CAMPAGNA will be moving uptown a bit sooner than planned – after marshals closed the restaurant last week during lunch.

“I had a rent dispute with the landlord and he closed us down,” said owner Mark Strausman. “I knew it was coming and I decided to let everyone work until the last day.”

Last April, he told The Post he was going to move the 10-year-old upscale Italian eatery from 24 E. 21st St. to the Upper East Side by the end of the year, citing an inflexible landlord who wouldn’t reduce his $21,000-a-month rent in an area he claims has seen better days.

“It’s not the same neighborhood,” he said then. “It used to be called Silicon Alley, but no longer.”

Strausman now says he’s signed a deal to open a new version of Campagna: “I’ll be on the Upper East Side by the middle of September.”

* A jury acquitted celebrity Irish chef Conrad Gallagher of charges he stole and illegally sold three paintings.

Gallagher, 32, was extradited from New York City last May to face those charges after he failed to turn up at his trial on the Emerald Isle last October. He was accused of stealing the paintings – worth an estimated $75,000 – from a hotel that had housed one of his failing restaurants in 2000.

Gallagher always maintained he was the owner of the paintings.

* The annual Chefs & Champagne foodie fest will take place this Saturday at the Wolffer Estate Vineyard in Sagaponack. Considered the biggest culinary event on the East End, the party’s proceeds help support the James Beard Foundation.

More than 25 of the top chefs from New York and Philadelphia will participate. The talented bunch includes David Bouley, Michael Lomonoco, Waldy Malouf, Rick Moonen, Alfred Portale and David Walzog For more information, call the James Beard Foundation at (212) 627-2308.

* One of the nicer surprises along Montauk Highway in East Quogue is the Stone Creek Inn. Apparently we weren’t the first to discover its cozy setting and excellent cuisine: Cindy Crawford, Michael J. Fox, Alan Alda, Susan Lucci and John Leguizamo have been among its guests this season.