From the family bakery to the bar opened in the midst of the pandemic, Davide Piatti recounts his “bet”.

Changing life after 33 years in the family business. And to do so by opening a bar, in the midst of a pandemic, with restrictions still in place and a future full of unknowns.

 

At a difficult time for those who run businesses aimed at the public, with complaints about closures, requests for compensation, and more or less vigorous protests, Davide Piatti, 49, originally from Casciago, opened his new establishment, the Monterosa bar, in the street of the same name in Casbeno, an area of Varese well known for the presence of various public offices (Asl, Aler, a little further on the Police Headquarters, Province and Prefecture) and schools (accountancy, geometry, linguistics).

His family has been running the Piatti bakery in Via Ugo Foscolo, right in the centre of town, since 1972: “I was born at seven months old because my mother broke her water when she pulled up a basket of bread,” Piatti says. I worked there from the age of 16, got on my moped and started going to the shop. My sister Virna remains in charge of the bakery with the other partners, but I decided to change.

I made the decision to take advantage of an opportunity and for health reasons: “A few years ago I had bad pneumonia, working with flour is not the best for my body,” Piatti explains. When my brother-in-law, the accountant who followed the old ownership, told me about the possibility of taking over here, I seized the opportunity. My friends make fun of me, they say I’ve always spent more time at the bar than at work, now I make the bar my job. I’m not a kid anymore, I know, but I’m going for it with enthusiasm and confidence.

Times will change, we can’t think that it will go on like that with restrictions and the fear of the virus. It will pass.”

 

Piatti has also been the sports director for many years for the Casmo first and then for the Aurora Induno, after defending the doors of several province fields. With him in his new adventure, there is the sister-in-law Franca as partner and the wife Cinzia (“holy woman”, the husband highlights) for a  “psychological support”: “We see each other less than before, maybe she pushed me on purpose into this project,” he jokes. “I start at 5 and I’m here all day. We have renewed the place, giving it a new look, we remade the interiors and shortly we will do the new sign and curtains. Obviously, we have a wide range of products that arrive to the bakery, from fresh bread every morning to focaccia, pizzas, brioches. We opened on Friday 9^th of April, a lot of friends have already come to visit me for a coffee or an aperitif, rigorously takeaway. Next Monday, at least partly, schools will reopen (the son Luca, 16 years old, goes to a school for accounting, while Francesca is in fifth grade), and in this area there are a lot of offices which we will be ready to serve when normality is back. It is a moment in which the places that close are more than those that open, mine is a bet on myself, I put myself out there again, I try it and we will see if it works.”

 

Translated by Alessia Tropolini and Sara Mentasti

Reviewed by Prof. Robert Clarke