Wine bar connected to downtown Hamilton’s Artspace building closes

Ciao Vino, which opened in the Artspace building at 218 High St. in Hamilton in late 2024, now sits empty. The space was leased through Artspace Projects Inc., which owns the Artspace Hamilton Lofts. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

Credit: Nick Graham

Ciao Vino, which opened in the Artspace building at 218 High St. in Hamilton in late 2024, now sits empty. The space was leased through Artspace Projects Inc., which owns the Artspace Hamilton Lofts. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Ciao Vino, which opened at the Artspace building at 218 High St. in Hamilton in 2024, closed last month.

After removing everything from the downtown wine bar next to Rotary Park and the community chalkboard, founder Jana Emmons posted to Facebook Dec. 26 that she has “always been a really hard worker” and never worked for anything as hard as she worked for the business.

Ciao Vino, which opened in the Artspace building at 218 High St. in Hamilton in late 2024, now sits empty. The space was leased through Artspace Projects Inc., which owns the Artspace Hamilton Lofts. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

icon to expand image

Credit: Nick Graham

“I learned more than I’ll ever need to know for this lifetime,” Emmons said. “I worked more hours and stressed out more hours than I ever have in my entire life.”

She said it was “so beautiful” to see it all come together.

“It was so fun being there with all of the laughter, love and live music (my three favorite pieces of all of it),” Emmons said. “It was so special on the nights with our family and friends there. All times I will never forget.”

She said she plans to rest her body, mind and soul for a while. “I’ll still be running my spa and working, of course, but I am looking forward to time off actually being time off,” Emmons said.

Ciao Vino, which opened in the Artspace building at 218 High St. in Hamilton in late 2024, now sits empty. The space was leased through Artspace Projects Inc., which owns the Artspace Hamilton Lofts. NICK GRAHAM/STAFF

Credit: Nick Graham

icon to expand image

Credit: Nick Graham

Ciao Vino featured wines imported from European areas, including France, Italy and Spain, plus California wines from the Napa Valley and other alcohol-based options.

The space was leased through Artspace Projects Inc., which owns the Artspace Hamilton Lofts.

“We hope to lease it to another restaurateur,” Jean Kramer-Johnson, Artspace Projects’ director of commercial leasing, told Journal-News. “We have an interested party we’ve engaged in the very preliminary stages of discussions.”

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