especially with Christmas," Walton said. "Because of how our family is separated we were able to have our Christmas three days before it happened... so the opportunity to be able to provide that for people really was an honor."
Monday night the pizza shop was packed, with those in the community wanting to give back to Walton and his family while enjoying their favorite shop.
"I know it's pretty hard on them to be going through all of this,"Johnathan Huffman, a customer said. "It's been a non-stop line but he's [Tye Walton] is powering through it and it's one thing I love about small communities to just see everyone coming together."
So what was Walton's biggest takeaway during Monday night's rush?
"So happy and so proud to have been apart of a good community."
Walton told WANE 15 Monday night that the restaurant will be open for its final day Tuesday, serving dinner from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 931 N Main Street in Bluffton.