Delayed restaurant project back on track

The delayed opening of a swish new restaurant will now take place in April or early May.

The 120-seat Pendulum Bar and Grill was due to open last year in the ground floor of the former Arnotts department store in Paisley’s Gauze Street.

It is being set up by Stefano and Riccardo Cardosi, behind some the best-known restaurants in the town.

Yesterday, however, Stefano revealed the project had been plagued by delays after it was discovered that the shop front at the historic B-listed store was rotten.

Mr Cardosi told the Paisley Daily Express: “The shop was in such a state of bad decay that we had to pull out the entire front.”

Further problems with the delivery of large glass panels for the shop front also added to the delay on the project.

“They were due to be fitted in the second week in January.

“We need to bring a crane to do this, and there are 20 to be put in,” Mr Cardosi said.

Mr Cardosi said he expected this part of the project to be started by the end of this week.

Arnotts, a much-loved Paisley institution, was run latterly by House of Fraser, and closed after facing increased competition from Braehead Shopping Centre. The new restaurant will sit alongside other new projects, including 11 luxury apartments on the upper floors overlooking Paisley Abbey and Town Hall and retail units.

A spokesma n for the Renfrewshire Council- backed project said: “All the necessary consents are in place and the works are ongoing. The frontage and Lawn Street elements have been converted to residential units.

“The derelict property on Smithhills Street has been approved for demolition and will be developed for flats in the near future.

“Options for the area to the rear are under consideration but for now it is providing extra town centre parking.”

The Cardosi family, originally from Barga in Tuscany, Italy, and its eateries, are entwined in the threads of Paisley’s history.

Carlo and Maria Cardosi came to the West of Scotland with their four sons in search of a new life back in the 1920s and opened a chip shop.

This West End venture was followed up with the opening of the legendary Cardosi’s Cafe in Causeyside Street.

After 50 years at this spot, the cafe closed in the late 1980s due to the ill health, retirement and death of the brothers.

Then in 2002 Stefano and Riccardo – who are Carlo and Maria’s great grandchildren – opened the popular Cardosi’s Restaurant in Storie Street.

The show was in such a state of decay we had to pull out the entire front