Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Plan to open pub and music venue
AN abandoned eatery is set to be given a new lease of life after being taken over.
Sunny Mollah, who owns Sunny’s Restaurant on Whitehall Street, has announced plans to transform the old Rancho Pancho in Wellbank — which has lain empty on Mattocks Road — into Sunny’s Bar and Grill.
He today told the Tele that he hopes to return the premises to its former glory in the comings weeks.
He added: “It came about because I was driving past, I realised that it was closed and it looked so aged.
“I used to go there when it was Rancho Pancho. It had a function room and a bar.
“I enquired about it and I ended up knowing who the landlord was.
“He gave me the keys and I went up and had a look. The place is so nice and nothing has been done to it.
“It just needs a bit of love put back into it and we decided to give it a go.”
Sunny plans on the venue hosting live music in the bar and offering a gastropub menu, with some of Sunny’s curries and pizzas on the menu too. He added: “We are looking to get it back to where it was when local people where able to come down and enjoy the bar.
“Then we will have the gastropub menu, plus our curries and pizzas, so it is going to be a place that everyone can enjoy.
“It is really exciting to be a part of something like this.”
It comes after Sunny and his brother Tonnie opened up their restaurant in Whitehall Street on February 28 last year.
He previously told the Tele that the restaurant was a dream of his late father Nurul, who was “watching over them” as they pursued the venture.
Sunny’s Bar and Grill is also a family venture but this time his wife Simone will be involved.
Some of the staff members from the city centre restaurant will also be moving.
Sunny added: “It is going to be brilliant for my partner to get involved — I always wanted a family business like that. Now that the kids are a bit older, it is a great chance for her to more involved in the business side of things. It is something that we can do together — we are bringing back the idea of a proper family business.”