Is it the end for two popular Italian restaurants in Philadelphia?

Davio’s and Radicchio Cafe, two popular Italian restaurants and fixtures in Center City for two decades, are shuttered right now, and their futures are unclear.

The high-end Davio’s, which opened in 1999 on the second floor of what was then the Provident National Bank building at 17th and Chestnut Streets, closed with the shutdown in March 2020.

Owner Steve DiFillippo says uncertainty about the ownership of the building, which includes the Club Quarters Hotel, is keeping him from reopening. An affiliate of the Blackstone Group bought the hotel and several others in 2016, and it has been in arrears since the pandemic decimated the travel industry, according to published reports.

“I can open again tomorrow,” said DiFillippo, “but I won’t until I know what’s going on.” Meanwhile, he said, his employees were offered work at the Davio’s location in the King of Prussia Town Center, where it is business as usual. “It breaks my heart,” he said. “I love this city.”

Across town in Old City, it’s dark now at Radicchio Cafe at Fourth and Wood Streets, the casual BYOB that opened in 2000 in the shadow of the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Owner Luigi Basile said that he is not inclined to reopen, given that he is 75 and that his business partner, Massimo Coscia, has relocated to Italy.

He is hoping to find an operator. Meanwhile, he said, he is attempting to reopen his location in Voorhees.