The North Chattanooga location of the Italian eatery Stevarino’s is closing after seven years in business on Cherokee Boulevard.
“With the cost of doing business downtown and with a lot of factors, it’s just not a profitable business,” owner Steve Flynn said by phone of the reason for closing the restaurant, which was the second location of Stevarino’s.
The original location that opened 20 years ago in South Pittsburgh continues to be successful, he said.
Higher rent in the downtown Chattanooga area, combined with the cost of food and paying employees, led to operating costs that exceeded profits, Flynn said.
“The construction here has killed us,” bar manager Megan Brady said by phone of construction near the restaurant on Cherokee Boulevard.
Stevarino’s shuttering North Chattanooga restaurant
(READ MORE: Residents raise alarm over Cherokee Boulevard bike lane plan)
“That’s not new business. That’s transferred business,” he said. “That’s not putting people in your restaurants, where you have the opportunity to have them come sit and have a drink or a glass or bottle of wine. They don’t come in and enjoy the dessert.”
Stevarino’s has 16 employees at the Chattanooga store who were offered positions at the other restaurant, but most lack a means of transportation to get there, said Flynn, who often hired people who wanted to get their lives back on track after going through the program at the neighboring Council for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services addiction treatment center.
“That’s always something I’ve been a proponent of, trying to help people in that factor,” he said.
The restaurant is expected to close at the end of May.
“We’re trying to stay open until the 30th,” Brady said. “It is possible that we might run out of things before then.”
Other North Chattanooga restaurants that recently closed or plan to close include taco restaurant Taconooga, which shuttered in December 2025 after 12 years on Frazier Avenue.
Bela Lisboa posted Monday on its Facebook page its intention to close May 31 after nine years on Frazier Avenue. The Mediterranean and Portuguese restaurant reopened in 2025 after extensive damage from a garage fire forced it to close temporarily.
____
Contact business reporter Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.