ALTAMONT — The popular Italian restaurant Mio Vino at 186 Main Street in Altamont has been closed for quite a few weeks now, while owner Michael Giorgio regroups.

“The only reason why we closed,” Giorgio told The Enterprise by phone on Tuesday, was that the manager left suddenly, giving him one day’s notice. Then the chef and the rest of the kitchen staff “pretty much did the same,” he said. 

The rumor that the staff was taken away by Mazzone’s is “a rumor,” Giorgio said, and “not true.”

He plans to come back bigger and better. “It was a blessing in disguise,” said Giorgio.

Before originally opening the restaurant, Giorgio spent months painstakingly updating and converting the building—which overlooks the park and once housed the A&P market—from country decor into an upscale wine bar.

The restaurant is now working to reopen with an all-new staff, and “it’s going to be spectacular,” Giorgio said.

Running the kitchen will be someone very well known, with Food Network ties, Giorgio said. He said that he cannot give the name right now, but he plans to issue a press release soon.

For now, the bar only is open on Tuesday evenings during the free concerts in Orsini Park, to “try to help the community,” Giorgio said.