Posted in Customer Testimonies on Monday, 01 April 2024
When we travel to Italy we always enjoy re-visiting favourite osterie and restaurants, the ones we have found tucked away behind the tourist trails, family run, unpretentious and serving local, seasonal traditional dishes. Our favourites, Soralella in Rome, Palanca in Venice, Nello in Santa Maria di Castellabate.
These eateries were the inspiration for our small Caffè Bar tucked away at the back of the shop at 19 Elm Row. To create it, in 1996, Philip built on our garden ground behind the shop, and I worked, with the help of our new chefs Giuseppina Trano, Concetta Miele, and our baker Alberto, we created a space that welcomed everyone, was priced to be accessible to all and offered our own home cooking the food we eat at home and the food we had been inspired by in our travels.
Terrified at the reaction we would receive we needn’t have worried. We succeeded. Loved by our customers and rewarded by great reviews, our Caffè Bar has become the place we wanted it to be. A place to experience the joys of Italy: food, wine, (any bottle from our retail list at minimum corkage) and welcome.
It hasn’t been plain sailing, but our customers have come with us. Our head chef today, Emmanuel Dagnino and our head Baker, Paweł Bijak have joined Pina in the kitchen over the last 15 years as they keep the food flowing.
In this, the Valvona & Crolla Caffe Bar’s 27th year, we have won an award for
Scotland’s Best Italian Restaurant 2024, we have been listed in the Good Food Guide’s recent article
Britain's top Italian Restaurants, and feature once again in Pete Irvine’s newest 14th Edition of
Scotland the Best: ‘A room that oozes, smells of and quietly whispers Italy. It hasn’t changed much in [over 25 years] but we love it for that. It was always just right!’
Come and find us… we are still hidden away far from the tourist trail, at the back of our Valvona & Crolla wine department, Giovanna and Liezel will be there to welcome you. Thank you to all our family, colleagues, suppliers and loyal customers who help us create our dream every day. Wha’s like us? Gey few…