AN HISTORIC and popular Italian restaurant in Poole has reopened with a new lick of paint and new owners.
La Lupa, which has been in The Quay, along Poole’s harbourfront for 45 years, has reopened with new owners and a refurbishment.
New owner Cosmin Banu, along with business partner Nico, has promised his family-run restaurant will serve the “best traditional Italian food”.
He said: “We have been working flat out for the past 10 days to get the restaurant up and running.
“Food-wise, we stand for traditional Italian foods: we are not creating a new cuisine, we just want to serve tasty Italian food for everybody to enjoy.
“People are expecting because we are beside the sea, people are expecting us to just do fish. That’s not the case.
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“I like to have a balance in the dishes; good portions of pasta, meat and fish. We make fresh pasta, risotto and pizza. People need to have a choice.”
Cosmin moved to the UK in 2015 and has been around the country helping friends and family out in other restaurants in Wales and Hampshire.
After deciding to set up his own restaurant, Cosmin eventually settled in Poole.
“The last owner, who ran the restaurant since 1999, wanted to retire,” he said.
“After a beer and negotiations, we came to good terms and decided to take it.
“We wanted to move here and settle in our own place – we have been moving around the UK for the past eight years.”
He added: “Poole has everything: it has the summer and is a tourist destination as well as the winter where you help the community and the community helps you. There’s a beautiful view, a harbour outside, Sunseeker across from us, too.
“We’ve seen a couple of areas in the UK, including in Winchester, and restaurants in a city or a village don’t compare with Poole.
“Poole is better and in the summer it is a tourist destination and in the winter the locals will use it.”
Cosmin’s auntie and uncle are the new chefs in La Lupa – the latter has been a chef since 1974 and has “quite a big history”.
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