Their veal francese, baked ziti, pasta e fagioli and chicken Parmesan presided over weddings and funerals, graduations and bar mitzvahs for 34 years, in a sumptuously red-bricked dining space older than the city of Weston itself.
Now La Torretta Italian Grill, a comforting staple of the Indian Trace neighborhood, is scheduled to permanently close Jan. 11, management confirmed with the South Florida Sun Sentinel on Tuesday. Manager Martha Vasalo said new landlords in the Weston Lakes Plaza planned to “dramatically” increase rents beyond what longtime owners Fabrizio and Vita Russo could handle.
“Silent investors from California have decided to raise us,” said Vasalo, adding that La Torretta marked its 34th anniversary in business in early December.
La Torretta’s imminent closing marks Weston’s second closing of a longtime comfort-food icon in recent months, after Lucille’s American Cafe shuttered in late August after 26 years. It also bookends another particularly brutal year for local dining, adding to the tally of longtime eateries that met their demise after grappling with doubled rents, increased food and labor.
Regular diners who heard about La Torretta’s choice to close took to social media in waves of shock and anger, listing their favorite dishes while bemoaning the hardship that legacy restaurants face to stay alive.
“We have been ordering from La Torretta for 27 years!!!” commenter Lisa Cole wrote. “What a loss to Weston!”
“We had a large group for dinner after my mom’s funeral and they treated us very well. Hate to see this when they were one of the first restaurants in Town Center,” commenter Linda Palmer said, adding, “We really miss Lucille’s as well.”
“I guess we’ll be ordering there a few more times before they close,” Traci Caruso-Borkowski wrote. “I’ve never had a bad meal there.”
Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel
La Torretta Italian Grill, at 308 Indian Trace in Weston, is scheduled to permanently close on Jan. 11. (Amy Beth Bennett / South Florida Sun Sentinel)
At its peak, La Torretta operated two locations — one in Weston Lakes and a second 3 miles east, with a slightly altered menu, at 1352 Weston Road in the Country Isles Plaza. Here, La Torretto turned out a carousel of Italian-American classics in its spacious dining room and pink column-wrapped patio, including manicotti, ravioli and lasagna, chicken fortified with Marsala wine, mussels marinara and calamari.
La Torretta faced recent setbacks, among them being temporarily ordered shut July 30 by state inspectors for a handful of dirty dining issues.
La Torretta Italian Grill, at 308 Indian Trace, in Weston, expects to close Jan. 11. Call 954-389-0551 or go to LaTorrettaWeston.com.