No More Maurella's

Residents were concerned last week when a closed sign appeared on restaurant in Minooka. When they did not open for Friday night diners, residents were worried that the close was permanant. And when the "for rent" sign appeared, they knew the business was gone.

"The day we closed was Sept. 11 and the reason for closing was the economy, obviously," Carmen Maurella said in a phone interview.

Add to the lower amount of customers the fact that the rent on the property was raised, and you have a recipe for failure.

"The landlord just raised the rent — that didn’t help," Maurella said.

Carmen Maurella owned the restaurant with his wife, Christy. It had been a dream of his to own a small Italian restaurant. The building was 156 years old and seated 50 to 80 people.

Channahon Minooka Patch used the restaurant as a backdrop in its in November 2010. We also the restaurant in January.

Carmen Maurella said it was simply the economy, not a competing restaurant in town, that brought down his customers. He said he knows this because he asked some of his regular customers.

"A lot of our regulars, we would go up to the table and say, 'We haven’t seen you in a while,' and they would say, 'You know, times are tough,'" he said. "I just don't think people were going out."

But, despite needing to close the doors to Maurella's, Carmen Maurella does not consider the business a failure.

"We were very successful, we did a very good job out there," he said.

And although he has not picked a location yet, he does plan to open an Italian restaurant in the future.

Maurella's served pizza, pasta and other Italian dishes.