CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — Chef and owner Joe Sanfilippo has announced his retirement from the restaurant industry with the closing of his Chesterfield establishment, Filippo's Italian Kitchen and Bar.
The restaurant, which has been located in Chesterfield at 120 Chesterfield Valley Dr. for 10 years, held its last dinner service this past Saturday. Sanfilippo has worked in the industry for 30 years, officials said.
"It's a bittersweet moment," Sanfilippo said in a statement. "I have been in business for the past 30 years, in an industry with a 95% failure rate, so I am immensely proud of what we've been able to accomplish. In this business you must devote almost all of your time and effort in order to be successful, and that's what I've done since I was 24 years old. But at this stage of my life, I'm really looking forward to going to dinner with my friends on a Saturday night, and truly start enjoying all of the things in life I have been missing."
Sanfilippo spent his childhood working in his family's restaurants, before heading to his native Italy for culinary training. He opened his first restaurant, called J.F. Sanfilippo's, in downtown St. Louis in 1991 inside the Drury Inn & Suites at 711 N. Broadway. Sanfilippo opened the Chesterfield location in 2011, and after operating both locations for several years, he closed the downtown spot in 2018.
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