A popular Campustown restaurant quietly closed its doors during break, leaving many patrons wondering why.

DaVinci’s owner Kevin Knudson was as disappointed as his loyal customers when the restaurant closed its doors on Dec. 24.

“It’s been really difficult,” said Knudson.

“We’re a family business, and we developed a lot of close relationships with people in the community. We’ve been in that location for over 20 years.”

Many factors resulted in the closing of daVinci’s.

DaVinci’s closed because the of the end of its lease, decreasing traffic because of the closing of Knapp and Storms residence halls, and the need for remodeling of the daVinci’s building.

“The timing of the lease was unfortunate,” Knudson said. “With the investment we would have to put into the physical structure of the building, we might as well build new.”

Knudson said to keep looking for another daVinci’s sign, because the company is considering opening a new restaurant in a different Ames location.

“We are looking at other locations, although I can’t disclose any of that information right now,” Knudson said.

Though a new daVinci’s may open in the near future, Ames residents said they are still disappointed by its absence in the Campustown area.

“I’ve been getting tons of e-mails from loyal customers,” Knudson said.

Bruce Bassler, associate professor of architecture, was one of daVinci’s frequent diners.

“We had a group of four of us that ate there every Thursday,” Bassler said.

“We have been going there for seven or eight years now.”

“We thought it was a great atmosphere because we could sit around a table and chat,” he said.

“If more people would show up we could just pull up some chairs.”

Pat Mueller, sophomore in marketing, was disappointed to see daVinci’s go for a different reason.

“Their Philly cheese steak was the best,” he said.

Loyal customers said they will miss the friendly daVinci’s staff.

“About the beginning of fall semester, we made ourselves some frequent diner coupons,” Bassler said.

“We showed up with these ‘buy 10 meals and get one free’ coupons and the girl at the counter kind of looked at us. Steve, the manager, came out, looked at them and said, ‘Sure why not.'”