A local restaurant known for its Italian cuisine — and for a mechanized Boise icon toiling high above it — plans to close.

But Idahoans have time for one last taste.

Cucina di Paolo, 1504 S. Vista Ave., plans to shut its doors permanently April 27 — after a final day of Italian and American comfort food, take-and-bake meals and plenty of memories.

“I wanted to give people the opportunity to say goodbye,” said Mary Jean Wegner, who opened the restaurant in 2007 with her husband, Paul, in a former Maytag Laundry building. “That was my way of thanking them.”

Even Boiseans who have never eaten at Cucina di Paolo are familiar with what is one of the city’s more memorable sights: Betty the Washerwoman, an animatronic woman working over a tub perched high above the restaurant’s sign.

A leftover from the Maytag building days, Betty has been a familiar sight since at least the 1950s. She wasn’t always functioning, got repaired, motor replaced, even vandalized. But the community seemed to grow more fond of her as time passed — and Cucina di Paolo was a big part of that. “We wanted Betty to be more than a historic icon,” Paul Wegner told the Statesman in 2019.

During the Cucina di Paolo years, she even became an annual “calendar girl” for local causes such as The Idaho Foodbank and Idaho Humane Society.

But for the restaurant, it is time to say goodbye — and this time for good. In 2020, the restaurant closed temporarily after Paul Wegner died unexpectedly from a heart attack. Mary Jean and their oldest son, Rob, reopened it.

“Although life was rerouted, Rob … and I walked through our unendurable pain and decided to reopen Cucina di Paolo,” Mary Jean said Wednesday in a heartfelt Facebook post, “with our flagship lasagna and chicken pot pies and desserts and salad and bread. I can look back at these past three years as a lifesaver and know without a doubt, how proud Paul would be of us … amazed as well!”

“This business has had so many magical parts it … ” Wegner wrote. “It is my hope that you will appreciate this closing, take advantage of these last three months and salute, THAT LIFE GOES ON!”

In a phone interview, Wegner said that “we have had a wonderful presence in our community for oh, god, going on 30 years starting at the market.”

Before opening on Vista Avenue, the Wegners were caterers for 14 years and occupied a retail space on Ustick Road from 1993 to 2001. They were one of the original 16 vendors at Capital City Public Market.

And what will become of Betty?

Mary Jean Wegner plans to put the building up for sale, she said.

“She goes with the property,” Wegner said. “So when the building is sold, it will be that new person’s responsibility.”

Statesman staff contributed to this article.