Trattoria Limone closed last weekend. I shed a tear for this one. Couldn’t help it. I’ll just come out and say it— I loved the place.
Finding out about the closing by sheer serendipity, my husband Sam and I made a final visit with our friends for a farewell Limone dinner. I had to have the Pappardelle Benevento (a luscious pasta with lamb in cream sauce) one last time.
In a discussion with our friend Roberta Friedman as to what made Limone’s end so distressing, she and I couldn’t put our (collective) finger on it. Something made the attractive and friendly little neighborhood pasta house at Orange and Wardlow special— an “it” factor, the two of us finally surmised.
Owner and executive chef John Huson, appearing saddened but not at all bitter, simply said, “There were no villains. I had to pay a lot of rent up front while waiting for the planning department’s approval. But the fact is, we were busy each night from 6:30 to 8, and an hour and a half’s business each day just wasn’t enough to cover the costs. I just want to thank our customers from Bixby Knolls, Cal Heights, Virginia Country Club and Wrigley for their loyal patronage.
Goodbye, Limone, I’ll miss you. I really will.
