Leisa Bunn glances up at the aqua and pink neon clock that has hung above the front door at Cosmo's Pizza for all of these many years.

"That clock, oh my goodness, I don't know what's going to happen to the clock," she says. "I want to have it at my house, but I'm pretty sure I need the money more than I need that clock."

After nearly 30 years, time is running out on Cosmo's, the neighborhood pizzeria and bar that's been an anchor along Magnolia Avenue in Birmingham's Five Points South since it opened its doors in 1986.

Cosmo's will serve its last pizza pie this Sunday, Feb. 28, but the mourning has already begun.

Bunn, who has been here for 29 of those 30 years, has been fighting back tears, and losing, almost every day since she announced about two weeks ago that she is closing the restaurant for good.

"I've been crying all day long," she says one afternoon. "l didn't know I could make this many tears."

Financially, it has been an uphill battle to keep Cosmo's going these past few years, and Bunn, who has co-owned the business since 2000, is exhausted from the climb.

"I've worked here for over half my life, and it's killing me to give it up," the 56-year-old Bunn says. "But I have no choice."

The final hours and minutes are ticking down at Cosmo's Pizza, which is closing Feb. 28, 2016, after nearly 30 years in business in Birmingham's Five Points South neighborhood. (Joe Songer/jsonger@al.com)

'A really new concept for Birmingham'

Stanley Shafferman, who came up with the concept and created the recipes, and Billy Caldwell, who oversaw the construction, were the business partners who opened Cosmo's Pizza in September 1986.

Caldwell enlisted Birmingham artist Amasa Smith to create the restaurant's bold design, which incorporated lots of neon and Formica.

"When we opened, there would be an hour and a half wait to come in here because it was all new," Caldwell says. "Gourmet pizza was not heard of here. Pizza by the slice was not heard of here. A design like this was not heard of here."

Shafferman's menu featured hand-tossed pizzas smeared with house-made pesto, red sauce or yellow pepper sauce and covered with such toppings as alligator sausage, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, eggplant and pine nuts.

Bill Deason -- who started working at Cosmo's the weekend it opened and was here for many of the 30 years thereafter -- says Shafferman wanted to offer Birmingham something similar to the California-style pizzas that chef Wolfgang Puck was serving at his trend-setting Los Angeles restaurant Spago.

"That was a really new concept for Birmingham in 1986," Deason says. "The pesto sauce and the sun-dried tomatoes and the goat cheese -- most people didn't even know what they were, and they definitely didn't associate them with pizza.

"And the roasted yellow pepper sauce that people just went crazy for -- that was a Cosmo's original," Deason adds. "That didn't come from anywhere else."

Gourment pizzas -- such as the House Special with pesto, prosciutto, bell peppers, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and Italian sausage -- were a novelty in Birmingham when Cosmo's Pizza opened in 1986. (Joe Songer/jsonger@al.com)

'I wanna Rock and Roll'

About a year after Cosmo's opened, Bunn, who was waiting tables at the old P.T.'s Tavern on Hollywood Boulevard, pitched in at Cosmo's one night when a friend asked her to help serve. Bunn hesitated because she wasn't familiar enough with the menu, but she eventually said yes.

"I said, 'OK, I'll help you this one night,'" she remembers.

Cosmo's was at full-tilt boogie that night, and a customer innocently threw Bunn a curveball.

"So the Rolling Stones were like cranked up (on the stereo) and someone said, 'I wanna Rock and Roll,'" she says. "And I said, 'Well, you're in the right place.' And I turned around and walked off."

Then it dawned on her what the customer wanted.

"It's the name of a pizza on the menu. I was such an idiot."

But Bunn had such a blast that night that she went back to P.T.'s, turned in her two-week notice, and has been rocking and rolling at Cosmo's ever since.

In 2000, she went from employee to owner when she and Deason bought Cosmo's after Caldwell decided to get out of the business.

"Bill knew the kitchen backward and forward and she knew the business," Caldwell says. "And I thought it would be a good mix."

Through the years, Cosmo's was way more than just a place to get a pizza or a calzone.

It became a Five Points South institution, a gathering place for a colorful collection of characters that included med students from UAB, suburbanites from over the mountain, and various Southside artists and musicians.

"It always struck people as a very accepting place where anyone and everyone felt comfortable," Deason says. "Many times there would be a crowd in Cosmo's and there would be anyone from young children running around to really elderly people (and) pierced-and-tattooed people along with the Mountain Brook elite. It was just a melting pot.

"Despite anything anyone says about Cosmo's," he adds, "it was rarely boring or uninteresting."

Birmingham chef Franklin Biggs got his first taste of Cosmo's soon after he moved to town about 20 years ago.

Biggs soon became a regular on Sundays, his day off from his own restaurant and a day when many of the other Cosmo's regulars came to wind down from one week and get fueled up for another at the legendary Bloody Mary bar.

"I can't remember who brought me here, but I just said, 'OK, I've found my place,'" Biggs recalls. "I knew whenever I came in here, I would see somebody I knew, see somebody I liked."

