A “wine café” is opening in Kingston, in place of the old Strada in The Griffin Centre.

Veeno is a fast-growing UK chain that hopes to promote an Italian approach to after-work drinking, eating and relaxing.

Founders Nino Caruso and Andrea Zecchino met at a football game in Manchester in 2013, and both missed the apperitivo culture, and by the end of that year they had opened their first café.

Veeno serves wine from Nino’s family’s vineyard in Marsala, Sicily, which they say guarantees only high-quality wine reaches their customers’ glasses.

The Kingston branch will be the sixteenth in the country and the first in London.

Franchisees Derek and Sharon said: “We chose to open in Kingston because it is such a beautiful and vibrant place, steeped in history overlooking the Thames.”

Veeno will open on Thursday, October 26.