David Seibold via Flickr CC 2.0
A legendary California restaurant that kept its sometimes famous clientele happy and full announced on Monday that it is closing for good.
Uricchio’s Trattoria in downtown Bakersfield, a family-run restaurant serving Italian standards with a nod to the abundance of the Central Valley, has decided to close, the restaurant said on Instagram.
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“This decision did not come easily. In June of 2025 we celebrated 30 years in business,” the post read. “This past year, however, found us facing some hurdles we could not overcome.”
The phone number to the restaurant is disconnected.
The announcement comes on the heels of a temporary closure that had started in June.
Located in downtown Bakersfield, the restaurant was housed inside the landmark Haberfelde Building at 17th and K streets. With a sun-bleached brick facade featuring a splash of color in its green awnings, the restaurant hosted lively date nights and special occasions once inside.
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For decades, local patrons who poured out of downtown offices on a Friday for a quick drink had a chance at spotting someone of note tucked into the corner at Urrichio’s. That was due in large part to the restaurant’s patriarch, Nick Uricchio, who worked decades as part of the LA food scene before opening his namesake spot in Bakersfield.
Uricchio indeed had a name. After serving in World War II and returning home to Connecticut, he soon gave up on a fledgling career as a pharmacist to open a trio of restaurants on the East Coast.
But LA came calling in the 1960s. He moved there with his wife and four kids and immediately made inroads. “Nick spent many exciting years catering parties to the stars including the annual Golden Globes and Oscar After Parties,” read Uricchio’s obituary after his death in 2014. “Later, as the GM of the Friar’s Club, he continued to put smiles on well known comediens’ faces not only with his fabulous events, but with his own quick wit and one-liners.”
A selection of dishes from Uricchio’s Trattoria in Bakersfield, Calif., including eggplant parmesan, upper left, and orange roughy almondine, upper right.
Images via Yelp users John H., Lauren H., Patty M., and Uricchio’s Trattoria.
A selection of dishes from Uricchio’s Trattoria in Bakersfield, Calif., including eggplant parmesan, top, and orange roughy almondine, second from top.
Images via Yelp users John H., Lauren H., Patty M., and Uricchio’s Trattoria.
Uricchio’s Trattoria was a project he referred to as his retirement restaurant. He opened the doors in downtown Bakersfield in the summer of 1995, at a time when the city’s downtown was in the middle of perhaps one of its darkest downturns, before moribund landmarks like the Padre Hotel and the Woolworth’s Building were brought back to life and small shops and restaurants started to make their return to the city’s core.
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For a moment, Uricchio’s was one of the only places to offer a special-occasion meal and drink experience, said Bakersfield chef and pizzaiolo Thomas Benham.
“We didn’t go out to eat a lot when I was a kid, but that’s the place my parents always wanted to support,” he told SFGATE on Monday. “It was absolutely a thing. It was such a vibe that no one else was able to pull off.”
Benham said the restaurant was a spot that was a “gathering place for professionals that was still family friendly.” It was the place you could dress up and be downtown and feel like you were transported somewhere else, at a time when that part of the city had been left behind.
Though Benham never worked directly with Nick Ulricchio or the family, he noted that many of the chefs in town he’s come across who did time in that kitchen reflect on it as a “formative experience.”
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Interior views of Uricchio’s Trattoria in Bakersfield, Calif.
Image via Yelp users Dianna D. and Richard L.
With a sprawling first-floor operation, expansive dining area and big cocktail area, it’s also a type of restaurant that is getting increasingly harder to sustain both in the Central Valley and the neighboring metros.
“It’s such a tragedy,” Benham said of learning about the disappearance of another standard-bearer.
“I cannot believe this is happening,” former Bakersfield Californian food critic Pete Tittl wrote SFGATE via email Monday. “… Nick was a charming man who beat all the odds and created such a Hollywood atmosphere with all the celebrity photos. I heard him once say that Dean Martin liked to have dinner there every night. I believe it. The sandabs, the lasagna—many happy food memories for me and my wife Susan.”
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Claire Porter, Ulricchio’s daughter and the last owner of the restaurant, recalled her time growing up in LA while working at one of her father’s establishments: “At the Hilton, I used to get to be a coat check girl, my friends and I from college, when they did parties like the Golden Globes,” she told KGET-TV last year. “So I got to meet people like Elizabeth Taylor, some of the Bee Gees and Milton Berle, of course, at the Friars Club, because he was the guy there.”
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Porter would end up bringing this ethos to Urrichio’s, treating everyone, from tourists and regulars to actual celebs, like a star. “Claire was definitely someone you loved to see at the hostess stand,” Benham said.
Those who were able to enjoy an evening at Uricchio’s will undoubtedly have fond memories of Nick and the family, the food, the bar, and the perfect choreography of the din of conversation while the lights continued to dim. But for now, the reality is, California has lost yet another one of its dining treasures.
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“We are sad, but ever so grateful to all of you who supported us through the years,” the restaurant’s social media post concluded. “You brought the magic and have enriched our lives in so very many ways.”
Dining and Cooking