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Wolverhampton’s Don Salvo restaurant is put on the market
Monday 21st November 2011, 11:00AM GMT.
A popular Italian restaurant in Wolverhampton is to be sold by its owners, who say the city centre is no longer “up to standard.”
Don Salvo in Darlington Street, which opened in 2006, has been put on the market for just under £150,000. Bosses today revealed they are planning to move the 130-seated restaurant to a more “vibrant location”.
They blamed their decision on the city centre having no big chain restaurants and a lack of recent investment to encourage people in at night.
James Drago-Ferrante, from Don Salvo, said: “Don Salvo has been put on the market and will be relocating.
“There is no point paying premium city centre rent and rates when the city is not up to standard.
“Unfortunately due to the lack of investment in the city over the last 15 years, Don Salvo feel it’s time to relocate to a vibrant location.”
He said possible locations for the restaurant included Bentley Bridge Retail Park in Wednesfield, Merry Hill Shopping Centre in Dudley, Telford, Tettenhall, Chapel Ash or Penn.
The restaurant has been put up for sale with Fleurets in Birmingham, with a price tag of £149,950.
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I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Councillors and local authority for spending so long procrastinating over what to do in our City Centre that is has now become a disgrace and a run down eyesore.
I bet they still sit in their ivory towers wondering why no one goes to town anymore and they would rather go elsewhere.
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Hopefully we will get a more vibrant, up to standard, restaurant in its place.
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doubt it, will be empty for ages and ages, like the rest of the city, funny that, a while back the whole town was up in arms about being labelled a dump, and guess what it really is a dump.
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Just wait till the new big Tesco’s, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons supermarkets open!!! The town really will be a ghost town!
If I wanted to open a shop Shrewsbury is where I would go!
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It shouldnt matter where your resteraunt is. If the food is up to scratch the customers will be there.
Don Salvo really is just an average resteraunt – quite pricey for the quality of food you get.
If you look at Bella on Chapel Ash (just on the outskirts of the city centre) this is a little more expensive than Don Salvo but the food quality is much higher and is always busy.
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I have eaten there. It is a reasonable to average restaurant and certainly not above the bracket of the area in which it is situated. It is also in an area where there are numerous Italian restaurants…
Blaming the City is a bit rich. You simply cannot move a restaurant business to another locality. You can create a new one perhaps. This one, so long as it is taken on by a reasonable management and does not become yet another grimy Indian restaurant, will be at least as successful as now.
Wolverhampton’s problems do not arise just because of the local authority. They also arise because of some pretty unenterprising business people whose narrow-minded nimbyism has kept out what they thought would be competition.
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I completely agree with Dave regarding the quality of food but taking the issue about the city centre not being up to scratch and being charged premium rates I can completely understand why they have put the business up for sale. Something needs to be done and done now to attract companies back in. If you are going to the theatre or Civic Hall for a show/concert and you want to eat beforehand there are very few decent places with quality food to eat unless you you want a burger and chips.
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it will nice to see this restuarant in bentley bridge..:)
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Having eaten there I can say that Wolverhampton can do without the place….Echoing other comments, if the food and service matched the inflated price then Don Salvo would be booming.
As it is, they seem to be blaming the city centre for their own inability to bring people in- which is down to word of mouth: Made In Thai (next door to Don Salvo) does very well, despite being pricey…. Just down the street are not one but THREE Indian Restaurants, all doing extremly well and trading on quality food with quality service- and Bella- a place where you are practically out of Wolverhampton and not in a prime location like Don Salvo- is rammed every night….
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I don’t blame them. Wolverhampton Council should hang its head in shame at the lack of decent places to eat in the city. I had friends visit from overseas and wanted to take them out for food in my home city but unless they fancied Greggs or Kentucky we had no chance. Where did we go? Birmingham, where did we shop? Birmingham. There’s no ambition in Wolverhampton from those at the council and it will always live in the shadow of Brum and that’s saying something!
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I agree with the comments above. Over priced and average food. Don Salvo is in a great location, but they could do with a ‘Gordon Ramsey’ style make-over. I’m sure he would tell them where they are going wrong and could get punters back in.
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May the lord bless Don Salvo’s soul, bless him and his heavenly father!!
As mentioned in previous comments. The food and service are not up to scratch, hence, nobody dining at the restaurant.
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it will be on the market 4 a long time has nothing is selling at mo.
merry hill is very good but when ur paying over 5k a week rent then ouch,id stick to wton something coming in is better than nothing
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Have eaten in Don Salvo once and don’t remember much about it; however I’m a regular Bella and Bilash customer and both are always busy. I wonder how the Chinese restaurant round the corner fares?
