Vermont Commons

That little pan-Italian cafe that former Simposio executive chef Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio and his wife Donna tried to fit into the old Café Zol space on South Shepherd just shy of Fairview is calling it quits as of today. The “criminally unpopulated” (said Chron taster Alison Cook) Sabetta Café and Wine Bar opened just this past May, following a quaint astroturfing publicity experiment. “The reviews we received were incredible,” the Palazzo-Giorgios wrote to their fans in a non-judgmental kind of way today, “and we are thankful for the opportunity to have been able to share our passion for Italian food with Houston, however short that time may have been.”

• Sabetta’s pasta dishes are primo [Houston Chronicle]
• Previously on Swamplot: Sabetta Café Makes Sure To Feed the Blogs First

Photo (from last April): Swamplot inbox

How cute! Just a few days after a restaurant publicist emails news about the new Sabetta Café & Wine Bar set to open in the former location of Café Zol at 2411 South Shepherd just south of Fairview, a Swamplot “reader” sends in a photo (which just happens to be named in the same very specific style as the ones sent by the publicist) of the new sign out front and asks us if we know anything about it.

Only what you tell us! Let’s see: that it’ll be the new digs of former Simposio’s executive chef Riccardo Palazzo-Giorgio and his wife, Donna; that they’ll be serving “classic, signature dishes from the twenty-two different culinary regions of Italy,” and that you expect it to open in May.