New plans for former Italian Club in Copper Cliff

The Italian Club in Copper Cliff, a 71-year-old building that was home to many celebrations, community events and authentic Italian food, has been sold.

The plan is to keep the venue open to the community for weddings, events, celebrations and to serve a variety of foods.

The Singh family finalized the purchase of the Italian Club in mid-October.

They currently operate Sukhdev restaurants that specialize in Indian food, but have a different plan for the building, which they will call the Royal Sudbury Community Centre.

“When we buy this, we open it and people come here in the building greeting us, giving us best wishes and they are happy,” said Amrit Singh, co-owner of the Royal Sudbury Community Centre.

“They say finally someone buy and they are happy because we are renovating everything. So we are investing here.”

The plan is to operate a restaurant and a banquet hall for large events and celebrations.

Gurpreet Singh, left, Sukhdev Singh and Amrit Singh are the new owners of the former Italian Club in Copper Cliff (Alana Everson/CTV News)

“We have a huge parking lot -- up to 200 cars or more,” said co-owner Gurpreet Singh.

“And we can host all kinds of food and everything and all the options are available. So we just need support from the community and it’s going to be for everyone.”

The new owners said their hope is to bring back the once popular buffet the former Italian Club was known for.

“We are going to do authentic Indian food here,” Gurpreet said.

“Some Italian food, Chinese food, Mexican food, some Canadian food. So it’s going to be all of the options. We are looking to tie up with some other restaurants and some chefs from the local community who were working here before.”

A unique feature in the building -- a bowling alley in the basement -- will also be open for functions.

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“I love to play there. That is my favourite part in the building,” said Amrit.

The family hopes to open the banquet hall for events by the end of November and open the entire building as a community centre by the end of the year.