Leisa Bunn started as server at Cosmo's Pizza a year after it opened, and she became a co-owner of the business in 2000. (Birmingham News file/Jeff Roberts)

"Something that ran its course'

Anyone who has ever been in the restaurant business will tell you 30 years is a pretty amazing feat.

So Cosmo's made it way longer than most.

Just in the Five Points South area alone, longtime establishments such as Dugan's, Louie Louie, Clyde Houston's, Rube Burrow's and The Mill -- all of which were thriving at some point during Cosmo's three-decade run -- have long since gone out of business and were replaced with another crop of restaurants and bars, some of which have since closed, too.

Now, it has happened to Cosmo's.

The old crowd has gradually moved on, and a new one hasn't come along to help carry the torch.

Instead, Bunn says, they're going to all of the cool, new places that have popped up in Lakeview and in Avondale and along Second Avenue North downtown.

"Look, you want to know that happened?" she says, looking out the window of her restaurant. "I'll tell you exactly what happened. Southside is gone. That's what happened."

No longer able to afford the rent and with some outstanding taxes left to pay, Bunn says she's not in a position to keep Cosmo's going any longer. Loyal customers have offered to loan her money, she says, but she has politely declined.

And although Deason still co-owns Cosmo's with Bunn, he hasn't worked there since August, when he left to go work in the kitchen at The Collins Bar downtown.

"As far as reasons for (Cosmo's) closing, I don't necessarily have anything to say about that," Deason says. "It's just something that ran its course, and it's over."

Bill Deason and Leisa Bunn are the current owner of Cosmo's Pizza, and one or the other or both have worked there since the day it opened in 1986. (Photo courtesy of Cosmo's Pizza)

'Where have you been?'

Midge Rast started coming to Cosmo's when she was a teenager in the 1980s, and her son Thomas has been here for every one of his 18 birthday dinners, the most recent being just last month.

"When I told him about Cosmo's closing, his eyes welled up with tears," Rast says. "I have not seen my child cry actual tears in probably three or four years. But my big, tall 18-year-old cried actual tears."

Rast has volunteered to come in and help Bunn out during these final few days. So has Angie Adams, an old friend who has known Bunn since they worked together at P.T.'s

"We have all come in to help her out because we love her," Rast says. "I haven't waited tables in 20 years, but I'm here for the duration.

"Leisa has taken care of me for 30 years," she adds. "I figured I owe her a little bit."

These past couple of weeks, Bunn has seen and heard lots of stories like that, as droves of old customers and former employees who haven't been in Cosmo's for years have dropped by for one last Rock and Roll pizza, one final cup of beer-cheese soup and one more hug from Leisa.

And they all want something to remember Cosmo's by.

Bunn has printed new menus because almost all of the old ones have suddenly disappeared. Customers are arguing over who gets the beer signs and begging Bunn to share her recipes, which she is taking with her.

On at least three occasions during these finals days, Bunn has had to close the restaurant early because she ran out of food.

While she's thrilled to see all of those old faces again and touched by the goodwill and support, she can't help but wonder if Cosmo's fate might be different if everybody hadn't waited until she was going out of business to come see her again.

"It's like now they come, but where have you been?" she says. "I understand that people grow up and move away, but this is what happens to small, independent businesses when people forget about them."

The lights have begun to flicker on Cosmo's Pizza's iconic neon sign. (Joe Songer/jsonger@al.com)

'With Love, Leisa'

McRoy Sauls, who has been a faithful customer since Cosmo's opened in '86, is not one of those who forgot about them.

Sauls stopped by for a sausage-and-cheese calzone at lunch earlier this week, and he plans to come back again for one last meal this weekend.

He's going to miss the food -- the pizza and muffuletta, in particular -- but he'll miss all of the friends he's made just as much.

"Leisa has just been a princess the whole time," Sauls says. "She spent a damn good part of her life down here -- either working as an employee or working as an owner in this place. This is part of her life. I'm going to miss Leisa and the people I've met down here through the years."

After working in the restaurant business her entire adult life, Bunn says she is going to move back out to the Tannehill area, where she, her three sisters and her parents all have houses on the same street.

"It's a big family affair," she says. "We just all love each other. They are so excited that I'm leaving here and coming out there.

"I don't know what I'm going to do," she adds. "I have no idea. I'm going to sleep for a month, I bet."

Before turning out the lights at Cosmo's Pizza for the final time, though, the silver-haired, golden-hearted Bunn posted a three-paragraph letter in the window that best sums up her feelings, as well as those of many of her past and present employees and customers.

"Our doors will open for the last time on Sunday, February 28," it reads. "We've had a long run - 30 years!

"During that time, you've come here to celebrate births and anniversaries, to enjoy great food and live music. You made our Sunday Brunch, and our Bloody Mary Bar, the talk of the town. But what we've always been about, really, is sharing heartfelt stories, tall tales, and more than a few laughs with good friends.

"We thank you for all of it. Now it's time to turn off the Christmas Story lamp and pack up the pizza boxes. Our fabulous staff and I wish you the best. We will, no doubt, see you somewhere down the road.

"With Love, Leisa."