An Italian man who has been living in Belfast for nearly 10 years has achieved his dream of opening an authentic café.
Francesco Iaquinta has a background in sports and had previously worked as a personal trainer, but said the idea for his café and bistro La Bottega was always in the back of his head.
The deli, bistro and food market specialises in authentic Italian produce, and has gone from strength to strength since Francesco launched it in November last year.
Read more: Iranian night bringing the delights of Persia to Belfast
Francesco's initial idea for La Bottega was to serve up authentic deli dishes from the north and south of Italy such as lasagne and arancini, but his vision evolved and he now employs a chef who serves up delicious food at what is now a sit-in bistro.
As well as working as a personal trainer, Francesco previously worked as a manager at Belfast Castle and a personal trainer, before discovering Belfast’s Lisburn Road while working for French Village Group.
"It's quite stressful, but this is my life - this is what I want to be doing. You need to express yourself in what you really like and that's what I'm doing," Francesco told Belfast Live.
"This idea was in the back of my mind for a long time, and now it's here. Sometimes I can't believe it's real, it's a really nice feeling. The clientele is always growing; we have a lot of regular customers.
"I have a bachelor's and master's degree in sports so my background is totally different. I lived in Bologna for a long time and during my university life I worked for a lot of companies, I worked for Lamborghini for two years, I worked for the best restaurant in Bologna. I have a big passion for food."
When he moved to Northern Ireland, Francesco said he "started from zero" and worked his way up to where he is today.
He said: "I lived in London with my wife, she's a scientist and almost ten years ago she got a job at Randox in Crumlin. We moved over here. I started from zero - it was a new city, I had no friends. I started from nothing and started to go year by year."
Upon moving, he was on the lookout for some authentic Italian restaurants in Belfast, but couldn't find anything quite like home.
This spurred him on to contact Belfast City Council's Go For It programme and put his dream of opening La Bottega into action.
Francesco said: "I tried to find some authentic Italian restaurants in Belfast but it's hard, the menus are all customised and changed.
"I had carbonara on the menu here for three days and had to take it off because people would complain, and say it's not carbonara as there's no bacon or cream in it.
"We don't use bacon for carbonara, we have the best quality guanciale coming from Italy. We don't put cream, we just use egg yolks. The carbonara was a nightmare!
"My favourite thing we make is the lasagne. We follow my grandmother's recipe, we make the pasta fresh every day.
"We let the sauce cook for five or six hours, we put beef and pork cheek in it, and mix with celery, carrot, onion and some rosemary, it's really nice. The point is even the pasta is made fresh everyday. My chef is mental, every day you see him stretching the pasta out early in the morning.
"I change the menu every two weeks. Everything is fresh, cooked by our chefs upstairs, and kept traditional."
Francesco said he loves being able to interact with customers, and is hoping to start running cooking classes towards the end of the summer, with customers able to cook pizzas, tiramisu, and fresh pastas.
When it comes to being situated on the Lisburn Road, he said there's a "nice buzz" about the place.
"When we opened in November 2021, Cu and Seed opened beside us at the same time too. There's a nice buzz about the road.
"People can chose what kind of food they want, and our dinners are becoming a lot busier now. But we try to keep things very relaxed in here. The sounds, the smells, the colours - people have said it reminds them of being on holiday.
"I'm really happy with how everything has been going so far, and this is only the beginning."
READ NEXT:
-
NI teen brain injury survivor on getting a second chance at life
-
Meet the Arabic teacher who is passionate about languages and introducing her culture to NI
-
Romanian mum-of-three on her journey from Bucharest to a new life in Belfast
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here. To sign up to our FREE newsletters, see here.
