Italian Villa Owners Get Go-Ahead For New Restaurant
Villa di Geggiano hopes to open in September on Brick Oven site
The owners of the Villa di Geggiano, the new Italian restaurant which will open on the site of the former Brick Oven, say they hope to be open in September.
Hounslow Council has granted a new licence to the owners and refurbishment is now underway. The restaurant is owned by the family behind a fifteenth-century Tuscan stately home, who plan a restaurant, deli, and wineshop on the site.
The Italian Villa di Geggiano is located in Chianti, six kilometres from Siena. The concept for the Chiswick restaurant is said to be loosely inspired by restaurant/delis such as Ottolenghi, Carluccio and Sally Clarke's.
The restaurant and deli will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as coffees, sandwiches and cakes. It will also sell take away Tuscan food including pasta, ragu, pesto, bread and other organic products as well as Villa Di Geggiano wines. They also plan to sell home made ceramics, glassware, linen, and other products from the area.
The Villa di Geggiano in Tuscany
One of the partners of the restaurant told chiswickw4.com that she believed it was the first time a stately home in Italy had opened up a restaurant in London.
Some local residents had expressed concerns about the licence application as they were worried about the potential for parking problems and noise. A petition had been sent to the Council by worried residents who claimed there would be disruption caused to people living nearby from music or noise from customers leaving the restaurant late at night or sitting outside in the courtyard.
Under the terms of the licence (the previous licence expired when the Brick Oven Milano closed and went into liquidation ) the Opening Hours will be Sunday to Thursday 11:00- midnight, Friday/Sat 11:00- 01:00 ( last orders 0030) with sale of alcohol from 11.00 to 23:30 Sunday to Thursday and until midnight Friday and Saturday. A seasonal variation will apply on Christmas eve until 01:00 hours and also New Years Eve.Sun-Thurs 11am-midnight (last orders 11.30)
The Deli closes at 7pm; the Garden closes at 11pm.
A concept of how the Chiswick restaurant interior might look
The restaurant backers had promised that the restaurant would be a a traditional Tuscan Restaurant, not a bar or a nightclub.
"Our concept is to aim at family hospitality – welcoming guests into our home. We hope to attract the sophisticated community of Chiswick residents/families as well as working professionals from the surrounding offices," they said.
Villa di Geggiano in London is operated by Villa Di Geggiano (UK) Limited, a UK incorporated company.
The villa in Italy (above) hosts weddings and corporate events and contains an open air theatre, vineyards and wide lawns used for weddings, conferences and as a film and fashion location.
Andrea and Alessandro Boscu Bianchi Bandinelli are the current proprietors of the Villa di Geggiano, which has been in their family since 1527. The Villa was declared a National Heritage site in 1976. The family says its vineyard was producing wine and exporting it to Great Britain in 1725.
July 25, 2014