As life-shattering as it was to close his Walnut Creek restaurant, Prima, as a result of pandemic-related financial hardship, executive chef-owner Peter Chastain thinks that everything happens for a reason. He even said it in a note posted on the door that fateful day in July.

“I believe that when we look back on all of this someday, we will see it as having happened FOR us rather than TO us,” the note read. Now, Chastain, a native of Berkeley who developed Prima into a pinnacle of Italian fine dining over 21 years, is saving another beloved trattoria that fell victim to the pandemic economy.