It's tipping it down outside but Nottingham's newest restaurant offers an Italian escape - blotting out the outside world with coffee, cannoli, cocktails, pizzas, olive trees and a 'cloak of invisibility'.
The elegantly decked out Gusto Italian gives diners the chance to be in the thick of the action.
Two chefs' tables and a pizza-making experience blur the boundary between restaurant and kitchen at the restaurant, which has replaced Frankie & Benny's in the city centre.
Led by a concept of giving customers an experience to remember, there will be interaction with chefs and the chance to try little extras from the menu.
General manager Jason Hood said: "We wanted the kitchen to be open, and the most aesthetically vivid kitchen in Nottingham - that was the ambition and I think we have absolutely nailed it.
"These are the tables that will have high energy - the chefs making things and interacting with those tables."
Gusto is a name that may be familiar to local food lovers since the chain had a restaurant in West Bridgford for three years. It closed last year after becoming a victim of the pandemic.
However, the new 150-seater Gusto Italian, on the corner of Upper Parliament Street and King Street, is significantly different in look and experience following Matt Snell's arrival as chief executive.
Mr Hood said: "He wanted to change the concept of Gusto.
"He wanted to get away from your standard restaurant service in casual dining and mark us out as being more premium in that casual dining sector and that's centred around experiences, so bottomless brunch and pizza experiences."
The first in a new wave of restaurants for the chain offers a two-hour pizza-making experience for six to 10 people around a large table in front of the pizza oven.
The immersive experience costs £45 a head and as well as pizza-making it comes with plenty of other things to eat and drink including a complementary cocktail and creating cannoli.
After a glass of prosecco, an antipasti board with cured meats, burrata, olive and focaccia, and watching the chef create dough petals - similar to dough balls but petal-shaped and flavoured with garlic and rosemary oil - the table will be cleared to make way for a hands-on Neapolitan pizza making-experience.
"You will be guided through the experience by one of our pizza champions who have been trained specifically on delivering these experiences," said Mr Hood.
Because it takes time for the dough to proof, the wannabe chefs will then get the chance to put toppings on dough pre-prepared by the chefs.
"You'll be aproned up and the winner who makes the best pizza will get to keep their Gusto apron.
"It gets messy. They can throw it in the air and stretch it - it's one of those fun experiences. The chefs make it so quickly when they're showing them. It makes it look really easy and it really isn't," added Mr Hood.
The remodelled restaurant is laid out with different sections - other tables away from the 'high energy' experiences offer more intimate dining, higher tables and stools are designed for relaxed coffee and cannoli from 10am each day and drinks by the bar, and tables with ice wells in the middle will chill bottles of prosecco for bigger groups relishing a bottomless brunch.
A striking feature is voiles at the windows blocking out the outside world so pedestrians walking past the busy spot can't see in, while its a cosy hideaway for those inside.
Mr Hood said: "It helps set us apart as somewhere a bit more premium. We are conscious that it's very fish bowl and pretty much every other Italian restaurant along King Street you can see in.
"This sense of people not being able to see in properly will either inspire them to come in and have a look at what's going on or just let the people who are here feel more of an elegant experience."
A wide-ranging drinks menu includes signature cocktails such as Strawberry and Kiwi Sling, and Disaronno and Coconut Sour, pink grapefruit gin, Italian cider, Peroni on draught and Marmalade Spritz.
Diners can kick off a meal with starters of calamari, minestrone soup, king prawns and pickled fennel or slow-cooked meatballs.
Italian staples of pasta and risotto feature plus meat, fish and vegan options. An 18oz Chateaubriand for two, sea bass or hot smoked salmon and roasted vegetable orzotto are amongst the options.
Those who fancy pizza but don't want to make it themselves can order one of the six off the menu - from margherita to the meat sweats inducing carnivoro.
The restaurant has done well to recruit 90 staff at a time when hospitality is struggling to fill vacancies due to the pandemic.
Mr Hood said: "This is a tight market right now and it's been a rough few years with Covid. Recruitment has been difficult. To recruit that many people in this climate is impressive but they gelled so well. They are such a good set of people. Personalities are what we want from our new wave of Gustos."
At Monday's opening, food lovers were eager to see what the restaurant had in store.
Lisa and Richard Holmes, of Mapperley, were the amongst the first customers to visit at lunchtime.
Lisa said: "It's on our bus route and we saw it when we were Christmas shopping so we thought we'd give it a whirl.
"It's really nice decor without feeling too pretentious and a nice relaxed atmosphere. I've ordered Hummus with 'music bread' so I'm intrigued to see what that is and mushroom fettuccine."
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