THE co-owner of Swindon's La Carbonara Restaurant has died, the restaurant has announced. 

The Kingshill eatery is owned by couple Lino and Sue and had only just reopened after a brief closure.

But it confirmed the news of Sue's death in a brief post on its Facebook page this week.

It said: "It is with a heavy heart that we announce the death of Sue Matthews one of the owners of Carbonara, the restaurant will be closed until further notice thank you to all our customers for everything R.I.P Sue Matthews."

La Carbonara had just reopened at the end of August following a revamp and a change of menu, and welcomed back happy customers who had missed the Swindon food institution. 

Swindon Advertiser: Lino and Sue Goncalves Lino and Sue Goncalves (Image: Dave Cox)Sue, in particular, was very excited to be getting the family business on Westcott Place back up and running after family health issues had forced its closure just before Christmas last year.

Up until that point the restaurant had been running for 16 years and as a result, the announcement of its closure was met with an outpouring of sympathy and support.

The building had been placed up for sale and it was assumed the restaurant would be lost forever, but after months of no news, Sue and Lino made a shock comeback announcement in July.

This news was also greeted with a strong level of support with Sue describing it as 'overwhelming' when she spoke to the Adver at the time. 

"We closed La Carbonara because of health issues, but those are on the mend now, so we've been thinking about doing something for a while now and how we might return," she said. 

Swindon Advertiser: La Carbonara SwindonLa Carbonara Swindon (Image: Dave Cox)"We made the announcement just to plant the seed that we're coming back. We don't want to give too much away about our plans yet and there are a lot of things we still need to work out but we've been overwhelmed by the response. It has brought tears to our eyes."

When Sue and Lino were interviewed once La Carbonara had reopened, Sue was equally as excited about being back. 

"A lot of the regulars have returned, given us hugs, said they were sad when they heard about the closure, and thanked us for reopening. It’s heartwarming.

“We didn’t realise how much people had invested in the restaurant.

“We want to say a big thank you to them for all the support. We couldn’t ask for better customers and we hope they like what we’ve done.”