The owners of a new Italian restaurant which has just opened in Kendal say they are aiming to ‘bring a little bit of Italy to South Lakeland’.
Nick Ward and Giuseppe Sepe, who already run three other restaurants in South Lakeland, have expanded their portfolio by opening Sapore at 21A Stramongate.
The venture has already created 18 mainly full-time jobs and the duo are still recruiting to take on another dozen members of staff.
The team is managed by the highly-experienced Laszlo Lukacs.
“We have been very busy with between 60 and 70 customers on weekdays and double on Saturday,” said Giuseppe. “People are really enjoying the quality of the food we are serving. We are getting lots of local customers, as well as some tourists.”
He said the ethos of Sapore was to serve authentic Italian food, including some of the more modern dishes and cooking techniques currently being used in Italy.
Meat for the menu is sourced locally from Cornvale Fine Foods of Melling. Fish comes from Kendal Fish and Seafoods and Hodgson Fish of Hartlepool. Italian ingredients are sourced from Carnevale, a specialist food importer.
The premises – formerly the site of Little Italy restaurant – include a restaurant with about 60 covers and a bar area downstairs which can be used as an additional restaurant area for parties.
“We are a restaurant but we also have a lounge bar upstairs, where customers can have a drink and also order sharing platters and nibbles,” said Giuseppe.
The duo, who both live in Windermere, have some exciting ideas in store. Early next year they plan to make their own deli produce for sale in the restaurant and eventually online, including breadsticks, small jars of pickled olives and aubergines and their own tomato sauce.
The restaurant stocks up to 50 wines but customers will eventually be able to choose from up to 1,200 wines from Sapore’s wine merchant.
Plans are also being prepared to create a seating area outside Sapore.
The duo also run Urban Food House in Bowness; Hooked, a seafood restaurant in Windermere and The Estuary in Main Street, Grange-over-Sands, which employ a total of 45 staff.
Nick, originally from Poulton le Fylde, spent ten years in the hospitality industry in London and managed restaurants in Manchester and South Lakeland before he and Giuseppe bought Urban Food House three years ago.
Giuseppe grew up in Naples and worked in high-end hotels and restaurants in Italy and Switzerland for several years before moving to the Lake District and working in hospitality in Windermere and Ambleside. The duo met around six years ago.
