Bella Italia may return one day, bosses insist

CLOSURE HAD 'NOTHING TO DO WITH ZERO HYGIENE RATING'

- By WILLIAM TELFORD [e-mail]

BOSSES at Plymouth's Bella Italia have explained why it has closed and what will happen to the restaurant's staff - and said it hopes to one day return to the city.

The Barbican Leisure Park restaurant announced on social media that it was now permanently shut, just months after food inspectors ordered it to make urgent improvements.

But yesterday, bosses at Bella Italia owner The Big Table Group stressed the closure had nothing to do with the zero food hygiene rating the restaurant was slapped with in November last year. They said that was due to the building that housed the restaurant and not the standards of the eatery itself.

They said that the restaurant closed after its lease expired and a new deal could not be agreed on. Barbican Leisure Park is owned by asset management giant Legal and General.

Staff have been given jobs at other The Big Table Group outlets, such as Frankie and Benny's, which has a restaurant in the same strip at the Cattedown leisure attraction.

A Bella Italia spokesperson said: “We are saddened by the closure of our popular restaurant in Plymouth. Unfortunately, the lease on this location expired and, despite our best efforts, new terms could not be agreed upon.