A family-owned Italian restaurant in Chicago closed for good this week after being in enterprise for greater than 25 years.
“I really feel like a failure to a few of my longtime staff,” proprietor Ramon Aguirre stated. “They’ve been with us for 20 plus yr they’ve been loyal to us all this time.”
Aguirre informed NBC 5 his father opened Bella Notte near Grand Avenue and Noble Street again in 1995.
“We constructed a legacy,” he stated. “My father is the everyday immigrant story, he moved right here at 15 began washing dishes. He was a thoroughbred for lots of locations. I’m unhappy for him however on the identical time I’m glad the burden is off his shoulders.”
Enterprise was booming. The restaurant grew to become a vacationer vacation spot attracting celebrities and athletes from Michael Jordan to Mike Tyson.
“We survived Y2K, we survived the 2008 crash, we survived COVID with no federal funding,” he stated. “It’s simply very disheartening that these final two phrases within the metropolis we’re not in a position to survive.”
Aguirre stated the price of doing enterprise now within the metropolis has grow to be an excessive amount of.
“We owe over $21,000 thousand {dollars} in fines, fines so simple as the cover allow,” he stated. “The signal allow was expired by possibly, I need to say 30 to 45 days. These permits price $75 and $150 {dollars}. We had been fined a thousand {dollars} for every incidence,” Aguirre stated.
He and his household additionally citing crime and violence for the closure.
“An enormous a part of our clientele is from the suburbs they’re simply scared to return to town,” he stated. “You bought the carjackings, the gun violence and on high of it there’s a cash seize on each nook. You both have crimson gentle cameras, you will have all types of valet points—it’s been very robust.”
Whereas the Division of Buildings didn’t reply to our request for a remark when requested concerning the fines, Aguirre stays optimistic concerning the future and stated the plan now’s to maneuver to the suburbs to proceed his father’s legacy.
“We’re a faith-based household,” he stated. “We’re a household run enterprise. We do consider that when one door closes one other will open and it’s jus been very refreshing and we’re very grateful.”
Aguirre informed NBC 5 they initially had plans to maneuver to Downers Grove however that plan fell by means of on the final minute. He’s now in talks with mayors in a number of suburbs and hopes to make an announcement as soon as they finalize a brand new location.
