BEND, Ore. -- Another downtown Bend restaurant, Staccato at the Firehall, is closing its doors, citing failure to negotiate a new lease.

Following is the announcement made Thursday evening by Susan Pasquetti, partner in Staccato at the Firehall, which opened five years ago in the renovated, historic former downtown Bend fire station:

"Unable to negotiate a new market lease, the award-winning restaurant, Staccato at the Firehall will be closing its doors after dinner service on Monday, June 21, 2010.

The restaurant, which is housed in Downtown Bend’s original firehouse quickly became a favorite among locals and tourists after opening in November 2005 and was awarded “Best New Restaurant.” It has since been a perennial winner of “Best Italian” restaurant in local publications in addition to many other awards.

The family operation was notified Wednesday that a new lease wouldn’t be negotiated and that the restaurant would be forced to close Friday, which has now been moved to Monday night.

“It was important to us to stretch our closure for as many days as possible in order to give our employees more time to pursue new employment opportunities and to give our customers a last chance to visit and enjoy a Staccato dining experience."

“We have been fortunate to have had tremendous support over the last five years, but the downturn in the economy coupled with a crippling lease made it nearly impossible to move forward. While we are disappointed with the decision of the property owners, we feel proud of what was built and operated at Staccato.

"It was important to build a first-class dining experience for Bend which we feel we accomplished. It was equally as important to create a culture among our employees that represented family and based on the amount of long-term, loyal and talented employees we’ve had, we feel that was achieved too. Contributing to the community was also vital and having donated tens of thousands of dollars and numerous volunteer hours to local organizations and non-profit groups, we feel we’ve been a good partner to the community.”

“With only a few nights left, we would encourage everyone to come and visit us and bring any unused gift cards in to redeem. Obviously, anytime a business has to close it’s tough on everybody involved. In light of the numerous restaurants that have closed under bad circumstances in Bend, we felt it was really important to make sure that we could best take care of our employees, our customers and vendors before moving on.”

“We are grateful to everyone who has supported us over the past five years as well as the friends that we’ve made from near and far.”