The Little Venice Group continued to expand this month with the soft opening on the weekend of its third new restaurant venue in 2005.

The restaurant Bl?, which is located at the former Belmont hotel, follows the opening of L?Oriental Takeout Express and the Little Venice Wine Bar earlier this year. Partner and general manager in The Little Venice Group Costanzo di Meglio said: ?This year has been an unbelievable year for me because I opened the wine bar and it has been a great success and then I opened L?Oriental Express which has been unbelievable and now Bl?.?

Property developer Kevin Petty approached Mr. di Meglio more than two years ago about creating a restaurant at his townhouse and condo complex at the former Belmont Hotel.

The restaurant concept is a step away from the Italian, French, and Oriental foods for which the Little Venice Group is well-known. Instead, the Bold American styling of celebrity chef Bobby Flay provided inspiration for the international kitchen.

While there are items such as red hot chilli soup and quesadillas on the menu, Mr. di Meglio said the menu is not so much Mexican or Texas as it is simply flavoured with very light southern spices. ?It is a light steakhouse with a south-western flavour. A steakhouse is really into prime rib and prime steaks and we wanted to become more of a restaurant for everybody than just being recognised as a steakhouse,? he said.

The restaurant gets its name from the water and sky that literally surrounds diners through the huge floor to ceiling windows. The hilltop location offers quite amazing views of the city skyline and harbour, the surrounding golf course and townhouses all the way out to Somerset and Dockyard.

Inside, a huge waterwall is a key feature of the restaurant which has zoned music and 24 light zones in place.

?We can dim all the lights and so in the night-time it is the outside that takes over, not the inside and that is to me a thrill that it actually works,? Mr. di Meglio said.

Mr. di Meglio said that Bl? gives people a place outside the city where they don?t have to fight traffic or for parking, but can simply relax and enjoy their surroundings. ?If we want to increase tourism, we need places like this. People come here from the hotels and anywhere else to see the place. It is like an attraction. They see Bl? and the first thing they say is wow and how can you not. It is beautiful.?

The Little Venice Group which also owns L?Oriental, Little Venice, The Harbourfront, La Trattoria, Four Ways and La Coquille also reopened The Deep Nightclub, Lido and Mickey?s Bistro during the past twelve months following their closure in September 2003 due to damage from Hurricane Fabian.

Mr. di Meglio said that when it comes to expansion his group is approached on almost a daily basis by people who want to involve them in various projects.

The Group has already committed to opening a restaurant at the former Newstead site, which Mr. Petty is developing for tourists. The restaurant tentatively named Mango will be a ?small jewel? that will take advantage of its own views of the harbour and city.

?It is not that we want to expand, but if we see something that makes sense for us then we will. We are still young and we still want to create,? Mr. di Meglio said adding that when they are approached with opportunities like what was presented for Bl? the answer is not ?no?.

?There is a possibility in everything,? he said.

For him, the group?s success comes from the fact that they put their ?heart and soul? into the restaurant business.

?We are very lucky people. We love our job. We are passionate about it. We put everything that we?ve got into it and it shows,? he said. ?It is the same as any other job.

?If you are really happy and you wake up in the morning and you want to go to work how can you not create? You fell like an artist in some ways as it is an extension of you.

?It is your ideas that being in the restaurant business for so many years they grow in you and if you have the opportunity to express them then you will and if I have an opportunity to express it in other ways I will too.?