La Vita to open restaurant in Glasgow’s east end

Plans for a restaurant, takeaway and bakery on Baillieston Road have now been approved by the council.

The Glasgow favourite is planning to open La Vita Barrachnie in late 2021 or early 2022.

It will be the chain’s sixth restaurant and is set to include a function suite, cocktail bar and pizza oven.

The application reveals the restaurant will open in part of the Co-op superstore, near the junction of Baillieston Road and Barrachnie Road, which is described as a “local shopping and leisure hub”.

There was already permission to divide the shop into separate units, but La Vita will combine a restaurant and takeaway unit into one business.

“The restaurant will have a mix of areas with a large kitchen to service takeaway and function room as well as the main restaurant,” the plans add.

“The front terrace on Baillieston Road is to provide an external socialising space for the local community and helps ensure the financial success of the restaurant.

“On hot days, potential customers gravitate towards premises that have external areas and this can be a strain on the restaurant premises that do not have this facility.

“It is also important to try and create a street presence for the restaurant as the building is very much just a large shed with little character to the facade and the external proposals create a more attractive street.”

Eight part-time staff and 14 full-time workers are set to be employed in the restaurant, which will have a Mediterranean theme, creating “a romantic and family themed destination”.

Bosses believe the bakery, which will supply the restaurant, will make the premises greener, by producing goods in-house, and will also allow for better quality control.

There will be six workers in the bakery and one delivery driver while the takeaway will employ three full-time and two part-time staff members.

La Vita’s function suite is designed to be “a local community hub for celebrations and will be of a scale that is not generally found locally”. That venue will have two full-time and eight part-time workers.

Glasgow City Council has approved opening hours of 11am to 11.30pm for the restaurant and function suite between Sunday and Thursday. They will be able to open until midnight on Friday and Saturday.

The owners had asked for permission to open the function suite until 1am, but the request has been turned down.

The takeaway will operate from 12pm to 11pm from Sunday to Thursday and 12pm to 11.30pm on Friday and Saturday, and the outdoor terrace will open from 12pm and 10pm daily.

The company currently has five restaurants in Glasgow and surrounding areas, with Spuntini in Gordon Street and Byres Road, La Vita in George Square and Bishopbriggs and Piccolino e Vino in Newton Mearns.