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March 6, 2008

Giro's, a spaghetti house with history, closing / Photo

Journal photo / John Freidah
Dan Driscoll, the latest owner of Giro's Restaurant, says the costs of running the business can no longer cover the expenses in an eatery once known for its low prices.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- After a 75-year run, Giro's restaurant in the village of Peace Dale will close its doors Saturday.

Owner Dan Driscoll said increasing competition, rising costs and an expanding regulatory burden have combined to make business untenable for him.

"I just don't have the capital to compete with the chains," Driscoll said. "All the items I need to run a restaurant have gone through the roof."

Founded in 1933 by Giro Ferraro as Giro's Spaghetti House, the establishment parlayed the end of Prohibition and heaping plates of Italian food into a winning recipe for the Ferraro family. The restaurant, with its horseshoe bar, became a regular stop for local millworkers and students from nearby University of Rhode Island.

Giro's children took over the restaurant after World World II and ran it until 1983 when they sold it to James P. McNamara and Jeffrey O'Hara, a URI grad and a South Kingstown native, respectively. Things in the gray-shingled, brown-brick building stayed much the same for 20 years, when McNamara sold the business to Driscoll, a South Kingstown native.

Driscoll added some new touches, opened up the building's front with new windows and brought in a cook who once worked at Capriccio's. But he couldn't overcome operating costs far above what they were when Giro Ferraro charged 60 cents for a plateful of spaghetti.

'It's tough to run a small business in Rhode Island," Driscoll said. "I gave it a shot."

Read more about Giro's closing later today on projo.com/business and in tomorrow's Journal business section.

Posted by Andrea Panciera  at 4:50 PM | Permalink

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