New restaurant’s unusual offer is a tribute to his late brother

A man has opened his first restaurant, beer and barbecue garden to honour his brother’s name, and he’s offering tripe soup as a hangover cure.

Marinescu Florin Luigi, a Romanian man, opened a restaurant in Castlegate, which has already attracted people from different cities in the UK and nationalities worldwide.

The building used to be the Greek Steakhouse.

The main restaurant room is yet to open as the kitchen is incomplete, however, the beer and barbecue garden has opened.

“The Greek guy took my brother to work here as an apprentice and that was his dream, to become a chef,” said Marinescu.

“He then decided to go to the south of Cornwall to work there.

“Sadly, he had a heart attack and passed away, so I decided to take this restaurant and somehow honour his name.

“It is the first time for me, I wasn’t going to do it, but people encouraged me to do it, for my brother, for his name.”

Marinescu has worked in different trades from care worker, construction, car boot sales, delivery driver, and the closest to hospitality was a hot dog van when he was 15-years-old.

The restaurant is in a listed building which is over 200 years old, and besides the main restaurant, and the garden, it also has cellars.

The garden part is open everyday from 5pm-11pm, however, the owner is in conversation with the district council to obtain permissions for weekend late nights.

The garden would offer customers Romanian nights in the summertime with live music, of which groups of friends or family can take part.

In the garden, the food is everything sold on a fast food van, from burgers, hot dogs to Romanian kebabs — traditionally served with mustard and chips.

One of the most popular dishes served in the restaurant is tripe soup, which is a popular request.

“Which is the best hangover cure? Some people say it’s an English breakfast, some people say gherkins or anything more sour, but for us it is tripe soup because it is cream, garlic and meat,” said Marinescu.

“People come here, party and eat and the next day they come asking for tripe soup.”

The menu for the main restaurant will include a mix of Eastern European and Indian foods with vegetarian and vegan options.

On the ground-floor of the restaurant, the cellar will be transformed into different Eastern European themed-rooms, for example Romanian and Lithuanian, with the appropriate country’s decorations.

The cellar will be available for rent for occasions, so decorations such as newspapers, pictures, flags giving a traditional old town feel, can be removed.

In the near future, Marinescu would like to open a Romanian church, named Constantine Church after his brother.

“There are a lot of Romanian people in Newark. I was nearly the first Romanian person to come to Newark,

“That’s why most people know me and we have a good connection, we have our own Facebook page for the community and that’s where I do my advertisement and everyone knows me.” he said.