The Big Table Group Limited, trading as Bella Italia (formerly known as Bella Pasta), is a chain of over 90

restaurants A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in app ...

offering meals inspired by

Italian cuisine Italian cuisine is a Mediterranean cuisine#CITEREFDavid1988, David 1988, Introduction, pp. 101–103 consisting of the ingredients, recipes, and cooking techniques developed in Italy since Ancient Roman cuisine, Roman times, and later spread ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

and Ireland. The chain is part of The Big Table, which also owns

Café Rouge Café Rouge is a French-styled restaurant chain, with 8 sites across the United Kingdom, 5 of which are within Center Parcs resorts. Café Rouge is part of a bigger restaurant network owned by The Big Table. History Café Rouge was founded ...

Frankie & Benny's Frankie & Benny's (also known informally as Frankie's) is a chain of Italian-American-themed restaurants in the United Kingdom run by The Big Table. , it had 90 outlets nationwide. Frankie & Benny’s runs smaller outlets, trading as "Little Fr ...

and Las Iguanas.

History

Bella Italia started life as two small restaurant chains - Pastificio and Pizzaland both of which were part of the

Grand Metropolitan Grand Metropolitan plc was a leisure, manufacturing and property conglomerate headquartered in England. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it merged with Guinness plc to form ...

group. In 1990, Michael Guthrie (former Chairman of

Mecca Leisure Group Mecca Leisure Group (also known as Mecca Leisure Ltd, Mecca Ltd, and Mecca Dance Ltd) was a British business that ran nightclubs, hotels, theme parks, bingo parlours and Hard Rock Cafes. During the 1960s, Mecca was a centre of entertainment wi ...

) formed BrightReasons and bought the Pizzaland and Pastificio chains from Grand Metropolitan for £20m in February 1991, rebranding Pastificio to Bella Pasta in the process. In February 1993, BrightReasons purchased 43 Pizza Piazza and Prima Pasta restaurants from

Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation (founded as the J. Arthur Rank Organisation) is a British entertainment conglomerate founded in 1937 by industrialist J. Arthur Rank. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the Uni ...

for £20.25m, bringing their total number of restaurants to 165. In May 1994, BrightReasons started preparing for a stock market flotation, and the group was expected to be valued at between £70m-£100m. This was subsequently announced in September, however, in November 1994, the planned flotation was postponed. In November 1996, BrightReasons was put up for sale after suffering a particularly tough trading period in 1995. In November 1996, BrightReasons was acquired by

Whitbread Whitbread is a British multinational hotel and restaurant company headquartered in Houghton Regis, England. The business was founded as a brewery in 1742 by Samuel Whitbread in partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell, with premises in L ...

for £46m, but was sold off less than six years later for £25m to Tragus Holdings (later renamed Casual Dining Group). In December 2002, the Bella Pasta chain was rebranded as Bella Italia and the first fully branded restaurant opened in Leeds. In 2007 Bella Italia's parent company Targus signed a concession agreement with holiday park operator

Center Parcs UK and Ireland Center Parcs UK and Ireland (formerly Center Parcs UK) is a short-break holiday company that operates six holiday villages in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, with each covering about of woodland. The company's first village opened ...

This led to the opening of Bella Italia Restaurants at the Company’s Elveden and Whinfell sites and was Expanded in 2016 with the

Strada Various Eateries Trading Limited, trading as Strada, is a chain based in the United Kingdom of branded restaurants specialising in Italian cuisine with two Strada sites and six Coppa Clubs, all in Southern England. History The concept was spa ...

Restaurants at Center parcs Sherwood and Longleat Villages Being rebranded as Bella Italia. In September 2012, Bella Italia joined the

Nectar loyalty card Nectar is a loyalty card scheme in the United Kingdom run by Nectar 360 Limited, company wholly owned by Sainsbury's. The scheme is the largest in the United Kingdom, and comprises a number of partner companies including Sainsbury's, Esso, Argos ...

reward scheme as a redemption partner. In September 2013, Bella Italia began a partnership with the Gourmet Society, offering their members discounts on production of a Gourmet Society restaurant discount card. In light of the impact of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, in May 2020 Bella Italia's owner Casual Dining Group announced that it was working with advisors on next steps for the overall business as a prudent measure to protect the company whilst planning for the future. In July 2020, Casual Dining Group was placed into

administration Administration may refer to: Management of organizations * Management, the act of directing people towards accomplishing a goal: the process of dealing with or controlling things or people. ** Administrative assistant, traditionally known as a se ...

with 35 Bella Italia outlets set to close. Branches in

Plymouth Plymouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Devon, South West England. It is located on Devon's south coast between the rivers River Plym, Plym and River Tamar, Tamar, about southwest of Exeter and ...

, Newbury and

Luton Airport London Luton Airport is an international airport located in Luton, England, situated east of the town centre, and is the fourth-busiest airport serving London. The airport is owned by London Luton Airport Limited, a company wholly owned by ...

permanently closed as administrators began selling off the group's assets.

Cuisine

The menu combines pizza and pasta, which is their main focus, with a range of grill and speciality dishes. The food is complemented by some

Italian wine Italian wine () is produced in every region of Italy. Italy is the country with the widest variety of indigenous grapevine in the world, with an area of under vineyard cultivation, as well as the List of wine-producing regions#Countries, world's ...

s - many from smaller producers - beers and soft drinks.

Tipping and minimum wage

In 2009 the company was found to be threatening to dismiss waiting staff who do not get customers to pay tips on credit cards rather than in cash. Credit card tips were used by the company to subsidise wages (which are usually the legal minimum) whereas cash tips go directly to waiting staff. In line with changes to tipping legislation, which came into effect on 1 October 2009, Tragus Ltd reviewed and updated its policies to ensure that all tips, after a 10% deduction for administrative and other costs paid by credit or debit card, were distributed through the payroll system to restaurant staff. In 2015, Bella Italia amended its policy to ensure all employees are permitted to keep all tips and service charges paid in cash and are free to share their tips with colleagues if they so wish. Their employees are required to declare the income generated from cash tips to HM Revenue & Customs for tax purposes. Tips given by card payments are also kept in full by employees. All restaurant employees are paid tips in addition to the National Minimum Wage.

Environmental record

In November 2015 the chain received the worst rating of all restaurants surveyed in an assessment of the sustainability of its seafood. After working closely with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Bella Italia came second in Fish2Fork's analysis of the fish sourcing policies of high street restaurants in 2017.

Philanthropy

In June 2012, Bella Italia began officially supporting

The Children's Society The Children's Society, formally the Church of England Children's Society, is a United Kingdom national children's charity (registered No. 221124) allied to the Church of England. The charity's objectives are to improve the lives of children and ...

by donating some of the profit from a selected dish on the menu to the charity. In 2013, Bella Italia officially partnered with

Comic Relief Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1986 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia. The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make t ...

, the British charity founded in 1985 that aims to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people."

References

External links

* * {{UK Food Restaurant chains in the United Kingdom Italian restaurants Companies that have entered administration in the United Kingdom