Bentino's Pizza owners Carl and Kim Lea pictured in 2022, when the couple announced that they purchased the building in which they've run their restaurant since 2006. (Photo by Lauren "Chuck" Shows)
Bentino’s Pizza now YS Pizza Company
- Published: April 8, 2026
After nearly 20 years under a familiar name, Bentino’s Pizza in Yellow Springs is preparing to reintroduce itself.
The Xenia Avenue pizza parlor will soon become YS Pizza Company, owner Carl Lea told the News last month. The change, he said, will formalize what has already been true for years: the local restaurant, which grew out of a Jamestown location, has become its own operation over the years.
“We’ve already made a lot of changes to make it our own place,” Lea said. “Now it’s just official.”
Lea said the name change stems from a recent split with the Jamestown business, from which the Yellow Springs restaurant originally leased the Bentino’s moniker.
“The relationship between us and the owner of the Bentino’s in Jamestown has deteriorated,” he said, adding that the parting of ways is mutual. But a pizzeria by any other name, he added, is still as delicious.
“It’s all the same people. It’s the same owners,” he said. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Bentino’s opened in Yellow Springs in late 2006, when Lea, then 25, brought the Jamestown brand to town after training there and working out a deal to lease the name, recipes and menu. Since then, the restaurant has grown beyond its original model: the Yellow Springs location’s sauce recipe diverged from Jamestown’s 15 years ago, and ingredients and menu items have also been adjusted over that time. The Hawaiian Deluxe and Mediterranean pizzas, for example, are Yellow Springs menu originals.
The Leas cutting the ribbon on the pizza parlor’s expansion into the former Subway space in 2024. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
The business has also changed physically: In 2022, Carl and Kim Lea purchased the building at 107 Xenia Ave. where Bentino’s had rented since opening. After neighboring Subway closed and later tenant Omnibus came and went, the Leas expanded into the corner space, opening a dining room in November 2024 that increased seating from about 12 seats to 44.
That expansion, Lea said, contributed to recent financial strain that led local friends, family and pizza-lovers to organize a GoFundMe for his family and the business last September. The problem, he said, was not a lack of customers, but rather debt incurred to get the dining room open — specifically, a short-term loan with steep weekly payments. Just last week, the restaurant paid off that loan, he said, and is entering spring with a big helping of optimism.
“We’re on the upswing,” Lea said, adding that the business recently had “two of the best weekends we’ve ever had since we’ve been in business.”
The shift to becoming YS Pizza Company will be the most visible change — local business owner DJ Galvin, of Urban Handmade, is helping the Leas develop a new logo and signage — but some other, smaller name changes are expected, too.
“We’re going to rebrand,” Lea said. “Some of the specialty pizzas we’re just going to call different things.”
Other menu changes are expected to be additive: Lea said he intends to add lasagna to the YS Pizza Company menu, as well as boneless wings and a crispy chicken salad. He said he’s also considering some ingredient additions to existing specialty pizzas.
“Our Chicken Ranch, I think we’ll add bacon to it, so it’ll be a Chicken Bacon Ranch,” Lea said. “And I’ve always thought the Greek pizza should have black olives on it, so I’ll probably take this opportunity to make a Greek-olive pizza.”
The restaurant’s website will change, too; as of Tuesday morning this week, the Yellow Springs location no longer appears on the Jamestown Bentino’s website. The restaurant’s phone number, 937-767-2500, will remain the same.
Lea acknowledged that, just as some longtime local residents still call Tom’s Market by its older name, Weaver’s, it’s possible the name “Bentino’s” will stick around colloquially for a while. But whatever folks call it, he said, the restaurant’s central aim remains the same: “Our dedication will be to continue making a good, quality pizza.”
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