Richmond’s La Piazza finally opened the doors to its new restaurant in the town’s former Barclays Bank on Tuesday.
Major works have seen the safe stripped out, the pennies swapped for pints, and the walls adorned with a emerald, gold, and black colour scheme.
Pictures taken this week now show off some of the luxurious new features, including everything from plush booths and a striking LED bar to hanging light fixtures.
La Piazza in Yarm has opened the doors (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
It marks the result of months of hard work for Sherrelle Willsden and husband Fatih Omer, who snapped up the opportunity to purchase the former bank early last year.
Sherrelle, who lives in Darlington, explained: “We saw the bank and decided we wanted to have [the new restaurant] there.
“It has taken us a while as it was the bank and then they stripped it back.
“There was nothing in there and we had to go to [the council’s] planning department to change the use of it.
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
“We have changed everything, the full layout, to fit everything in. Getting the safe out of there was the hardest part!”
The 37-year-old said the project was a “long time coming” – but only because they wanted it to look as good as possible.
She continued: “It was just before November last year when we moved in. It was a huge job. La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
“Obviously, it needed everything redoing. I am glad to have it open and all finished.”
The mum-of-three said her and Fatih, 47, wanted to make the interior of the venue an attraction in its own right: “I know that for a lot of restaurants, it is about the look.
“Restaurants and little places just blow up online from their interior because everybody wants to go. We just wanted something that looked different and looks nice inside.”
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
They even got their 19-year-old daughter Shani to help inspire the designs.
Despite the Yarm restaurant being a huge job for the family over the last 16 months, La Piazza in Richmond is continuing to thrive.
The couple took over the venue, on Dundas Street, in 2015 and it has since been praised online for its “amazing” pizza, pasta, risottos, and other dishes and “flawless” service.
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
“We still have the Richmond restaurant and it is still going well”, Sherrelle said.
“It is a different sort of atmosphere there, we get a lot of walkers and people staying at the nearby caravan sites.
“The food is still the same menu and we have still got some of the chefs from Richmond over to this place. But Yarm is a completely different place to Richmond.
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
“You want something different so people will come, as there are other Italians in Yarm.”
La Piazza in Yarm currently employs six staff at the front and around seven or eight in the kitchen, with hopes to boost that number in the future.
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
La Piazza in Yarm (Image: SARAH CALDECOTT)
And despite only being open for mere hours, positive reviews are already coming in: “We got some messages on Facebook saying the food was lovely and the staff were really nice!”
As previously reported, the unit has been empty since Barclays pulled out of the town in July 2023. Plans were then green-lit last year to change the shopfront of the site.
Boards were erected earlier this year as work got underway on transforming the unit, ahead of the launch this month.