ST. LOUIS BUSINESS JOURNAL — Colino's Cafe & Bakery, which replaced Amighetti's on The Hill in August at the same location, has closed its doors, according to a Facebook announcement posted Wednesday.
"Today was the last day of operations at Colino's...due to legal fees that have been spent defending myself against a lawsuit, the funds that have been set aside for operations at the cafe have been spent (and then some)..." owner Cathy Consolino wrote.
In August, the owner of the Amighetti's brand, Anthony Favazza, filed a lawsuit against the deli, alleging that the owner of the new sandwich shop was violating a license agreement, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Favazza owns the Amighetti's brand but not the Hill location. Dominic Consolino is owner of the now-shuttered Amighetti's on the Hill; and his wife, Cathy, owns the new deli business, Colino's, located in the same space.
According to the Post-Dispatch, Dominic Consolino bought the deli in 2014, and in 2016, Favazza purchased the rights to the Amighetti's brand. Later that year, Favazza said he wanted to revamp the menu and told Consolino to do so, but he never saw the changes made.
Favazza had a number of other requests, according to the Post-Dispatch report, such as switching to toasted sandwiches rather than microwaved ones and cutting the stems off pepperoncini before putting them on the signature Amighetti special sandwich. He claims that Consolino and his wife never made those changes either.
Favazza owns and operates the Amighetti's restaurant location in Rock Hill.
The Consolinos' attorney, David Weiss, told the Post-Dispatch that Favazza couldn't demand that the Hill location make changes just because he owned the Amighetti's brand, and that Cathy Consolino never signed the licensing agreement.
"My whole intent on opening Colino's was to honor the legacy of the Consolino family on the Hill... to the entire Consolino family I'm so sorry I couldn't make it last," Cathy Consolino wrote in Wednesday's Facebook post.
The Consolino family owned and operated D. Consolino Market, which sold groceries on The Hill, for more than 60 years, Cathy Consolino previously told Feast Magazine.
The building where the Hill deli is located, at 5141 Wilson Ave., is currently owned by David Brandstetter, according to city records.
