Manchester’s oldest Italian restaurant closes following fire and donates all its food to charity

Manchester Italian restaurant Don Giovanni suffered a fire in the early hours of Wednesday morning, with firefighters called to tackle the blaze at the Oxford Street restaurant at around 5.50am.

Three engines from Manchester Central and Salford tackled the fire, remaining at the scene until late yesterday morning.

The cause of the blaze, which started in the restaurant’s kitchen, is currently under investigation.

Images shared on social media showed the front window of the Oxford Street restaurant smashed with police tape surrounding it.

Firefighters called to kitchen blaze at Don Giovanni’s in Manchester city centre https://t.co/3Hsw7izRQ0 pic.twitter.com/VnUrlp52zZ

— restaurant jobs (@Manc_restaurant) August 8, 2018

Don Giovanni announced on its social media yesterday that it was hoping to be open again this weekend. However, the damage is more significant than originally thought and the restaurant has now said it will be closed for up to four weeks whilst repairs take place.

It has donated all the food it had in stock in the restaurant to anti-food poverty charity Fare Share.

Fare Share redistributes surplus food for those in need, supporting homeless hostels, children’s breakfast clubs, community events for the elderly and domestic violence refuges.

A spokesperson for the restaurant told us: “The team at Don Giovanni would like to thank the people of Manchester for their kind messages of support following yesterday’s fire incident.

“We’d also like to thank the fire service and the police for their heroic actions whilst containing and resolving the fire.

As the oldest independent Italian in the city, Don Giovanni has been a popular choice for Manchester’s diners since 1984.

It is accommodating as many bookings as possible at its Liverpool Road sister site Cibo whilst the restaurant is closed for repair.

It will also be running a supplementary menu at Cibo from today featuring some of its most popular Don Giovanni dishes.

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