A Houston-area Italian restaurant has served its last plate of pasta. Passerella Italiano closed after service on Sunday, August 23, co-owner Paul Miller tells CultureMap.

Located in Cypress at The Boardwalk Towne Lake development, Miller and his wife Doris opened Passerella in May 2022. The restaurant featured a menu of scratch-made Italian fare from chef Ed Roberts (Tony’s, Masraff’s) along with a wide-ranging wine list that leaned on selections from California and Italy. A second location opened on Washington Avenue in May 2023 and closed in March 2025.

Miller says he received enthusiastic reviews from diners, but the elevated atmosphere meant that customers saw Passerella as more of a place to celebrate a special occasion than an option for a weeknight dinner. That meant the restaurant never drew consistent enough business to remain viable.

“Weekends were great, but weekdays were not as strong as we would have liked,” Miller explains. “I certainly learned a lot regarding price point, using white tablecloths, style of service, and how we structure our wine lists.”

The past year has been a challenging one for Miller and his company Gr8 Plate Hospitality. In February, the company converted the Garden Oaks location of The Union Kitchen into a more casual, burger-forward concept called Jax on the Tracks, but it failed to connect with diners and closed in May. Still, Miller is feeling optimistic about the prospects for his other concepts, which includes three locations of The Union Kitchen (Memorial, Cypress, and Kingwood), two locations of Jax Grill (Bellaire and Shepherd south of I-10), and Vine Memorial, a wine bar that opened in 2024.

“Jax is doing great — counter service with a solid price point. Kids sports teams and groups that have been coming for over 30 years are our core,” Miller says. “At Union, we just started a great lunch menu and are very aggressive on our wine list pricing and happy hour.”