Post by @seattletoday_

Owner Angela Williams announced the closing standing in her own dining room, calling it a bittersweet moment and a decision that unfortunately had to be made. The restaurant opened in its current space at First and Cherry in 2016, the last chapter of a much longer run. Her husband Luigi DeNunzio spent two decades operating four restaurants in these blocks under several names, calling the neighborhood Seattle’s Little Italy. He died in 2017. She has run the place alone since. She says the closing is not only about her, but about the restaurant industry as a whole in Seattle. Rents have risen. Wages have risen. Neither has been answered at the door. “With rent increases and wage increases, we don’t see 40 to 50 percent more foot traffic.” Then there is the street. Five construction projects lived through and struggled through, she says, with little mitigation money to carry a small business across the torn-up months. She calls the city the most hostile environment she has operated in. Her verdict is short. No counterbalance to rents and transportation, cost of living out of control. “So it’s unsustainable.” Three weeks of service left. If Luigi’s is your place, go.