Eldon Arms relaunch as Italian/English restaurant
Eldon Arms relaunch as Italian/English restaurant
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 My name is Giovanni Vaccaro. I've been in the UK for 1984, a long time. I started to
00:17 be a pizza chef in Boris Island, then worked for Mr Feller for many years. After that I
00:27 decided to take over business. Slowly, slowly I started to. Then Giovanni in Petersfield,
00:37 then I've done Gianni's Flipbook, and then along then Sorrento in Bordelloville, Solemil
00:45 in Port Solent, Bella Galabria in North End, and other restaurants as well. Luckily, not
00:54 too bad. So now we find ourselves here today. I've never done a pub before. My son took
01:01 this pub. And this is the olden arms. This is the olden arms, yeah. Giancarlo Vaccaro
01:06 took this. And then my dad, you know, I got my full time job, can you give me some hands?
01:13 I've been in partnership with Mr Fortuna as well, and Solemil, and Bella Romagna as well.
01:20 Very good friends and family. So I spoke to him and said, "Are you happy to take over
01:25 as well?" And he said, "Yeah, if you're happy, I'll follow you." And so me and Roberto, we
01:36 said to Carlo, "Okay, if you want, we'll join in." And we tried to change over there.
01:42 So we're now looking at an Italian and English venue.
01:46 Italian-English, yes.
01:47 A bit of both.
01:48 A bit of both, yeah.
01:49 So what are we doing?
01:50 We see how it goes. We're preparing to change the menu if it's not suitable for the area.
01:54 Like I said, I'm new in the pub business. I'm new in Hortsmouth. I've been in North
01:59 End, but not in this area. We'd like to try to produce something different. So we do not
02:08 much Italian, but we do a nice roast dean on a Sunday. Monday and Tuesday, the restaurant
02:13 is closed. We open from Wednesday all day. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and
02:19 Sunday. Sunday we do a roast dinner, and we do the whole menu as well. We're happy for
02:25 private functions as well. And for this one, it's looking good. We're looking to open more
02:36 in the area.
02:37 So what has the feedback been from the local community?
02:39 I'll be honest with you. We just opened for two weeks. It's very good. It's a bit of a
02:44 surprise for me because I was expecting we'd get this response. It's good.
02:49 Looking around, obviously you've got the pool table, you've got sports. So the venue really
02:55 does accommodate quite a wide variety of people.
02:58 Yes, and locals come in with their dogs to have a drink. Friendly. I mean, they're really
03:05 happy to see something different. And what good comment we have, we're not just sticking
03:12 to the English food. We put a bit of Italians as well, and homemade dessert. Roberto makes
03:17 all the homemade desserts as well. So yes, it's looking good.
03:24 So you're obviously a very experienced restauranteur. I'm guessing this isn't the last venue you're
03:31 going to be involved in. Is there another one in the works?
03:34 It's another one on the way as well.
03:36 Right. Okay. So what's the total? How many are you investing?
03:40 I'll be honest with you. I would like to do 10. I've got two years to do it, and then
03:49 I would like to retire. I've got my son and Roberto. Maybe they'd like to... Roberto's
03:53 got a son as well, Manuel. So he'd like to invest a bit more. So I'll still be involved
04:01 in the business, but try to keep it back a bit.
04:03 Right. Gotcha. Well, I mean, it looks great, and we wish you all the very best of luck
04:08 with it. We're going to have a look around. We're going to see some food, and hopefully
04:13 we'll catch up with you in the near future in the next one.
04:15 Thank you very much.