Above: The Radici Team. Owners Bridget Thibodeau Sasso – center – in a recent photo and Enrico Sasso.
Eastern Market’s Radici Closes on Sunday, April 28
by Larry Janezich
Posted April 24, 2024
Wednesday afternoon, Radici, the popular Italian deli/café across from Eastern Market, announced that it will close its doors on Sunday, April 28. Radici posted the announcement Wednesday afternoon and distributed it on Instagram. (See link below.)
The announcement stated, in part, “Over the past six months we have tirelessly explored every avenue to ensure continuation of Radici at our current location. We considered various options to sustain our operations and engaged in lengthy negotiations with our landlords, but despite our best efforts, difficulties with the extension of our lease and condition of the building proved impossible to overcome.”
Radici’s landlord is Stanton Development whose offices occupy the second story of Radici. A previous verstion of this story reported that a source told CHC that the current lease for the first floor and the basement was $20,000 a month. Another source familer with the negotiations said that number was inaccurate and overstated. The second source also said that Radici had an option to extend its lease for an additional five years that it did not attempt to exercise or negotiate. That would appear to indicate Radici felt it could not continue to operate under that lease – otherwise they would have.
Radici’s announcement cites numerous challenges Radici has faced: three years of disruptive construction across the street, a global pandemic, endless maintenance issues and increasing crime – and notes, “Reflecting on our unwavering dedication and resilience in the face of these challenges … the decision… was not made lightly.”
Radici opened at at 303 7th Street in October of 2014, in the space formerly occupied by The Silver Spork.
One of Radici’s finer moments came in April of 2016 when First Lady Michelle Obama was one of a group of women who attended a birthday luncheon for an unnamed friend, an event which drew a large crowd as word spread.
The communique ended on a hopeful note: “We bid you arrivederci for now thile we find a new home for Radici and look forward to the day when we can welcome you back to our table….”
Here’s a link to Radici’s announcement posted this afternoon: https://bit.ly/4ddUjYZ
CAPITOL HILL CORNER 
There’s something rotten in the state of Stanton…
Terrible news and loss for CH community. Given Stanton’s false promises and failures of Stanton/Eastbanc partnership this sadly comes as little surprise. Stanton touted its Hill connections in RFP process, dropped nearly everything the community wanted from the final project, and tacked on an extra floor level that no one wanted. But hey – they got us a dungeon Trader Joe’s!
https://capitolhillcorner.org/2014/08/15/the-hine-project-part-1-how-it-happened-dmped-stantoneastbanc-local-politics-and-tommy-wells/
It would be wonderful if they could lease one of the PA Ave storefronts closer to the Capitol.
I wonder if the old Santa Rosa Taqueria location would work.
Kitty Kaupp and Stanton Development own much of the block and are ruthless in their negotiations with tenants. They refuse to understand the value of places like Radici as a great amenity for our community. They have continuously prioritized profit over people which sad for someone who call herself a life-long hill resident.
Guess we forgot to stop by monday…unless you did….?