SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Friday was a bittersweet night for Natalie Gonzales.
Gonzales, an assistant manager at Biba restaurant in midtown Sacramento, was one of the last employees working as the coronavirus pandemic forced the restaurant to serve takeout only.
Gonzales said when she heard the news that the restaurant would close its doors for good this week, "it was like waking up after a funeral."
The restaurant, which opened in Sacramento 33 years ago by the late Biba Caggiano, served it's final meal on Friday.
"I think Biba would be very proud," said Gonzales who worked at the restaurant for more than a decade.
Caggiano opened the restaurant in 1986, focusing on cuisine from the Bologna area of Italy. She grew up cooking the food which would later become the highlight of Sacramento's Italian food landscape.
In 1969 she brought her talents to California's capital, teaching a series of popular cooking classes. Caggiano published nine best selling cookbooks, which have sold more than 600,000 copies combined.
Last August, Caggiano died at the age of 82.
Linda Boudreau and Jen Domenick have been regulars at the restaurant, sitting at the same table for 27 years.
The two of them were among the last to get meals just before the restaurant's closing, sitting in lawn chairs in front of the restaurant to have one final memory.
"We just decided to bring chairs, because we wanted to be as close," Boudreau said. "We usually got sat at that table right there, so we're right on the other side of the window where we usually got sat."
It was a socially distant farewell.
"We're glad to have one last meal here to honor such an incredible woman and an incredible chef that has contributed to our lives and our taste buds over these decades," Domenick said.
For employees and faithful patrons alike, it's the end of a legacy.
"It's truly something to cherish in the end," Gonzales said.
Follow the conversation on Facebook with Lena Howland.
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