New Italian Restaurant Aperino Set to Open Soon!

Progress is being made for a new Italian restaurant, Aperino, to open in Reading by the end of the year.

Owner Luftar Rusta, who runs Tasty Greek Souvlaki with partner Edra Shtembari in Market Place since 2020, is converting a unit in the Bristol & West Arcade.

Reading Borough Council has granted permission to sell alcohol from 11am until midnight each day after a statutory consultation that ended on Friday, August 7. Staff can sell food until midnight.

The ground-floor unit has been vacant since 2007 and needs kitchen extraction, a fresh air system and toilet extraction to the rear. Planning officer Matt Burns said the work would help bring the Arcade back into active use and that impacts would be acceptable if conditions are followed. The planning application (PL/26/0411) was approved on July 17.

Mr Rusta said: "There will be cocktails, Aperol Spritz, the best Italian and French wines and beers."

"It's going to be a proper Italian restaurant, with fresh handmade pasta, steak, pizza dough, speck, seafood, seabass and all of those favourites."

"It'll be a proper Italian eatery. For 26 years I was the chief executive chef in an Italian restaurant in Royal Tunbridge Wells - I want to make this the best Italian restaurant in Reading."

He added: "Everything should begin in September, and hopefully it will be open before Christmas or the end of November."

An application for alcohol sales at Aperino submitted in March was invalidated because it was not completed correctly. Applicants must submit a public notice in a newspaper within 10 working days to validate an application. Licensing officers said applications for Selekt Chicken in London Road and Mon Cheri in West Street were also invalidated for failing to provide proof of advertisement.

James Aldridge, Local Democracy Reporter