City Italian restaurant owners say ‘ciao’ after decades Delfa retires and family move on
A Stirling family who have run two popular city centre eateries for decades are calling it a day.
Delfa Faccenda, who ran restaurant La Ciociara at the corner of Friars Street and Barnton Street retired, aged 74, at the start of November.
And her daughter Jacqueline De Luca and husband Leo - who ran the chippy Il Vicolo next door stepped back from the business at the weekend following the expiry of the Friars Street premises’ lease.
Jacqueline (54) and 57-year-old Leo however plan to reopen as Il Vicolo on a smaller scale in city premises in the spring.
Delfa had first worked in Il Vicolo before opening up and running La Ciociara in the early 1990s in memory of her late husband Joe who had been the driving force behind the business.
Delfa was then helped in the restaurant by her younger daughter Paula Demarco and husband Tony.
Jacqueline said this week: “It is the end of an era in many ways.
“Retirement has certainly been an emotional time for mum. She has a lot of memories. She came to Scotland from Italy when she was aged 18 in 1966 and started working in family chip shops in Raploch.
“But she realises things change and it’s time to retire. She has done her fair share of work over the years.”
The leases for both Il Vicolo and La Ciociara have expired.
Jacqueline added: “Our lease was up at the Friars Street premises and it was time to wind down a bit.
“The shop was open till the early hours seven days a week – and to 3am on Fridays and Saturdays – and we didn’t want to do the long hours any more.
“Our customers have jokingly been telling us we’re not allowed to retire!
“Hopefully we’ll be back in the spring at another Stirling location working on a smaller scale. We’re taking the name Il Vicolo with us.
“The Friars Street business will stay the same, but will be under new management.”
Il Vicolo was established in the early 1980s by Jacqueline’s uncle, and Delfa’s brother, Bruno Macari.
However, after five years in Scotland Bruno returned to the town of Cassino between Rome and Naples. Jacqueline and Leo have been working in Il Vicolo since the late 1980s. Her grandfather Tony Giannandrea had run an ice cream factory in Stirling.