Silly law closes great cafe

Stuff reports:

An Italian-born restaurateur living in Wellington is upset the law is preventing him from continuing to offer Kiwis a little slice of his home.

Antonio Cacace​ owns two hospitality and grocer businesses in Wellington: La Bella Italia in Petone, which he opened 17 years ago, and Bel Mondo in Rongotai, which he opened in 2016.

Both his businesses were designed to offer an authentic Italian environment, allowing patrons to dine while sipping on a glass of wine, and then shop in the food store for Italian food and wine to take home afterwards.

Been there several times. Lovely food and its great you can shop around in the store while you wait for your order.

However, when Cacace applied to renew his liquor licences last year, he was told he was operating outside of the law by holding an on-licence and off-licence under the same roof.

Cacace said he was told that if he wanted to continue to hold both licences he had to physically separate the dining area from the food store with a wall. He would then have to operate the two as separate companies.

A silly requirement. There was no harm at all from the status quo.