Long-running Castle Street restaurant, Franco’s, will be replaced with a cocktail bar called Nova 48.

The Italian restaurant, owned by Franco Colangeli and previously called Bar Italia, unexpectedly closed its doors in January but will now reopen under new ownership and with a drastic overhaul.

Nova48 is a cocktail bar whose website promises ‘sexy, naughty cocktails’ including champagne cocktails and VIP rooms. With over 25 cocktails on the menu and music covering “a mish-mash of everything cool”, the bar has a dress code that will ban day wear and polo t-shirts.

The bar has already held an opening night serving cocktails to guests and is aiming to be the cocktail hotspot for the location, which lies between Liverpool’s business district and the Liverpool ONE shopping complex.

The new cocktail bar is the latest in a series of new venues on Castle Street, including Argentinean meat specialist CAU, which is currently being fitted out, and a proposed new budget hotel, easyHotel, above Salthouse Bacaro. Meanwhile, a late-night license has been submitted for the former What’s at 62 unit, which has been vacant since the beginning of 2015.

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