VERO BEACH — Bella Napoli, one of Vero Beach’s longest-running Italian restaurants, closed last week after 20 years.
Joseph and Maria Salierno, who owned the restaurant on US 1 since 1994, said they now intend to begin their retirement.
The couple moved here with other members of Maria Salierno’s family in the 1970s, and her brothers still run three popular Italian restaurants: Mimmo’s Scampi Grill on the mainland, and Pomodoro and Johnny D’s on the island.
Meanwhile, the French Quarter – last Vero Beach restaurant started by Ian Greenwood, which had been struggling since he decamped a few years ago for Mexico – finally called it quits.
The space occupied by the French Quarter in Vero’s old downtown was taken over by Bijou, a highly popular French Mediterranean restaurant that has already moved there from its cramped quarters diagonally across 14th Avenue.