I do agree though that the town is going to rack and ruin whilst everyone is waiting for big business to pick up the bill – pssst! it won’t!. And therefore whatever people may think of the restaurant in question, we cannot afford to lose it. Darlington Street is a gateway to the town and should be a vibrant place (as in attractive retail and catering premises not loads of drunken yobs spilling out of all-you-can-drink-for-5p bars).
In fact, making this a “food town” similar to Ludlow with a variety of priced (from low to high and inbetween) restaurants) some with that old fashioned thing called a cabaret? (London does it!)might be just what Wolvo needs
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Ate their once, never again. Overpriced, cash payments only, central heating broken and service lousey. Don Salvo ruined Don Salvo not the council.
The town does suck at the moment though. Stop building bars please, culture, retail and architecture are pull factors.
Thanks for listening.
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While I agree with most comments, the owner is right about wolves city centre, it’s a giant toilet of drunks walkIng around with cheap lager, pound shops and not much else, I’m born as bred yam yam, and when I walk around the town u see t j Hughes, woolies all gone, our price had been shut for over 10 years in s prime spot inside mander centre, just gutted the summer row idea has vanished, how about getting some big name shops to move into the empty ones rent free for a year to attract them and then the shoppers back, get rid of rubbish forgery clothes shops or we are dddoooommmmmmeeeedd
U t w
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Tomo, If you know where to go in wolverhampton there are loads of wonderful places to eat or drink (OK the shopping is much better in birmingham).
As mentioned above, Bella is a lovely itallian resteraunt and pretty much next door to this is Banks Bistro which does quite nice french food (although I havent been to Banks for about 5 or 6 months so i hope it is still good quality)
Then you have Bilash, which despite it’s reputation isnt really that expensive and I think it has been mentioned in the Michelin rated (not a star but still highly rated).
Then not too far outside of wolves you have Miller & Carter, The Crooked House (which if you can get a table does really good food) and then there is the Barley Mowe next to Penn Golf Club – this is especially nice in the summer, sitting outside with a nice pint and some great food!
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Bella is over-priced, Miller and Carter is a chain and vegetarian unfriendly, the Crooked house is miles away, Bilash, never been. Cafe Maxism? Catellani’s? Cataldos? Pubani’s? Red Fort? Loads of places within the ring road. All you have to avoid is the drunken idiots that ruin the night life in our city. Not everyone wants to get sickly drunk and listen to the noise pollution bleeding into our ears from generic pubs/clubs. My point is this, there are tonnes of places to eat but why would choose Wolves city centre? Legislation needed before we rot away.
Peace.
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Red fort is nice, I forgot about that place.
Is Catellani’s owned by the same people as Don Salvo? I’m sure I have seen the guy who runs Catellani’s working in Don Salvo, but this was some time ago.
Miller and Carter is a chain but it is lovely food – they all dont have to be independent resteraunts to be nice.
Crooked House is a few miles out I agree but the food is lovely and locally sourced I think. It cost 4 of use £10 from wolves to the Crooked House – thats £5 each way. Or you could drive if you really wanted to go there.
With regards to the drunken people, If your going for a meal I would have thought you would want to be finished by say 10pm or 11pm. If you have been out in wolves recently (especially a friday night) it doesnt start to get properly busy until around 10pm or 11pm. Then the pubs/clubs will close between 1am – 3am, I dont know many resteraunts that are open untill then.
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Miller and Carter is excellent, food is great as is the service and its a steak house, so the vegetarian unfriendly comment is a bit daft!
Bella is really nice as is the Purbani, Bilash and Nando’s who cares is they are a chain, if the food and service is good then customers will go back.
However, I have to agree, Wolverhampton is an absolute dump and the sooner there is some proper investment the better.
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Shopping better in Birmingham? Its just a bigger dump than Wolverhampton. Hate the place now! The so called new Bull Ring ruined it!
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I felt I had to reply specifically to your comment. How can you say that Birmingham is a bigger dump than Wolverhampton. Thirty years ago yes, but now, no! I know that the Bull Ring is a shopping centre, but it’s quite well designed, especially with the fabulous Selfridges building. Have you not walked through the eateries outside, towards St. Martins Church, especially when it’s a nice day? It’s beautiful. The new as opposed to the old. And the canals, have you not walked along them? I could go on. There’s an advert on the television about a certain opticians. Maybe you should pay them a visit!!
