Crispy duck breast, seafood pasta and pistachio-crusted Texas Redfish. Photography by Kathy Tran.

Urbano Cafe, the Italian restaurant located next to Jimmy’s Food Store is closing after 15 years. Their last day of service is Saturday, Jan. 27. Their second space in the strip, aptly named 2 Doors Down, is also closing. 2 Doors Down, opened February 2022, originally operated as a coffee shop before transitioning into a secondary dining room.

“We did not make this decision to close lightly, but it’s just time for us to move on to our next chapter. We have so many people to thank for our 15 years of success,” owners Mitch and Kristen Kauffman said in a Facebook post announcing the closure.

With seating for just about 30 guests, the bistro’s menu is concise, featuring just six appetizers, three salads, seven pastas and five entrees. The mushroom risotto and crispy duck breast are customer favorites. A BYOB spot, guests would stop by Jimmy’s for a bottle of wine. Sidewalk tables were available for fair weather days.

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“We wanted to give you all a heads-up in case you want to come in to enjoy your favorite dishes one last time and say goodbye to our team that has served you for so many years,” said the Kauffmans, who have lived in Lakewood Heights for 26 years.

Before the Kauffmans,  started their restaurant, Mitch worked at the Four Seasons in Las Colinas, Patrick Colombo’s Sfuzzi and Alberto Lombardi’s Taverna. They opened Urbano Paninoteca on McKinney Avenue (in the old Celebrity Cafe spot)  in 2002. It operated until December 2008, when they closed because of rent increases and a lagging dinner service, the Advocate reported in 2009. So they found the space at Bryan Street and Fitzhugh Avenue in Old East Dallas. Work on the now 100-year-old building delayed the restaurant opening a few months. Stripping linoleum floors is not for the faint of heart.

1410 N Fitzhugh Ave, Dallas, TX 75204 via Facebook, Urbano Cafe

“We are proud to leave our neighborhood better than we found it,” the Kaufmans said in their statement. “We love sharing the image above showing how far we’ve come from when we first saw our building beside what it is today. ”

Since the restaurant’s opening, a variety of food-related businesses have come and gone in the neighborhood, Dallas Morning News‘ Claire Ballor recently wrote. Pickletopia opened in 2018 and closed in 2022. Donny Sirisavath ‘s esteemed Khao Noodle shop (Bon Appetit’s second-best restaurant in the country in 2019) was replaced by his fried chicken concept Darkoo’s Chicken Shack, which also then closed.

However, construction is underway for the 327-apartment complex The Flynn at Live Oak, right around the corner from Jimmy’s and Urbano. Eighty-seven unit Kiva East Apartments, located a mile from the strip, is also under construction.

“So that whole dynamic changes everything for this corner, I believe,” Mitch said over the phone.

The Kauffmans thanked their team, their landlord Mike Turner of J. Elmer Turner and Jimmy’s Food Store in their statement.

“We will miss them all.”