THE owners of a restaurant destroyed in an arson attack last year are putting the final touches to their new eatery elsewhere in Bradford.

The Ital restaurant in Bolton Road was hit by an arson attack last September, which left fire and smoke damage throughout the building.

Fire crews from four stations in the city attended the blaze, which caused tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage, and at the time the owners, brothers Aldo and Christian Devittoris, said their family was left “devastated” by the attack.

Following this, Aldo Devittoris has taken over a restaurant in Greengates, which will open as Aldo’s Italian on Thursday.

The restaurant, next to the Greengates war memorial on the junction of New Line and Harrogate Road, formerly known as Pippo’s, will offer some of the classic, well-loved dishes that were sold at the Ital, along with a few new dishes.

There has been significant interest in the new restaurant, with more than 3,000 people liking its Facebook page since it was set up 12 days ago.

Mr Devittoris said: “The response from the public has been brilliant.

“It shows how special The Ital was to the people of Bradford, we had 3,000 page views on the first day and more than 100,000 so far.

“This is a fresh start, but we will be keeping some of the old favourites and some of the old staff are back.

“Others have gone on to pastures new, and we will be keeping some of the Pippo’s staff on as well.

“We just wanted to get back into it, and after long consideration decided we’d try and develop the old site and buy another restaurant.”

The future of the old Ital restaurant remains unclear for the time being, but Mr Devittoris said it is unlikely to re-open as a restaurant.

“We are looking to redevelop the old site, my brother Christian is looking after that while I’m putting all of my focus on the new restaurant.

“We’re looking at a number of different options for the site, but I don’t think we will be re-opening it as a restaurant.”

The new restaurant will open on Thursday at 5pm, and will be open every day apart from Mondays, and tables can be booked by calling 01274 270802.