And just like that, one of L.A.’s most celebrated restaurants shuttered. Last Thursday afternoon, co-owners Steve and Dinah Samson shared that their Pico Boulevard restaurant, Sotto, would close on Saturday—a farewell without much warning and fanfare, especially considering the restaurant’s storied success as one of the best Italian establishments in the city.

Launched in 2001, Sotto wasn’t simply the premier destination for Neapolitan-style pizzas and some of the best Southern-Italian food and wine in L.A.; it served as the springboard for both Samson and another notable alumnus, Alimento’s Zach Pollack. “This restaurant closing is obviously difficult for all of us, but it doesn’t mean it’s the end for all of us,” Steve Samson told the crowd of friends and family on Sunday night, their final evening in the space.