THE former general manager of an award-winning restaurant had her bid for an alcohol licence turned down at the Town Hall on Tuesday.

Stephanie Schiattarella, former general and operations manager at Exmouth Market’s Moro and Morito in Clerkenwell, opened her cafe, Ciro’s, in The Ivories in Northampton Street, Essex Road, on the same day she attended a licensing meeting in Upper Street.

Speaking afterwards, she said: “I’m a cafe. So I’ve opened it, the alcohol licence was just an extra, so that’s why there’s lots of confusion. They keep calling me a wine bar but I’m a cafe.”

She said she planned to work with residents before resubmitting an application, and hoped to be part of the community for a “long time”.

Ms Schiattarella said her experience at Moro and Morito, which sells Spanish tapas-style food, alongside her Italian heritage, led to her to open an Italian-style deli.

“It’s going to be a casual place to come and have tasty food in a relaxed atmosphere,” she added.

At the hearing, she told licensing chiefs about her plan to sell and educate people about “natural wine”, although she heard the poster about it pinned to the window of her cafe alarmed neighbours.

While the cafe is open between 8am and 4.30pm, her application to sell alcohol until 10.30pm inside and 11pm in off-sales was turned down.

Around 20 neighbours who attended the ­meeting said the sale of alcohol in such a residential area could create anti-social behaviour.

Robert Gillespie, who lives near the cafe, told the hearing: “This is not Upper Street.”