Vino e Cucina will close Nov. 22, owner Lorenzo Mottola has announced, ending a chapter of East Long Beach dining that deserves to be measured in far more than plates of pasta.
Though, yes, we need to talk about that pasta.
We also need to talk about what it meant to have a little Italian restaurant tucked along Norse Way, near Carson and Lakewood, where a meal could become an entire evening. Where the person guiding you toward a glass of wine had a deep investment in whether you enjoyed it. Where a neighborhood could find something personal amid the traffic and shopping centers.
“Unfortunately, the current economic conditions are no longer sustainable for our business model,” Lorenzo wrote in a goodbye message to customers, announcing the permanent closure.
That is the explanation he has offered. And the rest of his message makes clear how painful that decision has been: He credits his staff, thanks the communities that supported them, and remembers the people who helped keep their families afloat during COVID.
“You did it with your love,” he wrote.
For anyone who understood Vino e Cucina, that sentiment will feel familiar. The affection traveled both ways.
Lorenzo understood that hospitality takes time—and Vino e Cucina was a direct expression of that.
When I wrote about Vino e Cucina in 2022, I kept returning to Lorenzo himself: a Milan native whose restaurant career had taken him through Europe, EPCOT, Las Vegas, and Downtown Long Beach’s L’Opera.
He was talkative. Charming. Entirely comfortable approaching a table and helping its occupants settle into their evening. He wanted you to try another wine, consider another dish, have a conversation. There was a confidence behind that warmth: He knew what he was serving and understood how to share it.
“In the United States, hospitality is a business,” he said.
His own approach began with the Italian idea of a restaurant as an extension of family. That philosophy shaped the pace of dinner, the attention he gave his guests, and his insistence that food and wine belonged together. Lorenzo made lingering feel welcome. In a city where so much eating happens between obligations, that is a considerable gift.
It also explains why calling him a hospitality master feels appropriate. Knowledge matters. So does timing. But the ability to make someone feel that their evening matters—to you, personally—is what gives those skills their purpose.
East Long Beach needed places like Vino e Cucina.
Before the Long Beach Exchange complex expanded the area’s dining choices, this stretch of East Long Beach had a limited assortment of independent restaurants compared with the abundance of chains and drive-thrus around it. There were beloved exceptions. And Vino e Cucina was one of them.
Its importance was easy to overlook if your version of Long Beach dining centered on Downtown, 4th Street, or the coast. For nearby residents, an intimate restaurant with its own personality gave them a reason to stay in their neighborhood for dinner.
That deserves credit. The arrival of a large dining development can generate headlines and change habits. A small restaurant earns its place through individual evenings, one table at a time.
Vino e Cucina helped give this corner of the city a kind of gathering place. Its closure takes away a particular host, a particular kitchen, and the relationship they built with their guests. More dining options elsewhere cannot simply reproduce that relationship.
And, yes, the pasta mattered
I have included Vino e Cucina in my underrated restaurant coverage repeatedly. In my 2020 write-up, its homey yellow walls and straightforward cooking reminded me of a place my Grandpa Natalino and my mom would have enjoyed—and cooked in themselves.
The gnocchi earned that affection: soft potato dumplings that avoided the dense, chewy fate of so many versions, with preparations ranging from gorgonzola and walnut cream to tomato, mozzarella, and basil.
In my more recent essential pasta coverage, I returned to its cacio e pepe. Handmade spaghetti, Pecorino Romano, toasted black pepper, pasta water: a short ingredient list demanding real care. The cheese and starch supplied the creaminess. The pepper supplied its bite.
Then there was the paccheri with shrimp and saffron cream, those enormous pasta tubes carrying a sauce that allowed the seafood and saffron to remain distinct. These were dishes worth crossing town for, even if their home was a modest strip of businesses near the Lakewood border. The food gave Lorenzo something wonderful to share. His hospitality made sharing it feel consequential.
One more chance to say grazie…
In his farewell, Lorenzo thanked customers for encouraging the restaurant to improve and for showing grace when it fell short. Even at the end, he made room to acknowledge the work of his staff and the generosity of his guests.
“I could write a book with all the memories I have collected since 2017,” he wrote, adding that he hopes to thank people in person before Nov. 22.
There is still time to give him that chance. To return to a table. To remember what made this small East Long Beach restaurant worth seeking out.
And to thank the man who spent so many evenings making other people feel welcome.
Vino e Cucina is located at 4501 E. Carson St., Suite 105, with its entrance on Norse Way. Its announced closing date is Nov. 22.
