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Pino Luongo, a celebrity chef who in the 1980s and 1990s helped popularize Tuscan food with more than a dozen restaurants in the U.S., said that he plans to shutter Centolire on New York’s Madison Avenue, his last property, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. The restaurant holding company’s May 14 filing under chapter 11 initially prevented an auction of Centolire’s contents. In a filing last week, Luongo said that he could not raise financing to save the restaurant or afford a bankruptcy law firm. Luongo asked Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber to dismiss the case so he can sell Centolire’s assets.

A bankruptcy court has cleared new owners to buy Dippin' Dots Inc. out of bankruptcy for about $13 million in a deal that will keep the Kentucky-based company's flash-frozen ice cream beads flowing to vendors across the country, Dow Jones DBR Small Cap reported today. A company, backed by an Oklahoma energy investor, got permission from Bankruptcy Judge Thomas Fulton to purchase the company during a hearing on Wednesday, and the deal is expected to close later this month.