DiBenedetto’s owners Ramona and Ralph DiBenedetto are retiring after 29 years of running their restaurant.

Both will still own the business but they will be turning over the day-to-day operations to Martha Wiggeman.

Wiggeman will hold the title of general manager.

The owners felt now was the right time to hand over the business operation so the two of them could pursue other interests.

“We wanted to keep the business, but we wanted to participate more in the community,” Ralph DiBendetto said.

That commitment has included the hockey team at the University, which DiBenedetto’s has supported directly for over 20 years.

“In 1984 we started feeding the hockey team and we have picked up memorabilia along the way,” Ramona said.

Over that same time period Ralph DiBenedetto has noticed an increase in the options people have had in restaurants in Bowling Green.

“When I first came here there was no sub shops, now there is Subway and Jimmy John’s.”

For the DiBenedettos this added competition leads them to believe that a business must find a niche in the community.

This task will now be left to Wiggeman, who knows she must keep the business running smoothly.

“As a general manager you are representing the owners to the employees and representing the employees to the owners,” Wiggeman said.

Before becoming general manager Wiggeman has had to learn how to run the business, a process which started around two months ago.

“I would come in on a Saturday morning and learn how to make the bread and how to prepare the produce,” Wiggeman said.

“It surprises me that it takes a lot of effort that from the outside you don’t see.”

While Wiggeman will be taking over, she pointed out this does not mean the DiBendettos are going to leave the business entirely.

“I don’t think they are going to give me the whole operation, because it’s their baby,” Wiggeman said.