Business / New Commercial Street café to bring back Solotti’s ice cream floats
THE BUILDING that previously housed Faerdie-Maet and Solotti’s has been sold and is being rebranded as Pete’s Café.
It is set to revive some old traditions alive by bringing back ice cream floats as well as some of the rolls made famous by Faerdie-Maet.
The new owner is Peter Klang, who is originally from Germany but has now lived in Shetland with his family for two years.
“When we came here everybody started calling me Pete,” he explained.
“We looked at different options like Lerwick Café, or maybe keeping the old name… at the end of the day we just went with something simple.”
Klang confirmed to Shetland News that he will be offering sit-in food and drink as well as takeaways, but it will not be table service.
He said: “We’ll have to see how well its accepted and if it’s feasible to get more staff we might be looking into [offering table service].”
With opening scheduled for 14 August, Klang says everything is still in the “very early” stages. The premises were sold empty, so he is waiting on deliveries of new furniture and kitchen equipment.
The new café’s menu has not yet been finalised, however Klang is keen to keep the spirit of his predecessors alive.
“We’re trying to keep a couple of the old items, for example Brenda’s famous rolls,” he said.
“I’ve also been at the Shetland Archives [researching] Solotti’s. The folks there were extremely helpful, they found old menus.
“We’re also seeing if we can bring up a couple of the Solotti’s favourites, the ice cream float for example.
“We’ll have some things new and some things old.”
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