Don Alberto’s at The Loom Lancashire Magazine sat down for a chat with Alberto & Claire Halluni and Salvatori Suad, owners of new restaurant Don Alberto’s which will be opening at The Loom in Leigh this month! Here’s what we gleaned about their exciting new venue… Hello! It’s lovely to welcome Don Alberto’s to Lancashire. Is this your first restaurant? n Alberto: This is our third restaurant but first venture into Greater Manchester which is very exciting for us. We opened our first restaurant, Don Alberto, in Holmes Chapel in Cheshire in 2015 with the aim of bringing fresh authentic Italian food to the village. The restaurant was named ‘Don’ after my favourite film-
The Godfather – Don means Lord in Italian! I like to think I’m the Don of Italian food, but Claire is the Don of our incredible dessert menu! In 2019, you opened a second restaurant. What can you tell us about that one? n Claire: Don Alberto is part of the community in Holmes Chapel and has a very strong local following. Indeed, the success of that restaurant led us to open a second restaurant
Il Padrino (meaning Godfather!) in neighbouring town, Middlewich at the end of 2019. Il Padrino is a much larger venue, in a listed building which was formerly a cinema. It offered us a fantastic opportunity to expand our remit to include a bar and lounge area, alongside an extended menu and regular entertainment. Sounds fantastic! But then Coronavirus hit both restaurants in early 2020. How has the past year been for business? n Alberto: No one could have predicted the horrendous year of trading that we faced. Neither restaurant has any outdoor space, so both have effectively been shut now for over a year. We swiftly had to adapt to offer a takeaway menu for the first time ever. Thankfully our loyal customers have adjusted with us to help keep both restaurants afloat. You’ve also been extremely supportive of the local community at your own expense, haven’t you?
Above: Salvatori (left) and Alberto
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n Alberto: Yes. We decided early on to do as much as we could to support our local community. We’re extremely proud of the teams at both restaurant for how they stepped up in the crisis. Throughout last summer LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE 87
