Ristorante due Rose to Expand

, the lunch and dinner restaurant tucked into a corner of the Pinole Vista Shopping Center, will add a private banquet room and a new bar, following city approval for a use permit.

The expansion will fill an empty space between the existing restaurant and the Radio Shack store next door. A new, more visible main entrance will be added, owner Pedro Canjura said.

The Pinole Planning Commission approved the conditional use permit on Monday.

Canjura estimated that the remodeling will increase sales by about 25 percent, or more in an improved economy. The additional space will allow banquets without having to close the rest of the restaurant to the pubic, Canjura said.

Canjura said he spoke to a contracting company to do the expansion and the company will start work once permits are granted by the county health department and the city building department.

"As soon as they get those two permits, they will start the construction right away, and he said the construction will be done in two to three weeks," Canjura said.

Adding the banquet room and bar will add 1,725 square feet to the existing 1,848 square feet of space used by the restaurant.

Ristorante due Rose has operated in its current location for nine years. It has had a license to sell alcohol since 2005, during which time the Pinole Police Department has not recorded excessive alcohol-related calls, according to a memo to the planning commission. The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has recorded been no alcohol sales violations during that period, according to the memo.

The restaurant already has a permit to sell beer, wine and hard liquor, so no new state or local alcohol permits are required.