A top restaurant in Southbourne is set to open a new wine bar in December.

The new wine bar by the owners of Sobo Fish will be in a unit next door to the restaurant which used to be the lampshade shop ‘Clair de Lune.’

In a statement on social media, a spokesperson for Sobo Fish said: “Some exciting news to bring you all, subject to the final planning application we are going to be in partnership with our expert wine suppliers Sommelier Consultants to bring you an exciting new venue in Southbourne.

“A wine bar showcasing not only beautiful wines from around the world, but fine wines direct from our wine suppliers family vineyard in Asti, Italy, Guasti Clemente.

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“We will also be offering classic cocktails and other locally sourced drinks as well as a daily choice of tapas/small plates and nibbles.

“We are so excited to be able to finally tell you and not only will it be a place to come for a drink, we'll be offering tasting days, wine school and more."

Speaking about the opening, owner of Sobo Fish, Matt Betteridge said: "We’ve put a planning application in for a change of use.

"I've been looking to have that property for a while, once the guy retired from the old lamp shade shop, to compliment the restaurant because we're very busy at the restaurant in summer.

"Most weeks people turn up early looking to have a drink somewhere so we ended up sending them off down to other pubs and restaurants down the road.

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"The idea came up but I didn't want to do it alone because it's hard work running a business on your own, so my current wine supplier for my restaurant's a local business owner called Sommelier Consultant. He's the expert.

"He knows more about wine than I do. His family owns a vineyard in Italy as well. So we've decided we're doing it together and along the way, a friend of mine called Paul is offering financial support and business support as well. So it's three of us all together.

"Depending on planning we’re looking to open in mid-December. We may get Christmas and New Year in.

"We’re opening as a wine bar which will offer small plates. We've just been in contact with Exmoor Caviar Company and we'll be using their homegrown sustainable caviar and we'll be doing a tasting experience menu for the caviar and also some small plates of tapas style food.

"And then our Sommelier Consultant is going to be incorporating the wine school with wine tasting evenings and corporate events underneath the wine bar as well. So it's sort of a multi level business.

"Wine's difficult at the moment because imported wine is expensive. Even British wine is expensive.

"So we've got to be careful what we charge, the pricing ranges from 20 pounds for a bottle but we'll keep it as affordable as possible, like we do next door.

"People can just come in for a glass of wine or a local side, or beer as well. We'd be doing cocktails as well and stuff like that. So everything will be fairly simple and reasonably priced."

Former lampshade shop Clair de Lune announced it would be closing in August this year after 40 years in business.