ON 31 December 1977 Manchester gained an Italian restaurant called Pizzeria Italia.
He's also going to play with the decor he's inherited. Underneath the tat there's a 1970 museum piece.
It's still there called Rustica now, and can claim to be the oldest continuously trading Italian restaurant in the city centre.
Presently run by the ancient Manchester Italian family of Cabrelli, it's soon to undergo refurbishment from local businessman Franco Sotgiu. If the latter name is familiar, Sotgiu has recently helped set up with his brother Dom, the very interesting Solita in the Northern Quarter.
With the Rustica site Sotgiu is keen to develop a model he feels can succeed elsewhere. This is a trial in a way as the 1972 former office block that hosts the restaurant is due for redevelopment.
As the place presently looks, the main image at the top of the page is a CGI of how it should look after the changes
Ask the old timers and Pizzeria Italia was a regional destination back in the seventies and early eighties. People came from across the North West and footy stars and Corrie acts thronged in.
Think the San Carlo crowd but looking like an episode of Life on Mars: folk in beige suits, wing collars and extravagantly printed frocks marvelling at spaghetti bolognese. I bet some people have memories they'd like to share in the rants below.
1970s shock-chic in there
In Rustica it's still 1977.
Aside from the odd lick of paint here and there, usually ill-advised, the place in both decor and menu has never moved on. I slaughtered it back in 2007 for being grubby and crazily old-fashioned with terrible food. Not retro just geriatric.
But as Franco says, "It's got one of the best locations in the city, and if we improve the decor and change the menu completely then it should work again. On one Saturday night in the seventies the 190 cover restaurant served 1370 people. If we do this right then I think we can become popular again, maybe not that popular, but still make a mark."
He has a point, the restaurant is just down from Marks and Spencer on the Deansgate/Blackfriars Street junction and over the road from the phenomenally busy Red Hot World Buffet - half a million customers in 2011. Franco wants to be mainstream, not fine dining, so he hopes to drag in some of the latter's clients.
"Listen, Pizzeria Italia, was all about the family, they were the first to give the kids lollies as they left, the manager knew everybody's name, the kids had crayons. It was smiles all round for every customer. I want that back," says Franco.
He's also going to play with the decor he's inherited. Underneath the tat there's a 1970 museum piece. The marble details, brick arches, fabulous double height windows in the upper room, mad canopies and awful but utterly of its time formica in the gents, all have a certain charm. If he cuts back to the good details, has a laugh with some of the more extreme fittings, then he could be on to a winner in terms of distinctive decor.
Oh my God, look at that formica
The food will determine whether the place really shines and from antipasta boards shaped like Italy to Fiorentina T-bones, via raviola aperta, swordfish, spaghetti gamberi limone arugala, courgette fritters and gelato ice cream made on the premises he has ambitions to deliver the goods. Everyday there'll also be a homemade pasta dish.
Given that the neighbour, the Renaissance Hotel serves breakfasts at £18 a shot, Sotgiu's also going to be offering an equivalent for way less than half that price.
The final change will be the name. Rustica's going, and Pizzeria is being dropped from the original.
"It's just going to be Italia," says Sotgiu, who is Sardinian in background. "Straightforward and direct. Very honest. Reasonably priced. Lively."
You can follow progress here @ItaliaMCR
You can follow Jonathan Schofield on Twitter here @JonathSchofield
Grand double-height upper room waiting to be knocked into shape
