Angelo Pietro in Kaimuki Closing on Dec. 15

After more than 30 years in business, Angelo Pietro restaurant will be closing permanently next month.

The announcement, posted for customers on Saturday, Nov. 25, reads:

To Our Valued Customers, Friends, and Family:

It is with great sadness that we inform you that the owner of Angelo Pietro has decided to permanently close the restaurant.

Our final day of operation will be December 15, 2023.

We have been very fortunate to serve our pasta and dressing to the people of Hawaii for the past 30 incredible years. Although we will be closing the restaurant, the dressings will still be available for purchase at the supermarkets and grocery stores.

Our entire staff would like to thank you for your loyalty and friendship over the past 30 years and for letting us be a part of your lives.

In the coming days we will be doing our best to serve as many guests as possible as we say our final farewells.

Thank you once again and A Hui Hou

Angelo Pietro Staff

Angelo Pietro was founded in Fukuoka, Japan by Kunihiko Murata in 1980. His single, small Italian pasta restaurant introduced Japanese food lovers to the flavors of Italy.  One restaurant became two, then four, and within a few years, Murata was running a successful chain of over 60 Angelo Pietro restaurants throughout Japan.

Angelo Pietro serves a unique fusion of traditional Italian and Japanese flavors in pasta, pizza, salad, and salad dressing.

The hugely popular Angelo Pietro salad dressings began as a humble sideline to the pasta business, according to the company website.

“We cook our pastas to order and that takes about 10 minutes,” Murata is quoted as saying.  “To keep our patrons happy, we created the idea of an Italian vinaigrette with Japanese flavors to accompany a small salad and vegetables as a start.  Customers loved it, but most importantly, children loved it.” 

Parents noticed that children would eat their salads and vegetables, but only with Pietro’s special dressing.

Murata began filling his empty wine bottles with salad dressing.  He soon realized that he had a hit on his hands, something that would eventually become an even bigger success than his original restaurant concept.

Pietro Dressings have now become the best-selling soy dressings in Japan with more than 17 million bottles of dressing produced and sold each year.