Operations manager Fernando Amoran said the deal was 90 per cent done. The fit out is expected to start soon. “We are looking to open around May or early June,” Mr Amoran said. 

Criniti’s restaurants are popular and many Wollongong people travel to Sydney to experience one. As a result the Criniti family’s interest in Wollongong is attracting plenty of interest in a city with an increasingly cosmopolitan feel and dining culture.

Criniti’s restaurants are located in Woolloomooloo, Darling Harbour, Parramatta, Castle Hill, Manly, Kotara, Carlton and Southbank.

In each location Criniti’s is renowned for its food, atmosphere and passion for supporting local community projects and charities.

The business was started by Frank Criniti who grew up eating traditional Italian food prepared by his mother.

The ingredients were mainly vegetables growing in his father’s garden.

Mr Criniti has described his parents as humble migrants who arrived in Sydney by boat in the early 1960s.

There was an abundance of tomatoes meant which mean napoletana sauce was prepared daily.

And Mr Criniti’s childhood was filled with the smell of simmering garlic, olive oil and  fresh tomatoes being cooked in a saucepan. The family also made tomato sauce, salami and homemade vino in the backyard and those traditions continue to this day.

Other members of the family are involved in the business including Dominic Criniti who is the general manager.

And just like those family meals from the early days in Australia, food preparation and preservation remains central to the Criniti philosophy of establishing traditional Italian eateries.

It promotes itself as providing authentic Southern Italian food in a restaurant environment where eating is an experience.