Cost of living: Restaurant's Facebook appeal to save business

Francesco and Cassie Alfano have run the restaurant for 10 years

The owners of a restaurant say they have been inundated with support after issuing a social media appeal to help save their under-threat business.

Cassie and Francesco Alfano, of Amore Italian restaurant in Newcastle-under-Lyme, put a drop in customers down to people battling rising bills.

Fearing a risk of closure, the couple took to Facebook to share their worries and attracted scores of people vowing to book a table.

The post has had more than 300 shares.

"Normally weekends were pretty full but it started to decline to us having only three tables booked on a Friday night," Mrs Alfano told BBC Radio Stoke.

She added: "If it carried on like this, it would have been the end."

The couple say prices for some of their fresh ingredients have more than doubled

The restaurant, which has been open for 10 years, prides itself on cooking ingredients from scratch, but the Alfanos say that has meant the business has faced the same cost-of-living pressures as customers.

Mr Alfano said: "In one week, the cost of flour went from £2.80 per kilogram to £4 per kilogram.

"Plum tomatoes were £12.60 before the lockdown. It is now £26 for the same item - it has more than doubled."

Following their appeal, the couple said the number of bookings had increased and they were hoping to recruit a new member of waiting staff.

Despite rising costs, the family-run business says it has kept the same prices for customers as before the pandemic.