Celino’s has opened its west end sister restaurant to its legendary Alexandra Parade venue, following two years of extensive building work.
The new restaurant is located on the site of the old Comet store on Dumbarton Road, which has been vacant for over four years, and offers nearly triple the capacity of its East End sister.
Celino’s Partick follows the same model as the restaurant in Alexandra Parade, housing a delicatessen as well as a 130 seat restaurant.
Owner Claudio Celino told DRAM, “We have invested over £350,000 in the new venture, which is our first new outlet in over 50 years. He continued, “We realised that what we had in Alexandra Parade was a really busy wee business, and we were constantly having to turn people away. It made sense to us to open at the other side of the city. We have the restaurant which showcases the food that we also sell in the deli, so people can try before they buy. We thought we’d initially see a drop in business in Alexandra Parade, but we haven’t, it’s been working out fantastically.”
The deli opens at 7.30am, while the restaurant opens at 8am. The offering includes freshly roasted coffee and a good range of wine by the glass. Celino’s has an enomatic wine dispenser, which allows customers to taste all the wines that the restaurant sources before buying a bottle.
Claudio says, “We have a very eclectic range of wines that we get sourced from Italy and some of them can cost up £200 a bottle so having the Enoround machine means they can taste 20ml, 50ml or 125ml before buying without compromising the quality.”