Billed as the oldest Italian restaurant in the country, North Beach staple Fior d'Italia closed its doors for good, reports the Chronicle. The restaurant survived several disasters, including the Great Quake of 1906 and a fire in 2005, but the economic climate (not to mention locals' increasingly finicky tastes) prompted the owners to shut operations down for good. Sad.

Trudy Audieri, one of the restaurant's owners, explained to the Chon, "It just came to a halt, financially. We couldn't put one step in front of the other."

Could this be another Sam Wo in the making? Which is to say, will Fior d'Italia really, truly close only to maybe, not really after all? Perhaps. Audier and the executive chef, who is also her spouse, said that "she hopes to resurrect the restaurant under the same name."

[Chron]