Over the weekend, would-be-patrons at Bend’s popular Nome Italiano were surprised to find the restaurant’s doors locked and a sign announcing the eatery’s closure.
It was a sudden end to a once-promising restaurant that opened in 2022, coming in runner-up in this paper’s popular Best of Central Oregon competition for best new restaurant that year and voted Best Italian by our readers in 2023.
“It’s been a tough year in the restaurant business,” said James Meskill, co-owner of SixTop Restaurant Group, which owns Nome and three other area restaurants. “This was a passion project for us. We’re proud of the work we did.”
Meskill said that in the end, Nome was not as healthy financially as its other restaurants and the owners made the tough call to close its doors. “It’s never a good time to decide something like that,” Meskill said, adding that right now their priority is finding jobs for Nome’s staff at one of their other restaurants — Bos Taurus, Hablo Tacos and Miyagi Ramen.
As for concern expressed across social media pages that another spot could suddenly close, Meskill says those operations are all healthy and anyone with a Nome gift card can redeem it at one of the other eateries.
“We want to thank our customers who supported us throughout the years at Nome,” Meskill said. “And a big ‘thank you’ to our employees, they’re fantastic people.”
Though Nome is permanently closed, Meskill said the ownership group plans to open a different restaurant at the same location.
This article appears in The Source Weekly February 13, 2025.
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