Village Sweetheart Bellavitae Closes After Five Years

A former worker writes in this morning to report that Bellavitae, a five year-old Greenwich Village restaurant tucked into a corner of Minetta Lane, has closed. He says co-owner Jon Mudder gave notice to the staff a week ago Tuesday and that it closed for good on Saturday night. The twitter and a look at OpenTable confirms.

The former chef writes of Mudder, "He has been in court with the landlord, which I was told he lost over back rent and new increases. He owes many vendors $$ who always needed to call to collect something."

The restaurant grew out of Rolando Ruiz Beramendi's import business and was a precious and romantic little place with recommendable, unfussy food and some kudos from the critics. It grew into a go-to date spot for many in the neighborhood but apparently it never really took off the way it needed to. According to our chef tipster, there was no real replacement for the executive chef who left one and a half years ago and no replacement for a long ago departed GM.
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