Donna’s Italian Restaurant in Troy, a modern take on grandma-style red-sauce fare, will close after dinner service on Saturday, May 13, just a few days before its six-month anniversary.

The restaurant is not financially viable, according to owners Vic Christopher and Heather LaVine. They decided to close it to stop losses they say are running at $1,000 a week or more. They opened it in December as an homage of sorts to Minissale’s Wine Cellar café, the restaurant that occupied the building, at 1 14th St., for 38 years, until last summer.

A variety of factors were at play in the decision to close, Christopher tells me, including failure to complete purchase of the building, as originally planned.

The restaurant is open only four days a week. Business has been strong all Friday and Saturday nights, the owners say, when the restaurant feeds upward of 100 people, but on Wednesday and Thursday, few customers show up after an initial rush at opening time. It isn’t unusual for the last midweek meal to go out before 8 p.m. Further, the 10-seat bar area at Donna’s is too small to provide room for people to linger while waiting for a table, meaning most prospective diners who can’t be seated upon arrival tend to leave and not return. Finally, alcohol sales – where restaurants make most of their profits – are notably lower than at Christopher and LaVine’s other restaurants, Peck’s Arcade and Lucas Confectionery wine bar, both also in Troy.

The duo, who have been credited as the single most important component of Troy’s surging restaurant scene of the past few years, are experiencing their first significant failure with Donna’s. LaVine describes it as “incredibly painful,” because Minissale’s became their home away from home when they were opening the wine bar, their first venture. But their attachment to the place also led to what Christopher calls an “emotional decision” to go forward with Donna’s when Peck’s was less than two years old and they were also working to open The Bradley, a dive bar in downtown Troy.

“I’m supposedly a real-estate guy, but I couldn’t close the deal on the property,” Christopher says. “I’m not blaming anybody but myself.”

Most of the staff at Donna’s will be absorbed into Christopher and LaVine’s other businesses, which also includes Little Pecks café. The café and Peck’s Arcade are contiguous spaces in a large, circa-1870s brick building on Broadway near Monument Square, called Clark House; they share a rear courtyard with the wine bar, which has its front entrance around the corner. Some Donna’s menu items, especially the pizzas, likely will make their way downtown, says Nick Ruscitto, who supervises food for Christopher and LaVine’s restaurants.

Christopher agreed to answer questions from me about the closure.

Q: Is there anything not outlined above that you’d like to explain about the decision to close?

A: We deviated from the formula. With our other projects, we acquired the real estate cheap and then fixed up the place. In this case, we invested and opened prior to closing on the property. But we couldn’t demonstrate profitability with the business in order to get a mortgage. Presently, our holding costs for the building are too high for the business that we’re bringing in, so we’re going to step aside and let someone else take a shot.

Q: Could you have done anything differently that would have made Donna’s financially viable? If so, what?

A: We should have secured financing prior to moving forward with the deal. Perhaps things would have been different if we were more patient and careful before making this investment, but we were just so eager to jump on the opportunity.

Q: Why not be open more? Weren’t you giving up three nights of sales while still paying your staff for full time?

A: We tried to apply the same formula that works at Peck’s Arcade. We did great on weekends, but not so much otherwise. Maybe adding Sundays might have made sense, but it wouldn’t have changed the revenue-to-expenses ratio by much.

Q: What was different about business on the Congress Street hill vs. downtown?

A: Early crowd, tough parking situation, but a great neighborhood with a ton of upside. Maybe we were a little early to the party with this project, but that area is going to be booming.

Q: Up above, I described Donna’s as a “failure.” Do you agree with the characterization?

A: Yes. Absolutely.

Q: Aside from some variations on Donna’s food being available at your downtown places, is there a future for the name/concept/menu? Might Donna’s reappear elsewhere?

A: We will likely move the concept, on a smaller scale, to the former Broadway News space next to Little Pecks.

Q: Most restaurateurs are content to open one place, then maybe a second after five years or so. In four and a half years you have opened a wine bar, a grocery that became a café, an upscale restaurant, a retail wine shop, an Italian restaurant and a dive bar, also renovating all the buildings in the process. And you’re planning to renovate the floors above Peck’s and Little Pecks into a hotel. Are you overambitious?

A: It’s clear now that we were being overly ambitious, but at the moment, we felt like we were in a good position to grow the company. Personally, ambition is most of what I’ve got, although I’ve learned lately that it’s OK to say no to opportunities and not to rush these types of deals in the future. We’re going to get back to focusing on our existing real estate, including the Airbnb/hotel project and a few other concepts in development.

Q: Aside from Donna’s being underwater, what is the overall financial state of your corporate entity, called Clark House Hospitality?

A: The downtown properties are all sustainable, but with Donna’s operating at a deficit, it’s important that we close that door quickly, so that it doesn’t affect what is working well.

Q: What about the $55,000 in unpaid taxes listed in the state database?

A: Right around the time we were opening Donna’s, we were given the option of deferring payment into monthly installments with interest, in order to cover unanticipated expenses like rebuilding the kitchen hood fire suppression system, electrical work and HVAC upgrades. All payments have been made on time since, and we are on track for full payback.

Q: What’s next for Clark House Hospitality?

A: We’re going to expand the offerings at Peck’s, and we’re focusing on the backyard at The Bradley, which has been operating daily for the past month.

Q: Anything further you’d like to address?

A: It was an emotional project from the beginning, and talking about closing this place is sad.

Q: This is an extraordinary inside look at the shuttering after just six months of what seemed to be a popular restaurant. Most places that close do so suddenly, often under unclear circumstances. Why did you choose to be so open about this decision?

A: We are as transparent as possible with our staff, and always open to discussing business operations with our customers. But more importantly, we care deeply about the future of the Donna’s/Minissale’s space. It didn’t work for our company, but a chef-owner could make a great living with the right concept for that space. We made substantial improvements to the kitchen, and will leave the restaurant in turn-key condition for the next operator. Interested parties should contact Phil Minissale, at pminissale29@aol.com.