Immigration complications are forcing the owners of a popular Italian restaurant in Kelowna to close and leave Canada.
Danilo D'Alba, who owns and operates Roma Nord Bistro with his wife, Angela, made the announcement on Instagram with the title: An important and heartbreaking message from our family to yours.
The title was accompanied by a emoji of a broken heart.
"It is with incredibly heavy hearts that we share some news we never imagined we would have to speak aloud," wrote D'Alba.
"Due to a series of administrative issues and errors that occurred throughout our immigration process, we are being forced to leave Canada."
D'Alba didn't elaborate on what those issues and errors were. KelownaNow will be following up with D'Alba to get details.
Because of this, Roma Nord Bistro will permanently close its doors at the end of December.
"This is not a choice we made, and it breaks our hearts to leave the community, the team, and the beautiful future we were building here in Kelowna," D'Alba continued.
"To our amazing guests, our staff, and our friends—thank you for the best years of our lives. We don't know what the next chapter holds, but we know we want to spend our remaining months here doing what we love most: serving you with passion, gratitude, and family."
KelownaNow went to the Roma Nord grand opening at the Rotary Centre for the Arts in March 2022.
It was crowded and the crowd was excited.
It was indicative of a restaurant that would go on to be wildly successful, with locals and tourists alike clamouring to get a table to savour the authentic Roman food and imported Italian wines.
The Roma Nord concept beat out 15 other proposals to secure the coveted restaurant and patio space at the Rotary Centre for the Arts.
Two of the most popular dishes at Roma Nord are Roman favourite pastas that don't even have tomato sauce.
Carbonera is spaghetti noodles tossed in a delicious sauce of pecorino romano sheep's cheese, egg yolks, cream and pork.
Cacio e pepe is tonnarelli pasta simply combined with pecorino and fresh-cracked pepper.
The Roman pizza the restaurant served was pinza, smaller than a traditional pizza and oval-shaped.
Danilo and Angela met when they were both working at Danilo's family's butcher shop in Rome.
The couple emigrated to Vancouver 10 years ago then relocated to Kelowna six years ago to work for a couple of years at well-known Italian importer and retailer Valoroso in Kelowna.
Four years ago, they realized the dream of opening their own place when Roma Nord launched.
It looks like that dream is coming to an end.
"Our doors are open until the end of December,' summed up D'Alba. "Come share these final months with us and let’s make them unforgettable."
He signed off his Instragram post: "With all our love and eternal gratitude."
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