On New Year’s Eve, kitchen staff at Dalla Tavola Zenari were prepping for the restaurant’s final service, as Elisa Zenari reflected on her family’s bittersweet end to nearly 40 years in the hospitality industry.
Zenari grew up in the downtown Edmonton restaurant, helping her parents.
She was only three years old when her mom, Glenda, opened the original concept: a kitchenware store called Zenari’s in Manulife Place.
A deli, coffee counter and specialty foods were also attached to the floor plan.
Later, her dad, Adriano, took over and the store slowly transformed into a wine bar.
Like the family photo covered walls and art prints, Elisa said the memories are endless.
“I would sit in the office and roll pennies and then did dishwashing and then finally moved up to serving and managing,” laughed Elisa.
“My dad was a control freak so he I had to do every little job before he gave me any more seniority.”
In December 2020, the lease was up for Zenari’s, and the family renamed the business to Dalla Tavola Zenari (from the Zenari table) and moved, essentially, across the street to the current location at the corner of 101A Avenue and Howard Street/Rice Howard Way.
The eatery became a full restaurant service at the base of the Enbridge Centre (rebuilt from the ashes of the Kelly Ramsey Building that burnt down in 2009.)
It continued to be a family operation: Zenari and her husband shared ownership duties, her sister is the evening manager and their two brothers also helped out.
Moving in the middle of the COVID pandemic and the ensuing inflation crisis, Elisa said it was tough to keep up. She spoke to Global News two years ago about the challenges (see video below), which she now says never really got better.
“We didn’t get a lot of the COVID wage subsidies or rent subsidies, so that made it really difficult to operate,” she explained.
“And then, you know, the margins in this business are so tight — we started to recover really well but it was just playing catch-up.
“It was never quite busy enough.”
Fast-forward to 2024: the business was going bankrupt and a court date was set for the new year. The family decided on Dec. 23 to close at the end of 2024.
The family acknowledges its story is not unique. In a post announcing the closure, they noted countless Edmonton businesses have endured similar struggles — some making it through, others not.
“It was fun in lots of ways. I try to look at things glass half full and we learned a lot during COVID,” said Zenari.
“We developed lots of strong relationships with our vendors and team.
“It’s too bad we kind of ran out of runway.”
Dalla is closing its doors on Dec. 31 but Elisa is open to selling the business to a new owner.
As for Elisa, she still has the itch to stay in the restaurant industry and assures Edmontonians, “You haven’t seen the last of the Zenari family.”
— With files from Lisa MacGregor and Karen Bartko, Global News