Nick's Italian Cafe, the McMinnville restaurant credited with helping launch Oregon's wine tourism industry, has closed permanently, just six months shy of what would have been its 50th anniversary. The closure comes after a failed safety inspection revealed a kitchen ventilation hood so far out of code that fixing it wasn't financially viable for the ownership group that had only reopened the restaurant two years earlier.
The restaurant announced its closure on social media, thanking patrons and the McMinnville community, according to The Oregonian/OregonLive. In late June, a safety inspection found the restaurant's ventilation hood was non-compliant, per the News-Register, prompting an initial temporary suspension of operations while the aging equipment was assessed. Owner Scott Baldwin told Eater PDX that reconstructing the kitchen could cost upwards of $100,000, and he said the potential expense simply did not make financial sense to pursue.
By the end of July, the ownership group made the closure permanent. The new ownership group did not respond to messages requesting information about the decision, per the same OregonLive report.
A Revival That Lasted Just Two Years
Nick's had only been open again since July 2024, when restaurateurs Thomas Ghinazzi, Jordan Neale, Scott Baldwin and Aaron Nieman took over the historic space and attempted to revive it. Ghinazzi, the head chef, retired long-standing signature items like the Peirano family's minestrone soup and Dungeness crab lasagna in favor of a modernized menu built around dishes such as Tuscan ribollita, according to the Oregon Wine Press. The trio behind the reboot had previously run Earth & Sea restaurant in nearby Carlton, which closed at the end of 2024 even as they kept Nick's running.
That 2024 comeback followed the founding Peirano family's own exit. Carmen Peirano, daughter of founder Nick Peirano, took over leadership in 2007 and ran the restaurant for 17 years before the family closed it and put the business up for sale in 2023. Carmen had learned to cook from her parents before taking charge, and in 2013 she expanded the operation by opening Peirano & Daughters, an adjacent market and deli at the same 521 NE Third Street address that sold Italian specialty items and packaged versions of Nick's minestrone soup.
Nearly Five Decades at the Heart of Downtown McMinnville
Nick Peirano, who had moved from San Francisco, opened Nick's Italian Cafe in February 1977 in the former downtown space of Café Dinette, using his grandmother's pasta recipes to build the menu. The restaurant operated for nearly half a century and became a defining fixture of Oregon wine country, recognized in 2008 by the McMinnville Downtown Association as its Business of the Year. In 2014 it became Oregon's second James Beard America's Classic Award winner, following the Original Pancake House, which had been the state's first.
Winemaker David Lett once called Nick's the best restaurant north of San Francisco, a line from 2008 that captured the restaurant's outsized reputation for a small-town Italian spot. Beyond the main dining room, Nick's was known for its back room “Refire Bar,” which featured a historic billiards table where Peirano played and which served for decades as an informal nightspot for Willamette Valley winemakers, according to WhatNow.
The Restaurant That Helped Build Oregon Wine Country
It was in that back room where late-night conversations among Oregon wine pioneers led directly to the creation of the International Pinot Noir Celebration, which launched in 1987 and has since brought hundreds of winemakers and thousands of visitors to Yamhill County every July, according to R. Stuart & Co. Winery. That informal gathering helped cement Nick's role as more than a restaurant — it was a proving ground for the ideas that turned McMinnville into an international wine destination.
What Comes Next for the Historic Storefront
Following the July closure announcement, property spokesmen Rob Stephenson and Chris Thomas said the building's owners are actively seeking a new restaurant tenant for the space, characterizing 521 NE Third Street as one of the best restaurant locations in the Willamette Valley, per the News-Register. No new tenant has been announced, leaving the future of one of downtown McMinnville's most storied storefronts unresolved for now.
