KINGSTON, N.Y. — After decades in business, Stella’s Italian Restaurant, a popular eatery on North Front Street, has permanently closed, with the owner citing the demolition of the Pike Plan canopies as the key reason for their decision to retire.
A sign simply stating “Sorry, we are closed” was taped onto the door outside the eatery at 44 North Front St. this week.
44 North Front St., in Kingston can be seen on Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (IVan Lajara/Daily Freeman)
Stella’s restaurant was opened in 1999 by Mark Burns’ parents, Barbara and Edward Burns, and is named after Barbara’s mother, Stella Fusco, who died at 99 in 2011. The couple had been at the North Front location since 1970, when they took over Artie’s Bar and Grill.
“It is with deep regret that we are closing our beloved Stella’s restaurant after 52 years in business,” Mark Burns, the eatery’s owner and son of its founders Barbara and Ed Burns, said Wednesday in an email. “We have enjoyed serving the Uptown community and will miss all our customers. Our decision to retire is not based on any issues with our landlord, with whom we’ve had a wonderful relationship, but with the changing nature of Uptown and the demolition of the Pike Plan canopies.”
The building that houses Stella’s is owned by developer Neil Bender’s William Gottlieb Real Estate, which has sued the city seven times over the demolition of the Pike Plan.
“The practical difficulties of running a restaurant, including food costs, have been exacerbated by the lack of parking in Uptown Kingston and the constant ticketing of vehicles, which became a deterrent to customers,” Burns said. “The removal of the Pike Plan was the final nail in our coffin, as we had a precipitous decline in business during the long period of demolition. We thank everyone for all the many years of support and we look forward to seeing everyone around the neighborhood.”
The Stockade Restoration Committee, a coalition of businesses seeking to promote Uptown after the removal of the Pike Plan canopies earlier this year, emailed the following statement to the Freeman on Wednesday about Stella’s closure.
“Uptown is built on the history of family businesses,” the statement said. “The Burns family has built and maintained a truly family-run restaurant in Stella’s, catering to locals on a day-to-day basis, and sharing in a multitude of special occasions. Barbara has always been the heart, whether in the kitchen or spending personal time with each of her guests.”
“Mark has diversified and grown the business through the next generation of Burns,” the statement added. “Fifty years is a long time to hold such an important place in Uptown. Sadly the time to close will create an unfillable gap in Uptown.”
In a 2012 interview with The Freeman, Barbara Burns recalled that Stella Fusco learned cooking from her mother, Rose, who came to the U.S. from Naples in 1900.
But after Fusco’s husband died in 1949, she ended up having to take two jobs, working in a dress factory during the day and at The Flamingo restaurant in Saugerties at night.
When Barbara Burns and her husband Ed Burns opened Stella’s, they placed Fusco’s recipes on the menu and gave her a space of her own to cook up her specialties right up until her health deteriorated before her death in 2011.
Compared by Burns to places in New York City’s Little Italy, Stella’s features the good, old-fashioned comfort foods many of us have come to associate with Italian dining.
“A while back, when we opened, a lot of people were doing everything fancy, but we went back to the old school,” Burns said in 2012. “We do the lasagna and the stuffed peppers and the eggplant Parmesan and the spaghetti and meatballs the way my mother made it. It’s all made by me with my mother’s recipes. Everybody says they won’t eat it anywhere else.”
The restaurant started small with just six tables and a few items on the menu. They were building a steady clientele, so in 2000, the Burns broke through another storefront to create even more space with 16 tables. Mark would get involved in 2010, and they bought Spada’s and expanded to have 30 tables across two dining rooms.
Dining and Cooking