Intorno Italian restaurant — located in the cool, window-lined corner space at Eighth and Massachusetts streets — has closed after a year and a half.

The restaurant couldn’t produce the volume of business it needed, chef and owner Jim Vaughn told my colleague Chad Lawhorn, who reported the closure in this morning’s Town Talk blog. “We just couldn’t fill the seats, and the overhead was just too high,” said Vaughn, who previously was part of the successful Charlie Gitto’s Italian restaurant in The Hill district of St. Louis. “It is really stiff competition on Mass. Street. It seems like the staples are busy, and the other guys get to try.”

Chad’s post also includes information (or at least speculation) on what might be coming to the space next: A second Coal Vines or another restaurant concept by the same owners. Coal Vines, a pizza and wine bar, opened on Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza in 2010. Before Intorno, 801 Massachusetts St., was home to Esquina restaurant and the historic Round Corner Drug Store.

In closing, RIP Intorno crab cakes and peanut butter pie.

Tips welcome!

Try something unusual or know of something interesting going on at a Lawrence restaurant? Send me an email at sshepherd@ljworld.com or contact me on Twitter @saramarieshep. For more local food and restaurant news, click here.