{"id":16532,"date":"2026-02-03T12:40:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16532"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:40:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T23:40:18","slug":"italian-restaurant-in-petone-closes-doors-after-20-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=16532","title":{"rendered":"Italian restaurant in Petone closes doors after 20 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Petone Italian restaurant is being sold after nearly 20 years, following an &#8220;incredibly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/business\/536098\/award-winning-bakery-among-wellington-businesses-set-to-close-down\">tough&#8221; few years for the hospitality industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The owners of Soprano on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/580166\/hutt-city-council-suspends-petone-parking-charges-for-christmas\">Jackson Street<\/a>, Latisha and Jonathan Dowling, posted on Facebook that the decision had not come lightly.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;As heartbreaking as it is to share this news, we wanted to share with you that we have made the choice to close\/sell Soprano so we can spend more time with our families and step into a new chapter,&#8221; they said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Hospitality has given us so much in the last two decades, but the last few years &#8211; especially COVID &#8211; were incredibly tough. Like MANY in our industry, we poured everything we had into keeping the doors open, the lights on and our people cared for.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Now was the right time to embark on something new, the couple said, adding that the restaurant was woven into their life story.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s where we first met, worked side by side with the previous owner, fell in love, got married, and went on to have our three beautiful children.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Today, our journey has come full circle, with our eldest now 14 and working the floor &#8211; something that fills us with more pride than words can say.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Dowlings thanked their customers who they said were part of their family.<\/p>\n<p>The owners are now taking expressions of interest from prospective buyers.<\/p>\n<p>Their last day of business, if not sold prior, will be 31 March.<\/p>\n<p>Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Petone Italian restaurant is being sold after nearly 20 years, following an &#8220;incredibly\u00a0tough&#8221; few years for the hospitality industry. The owners of Soprano on\u00a0Jackson Street, Latisha and Jonathan Dowling, posted on Facebook that the decision had not come lightly. &#8220;As heartbreaking as it is to share this news, we wanted to share with you [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16534,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16532\/revisions\/16534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}