Café di Mamma Amelia is a neighbourhood coffee stop on the Kings Road run by Antonio Cavinato which is developing into a destination for coffee lovers and Italian food afficionados, and their success has seen them expand this week to a second bigger unit on the same popular Harrogate street, taking over No 148 to create Cucina di Mamma Amelia with homecooked ready meals, and deli items “just like Mammas” and indeed both ventures are named after the owner’s own “Mamma” back in Italy.
Specialities include Antonio’s secret recipe tiramisu and authentic homemade cakes, pizzas and lasagna and Cannolis – a house favourite with their regular customers. The new deli has allowed Antonio to protect local jobs, taking on 2 younger part time staff for weekends, in addition to his 2 full time employees, and to offer a wide range of speciality items for purchase as well as takeaway, or on trend “finish at home” dishes.
Antonio commented “People love to come in and be tempted and they had missed their genuine Italian food fix that I previously provided during lockdown from my old town centre premises near the station, so when the opportunity came out of the blue to open a smaller business on King’s Road I came back from Italy and started small, but demand has soon outstripped what we could do in the small shop, and when No 148 became available, I decided to just go for it! Harrogate is a great town to run a business in, there is lots of support from locals for a small business, and I will now be running between the coffee shop and the deli up and down the street, so my gym will miss me! There’s a great business community here too, my neighbours and landlord are really supportive.”
Carolyn Frank, FSB North Yorkshire Development Manager commented “Small business owners like Antonio are what keeps our high streets going, they are quick to respond to customer demand, and whilst there is a risk from rising costs and the current economic downturn, we are seeing lots of people starting up new businesses, or like Antonio, expanding into bigger premises, and I believe if your product offer is right, people will come to support you as a business, and I was delighted to be one of his very first customers at the new shop and to meet his staff team, who are all as enthusiastic as him about Harrogate’s thriving independent shopping scene.”
Photo: Antonio Cavinato, Owner, outside the new business “Cucina di Mamma Amelia”.