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36 Monkspath Business Park,
Solihull,
B90 4NZ

Click here for map

Opening Times:

Monday
06:00 - 22:00

Tuesday
06:00 - 22:00

Wednesday
06:00 - 22:00

Thursday
06:00 - 22:00

Friday
06:00 - 22:00

Saturday
07:30 - 20:00

Sunday
07:30 - 18:00

Please see Timetable for bank holiday opening times

Email:

info@bardello.co.uk

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Bardello School of Dance



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Hell, we tried. We tried a lot of what I was sure were great ideas we had special menu Jazz dance nights with some of the best jazz bands in the UK live at Bardello; Tipitina, Kell Elliott and Becky Brine.



The Kell Elliott Band at Bardello - December 2009. All the bands that we featured that December were absolutely fantastic, if you get a chance, go and see them.

Lessons from an old man: If it's not been done before, ask yourself "why?". There's probably a very good reason. I soon realized that a business needs to be run from the brain and not the heart.

We even had a live Burlesque performance from Carrie-Anne O'Dell together with her 6ft cocktail glass the two of whom progressed to round two on Britain’s Got Talent earlier that year.


International burlesque performer Carrie Anne O'Dell at Bardello - December 2009. Is that Piers Morgan poking his equipment through the gap in the curtains?


One of the iconic images hung in Bardello, Nick and Venda. Few know that the vest worn by me was used in the gym that morning for a heavy session. I was a reluctant participant, not expecting to be photographed as I don't photograph well.



The absolutely fabulous Bardello venue at Damson Lane. It was indeed fabulous, but, something wasn't quite right. Still don't know what, no one will tell me. If you know, please let me know, it's all gone now, you won't hurt my feelings.

Another great idea; "What about a cine restaurant?". We obtained all the necessary permissions to play classic films on the big screen during opening hours. Just my luck, we would have to launch this during one of the worst winters on record with a next to useless heating system in the venue.


The Bardello Cine Restaurant than ran throughout the cold winter of 2009/2010. We had our poor customers huddled around paraffin burners. They kept their coats, gloves and woolly hats on to eat exotic fruit creme brulee. Jesus wept, so could I.

We simply could not make the restaurant side of the operation work and decided to end all food sales after the actually very successful St Valentine’s day dinner-dance in February 2010.

Rachel Guiste Bardello General Manager, 2009	Steve Moore Bardello Duty Manager, 2009 - 2010
Rob Hollington Bardello Head Chef, 2009 - 2010	Geoff Jones Bardello Assistant Head Chef, 2009 - 2010

Despite the fabulous dishes created by our chefs, Rob and Geoff and the valiant efforts of Rachel and Steve, we had to close the restaurant operation in February 2010

A lesson from the archives of Nick: Don't think that an expert or consultant or someone who's worked in an industry before, no matter how good they might be, knows how to start a business from scratch. Starting a business from nothing is very different from running an existing business. If you are going to start a business from scratch, you need to have a really good feel for the process of building the business from the ground to a point of break-even before your money runs out. For example, don't buy too much initial stock or equipment - sounds obvious, yes? It's a nice problem to have when you need to rapidly replenish but a horrible problem to see your money sitting there doing diddly-squat. In 2009 I bought expensive cutlery and place settings for round 200 as that was our capacity. I should have bought for 50 and apologized for the wait if we had been lucky enough to have more than that eating.

The well-stocked Bardello bar at Damson Lane. It was great to look at and we did keep it very well stocked indeed.



The pride and joy of Bardello - the £35,000 toilets, solid wood and Italian tiles throughout! If you were going to go in Bardello, you'd go in style.

Having realized that the Bardello Latin Nightclub concept was not going to work, I quickly had to re-focus on those areas in which I personally had expertise.

I really should have known better - honestly, what was I thinking: Know the industry within which you intend to work inside out. I knew next to nothing about running a restaurant and look what happened. Even a short-term holiday job in a restaurant would have given me a great deal of information and no doubt prompted me to say, "DON'T DO IT!"

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