ITALIAN restaurant chain Carluccio's is to open in York.

Fenwick derpartment store in the Coppergate Centre is introducing the 98-cover restaurant as a new concession and hopes to open in June.

It will be the first Caluccio's restaurant in York and will follow the opening of Carluccio's in Harrogate this Friday.

A licensing application has been submitted to City of York Council, seeking permission to open the restaurant between 9am and 11.30pm Monday to Saturday, and 11am to 11pm on Sunday.

The new restaurant will form part of a larger refit at Fenwick, which is transforming its current restaurant on the first floor into extra retail space.

Neil Setterfield, store director at Fenwick in York, said: "We are converting the existing restaurant space into additional fashion space, bringing some new brands into Fenwick.

"We will then be converting a lot of our back of house area which will become Carluccio's, a 98-cover restaurant with a small deli.

"We are very excited about it. It is something we have been looking to do to for some time. In any retail business it is essential to keep moving forward and introduce new ideas.

"The opportunity came about to work with Carluccio's and we have taken it. We are hoping Carluccio's will open in June, and the newly extended fashion offering on the first floor will be ready for the Autumn lines."

The store's revamp follows work in 2012 to create a new beauty hall on the ground floor, which opened in August that year.

The Carluccio's brand was founded by Italian television chef Antonio Carluccio. It has a portfolio of 88 restaurant's predominantly in the South, with the Harrogate restaurant se to be the 89th.

The closest Carluccio's restaurants to York currently are in Leeds Greek Street, and Leeds Trinity, with restaurants also in Newcastle, and Meadowhall in Sheffield.