Gino D'Acampo's Alderley Edge restaurant issues final message as it closes for good

Celebrity chef Gino D'Acampo's Italian fine dining restaurant Luciano has closed its doors for good in Alderley Edge - after a final Valentine's night dinner service. The venue bowed out sending a message to email subscribers with the word "grazie" - the Italian word for thank you.

New owners, famed Italian restaurant group San Carlo, have now taken the keys to the venue, at its prominent site on London Road in the upmarket Cheshire village. They are now to spend the next five weeks on a mini-refurbishment, with the aim to reopen to diners in the run-up to Easter.

Gino's Luciano concept had only been open for just over a year in Alderley Edge when the shock announcement was made last week that it was to close - with a deal agreed for San Carlo to take over. The restaurant's owners said in a statement that they were to instead concentrate on "opening upmarket restaurants in national and international major cities."

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Gino himself has not yet publicly commented on the closure of the Alderley Edge site, which was the second Luciano after his flagship in London. The restaurant is named after his eldest son, and Gino has previously revealed plans to open the next site with a three-floor "super Italian" on John Dalton Street in Manchester city centre.

But an email sent out to restaurant subscribers yesterday from Luciano started with a message entitled "Grazie" and said: "We've got a little news".

It said: "We're on the move. As part of our plans to open upmarket restaurants in London, major UK, and international cities, including our imminent openings in Manchester and Leeds, we are to say a fond farewell to Alderley Edge.

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