BY NICK DIAMANTIDES
Staff Writer
La Vineria Italiana, the main anchor of the recently opened Bixby Point Shopping Center, went out of business last week. The restaurant, located close to the northeast corner of Atlantic Avenue and Marshall Place, had only been in operation for about six months.
Mark Bolour, vice president of Bolour Associates (the company that owns the shopping center), insisted that the closure was not due solely to the national economic recession, but he acknowledged that the downturn was a factor.
“The main reason the restaurant closed was a combination of partnership disputes that I can’t disclose for legal reasons,” Bolour said. “That, plus a pretty tough economy, brought them to the decision to close.”
Bolour noted that restaurant sales throughout the United States have decreased by 30 to 40 percent in the past year, and most restaurateurs have to adjust their menus and prices in order to attract customers. “I think that the concept for La Vineria Italiana was good in that we were bringing people from outside Bixby Knolls to the restaurant,” he said. “But it was not optimally meeting the needs of people in that area.”
Bolour stressed that the restaurant is only closed temporarily and he expects it to reopen— possibly under a different name— sometime later this year. “We are not looking to change the concept dramatically,” he explained. “We are looking to bring in operators that have a business plan that better meets the needs of the community.”
Ricardo Dal Santo, Davide Visentin and a silent partner opened the restaurant last summer after almost a year of planning and working out building issues with city officials. In an interview with this reporter several months ago, Dal Santo and Visentin said their goal was to offer food that tasted exactly like the cuisine served in Italy. They acknowledged that La Vineria Italiana’s meals might not appeal to people accustomed to the Americanized version of Italian food, but they felt that they could attract enough customers from Los Angeles and Orange counties to make up for the Bixby Knolls residents that ate elsewhere.
Bolour said that the economic downturn was hurting the other businesses at the Bixby Point Shopping Center, but it was just part of the current national trend. “It’s not exclusive to them,” he explained. “Retailers throughout the nation, state and city are suffering right now.” He noted that no other Bixby Point tenant is contemplating closure. “In fact we still have one vacancy that we are close to filling,” he said. “We are in negotiations right now, and until we sign the lease I can’t divulge who they are.”
Eighth District Councilwoman Rae Gabelich said she was sad to see La Vineria Italiana close. “It was an internal issue, a leadership problem among the three partners,” she said. “I was in there the Friday before they closed and watched the steady stream of customers for three hours, and neither Ricardo nor Davide said a word about closing, although of course they knew they had already decided to close.”
“It was not just a matter of people not going there,” said Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association. “I think that the disagreement between them (the partners) resulted in what I would consider a lack of engagement and participation with the community. I had gone in there with an I-help-you-and you-help-me approach, but they did not respond as much as they might have if they had been agreeing with each other.”
Cohn explained that Bixby Knolls residents were expressing their wishes for changes to the menu and lower prices, but the La Vineria partners were not willing to make those changes.
In fact, months ago, Dal Santo and Visentin did tell this reporter that they were committed to their style of cooking, and the high quality ingredients they used precluded a lowering of the prices.
Cohn said he was sorry the partners did not take heed to advice that could have made La Vineria a much more successful venture. “I hate to see anything like this happen,” he said. “But there has to be an understanding of who the neighborhood is and what the market is.”
Cohn added that he still has confidence that Bixby Knolls could support a restaurant at that site. “That was an example of what not to do,” he said. “We still have a completely built restaurant facility, and if we can find an operator willing to engage with the community, it’s going to have all the customers it needs.”
Gabelich agreed. “I hold the highest of hopes that we can find a new restaurateur to operate it,” she said. “I think it would be best if it was somebody from our city who actually understands what the folks want.”
At press time, Dal Santo and Visentin had not responded to voicemail messages left for them by the Signal Tribune.
