City Beat

Restaurant closes after 2 years on Lincoln Ave.

Guiseppe's owner plans to focus on Campbell location

By Kate Carter

After nearly two years serving award-winning Italian food in Willow Glen, Guiseppe's Restaurant is passing the spatula to a newcomer. New owners took over the Lincoln Avenue eatery on March 19, and are planning to open the doors of the new restaurant, Cafe Adriatic, in early April.

Guiseppe's former owner Joseph Salsiccia said he sold his Willow Glen restaurant so he could concentrate his energies on the original Guiseppe's in Campbell. He also wants to spend more time with his family.

"I find it much easier to run one restaurant," Salsiccia said. "I'm a more hands-on type of guy. I was finding myself spreading myself a little thin."

Salsiccia opened the restaurant located at 1072 Lincoln Ave., next door to Jake's Restaurant, on May 1, 1999. It was the second Guiseppe's location and began serving about seven years after the first restaurant opened.

Salsiccia said business was good in Willow Glen. Trying to run both restaurants, however, was leading to 15-hour workdays and leaving little time left over to watch his 2 1/2-year-old son, Quentin, grow up.

After the past hectic holiday season, he started thinking seriously about closing his Willow Glen doors, he said.

Salsiccia has spent almost 30 years in the restaurant business, 20 of them before opening a restaurant of his own. He said Guiseppe's serves "Italian with a touch of French" cuisine and specializes in tiramisus and bruschetta.

He said he does expect to lose some of his Willow Glen clientele, but he also thinks that true Guiseppe's loyalists will make the drive to the original location.

"If they really like Guiseppe's type of cuisine, they'll go to Campbell," he said. "It's not too far away from here."

Luka Dvornik is the owner of the new Cafe Adriatic, named for the sea between Italy and Croatia. He plans to offer a small, varying menu serving "anything from Spain to Greece," with an emphasis on seafood. He says he is altering some of the decor, but keeping the same hours as Guiseppe's, serving lunch Tuesday through Friday and dinner Tuesday through Sunday.

Dvornik comes from Cupertino's Cafe Torre which serves Italian, Mediterranean and California cuisine. He says he's pleased with his new opportunity in Willow Glen.

"It's a great area, it has a lot of potential," Dvornik says. "Willow Glen is getting classier."

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