From the Bay of Silence to the Stories of Good Food: A Day in Sestri Levante - Part II

After a very pleasant walk along the seafront overlooked by the colourful houses of the fishermen, we move ideally onto an island, reaching the Ristorante L'Isola, located on viale Mazzini, along the Aurelia at the beginning of the town coming from Chiavari. We easily find parking a few steps from the restaurant and, once inside, we sit at a table from which a pleasant view opens over a glimpse of the sea. The bright setting, furnished in an elegant modern style and arranged over two floors, is very pleasant and conveys a young, dynamic and warm charm. Welcoming us with great kindness are the owners Fausto and Violetta, who created this restaurant three years ago, managing to transform an abandoned furniture factory into the favourite destination of many gourmets who come here both from the city and from all over Italy and the world.

Byron, in having regained his physical wellbeing thanks to the sea of Sestri Levante, is certainly not alone: something similar also happened to the owner of this restaurant, as emerges from the almost novelistic account of Mr Fausto: "I am of Calabrian origin, but I was born in Trentino and have always lived in Ivrea, in Piedmont, where we had a restaurant that was doing well. At a certain point, however, my wife Violetta had been suffering from back pains and when the problem was becoming rather serious, the doctor advised us to go and live by the sea, in particular in Liguria, since here, thanks to the great biodiversity, the sea air has a high concentration of iodine. So a few years ago we opened a place in Moneglia, where we did very well, but we only worked in summer. At the time we were still commuting between Piedmont and Liguria, which was rather tiring.

So we moved to Sestri Levante, and after two years during which we had run a restaurant called La Baia, the chance arose to buy this place, which many years ago was a deli, but when we arrived it was a former furniture factory closed for a year and without systems, without anything. It was a nice challenge for us, which we took up with enthusiasm, and although many would not have bet two cents on us, we managed to create this restaurant from nothing while at the same time giving a piece of Sestri Levante back to the town.

Our efforts have been rewarded both by the affection of the customers and by the fact that now my wife is very well: the sea of Sestri Levante together with the passion for our work have healed her." Until a few decades ago Sestri Levante was among the places most frequented by artists, and although lately the dolce vita seems to have moved elsewhere, sitting at the table at L'Isola it is as if we were in a pleasantly bohemian setting where it would not be surprising if a familiar face appeared. The excellent quality of the cuisine and the joking and informal style of the place make it a destination for those who, besides eating well, also wish to spend time in harmony and tranquillity.

Awarded the title of Tripadvisor Italian Excellence for the years 2014 and 2015 and reviewed by several important guides, the restaurant has established itself thanks to the honest, passionate and loyal work of the owners, who use only top-quality ingredients, prepare everything fresh and also get on well with the other restaurants and hotels of the town. "We do a different kind of cuisine from the other restaurateurs, so we do not bother anyone; on the contrary, we sometimes send customers to a pizzeria or, vice versa, receive people sent to us by other establishments. We are fair with everyone; if a friendly climate is created it benefits all of us, as well as the customers," Mr Fausto explains; he is one of the few owners who cook directly themselves.

"Our customers appreciate the fact that I put my face to it, always doing a round of the tables and, between one chat and another, listening to each person's particular needs. A relationship of trust is created that way too," he recounts. Our dinner begins with a four-leaf clover of prawns in orange cream and a salmon carpaccio with limoncello, prepared in the Russian way, with a very laborious method lasting five days. After these tasty starters we taste fresh taglierini with a coffee aroma with almonds and prawns, and we cannot even resist the taglierini all'isolana, inspired by the name of the restaurant and prepared with a cream of mussels, clams, almonds and pine nuts resting on fresh seafood. From the metaphorical island to the real one the step is short and is taken by tasting a fine plate of taglierini with Sicilian red prawns and Bronte pistachios.

Among the dishes we choose a very good fresh sea bass filleted and served with slices of porcini mushrooms, while our friends opt for one of the flagships of the place, the peppered mussels. Finally, we can only give in to the sweet temptations of the desserts, including the cake with eporediese cream, typical of Ivrea, as the name reveals. We also very much like the hand-churned sorbets, whose exquisite flavour repays the effort required to prepare them. After this lovely day we are certain that returning to Sestri Levante will always be a pleasure, and waiting for us there will not only be the two bays so loved by writers, but also an island, the one of good food.

Francesca Bertha

FOR INFORMATION:

Ristorante L'Isola Viale Mazzini, 306 Sestri Levante (GE) Tel.: 0185/1756028