Carlisle's Adriano's Restaurant victim of energy crisis and staff shortages

For the last 17 years, Franco Bertoletti – the man credited with opening the city’s first licensed Italian restaurant in the 1970s – has successfully run Adriano’s, a Roman villa-style restaurant at Rickergate, opposite the Civic Centre.

But as the energy crisis deepens, putting businesses under pressure, Mr Bertoletti has decided to close the business, blaming a combination of a chronic shortage in qualified chefs and rising gas and electricity costs.

“I opened the first licensed Italian restaurant in Carlisle in 1974,” said Mr Bertoletti, who launched a series of successful Italian restaurants in the city before opening Adriano’s in 1974 in a building formerly used as a pub.

"I have done this all my life and there have been hard times before but the situation now is the hardest it’s ever been.”

Mr Bertoletti described how as the country emerges from the pandemic, it has become increasingly hard to recruit experienced and qualified staff, which has the knock-on effect of putting those staff left in the business under more pressure.

Combined with the rocketing cost of energy and food, the problem has prompted him to close down a business he has poured 17 years of effort into building up.

'The situation now is the hardest it’s ever been'

He said: “There’s an acute shortage of qualified chefs.

“After Covid, people had stayed home and they felt comfortable and realised that they don’t need a job with two shifts, working at nights and weekends and at Christmas. One of my chefs now makes windows in a factory in Penrith.

“Others have found other jobs.

“I don’t know what’s happening. You’d think there’d be people wanting to work. I usually have four chefs, but on one night I ended up with one chef and 100 people booked in for meals.

"An assistant manager gave notice to quit there and then.

“With one chef and myself, I felt I had to close. 

“It’s a fantastic business. But I’m 76 and the pressure in the catering industry is something you have to work with to understand.”

Franco Bertoletti says staff shortages and spiralling energy costs have conspired to prompt the closure of his popular Italian restaurant Adriano's.

Commenting on the energy and cost of living crisis, Mr Bertoletti said: “I used to pay £900 for gas per month; now it’s £3,000. In October, it will be the same for electricity.

"It’s absolutely ridiculous: you can’t, within just four or five months, double or treble the cost of electricity; it kills everything. But that’s what’s happened.”

'There will be a lot of businesses shutting down'

Mr Bertoletti said his gas bill had risen first to £1,200 per month and then to around £3,000. His electricity costs are due to follow suit in October. On top of that, the cost of the food ingredients has risen steadily.

A case of Mozarella cheese was recently sold for £36 but the cost has now risen to £62. The price of many other products – such as wine, margarine, and oil – have risen by at 20 per cent or more. Many items have doubled in cost.

The loss of workers who formerly came from Europe before Brexit was also an additional pressure on the business.

He believes there are ways business can survive the crisis but for him personally it is the inability to recruit qualified chefs and front-of-house staff that was the final straw because he was simply not prepared to compromise on the quality of his restaurant’s food and service.

He added: “I think there will be a lot of businesses shutting down.”

The reaction online to the closure of Adriano’s, which was open for the last time on May 22, was swift, with more than 300 people posting comments expressing their regret and paying tribute to a restaurateur whose reputation in Carlisle has been glowing.

The comments included:

• Iain Irving: “Many people don’t understand how difficult it is in hospitality right now. If it can finish a brilliant business like Ristorante Adriano then it could finish any one of the rest of us tomorrow. A very sad day. Best wishes to all involved.
• Kath Dowle: I think there are many businesses in the hospitality area who will do the same. The country is in a terrible mess.
• Liz Pearson: Hospitality has suffered so much. People just don’t understand. When you’ve worked in hospitality it’s hard but when you own hospitality it must be devastating. All the best for the future. (A  fellow retired hospitality worker).
• Karen Smith:  “So sorry to hear this. We have enjoyed so many family celebrations and causal happy times in Adriano’s. Always receiving fabulous service and great food. You will be a great miss to the City. Thank you for the memories and good luck.
• Paul Delves: “After hearing of this via Peter Brockbank all I can say is this is dreadful news. After waiting as long as we had to, thanks Covid, we were treated to an exceptionally delicious meal, looked after by wonderful staff. A small thing perhaps, in the grand scheme of things but for those affected most, Franco and his remaining staff this must be like a dagger through the heart. All I can say it’s a great loss to Carlisle and it was a meal worth coming all the way from Australia for.”
• Emma Moon:  “Sad to hear this…will never forget this place. It was where I got my first job and the place that started me off in my career in the hospitality industry. All the best to Franco, Adrian & all the team.
• Stacey Louise Little:  “This is really sad Franco. We love it there and have many happy memories. My granda Gordon Holmes worked with you for many years and thought very highly of you.”

A report by the International Monetary Fund concluded this week that the energy crisis is hitting UK household budgets harder than any country in western Europe.

According to the organisation's analysis, the reason for this is the UK’s heavy reliance on gas to heat homes and produce electricity at a time when Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent gas prices soaring.

The restaurant's closure is a sad sign of the times.

Meanwhile, pressure is growing on political action to support both households and businesses. The respected consultancy group Cornwall Insight has predicted that businesses which need to negotiate a new energy deal in the autumn will have to pay more than four times what they paid for electricity in 2020.

Paul Wilson, from the Federation of Small Businesses, said the government needed to intervene now to prevent business closures.

He said: “We don’t have the luxury of waiting any longer... winter could spell the end for many businesses and they need help now.” 

READ MORE: 'A bleak outlook' - Hospices issue desperate plea in face of £1million energy bill increase