FOOD & DR INK
LA PIAZZA
With a successful Italian deli and cafe on Burleigh Street and now a flourishing eatery downstairs in The Grafton Centre, Alex Signorelli is relishing bringing a little slice of his motherland to Cambridge. But he didn’t always have a passion for the hospitality industry. “I grew up in a family of professional restaurateurs and I hated every moment of it!” he laughs. “I was finishing school and having to go to straight to work in the evenings where we lived in northern Italy. When we came over to England when I was about 13, the family set up a restaurant in Colchester, and again, I was working there constantly and never really had time to enjoy growing up. So, I promised myself I’d never go into it…” Determined to make good on this, Alex went off to university and got a corporate job, but it wasn’t long before the call of the stoves returned. “At one point I just thought to myself, I want to go back,” he recalls. But this time, he wanted to do it differently, importing his own products and baking on site. Signorelli’s opened two and a half years ago, instantly becoming a hit for its delicious patisserie, gourmet sandwiches, Italian- style pizzas and melty arancini. When the opportunity arose for a second branch in The Grafton, he jumped at the chance. Located on the ground floor of the shopping centre, by the foot of the escalators, La Piazza has already animated this large space into a buzzing meeting spot. “I wanted to create a typical Italian- style square, with a Mediterranean approach: tapas, cocktails. It’s one fixed price for two terracotta pots – one side and one main, or you can get a Mediterranean tasting platter, which is three pots. One of our house specials is the parmigiana, which is great, and our Tuscan sausage and mushroom lasagne is going down a storm, too,” says Alex. As well as the tapas and hearty Italian mains, you can grab a scoop of gelato, plus there’s a well-stocked bar with interesting spirits from all kinds of indie distilleries, and craft beer from Alex’s home town. There are also cocktails on offer, including a Frangelico and limoncello number which sounds ideal for a quick pre-cinema tipple.
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