First Blue Olive, now Cucina! Cucina!  No! No!

The Italian franchise restaurant Cucina! Cucina! has been bought out and will close at the end of January 2007.  The Weekly Volcano has only confirmed that the Tacoma Mall location will close.  The fate of the Redmond and Issaquah locations is unknown. No further information on the buyer is available as the corporate office in British Columbia is closed for the holidays until tomorrow.

Cucina! Cucina! merged eight of their Italian Cafes with Joey Tomato's Mediterranean Grill; a Pacific Northwest Restaurant Company that operates out of Vancouver, British Columbia in conjunction with Gibralt Capital, a private equity group, back in January 2004. â€" Michael Swan