Il Fornaio’s Beverly Hills restaurant was among the brand’s first locations. (photo by Tabor Brewster)

Il Fornaio, an Italian restaurant at 301 N. Beverly Drive known for its pizzas, pastas and happy hour, is bidding Beverly Hills “arrivederci” as it prepares to permanently close its doors. The Golden Triangle restaurant, part of a chain with several other locations throughout the West Coast, will serve its last customers on Sunday, Jan. 11. The Beverly Hills location was among the brand’s first, opening in 1981.

The restaurant did not respond to a request for comment. However, an employee of the Beverly Hills restaurant said that corporate ownership made the decision to close the location following the expiration of the Il Fornaio’s lease and years of declining sales.

Local historian Alison Martino, creator of Vintage Los Angeles, said she was a regular customer of Il Fornaio for 30 years, and praised nearly everything about the restaurant.

“It was my comfort place. It was a place that I used to go to with my parents and I would take people from out of town. I loved their staff. I loved their chicken. They were known for their chicken and their pizza and I loved their minestrone soup,” Martino said.

She added that Il Fornaio had a “local village feel” in Beverly Hills, where neighbors gathered for a comforting place to eat.

“I loved their happy hour. In Beverly Hills, where everything is getting really expensive, I always felt that they were really affordable and comfortable,” she said. “Their happy hour was probably one of the best in L.A.”

The closure marks an ongoing trend of longtime restaurants and businesses across Los Angeles closing their doors amid rising costs, increasing rents and fewer customers. On Dec. 31, Sprinkles Cupcakes – a bakery chain founded in Beverly Hills in 2005 which became known nationwide for its cupcake vending machines – abruptly closed all locations. In 2025, more than 100 restaurants in Los Angeles closed.

“I really hate seeing places that we grew up with disappear like this,” Martino said. “Especially since COVID, when we lost others. This feels kind of like a COVID moment, where we’re losing restaurants … Rents need to come down, and landlords need to be good to their tenants that have been there 20-plus years, they have a clientele already built in.”

Martino said she has a reservation for Il Fornaio on its closing day, and encouraged others to show support for the restaurant and its staff in its final week.