Cosmo’s Ristorante, a popular downtown eatery for more than three decades, has suddenly closed its doors — permanently.
Owner Cosmo Dominelli says it was “just time” for him to retire after operating the business for 33 years.
“I've missed so many weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and family gatherings,” he said.
“I’m going to relax now. I’m going to spend six months in Florida and six months here. It’s just time to enjoy.”
The newly retired 66-year-old plans on making his first-ever visit out west to see his brother. He also plans on going back to Italy to visit his hometown.
As for the community, the closure of Cosmo’s Ristorante is a devastating loss. More than 400 people have reached out to Dominelli over Facebook to express their shock and sadness.
“A lot of people are upset that I’m closing,” he said.
“It makes me a little bit sad because there is no one else in the community that does what I do. I was the only place in the community that did true Italian food. A lot of people do Italian food in Orillia, but they don’t do the true southern Italian cooking that I did."
Some customers are asking that Dominelli leave a piece of his cooking behind for the Orillia community to have forever.
“I’ve been asked to do a recipe book, and I might do it,” he said. “A lot of the people want my shrimp Cosmo dish, my calamari dish, and some of the other dishes that I do.”
The pandemic did not play a role in the demise of Cosmo’s, a fine dining establishment that was coming off a record year in 2021.
“Business has been just unbelievable, the support from our local customers in Orillia and our surrounding areas like Toronto has just been phenomenal,” he said.
“It was a real hard decision to make because I have a lot of loyal customers, just a huge amount.”
Dominelli says retiring now actually helps him get ahead of pandemic challenges that were looming for the restaurant.
“I think I would have had staffing issues in the back of the house," he said. "Trying to find a sous chef to work in the back with me would have been hard because you can’t find anybody now to work in the restaurant industry.”
As for his servers in the front of the restaurant, he had two staff members of two years, one of six, and one of 10.
“The staff that I had were amazing, just unbelievable,” he said.
“We are all going to keep in touch, we were a close-knit family. We just had a Christmas party at my house about a month ago and we had a great time.”
Dominelli’s building at 90 Mississaga St. E. will be going up for sale soon.
He hopes when people walk by the building in the future, they remember the food and the great family atmosphere the restaurant provided.
Dominelli thanks the community for all its support over the years, not just for his restaurant but also for his family. The Dominelli family immigrated to Canada in 1964 and moved to Orillia after arriving at Pier 21 in Halifax.
“My sister had a store right beside Cosmo’s, my brother Serge (had) a hairdressing shop on Elgin Street, my brother Sam has a drywall company, and my brother Ralph was the fire chief,” he said.
“This community has really helped and embraced us very well."
