Atlantica - 01.11.2000, Page 29

A T L A N T I C A 27
SOHO
F
ew people have been
more intimately involved
in the story of Soho over the
last 50 years than Nino
Polledri, owner of Frith
Street’s Bar Italia, Soho’s
most famous café.
“I was 13 in 1949 when my
father first brought me to
Soho. He showed me this
place and told me he was
thinking of opening a café.
Bar Italia opened at
Christmas the same year,”
says Polledri, recalling the
events of half a century ago.
We’re sitting at a table out-
side the café, where a gleam-
ing black Mercedes with the
number plate “NIINO” is
parked up against the kerb.
Bar Italia is flanked on one
side by a hairdresser’s, the
Nino Salon, and on the other
by Café Italia and the Little
Italia restaurant, all owned by
Nino Polledri and family. Bar
Italia was obviously the right
idea at the right time.
“Yes, custom grew slowly
but steadily. Originally, the
family owned a restaurant in
Covent Garden but since Bar
Italia opened it’s been the
backbone of the business.
We’ve always tried to keep
the place as authentic as pos-
sible. Some improvements
were made in 1951, after it
had been open for 18 months,
but since then nothing’s been
changed. A few years ago we
spent GBP 90,000 on restor-
ing it to exactly how it was. It
would have been much
cheaper for us to have ripped
out the interior and started
all over again,” says Polledri
with a smile.
There’s no hiding Polledri’s
Italian origin; his parents
Catarina and Luigi Polledri
were born in the home
country, as Italian as parmag-
giano. The same is true of
most of his staff. “That’s
right, we try to employ
Italians as far as possible. It’s
all part of the ambience.”
Despite its name, Bar Italia
was never a bar. The menu
offers coffee (some say the
best cappuccino in town),
fresh fruit juice and light
snacks. And the place is open
almost 24 hours a day, seven
days a week; almost,
because, as Polledri explains,
“We sometimes close early
on Sunday night, at around 3
a.m”.
There’s a vibrant atmos-
phere whatever time of the
day or night you care to drop
in. A counter runs almost the
length of the café. Opposite is
a mirrored wall with a ledge
where you can rest your cof-
fee cup, and a scattering of
bar stools. Outside on the
pavement there are a few
tables which always seem to
be filled. According to
Polledri, Bar Italia was the
first place in London to intro-
duce the Continental idea of
the pavement café.
Polledri himself has now
largely retired from the busi-
ness, handing over the man-
agement to his children
Veronica, Anthony and Luigi.
From the vantage point of Bar
Italia, Nino Polledri has been
able to observe first hand
how Soho has changed over
the years.
“Soho has always been a
bit like a village in the middle
of the metropolis, though
now this is changing fast.
Everybody used to know
everybody else and most had
in common the fact that they
were immigrants. It’s really
only ten or 15 years ago that
native English people began
to set up businesses here.”
Soho has long been notori-
ous as London’s den of iniqui-
ty, but it wasn’t always this
way.
“Up until the sixties it was
very respectable here. Then
things began to change and
in the seventies the area
became very sleazy. Tramps,
drugs everywhere and porn
shops spreading like wildfire.
In the eighties, when the
Conservatives were in power,
they began to clean up the
area and close down the sex
clubs. This has continued and
today the area is fairly
respectable, though it can get
pretty colourful at night when
people spill out of the clubs
rather the worse for wear. We
make sure they’re not
allowed into the Bar Italia,
though. In keeping with the
spirit of family tradition,
we’ve always taken care to
maintain high standards at
the Bar Italia, and that applies
to night-time as well.”
Bar Italia is a Soho institution. Almost half a century old, the café – not bar, in spite of its name –
is open round the clock seven days a week and is as popular by day as it is by night. Nino
Polledri, owner of Bar Italia and son of the founder, filled Jón Kaldal in on the history of the café
and its colourful surrounding district.
The Italian Connection
ATL 6/00 22-28 SOHO cmsx 19/10/00 3:49 pm Page 27