EDMONTON -- After a decade in Oliver Square, the owners of Cibo Bistro have decided to close their doors for good.
“It was 10 years of our lives,” Lisa Caputo, co-owner of Cibo Bistro, said.
“We put everything into it. My husband and I joke it was our first baby. It was the first thing that we raised together. [We have] very heavy hearts.”
The Italian restaurant has been closed since December when restrictions were reinstated by the province, and on the day they were allowed to open back up, Feb. 8, the owners decided it wasn’t the best option for them.
“I CALL IT THE COVID BURNOUT”
“We’re exhausted and we’re just like, ‘Can we keep doing this?’ And at the end of the day we decided we probably can’t,” Caputo said.
Caputo told CTV News Edmonton she will miss their customers the most, and personally emailed the regulars ahead of time before making the official announcement.
“They were everything. They were the reason why we were able to keep our doors open,” Caputo said.
“Even during the first closure and doing takeout, they were why we survived because they were ordering from us every week or every second week.”
While the doors are closing at Cibo, Caputo told CTV News Edmonton she has a few projects up her sleeve.
“Everything’s changed so we’re trying to pivot in a way that will be conducive to our new world that we’re living in,” she said.
“Edmonton’s not done with us yet. It’s just Cibo Bistro is unfortunately saying goodbye.”
Before logging off, Caputo told CTV News Edmonton that while she and her husband are taking a break to spend time with family, they’re still pulling for the industry that they were apart of for so many years.
“We don’t want to see it die. We want to see it prosper.”
