Verdi’s is aiming to be scooping ice cream again by Easter, but the owner of the fire-hit Mumbles seafront café has warned it could be nearer summer.
Eight weeks after the blaze, Ryan Hole says the café’s insurers have finished investigating and accepted the claim, which clears the way for the rebuild to start.
“Our insurers have now concluded their investigation and have accepted liability, which is a big step forward,” he said in a Facebook update.
Strip-out tender for Verdi’s, and a hope the job goes to a local firm
The next job is finding someone to gut the building. A tender is under way for a contractor to strip it out and refurbish it, and Hole says he would “love to use a local company if possible”.
Only once the strip-out is done will the family know how much work lies ahead, he said.
That is why the date is still a hope rather than a promise. “Our aim/dream is to reopen by Easter,” Hole said. “However, we’ve got to be realistic and that could be closer to summer.”
Easter Sunday falls on 28 March next year.
It is the same horizon general manager Giuseppe Cianciarulo gave in August, when he told customers in a tearful video that it would be hard to see the café open before the end of the year, “maybe even Easter”.
Missing Verdi’s? The team has moved to The Lighthouse at Bracelet Bay
Regulars who can’t wait that long have somewhere to go in the meantime.
“If you’re missing your fix, you’ll find plenty of familiar faces from the Verdi’s team at The Lighthouse, along with most of your favourites from the menu,” Hole said.
The Lighthouse shares the Bracelet Bay building with ROK, and is one of the venues the Hole family’s Secret Hospitality Group runs along the coast.
Keeping the team together was the plan from the start. Giuseppe said in August that the core staff would move around the group’s other sites until Verdi’s reopened.
What happened at Verdi’s in July
Fire crews were called to the Knab Rock café at 2.09am on Thursday 30 July, with engines from Swansea West, Swansea Central and Port Talbot.
Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service said the fire was confined to the kitchen and toilet area, and nobody was hurt. Photographs taken that night showed flames coming through the roof.
Days later, Hole said the damage was worse than the family had first feared. This week’s update does not say what the insurers found caused the fire.
His message ended on thanks. “Thank you so much for all your support and patience. It means the world to us, and we can’t wait to welcome you back,” he said.
Verdi’s, a Knab Rock fixture since 1993
Verdi’s has been a fixture at Knab Rock since July 1993, turning out up to 30 flavours of fresh Italian ice cream a day, with seating for hundreds looking out over Swansea Bay.
It was run for decades by the Moruzzi family before the Holes took it on in 2023.
The café’s business rates are being dealt with alongside the insurance and the rebuild, Hole said earlier this month, when he set out how the Welsh Government’s new hospitality rates cut would land across his five venues.
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