Progress is being made for a new Italian restaurant to open in Reading by the end of the year.
Reading restaurateur Luftar Rusta has successfully run Tasty Greek Souvlaki with his partner Edra Shtembari in Market Place since 2020.
This year, he is working on opening a new Italian restaurant called Aperino, which will be located nearby at the Bristol & West Arcade building.
Mr Rusta has won permission to sell alcohol from Aperino, bringing the project one step forward.
He said: “There will be cocktails, Aperol Spritz, the best Italian and French wines and beers.
“It’s going to be a proper Italian restaurant, with fresh handmade pasta, steak, pizza dough, speck, seafood, seabass and all of those favourites.
“It’ll be a proper Italian eatery. For 26 years I was the chief executive chef in an Italian restaurant in Royal Tunbridge Wells – I want to make this the best Italian restaurant in Reading.”
Permission for alcohol sales from 11am until midnight each day was granted by Reading Borough Council following a statutory consultation that concluded on Friday, August 7.
Staff can also sell food until midnight each night.
The unit Aperino will occupy is at the ground floor of the Bristol & West Arcade, which has been vacant since 2007.
The restaurant requires kitchen extraction ductwork, a fresh air system and toilet extraction to the rear of the building to function properly, which required permission from the council’s planning department.
Planning officer Matt Burns noted the installations will help to facilitate bringing the Bristol & West Arcade back into active use, and that the impacts of the extraction units would be acceptable if conditions are followed.
The application (planning reference PL/26/0411) was approved on July 17.
Kitchen extraction installation and fit-out works must be completed, and permission is also required for changes to the storefront to accommodate Aperino branding.
Mr Rusta said: “Everything should begin in September, and hopefully it will be open before Christmas or the end of November.”
An application for alcohol sales at Aperino was submitted in March but was invalidated due to the application not being completed correctly.
Those who apply for an alcohol licence must submit a public notice advert in a newspaper for the application to be validated within 10 working days of the application being submitted or accepted.
Licensing officers have stated that applications for Selekt Chicken in London Road and Mon Cheri in West Street have been invalidated as proof of advertisement was not provided to the council’s team.
