Italian restaurant L'Anima closes ahead of merger with sister site

Italian restaurant L'Anima held its final service last night ahead of a move to incorporate its fine dining offering into more casual sister site L'Anima Cafe.

The east London restaurant opened in 2009 with chef Francesco Mazzei at the helm until 2015. The reins were passed to Lello Favuzzi, the executive chef of both L'Anima and L'Anima Cafe, who will continue in the role.

Owner Peter Marano said the merging of the two offerings had been planned for several months and will see L'Anima Cafe renovated to incorporate the fine dining offering.

He explained that L'Anima had suffered from the pressures that have claimed many restaurants this year including business rate increases, the decline of the pound and a rise in staffing costs as well changes to legislation surrounding expense accounts, which had impacted footfall.

Marano explained: "The idea was to keep L'Anima going in a sustainable way by lowering the overall costs but still keeping the product and consolidating two businesses into one to keep both offerings going."

The consolidation will see approximately a third of L'Anima's staff transferred to the L'Anima Cafe site.

Photo credit: Jon Bradley

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