Gino D'Acampo plans Gloucester My Pasta Bar restaurant following London launch

Speaking to the audience of a demonstration at Gloucester Quays Food Festival on Saturday, the co-host of ITV's Let's Do Lunch with Gino and Mel, said he was excited about the launch of his first restaurant, but was hoping for more.

"I have wanted to open a restaurant here in Gloucester for a long time,” he said. “You guys need a proper Italian. It's in my plan." 

My Pasta Bar​

My Pasta Bar, aimed at the growing fast casual lunchtime dining market, has been co-founded by the celebrity chef and entrepreneur Derick Martin.

The pair has already raised £600k through EIS funding and had hoped to raise more to enable it to reach its target of opening six sites this year and up to 30 over the next four years.

The Fleet Street My Pasta Bar will open for breakfast through to late afternoon with plans to serve ‘authentic Italian food’ prepared to D’Acampo’s own recipes.  

British food​

Although his own restaurant will take inspiration from his Southern Italian roots, D’Acampo, who moved to the UK in 1995 to work at The Orchard Restaurant in Hampstead, told the audience in Gloucester he believed there should be more British restaurants in operation and that Brits should be proud of their culinary heritage. 

“I love fish and chips, and pies, all the hearty British food,” he said. “but I think are too many Italian and French restaurants here, there should be more British restaurants.”

If outlet shopping centre Gloucester Quays​ is the next location for My Pasta Bar, D’Acampo’s concept would sit alongside Pizza Express, Nando’s, Loungers’ Portivo Bar, Chimichanga, Zizzi and Ed’s Easy Diner, which opened the doors to its nineteenth site there on Friday.