{"id":49312,"date":"2021-01-11T15:48:11","date_gmt":"2021-01-11T22:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mutus-italian-kitchen-closes-after-15-years-in-business\/"},"modified":"2021-01-11T22:48:11","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T22:48:11","slug":"mutus-italian-kitchen-closes-after-15-years-in-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mutus-italian-kitchen-closes-after-15-years-in-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Mutu\u2019s Italian Kitchen closes after 15 years in business"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=84faf566-288e-47fa-b7cd-bd7a50ad73ef&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" alt=\"Mutu\u2019s Italian Kitchen in downtown Durango has closed after 15 years in business.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Mutu\u2019s Italian Kitchen in downtown Durango has closed after 15 years in business.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>A longtime Durango restaurant has closed shop after its owner decided to move to Virginia for a change in scenery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt really hasn\u2019t hit me yet,\u201d said Rustin Newton, owner of Mutu\u2019s Italian Kitchen. \u201cI\u2019m sure it will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Newton, who has lived in Durango for more than 20 years, opened Mutu\u2019s about 15 years ago at 701 East Second Ave.<\/p>\n<p>But recently, his significant other had a job opportunity in Virginia, and the couple decided it was time for a change. And it turns out, Newton also has family in Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>Newton closed on the sale of the building in December, and Mutu\u2019s last day in operation was Dec. 20. Newton said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Italian eatery was doing well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very surreal,\u201d he said. \u201cIt all happened pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Newton said he\u2019s going to take some time off, and then decide what\u2019s next, whether that\u2019s opening another restaurant or doing something else in the food industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll miss all the people I knew through the restaurant,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m sad that Mutu\u2019s isn\u2019t there because I think we were a great thing in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In its stead, a new restaurant is opening at the location.<\/p>\n<p>Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar, which is located in Vallecito, is going to open a second location. The owners could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n<p>In a post to social media, the restaurant said the location in Vallecito will remain closed until the Durango location opens.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:jromeo@durangoherald.com\">jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>he\u2019s moving to Virginia with significant other<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[314,28,29,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-downtown-durango","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49312"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}