Marlo and Jonathan Phillips are purchasing the Weston business after learning at a community benefit that the Grohmanns were preparing to retire. The couples talked for several hours. By the next morning, the Phillipses had made their decision.

“We’ve talked about it. We’re going to do it,” Jonathan recalled telling the Grohmanns.

The rapid handoff mirrors the way La Bella Cucina began.

In 2020, Gordon was selling residential real estate in Kansas City when he unexpectedly received a listing for the Weston building. Holly had recently been laid off from her job selling security and access-control systems.

The couple drove to Weston to see the property and decided almost immediately to buy it.

“We just need to do it,” Gordon recalled.

The building was mostly empty, and the couple considered several possible businesses before Holly proposed an Italian market. The concept would fill a niche without duplicating another Weston business.

There was only one problem.

“We’re not Italian,” Gordon told her.

They had not been to Italy, either.

Still, they opened La Bella Cucina on Dec. 3, 2020, as Weston businesses were emerging from COVID-19 restrictions. Customers and owners were still wearing masks, and the store carried only a fraction of its current inventory.

Over time, the Grohmanns expanded the selection to include imported pastas, sauces, wines, liqueurs, pottery and specialty products not commonly found in grocery stores. Antique furniture helped create the feeling of a welcoming Italian kitchen rather than a conventional retail shop.

The Grohmanns said Weston’s character and tourism traffic proved essential to the store’s success. Customers often arrive after traveling to Italy or while exploring their Italian heritage.

But operating the business has required more work than the store’s posted hours suggest.

Holly said the market often demands attention six or seven days a week, particularly during the holiday season. With no employees, the couple handled the operation themselves.

“We’re getting to retirement age, and we’re both tired,” Gordon said. “We just want to travel and do stuff while we still can — kids and grandkids.”

The Grohmanns had been working with another prospective buyer, but the arrangement fell through. Without another buyer, they were considering closing the store and selling the inventory.

Then Marlo’s mother invited them to a benefit at the Burley House. She knew her daughter and son-in-law had discussed buying a Main Street property and opening a business.

A brief conversation at the event led to a longer meeting between the couples — and another leap of faith.

Jonathan has owned businesses since he was 13, many of them related to food and restaurants. He has worked as an executive chef and said he previously held certification through the American Culinary Federation.

Retail food will be a new format, but not an entirely new world.

“I always go back to mama, which is food,” he said.

Marlo also encountered the opportunity during a period of transition. After being laid off from Oracle, she traveled to Italy with her son. She signed documents related to the La Bella Cucina purchase while in Rome.

During the trip, she recognized pottery and products similar to those Holly had selected for the store.

“I was connecting those dots,” Marlo said. “This really, truly is what is over there.”

The Phillipses plan to make few noticeable changes through the holiday season. Afterward, they may introduce cooking classes, private events and other offerings drawing on Jonathan’s culinary background.

The building’s approximately 1,600-square-foot upstairs area could also provide storage or room for future expansion, although no plans have been finalized.

For now, the focus is on learning.

The Grohmanns are sharing product knowledge, operating systems and lessons gathered since the store’s unlikely beginning. Both couples said they want the transition to preserve what customers already love while allowing the Phillipses to develop their own ideas.

It is a new chapter built much like the first: an unexpected opportunity, a quick decision and the feeling that some recipes are simply meant to be repeated.