TWIN brothers Scott and Luke Jacobs fulfilled their childhood dream of opening their own restaurant on Friday as their latest venture opened its doors to the public.

The Ridge, located in Shaw Ridge Leisure Park, has been three months in the making for the pair who were the former managers of Bottlelino’s in Penzance Drive. They had to leave their position following a stabbing there on Halloween last year.

But determined not to give up on their aspirations of owning their own eatery, the brothers got to work designing their new place from the interior to the grill-style menu.

Scott, 23 said he was amazed that over 100 people came to the launch on Friday night with bookings already lined up by eagerly-awaiting diners for the next few weeks

“This place is everything we have wanted to do with a restaurant and it has all happened quite fast but we’re pleased with how it has turned out,” he added.

“The support has been incredible and we haven’t stopped over the last three months. We have had old customers somehow manage to track us down to ask what we are going to do next and to wish us luck which has been really nice. We’ve even had cards congratulating us on this place and it seems like a lot of our clientele is our former customers and we have managed to build up quite a following from Bottlelino’s.

“It feels like even at our lowest point, we wouldn’t be where we are without the support we’ve received and now to have that reflected with the amount of bookings makes us so happy and now we’re ready for business.”

Since leaving Bottlelino’s, the brothers have gained masses of support from former customers and their mum Lynne even set up a fundraising page to help the 23-year-olds open their new restaurant.

Over £2,500 was raised in a matter of weeks.

At the launch on Friday, the brothers were joined by Swindon Wildcat players Jonas Hoog and Tomasz Malasinski after being named one of the team’s sponsors.

“To be honest, I’m amazed at how quickly we got back on our feet and turned this around,” Scott beamed. “We might have been knocked down but we got back up and we have a brilliant team here to make this place a success.

“We have all locally sourced ingredients from the meat we use to even the coffee we use which is roasted just around the corner. We are both from Swindon and we want to give off that local factor to people and we want to look after the community.

“We’ve been lucky that a lot of people have stood by us but we know there are people out there waiting for us to fail but we are going to prove the critics wrong.“We had a small event with our family the night before the launch and everything went down really well with them, even if I had to jump in and be the chef for the night but we’re back as a full team now and we are ready to rock.”

The Ridge is open seven days a week. For reservations, call 01793 251002 or visit theridgeswindon.com.