Year-old Hamilton eatery Mediterraneo is set to get new stakeholders with the principals of Ascot?s Restaurant buying into the fledgling restaurant.

It emerged yesterday that both the manager and partner of Ascot?s Restaurant on Rosemont Avenue are in final negotiations to take a stake in the Church Street restaurant that closed on Friday.

Ascot?s manager Angelo Armano yesterday told the papers are still to be signed but the negotiations were all but sealed. He said the renovations will go on through the month, with a May 1 re-opening planned.

Various upgrades are planned during the four-week renovation including closing in a porch area on the upper level, putting in a fixed bar upstairs, better soundproofing of the space and putting in a plan for better floor service.

A new menu is also being designed for Mediterraneo, with the restaurant moving to a ?bistro? style from one that has been more Italian.

?We will have a new menu, a new concept, but we?ll keep the name. We like Mediterraneo,? said Mr. Armano.

The Ascot?s party is taking on the shareholding of part owner Franco Caparra, who is understood to be leaving the Island with his family. A silent partner, who has not been named but who has been part of the project since its opened, will retain a stake in the venture.

Although Mr. Caparra, who was also Mediterrane?s executive chef, never revealed the price for developing the Church street address that is now Mediterraneo ? a year-long effort that saw the previous retail property all but gutted and refurbished ? it was rumoured to be significant.

When contacted by yesterdaya Mediterraneo manager declined to comment until the restaurant finalised its future plans.

Currently, a legal action has been undertaken by E.B. Properties against departing Mediterraneo stakeholders, Beverly and Franco Caparra. The law firm acting on the matter, Wakefield Quin, was not yesterday available for comment on the case, when contacted by