The Greyhound, the gastropub that chefs Torre and David Solazzo built inside Covington's old bus depot, has closed after five years in business. The husband-and-wife team behind the venture say the decision was about focus, not failure — a deliberate choice to pour their energy back into Del Porto Ristorante, the downtown anchor restaurant they have run since 2002.
Torre Solazzo said the closure was about concentrating on one restaurant and the Solazzo family, according to NOLA.com. In a statement, she wrote, “We've spent the last several years giving everything we have to both restaurants, and we've realized that it's time to make a change.” She added that she and her husband are proud of what they built at The Greyhound.
The gastropub sat at 701 E. Boston St. in downtown Covington, modeled after a European gastropub, per the same report. It featured two bars and a dining counter facing a wood-fired oven, and its menu leaned into eclectic comfort food — fish and chips, doner kebabs, and matzo ball soup — alongside wood-fired pizza and an extensive list of imported beers, the outlet reports. Local artist Molly McGuire contributed a series of paintings titled “Nine Boozes” that hung on the walls.
A Bus Depot's Second Life
The building at the corner of East Boston and Florida streets has a layered past. It was originally constructed as the Oak Tree Service Station before later serving as Covington's Greyhound bus depot and a Western Union office, according to historical accounts documented by Tammany Family. The Solazzos transformed that old depot into the gastropub that bore its name, following a pattern common throughout downtown Covington.
The district's dining scene has long leaned on adaptive reuse of historic structures. LOLA occupies a 1920s train depot, Columbia Street Tap Room sits inside the former Seiler Hotel, and Del Porto Ristorante itself took over a building that once housed Hebert's Drugs and a silent movie theater, per Covla.com. The Greyhound's conversion from bus station to gastropub fit squarely into that local tradition of repurposing the city's older commercial bones.
Del Porto's Long Run as a Downtown Anchor
Del Porto Ristorante opened in 2002 as a 10-table storefront on New Hampshire Street before outgrowing that space and moving to East Boston Street in 2006, according to background compiled by the restaurant itself. The Solazzos expanded the East Boston Street location again in 2014, converting adjacent space into a private dining area known as the Wine Room, per the Travel Media Press Room. Torre and David Solazzo continue to run Del Porto at 501 E. Boston St., just down the block from the now-shuttered Greyhound.
The couple's culinary pedigree helped put Covington on the map well beyond St. Tammany Parish. David Solazzo graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 1998, while Torre Solazzo graduated from the California Academy in San Francisco in 1999; the two met that year working the line at Tra Vigne in Napa Valley, according to Del Porto's own account of its history. Before opening their own restaurant, they worked under veteran chef Gerard Maras at Gerard's in New Orleans and at Artesia Restaurant in Abita Springs, a mentorship that introduced the California-trained pair to St. Tammany Parish's food scene.
That training paid off with national recognition. David and Torre Solazzo were named James Beard Foundation semifinalists for Best Chef: South three years running, in 2009, 2010, and 2011, per Explore Louisiana. St. Tammany Parish also honored them with its President's Arts Award as Culinary Artists of the Year in 2011.
What Comes Next for The Greyhound Space
Torre Solazzo said she and her husband are excited about the future of The Greyhound space and what its next chapter holds, NOLA.com reports, though no new tenant or use has been announced. In the meantime, Del Porto plans to add a gourmet-to-go menu in the coming weeks that will draw on dishes from both the Del Porto and Greyhound menus, giving customers a way to still order some of the closed gastropub's food.
The closure lands amid a wave of new investment in downtown Covington's dining scene. BRG Hospitality opened Feliciana, a two-story French bistro with an attached Paradise cocktail lounge, on Main Street in March, as Hoodline previously reported. Around the same time, a former Lee's location was converted into a taqueria, another sign of how frequently commercial restaurant spaces are changing hands in the city's core. Even as individual spots evolve, downtown Covington continues to draw ambitious dining concepts, and the Solazzos' choice to narrow their focus to Del Porto reflects a long-standing operator managing the demands of running two restaurants against the pull of family life.
