The original downtown location of Copia, which opened at 1122 Washington Avenue in 2005 and then recovered from a 2007 arson fire that shuttered it for 2½ years, has now closed for good.

“We’ve tried as hard as we can to hang in there,” owner Amer Hawatmeh said.

However, he said, “I couldn’t take no more. I couldn’t lose any more money. Our level of customer won’t come downtown anymore, especially the Illinois folks.”

Hawatmeh expanded Copia last year to Clayton, taking over the former Morton’s the Steakhouse space at 7822 Bonhomme Avenue, and another location will open soon at West County Center in Des Peres.

As bullish as Hawatmeh is on those new St. Louis County locations, he said that leaving downtown “really breaks my heart.”

“Every time I think about downtown, a tear comes to my eye,” he said.

(Copia is not entirely exiting downtown, however. Copia Wine Shop and Bodega at 1110 Washington Avenue remains open. If he closed the bodega, Hawatmeh said, “I think the neighborhood may kill me.”)