Downtown Bangor restaurant closes indefinitely 2 months after opening

An Italian restaurant in downtown Bangor has closed indefinitely two months after it first opened in July.

Lavano’s, which took over the former Tesoro Italian Restaurant at 118 Harlow St., first opened on July 12 . The owner, Briar Jipson, told the Bangor Daily News that month that the restaurant would offer pizza and specialize in fresh, house-made pasta.

Jipson on Thursday said she closed the restaurant following a medical emergency and is “deciding next steps for the business.” Jipson did not give a tentative reopening date.

The indefinite closure follows a turbulent introduction to the downtown Bangor restaurant landscape, as illustrated in social media posts over the restaurant’s two months in operation.

The restaurant posted on July 21 and July 25 that it urgently needed a new cook. On Aug. 4, the restaurant stated it was only serving pizza due to being “extremely understaffed.” That ended on Aug. 14 when a new chef started, ostensibly ending the restaurant’s limited menu.

However, two days later on Aug. 16, the restaurant announced on Facebook that it would be removing pasta from its menu, but would continue serving pizza.

“While we wanted to offer fresh handmade pasta and authentic Italian food to the neighborhood, there just hasn’t been the staff needed to meet the demand,” the restaurant wrote in an Aug. 16 Facebook post. “Due to this, wait times have been longer and our staff has been treated poorly because of it.”

In an Aug. 23 post, however, the business announced that pasta was back on the menu, but clarified they moved away from serving house-made pasta “in an effort to decrease wait times and keep the customers happy.”

The business last posted on Facebook on Sept. 12 and Sept. 13, and announced it would be closed those days due to “an unforeseen circumstance” or “an emergency.” It’s unclear whether the eatery opened at any point after that.

The restaurant did not announce it was closed until further notice, either through a social media post or a physical notice on the door.

A reporter attempted to visit the restaurant this week when its business hours stated it should have been open, but found the lights off and the doors locked.