Owners Of Italian Villa To Open Restaurant In Chiswick
Villa di Geggiano plans to bring a little of Tuscany to former Brick Oven site
The owners of the Villa di Geggiano, a fifteenth-century Tuscan stately home, are planning to open a restaurant, deli, and wineshop on the former Brick Oven site on Chiswick High Road.
The company hopes to open early this summer following renovation of the premises and the restaurant will be called Villa di Geggiano after the villa which is located in Chianti, six kilometres from Siena. The concept is said to be loosely inspired by restaurant/delis such as Ottolenghi, Carluccio and Sally Clarke's.
The restaurant and deli would be open from 7am to midnight serving 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. She described the Tuscan villa, as "one of my absolute favourite places in the world".
An application for a premises licence has been submitted to Hounslow Council on behalf of the owners - the previous licence expired when the Brick Oven Milano closed and went into liquidation.
Some local residents have expressed concerns about the licence application and said there were worried about the potential for parking problems and noise. A petition of 25 signatures is to be sent to Hounslow Council next week. One resident said they wanted to be sure there would be no disruption caused to people living nearby from music or noise from customers leaving the restaurant late at night or sitting outside in the courtyard.
A concept of how the Chiswick restaurant interior might look
Letters have been sent to local residents by the company stating that the restaurant will 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 say.
Villa di Geggiano in London is operated by Villa Di Geggiano (UK) Limited, a UK incorporated company.
The villa (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.
Asked why they had chosen Chiswick as a location Andrea Bandinelli told Chiswickw4.com that he and his two partners in the new restaurant "immediately fell in love with the premises and with the area" when they visited W4.
He said they hoped to appeal not only to Chiswick residents but to working professionals from surrounding offices and to develop a clientele coming from the neighbouring areas of Richmond, Shepherd's Bush and Hammersmith.
April 25, 2014