After a decade run, Hot Italian to close midtown Sacramento, Emeryville locations Sunday
Hot Italian will close its remaining restaurants in midtown Sacramento and Emeryville on Sunday, the Sacramento Business Journal reported Friday night.
Sacramento and the rest of the United States was in the throes of the Great Recession when Andrea Lepore and chef Fabrizio Cercatore co-founded the flat-crust pizza restaurant and bar in 2009 at 1627 16th St. Hot Italian was an early catalyst for the restaurant boom that followed as the economy recovered and a cultural beacon by Fremont Park; Sacramento Republic FC’s introductory press conference was held there in December 2012.
“Hot Italian was a vision that Andrea and Fabrizio brought to midtown,“ said Sacramento City Councilman Steve Hansen, whose district includes midtown. “They transformed an old fireplace store and were really leaders not only in Sacramento’s pizza scene, but in adaptive use projects.”
An outpost in Emeryville Public Market followed in 2012, then one in the Davis Commons in 2016. But investors voted Lepore out of the Sacramento restaurant’s management in November 2017, alleging she diverted Sacramento and Emeryville funds to cover Davis operating losses instead of reducing her compensation as requested, according to Sacramento County Superior Court documents.
Halo Hospitality Group took over operations after Lepore left, and Halo CEO Brian Larson, who did not respond to The Sacramento Bee’s request for comment, told the Business Journal he blamed Lepore’s mismanagement and misappropriation of funds for Hot Italian’s failure.
He said that all Hot Italian investors had lost money on the restaurant — even Glenn Sorenson, who has owned Hot Italian’s building as midtown rents have skyrocketed over the last decade. Lepore, who did not respond to a request for comment, disputed those claims in an interview with the Business Journal.
Hot Italian’s Davis location closed last year to make way for Solomon’s Delicatessen, another Lepore project in concert with Tiger and Red Rabbit Kitchen & Bar owners The Golden Group. Solomon’s closed in August one month after the downtown Sacramento flagship opened; it’ll be replaced by Burger Patch.
This story was originally published December 28, 2019 at 2:18 PM.