History
The chain quickly expanded, first throughout Bristol and then the rest of the country. Unlike other restaurants, they did not do their own butchery but brought in steaks already prepared. The chain was sold to Grand Metropolitan for £14.5m in 1970 and then sold to Whitbread in 1995. Over the following years, British tastes had changed due to foreign travel, and by the late 1990s the chain started losing money. Whitbread announced the closure of the chain, by converting many of the former premises into other Whitbread-owned brands, including the steak-orientated Beefeater or more generalised pub-orientated Brewers Fayre.
Their brother Marco managed the famous and prestigious Harvey's Restaurant Bristol in the 1960s.
Aldo Berni died in 1997 at the age of 88. Frank died 10 July 2000, aged 96.
The first female manager within the Berni Inn franchise was Mrs Gerda Thut, who took over The Sawyer's Arms in Nottingham in the 1960s. This was noted as a progressive step in management and equality at the time, and Mrs Thut was known as 'The Lady with the Keys'. Mrs Thut died on 17 October 2011, aged 86.
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