For the past year and a half or so, Bill Sweete and his team held an interesting trifecta on College Street with Sidecar, Toronto Temperance Society and Negroni. This past summer, the latter of those venues had undergone a modest renovation and a menu change to become Carpano. But despite a positive reception in the area, Carpano has closed, Sweete tells us, and it’s been sold to a couple of “young restaurateurs.”
Sweete says that a number of factors contributed to the decision to sell the restaurant. Changing the name from Negroni to Carpano may have confused loyal customers, he says, as business waned in the wake of the change.
“It was a mistake,” he says, although he admits that Carpano was starting to pick up right around the time it was sold.
On top of that, managing three venues along with a family was becoming too much for him to handle, so selling the venue will allow him to focus on his remaining two ventures. He did not disclose who the new owners are or what, exactly, they intend to do with the space.