Cosmo's reflection by Hal Yeager.JPG

Cosmo's Pizza opened in 1986 in Five Points South in Birmingham, Ala. The restaurant's last day in business will be Feb. 28, 2016. (Birmingham News file/Hal Yeager)

Cosmo's Pizza, a Birmingham institution that has served the Five Points South area for three decades, is closing at the end of this month, one of the owners told AL.com this morning.

"Cosmo's is 30 years old, and I've worked here for 29 years," co-owner Leisa Bunn said. "So I've worked here for over half my life, and it's killing me to give it up. But I have no choice."

Bunn cited financial reasons for closing Cosmo's and said business had fallen off in recent years with the increased competition from other, newer pizza restaurants that have opened elsewhere on Southside, in Avondale and in Crestwood.

"Cosmo's was the original," she said. "Then Mellow Mushroom opened up down the street, and now we have Little Italy, which is adorable. Then we have Slice in Lakeview, Post Office Pies in Avondale, and then we have the Filling Station on Crestwood Boulevard, which is also adorable. . . . It's just crazy. I've never seen so many pizza places.

"I understand that new places open and everyone wants to try them, and I don't blame them for that," she added. "When you can't survive anymore because of all the new places, though, then it's just time to move on."

As word as started to get around about Cosmo's closing, Bunn said, there has been an outpouring of support from longtime customers, some of whom have offered to help her pay overdue bills to stay open. The restaurant will close on Feb. 28, she said.

"People have started offering money, and I know I just can't pay them back," she said. "So I just can't do that."

Bill Deason and Leisa Bunn are the longtime co-owners of Cosmo's Pizza, which is going out of business on Feb. 28, 2016. (Photo courtesy of Cosmo's Pizza)

The neighborhood pizzeria, located at 2012 Magnolia Ave., opened in 1986 in Pickwick Place, and while dozens of Five Points South restaurants and bars opened and closed over those years, Cosmo's managed to keep on rocking.

"Awash in neon and twinkling holiday lights, with fire-engine red walls and black table tops, the funky neighborhood pizza joint feels more like a den than a dining room, and it remains a popular hangout for a revolving door of artists, musicians, college students and office workers -- some of whom even have dishes named after them," The Birmingham News wrote in 2014.

Bunn and co-owner Bill Deason worked at Cosmo's for several years before buying it from original owner Billy Caldwell in the early 2000s.

"He didn't want to sell it to strangers," Deason recalled in a 2004 interview with The News. "He knew we cared about it, believed in it and would carry it on in the same tradition."

Cosmo's gourmet pizzas -- which include the House Special with pesto, prosciutto, bell peppers, feta cheese, sun-dried tomatoes and Italian sausage, and the Rock and Roll, with extra cheese, pepperoni, black olives, sausage, mushrooms and green peppers -- have been featured on the Alabama Tourism Department's list of "100 Dishes To Eat in Alabama Before You Die." Cosmo's was also popular for its calzones, beer cheese soup and Bloody Mary brunches.

Also, in 2004, Cosmo's Pizza was one of five finalists for Birmingham's best pizza in a metro-wide contest sponsored by The Birmingham News.

UPDATED at 2:45 p.m. CST on Friday, Feb. 12, 2016, to add that Cosmo's Pizza will close on Feb. 28.