As the restaurant turns

Anyone who has ever dabbled into the restaurant business knows it’s a dog-eat-dog industry that’s more prone to chewing up newcomers and spitting them out broke and penniless. In order to make it, one needs a quick wit, an iron-cast stomach and pockets as deep as a list of clientele.

So it came as a bit of a surprise to learn two of the Spa City’s top eateries were shuttered by the close of 2006, despite having stalwart reputations and general success over the past decade.

The first to fall was Michael and Pattie Lenza’s 43 Phila Bistro, an eponymous name for its location on an avenue clustered with restaurants. For years, the Lenza’s restaurant offered the only haute cuisine in the city proper, as the yuppies traveling north from the Big Apple began demanding the same high-octane dishes boasted at Siro’s over the summer.

The bistro won awards, drew acclaim and became a destination for the wealthy during race season. And with good reason too. After Michael Lenza put Fourty-Three on the map, Executive Chef John Winnek brought it to the next level with a quality rolling menu and a stable of capable, quality underlings to his kitchen.

The restaurant seemed in good shape in 2001, as the Lenzas began aggressively expanding their kitchen. They built an extension on the side and renovated the building’s second floor with the idea of expanding their business into catering. They also started serving food at the McGregor Links Country Club.

But apparently, the summer traffic into Phila slowed fairly precipitously over the past few years. The country club operation was scrapped one year after it started. Then over the summer, the Lenzas put the restaurant on the market. Several months later, they were closing the doors for good after 13 years in business, something that shocked even the regulars. Word on the street was that the business had become an income drain and the family was nearing bankruptcy.

Not much more than a couple blocks away, another popular restaurant called it quits. Mino Kawaguchi closed the door to Mino’s Sushi House on Caroline Street last month, ending his reign as Saratoga’s sushi king. He came to the United States about 25 years ago and owned eight restaurants in Greenwich Village, Albany and California before settling in Saratoga Springs to open the city’s first sushi restaurant.

And ask any sushi aficionado, Mino was the best gig downtown. Over the years, several others tried unsuccessfully to compete with Kawaguchi, who built an impressive and eclectic clientele. Even recently, there were rumblings that Mino was planning to expand the business in the building by adding a hibachi grill upstairs.

But apparently, business dropped as the much larger Sushi Thai Garden opened on Phila Street. As recently as October, the business had tax liens imposed on it, with more than $9,000 of unpaid taxes. Mino apparently opted for closing his Saratoga restaurant in favor of keeping another location across the street from the Colonie Mall. Another one bites the dust.

Update: Mino told the Post Star he intends to reopen in a few months at a new location, perhaps in the ghetto-turned-art-district of Beekman Street. Kudos, Mino. Stay with us a bit longer. There's nothing that beats a pull of hot saki and a Saratoga Roll.

Then there’s the peculiar case of David Zecchini, who apparently has more money that god. Or at least enough money to throw stacks of hundred-dollar bills at god. That’s the impression the owner of Chianti il Ristorante gives with his constant retooling among his three -yes that’s three -upscale Italian-fare eateries.

After spending eight successful years and countless cash at transforming a dilapidated Long John Silvers into a Euro-paradise, Zecchini is pulling up stakes for a space in Sonny Bonacio’s new building, located exactly a half-mile away from Forno Bistro at the old Firehouse on Broadway and Mare Ristorante at the former location of the Metro.

True, moving a business closer to the Broadway action is always a good plan to make the register ring. But when you own two other restaurants just a scant few blocks away from one another, it seems a bit superfluous to bring in a third. Zecchini is also the fellow who put thousands of dollars into transforming the Metro into Luna Lounge, only to tear all his improvements out three years later to create Mare.

Word on the street is that he’s blind-stinking crazy.

But perhaps crazy is what it takes to make it in this cut-throat business, where one season can mean the difference between success and a spot on the bankruptcy rolls.