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I totally agree with Tomo. We’ve had some decent meals in Don Salvo in the past, so it is a shame it aims to leave the city centre. This is Wolverhampton’s loss: I recently got married in Wolverhampton and several friends and family came for the day to measure up for suits and bridesmaids dresses. It was a Saturday afternoon, and we could think of nowhere nice to take them for lunch – Don Salvo being a bit too extravagent for this occasion. Bella and Banks is too far out of town if people have come by train, Indian food isn’t too everyone’s taste. We ended up going to the abysmal Hogshead. Where are the nice, affordable city centre pubs, or the one-off independent and quirky restaurants that other cities have? Wolverhampton may turn into a similar ghost town to Dudley if it’s not careful and doesn’t start to attract good solid businesses.
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Iv’e just come back from Wolverhampton city center, and to be honest, abysmal is the operative word. What a miserable, scruffy place it has become. No wonder people have no desire to shop there any more.
I have never eaten at Don Salvo, so cannot comment on that one. But if I owned a business in town, I would now be thinking along the same lines, pull out if there’s a chance. Find somewhere a bit more upmarket.
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Wolverhampton would benefit from some decent quality *affordable* Italian restaurants – along the lines of Frankie & Bennys or Bella Italia, places that other towns & cities have. A noodle / sushi bar would offer some variety, though I’m unsure of the demand.
I personally rate Cafe Maxism (small independent tapas / Spanish restaurant), and the large Chinese restaurant, the Imperial is alright on occasion.
Only been to Don Salvo once, used to eat at the location more often when it was called Gepetto’s. Bit of a price hike after the make over if I recall, putting it slightly out of our price range for regular use.
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When was the last time any of us went shopping in an H&M, Zara, or even a Gap! There isn’t any of those shops which should be basic foundations for a CITY. Wolverhampton doesn’t have any at all. I was in Birmingham over the weekend, it’s hard to believe that it’s only down the motorway. That’s a city with loads going on, big shops, the bill ring a counci that care how there city is portrayed. Wolverhampton concil doesn’t and we the people of Wolverhampton will/are paying the price for that.
Perfect example of that is house of frazer it is terrible! If you look at any other city they have a much better standard house of frazer. We have little selections of stock, never ever full collections of the concessions. It’s a joke, I think slowly other business will start to go, TKmaxx has already gone. I take my hat off to the people at Don Salvo, they serve fantastic food. And deserve a city that actually cares about the small independ business. It’s only a matter of time before Wolverhampton becomes a lost city. And who’s fault will it be?
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Attacking the restaurant is surely missing the point. I thought it brave of them to set up in the first place considering the rapid decline in the shopping and night-life after 2000.What was once a Friday/Saturday place to b,e with people coming from a 30/40 mile radius and 20-25,000 of them milling around, then the drugs/low-lives and the steroid fuelled violence killed it off. The shopping has been dominated by a small, bog standard mall, with a dog-leg off it; I remember many a time any new proposed retail development in the town being vehemently opposed by past owners of those two shopping centres, hence we missed the investment boat as public and private cash was spread out like confetti and I’m afraid ‘City Centre Manager’, it ain’t coming back;
Good luck to your new venture, at least you tried; Go to WEDNESFIELD, adding to Cosmo,Nando’s and the pubs nearby, it soon will have more weekend visitors than the 70 pubs inside the tight collar of a poorly located ring-road.
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You have to blame the Council as it’s their responsibility to attract businesses to the city. Wolverhampton shopping and nightlife is dreadful as it just does not cater for anything above (for want of a better phrase)working class expectations. Because of this there is just not the mix required to raise the vibrancy levels (as all succesful city centres have)to make the city appealing. Are we really surpised the Hilton Hotel pulled out?
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The trouble with Don Salvo is that the food quality and the standard of service went down from when it first opened.
When I first went in 2009 it was very good but at the end of 2010 it was just not worth the cost.
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Blame the council for this,for many years now the council have let wolverhampton go down hil fast and all they have done is stick their heads in the sand.Sooner or later we will be just like dudley!
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Having the benefit of visiting most towns in the country while been born and bred in wolves I think the town is getting left behind.
No pizza express, cafe rouge etc…..
No high quality pubs or bars in the town centre at all……
The council need to go take a look at Blackburn town centre. It’s a smaller town with the local competition of manchester, liverpool, Leeds and even Preston close by but it has a vibrant shopping area which is always busy.
I do think we are missing opportunities with all the wasteland by the canal as I am sure a mini brindley place could be easily made.
Hang on…… It’s Wolverhampton council…….. Tesco saga, sainsbury saga, railway station falling to bits, summer row! And they even design a brand new bus station to small!
