Riverwest’s Centro Café (808 E. Center St.) – open for 17 years – has announced that it is closed. Not closing, but closed. When a restaurant shutters, we lose a part of our collective dining unconscious. And that unconscious has really taken a beating in the last year.
Centro hasn’t made any closing statements on their social media yet, but there is a message on the restaurant’s voicemail – saying that owners Peggy Karpfinger and Pat Moore are “saddened” to say they’ve closed the restaurant. But, per the message, Bar Centro (804 E. Center St.), the adjacent business that the couple opened in 2019, continues to operate.
The restaurant – which had a cozy back room with a wine bar, and a charming backyard patio – was known for pasta, some of them prepared in the open kitchen in the main dining room. Menu items like the rocket salad, gnudi with pancetta, butternut squash ravioli and vodka gnocchi have become classics. The zucca butternut lasagna got a mention in our feature on Italian food just this month.
The owners didn’t share the reason for Centro’s closing. In 2024, Company Brewing – located across the street from Centro – also shuttered permanently.
