“Whoever doesn’t care about what he eats, hardly will care about anything else”: you can read this sentence as soon as you enter the website Caterina, Kitchen and Flour, the restaurant opened by Angelo Coro in 2014 on the corner between Via Imperia and Via La Spezia. This warning perfectly sums up the owners’ philosophy: each meal is a holy moment that requires quality, good taste and wealth.
Where does this name come from?
“Caterina is my daughter, the Kitchen is the place where I’ve always worked, the Flour is a precious ingredient of our dishes: I simply put together these passions of mine”.
What is the philosophy of your restaurant?
“We mainly focus on the typical Italian cuisine, offering different menus depending on the season. Our inspiration comes from the traditional cuisine, however our young chef loves creativity and takes inspiration from different traditions, mixing the ingredients in an original way.
Our basic, though, remains the Mediterranean cuisine”.
How do you choose the ingredients?
“My suppliers are the same ones as I used to have before I opened the restaurant, like the ones at the fish market. I also have some contacts with small producers of the village where I come from, in Puglia, who allow us to bring on our tables our own produced olive oil”.
How do you cope with the increasing number of vegetarian and vegan customers?
“Our menu is set to meat and fish, and offering vegetarian and vegan dishes require a high level of attention. At a management level is surely more demanding but it’s a new, exciting challenge”.
Do you organise events?
“We often organize tasting events. Among the most original, our customers have really appreciated the tasting of dishes made using our olive oil. We have used some varieties of different olive oil coming from Puglia combining them with sweet and sour dishes: I definitely recommend you to try our pie filled with olive oil cream, it was very tasty! We have already planned other tasting evenings where we match the wine with the dish and an event where coffee will be the main protagonist”.
What is the concept design behind your restaurant?
“The décor is modern, minimal and sober. The walls are painted in charcoal grey and they’re framed with white wood; the tables are in light wood whereas chairs and glasses have a sea-green colour. We wanted to create a simple, airy space, and very bright thanks to the with big windows looking out at the street and at the olive trees that we planted there”.
What other services do you offer to your clients?
“A while ago we used to be opened on Sundays and have a regional menu. Now we offer the business lunch, which is very successful: it’s a quick menu that we have created specifically for the many professionals working nearby, who have a short lunch-break but still want to have a good-quality meal”.