San Carlo Group has set its own ‘gold standard’ with the launch of Cicchetti Piccadilly in time for the Olympic Games.

The stunning Venetian tapas bar and restaurant occupies a key location in the Capital’s theatre land hub, opening for breakfast at 8am through to 11.30pm when the atmosphere becomes decidedly late lounge.

Based on our outstandingly successful Cicchetti venue in Manchester’s House of Fraser, Cicchetti Piccadilly offers a selection of superbly presented authentic Italian small dishes to share, as well as a carefully chosen wine list.

San Carlo Group is renowned for offering the true taste of Italy and to ensure the Group maintains its exacting standards the management team and head chefs make regular trips to Italy, sourcing the best produce and researching recipe ideas and methods. For the last gastronomic trip, Marcello Distefano, managing director of San Carlo Group, invited Mark Garner, publisher of food and drink online magazine Manchester Confidential, to join the team and see first-hand the work that goes on behind the scenes.
The gourmet trip included visits to local produce markets, to top wine producer Pio-Cesare at Piedmonte – one of Italy’s most important wine regions and lastly to a Michelin starred restaurant in Boscareto. Tough assignment!

Signor Sassi on Knightsbridge Green in London is proud to announce the arrival of a romantic Italian tradition at the restaurant.

Our sister restaurant, the renowned Alfredo alla Scrofa in Rome is famous for creating the popular dish fettuccine alfredo back in 1907, as a gesture of love from the owner to his wife.

The restaurant continued to be the backdrop for many famous romances including movie stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks who were so taken with the venue’s famous pasta dish and the  love story surrounding it  they presented a golden spoon and fork to the owners. From that day the dish has been served with the golden spoon and fork, a symbol of love.

Now Signor Sassi has introduced the golden spoon and fork for diners who wish to indulge in Italy’s historic food of love.

Find out more at: signorsassi.co.uk

San Carlo Cicchetti has been named restaurant of the year for 2011 by leading food and lifestyle e-magazine Manchester Confidential.

The magazine stated: “Cicchetti is sassy, busy, buzzy, good looking and innovative. It has an atmosphere locals and city visitors love. We could do with about ten such places in Manchester not just four or five. For the diner Cicchetti produces whole rosters of dishes which delight either through their cunning sophistication or their straightforward rustic simplicity. The kitchen gets this Italian balancing act almost perfect.”

Congratulations to the team at Cicchetti for an incredible first year.

Congratulations to John Thompson our executive chef based at San Carlo Cicchetti.

For John has joined the ranks of the culinary world’s celebrated chefs, after being awarded the highly respected Maitrise Escoffier by the ‘Conseil Culinaire Francais de Grande Bretagne’ (French Culinary Council of Great Britain).

The award, medal and diploma, on recommendation of the President of the Association Culinaire is in recognition for achievements within the culinary profession.

The association, whose founder members included the universally known Chef de Cuisine, Mr Auguste Escoffier, is a society managed by chefs for chefs and its main aim is to maintain professional standards of cuisine and to encourage learning and skills.

Executive chef for San Carlo Group restaurants, John works much of the time at San Carlo Cicchetti in Manchester but also travels alongside Exec Head Chef Franco Bellomusto, leading the kitchens at new group restaurant openings. December saw John and the Executive team supervise the launch of the Group’s new Signor Sassi restaurant in Beirut.

Heading up our 120 strong team of chefs; this year sees our irrepressible Executive Chef Franco Bellomusto celebrate 15 years of service with San Carlo.
Franco’s love affair with food started at a young age.  One of seven children, Franco was born and raised in Calabria, southern Italy.  It was Franco’s mama Emma who was to inspire his life-long passion for good food:

“Mama was an incredible cook and my inspiration; she made everything from scratch, every day and would be up before 7am to start cooking sauces and making pasta for lunch at 12” says Franco, “my eldest sister married a coach driver who was fussy about his pasta, he would toot the horn when he was three minutes away, that was how we knew when to start cooking the pasta.”

After graduating from catering school in Milan, Franco went on to perfect his skills at the city’s exclusive and historic Biffi Galleria restaurant.

Franco moved to England when he married and in 1996 he came to work for San Carlo. Fifteen years on, Franco has been at the helm of San Carlo’s kitchens as each restaurant has opened ensuring food, menus, kitchen staff and equipment are all in perfect order.

What keeps Franco and San Carlo together? “It’s simple” says Franco, “The owner Carlo and I share the same passion for good food…our mama’s taught us well.”

A great breakfast can be hard to find in the city but we firmly believe San Carlo Cicchetti’s are the best and we’re not alone, they’re getting rave reviews.
Offering a range of gourmet and classic options using the finest ingredients – from Eggs Benedict to a full-English, the Manchester Evening News awarded San Carlo Cicchetti the full 5 stars and Manchester Confidential supremo Mark Garner loves it too. Breakfast is served every day from 0830-1130am and from 9am at weekends. We hope to see you there.

San Carlo Cicchetti has been nominated for an award in The Manchester Food and Drink Festival Awards 2011.  If you love Cicchetti and share our passion for great food and wine, we’d love to count on your vote. Time is short and voting closes at the end of September. It only takes 2 clicks to vote at www.foodanddrinkfestival.com/awards

Thank you!

San Carlo Cicchetti’s new website www.SanCarloCicchetti.co.uk is now live and the initial response from people has been fantastic.

Visitors and friends of the site can browse sample menu’s, view the gallery and learn more about our dedication to offering the best authentic Italian dishes created using the finest ingredients, many of which are flown in from Italy. We’ll also keep you up to date with our latest news and look out for our seasonal recipes for you to try at home.

We hope you’ll stop by online soon and, if you can, we’d love you to click “like” to acknowledge you’ve enjoyed the site. We’re also on twitter, follow our group of family owned restaurants @SanCarlo_Group.

San Carlo Cicchetti (pron: chi-KET-tee) re-interprets the delightful Venetian culinary custom of cicchetti – delicious small plate dishes to share or eat alone, enjoyed with a beer or glass of wine. The restaurant is located on King Street West in Manchester and offers breakfast, all day dining and dinner through until late seven days a week. Booking not required, table reservations are taken for the evening only, from 7pm. To make your reservation, please call 0161 839 22 33