Pigs may fly
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I must agree with Don Salvo’s…the ‘city’ has no investment no future! Look at telford ‘town’….a £250m regeneration has actually started (new cinemas, food and leisure areas) with input and public consultation from its residents. Well publicised. It appears Wolverhampton city council is also adopting this approach…but rather quietly… consulting its residents for its views for the future of the ‘city’ centre over the next 20 years! LOL. I found a regeneration form hidden away in my local library! SSShhh! Closing date….24th Nov.
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Wolverhampton is in rapid decline. The clamour for supermarkets will not help. The market is a joke. Fresh local produce for consumers and restaurateurs surely has to be the way to go.
We have a chance to encourage small independant shops, restaurants and cafe’s into the cetre now, but the rents and rates must be lowered. Vibrant cities with independant shops will attract the better class of chain-stores and Wolves Council will be able to pick and choose who they allow into the City.
The pandering to the whims of Sainsbury’s and Tesco over the past 10 years has hindered Wolverhamptons chances of redeveloping the Centre. This wont be helped by these Supermarkets and their positions just outside the ring road – why will people go into the Centre now?
Wolverhampton planners are a joke, always have been, always will be!
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One of the things that the comments seem to miss is that the unemployment rate is well above the national average, how can people go into the city centre if they have no money?
Wolverhapton as more positives than negetives, its going to take 30 years to really develope the place fully.
Friends of Dudley Town centre..
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Don salvo tried to compete with Pepitoes when first opened but were out classed..
Service and value for money were out of reach…
They could have execelled with pepitoes closure but didnt make an effort.
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I love Wolvo but there’s nothing distinctive about it. When you go other cities it’s all about the experience of shopping, have coffee while out, even having a cinema so kids can watch a movie while you shop. If the council stop giving the greenlight to your £2-pizza gaffs and set up a genuine cafe square in the town or a food court with live bands on an evening it’d be perfect. What about near the market, there’s space there that with a bit of money thrown behind could encourage regeneration to that side of town too. I ain’t got a degree Wolvo Council just a few lessons in common sense!
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And anyways what did happen to the proposed cafe area in Queens Sq? Are we not doing that no more? I can’t remember seeing a E&S article on it.
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I now live in Birmingham, but was born in Wolverhampton so I still like to go back to Wolves City centre from time to time with the wife & kids. It is sad to see how the old place has gone into decline and disrepair – especially the Mander Centre – over the past few years (which rapidly speeded up after the closure of Woolworths in my opinion).
Car parking prices are way too high – extortionate on the Mander Centre car park for the few quality shops it now has to offer. The Summer Hill farce was just embarrassing for us as a City.
Mark my words – judging by how it looked last time we went in, it won’t be long before Beatties goes – then that side of poor old Wolverhampton is DOOMED!!!
I work not far from West Brom, and I can see how Sandwell Council is placing all their hopes on the new Tesco store, but they’ve allowed the town to just dwindle away to nothing … West Brom town centre is a proper dump, full of charity shops and “pound” shops.
PLEASE don’t let this happen to Wolverhampton. I’m proud of where I come from but the poor old place is in need of help – Invest NOW Councillors, before it’s too late – otherwise you’ll have nothing left to invest in.
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This is all Liebour’s fault.
THE RENTS FOR THE SHOPS IN WOLVES ARE JUST TOO HIGH.
As someone pointed out Our Price has been empty for many many years and that is in a prime location. You have to ask why!!!!
High Rents and a dump of a shopping centre!!! Absolutely DISGRACEFUL.
Knock it all down and start again.
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The Facts: Drop in food Center for Alcoholics and Drug Users on the doorstep of the Don Salvo Restaurant! Bars selling under £1 alcohol till 5am! No one wants to put any real big investment to revive the town for the people of Wolverhampton not company shareholders! Too many foreign students/refugees in town center jobs that should be for wolverhampton born teenagers! No big free car parks! Up to 20% council cuts for Wolverhampton in 2012! i could go on and on and on! but i think you get the picture…. Good on yer Don Salvo… Go somewhere where you will be appreciated! Happy New Year Wolverhampton… Nart!
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After reading this I’ve just had a look at their scores on the doors rating (www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/sotd) and they’re only 1 star!
They can blame the council as much as they like but I wonder what they would say about their poor rating?
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Well its about time they move really, ive been in there once and it wasnt a great experience, they make themselves out to be a stylish restaurant but i ordered a mozerella bruschetta and ended up with cheddar cheese ? Also they have a two star hygeine rating. So really they would need to upgrade their standard of food . But i agree that area of wolverhampton town centre is not a suitable location for any restaurant who are trying to be sucessful in the restaurant business.
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