Well the Tuscan regional dinners start this weekend after great feedback on the Sardinian season.
The weekend before last a strange and wonderful thing occurred, all the tables booked in except one had someone on it that spoke Italian. How fantastic is that!
Our refurbishment finally happened a year later than planned but it looks great and we’re over the moon with the results. There are about 35 photos of the family in Italy, old staff and customers in the restaurant and our first restaurant in Salerno in the ‘70’s, the ‘Trattoria dello Sport’. We are planning to get the pics on the website with stories about them soon.
There will be a live preview of the jazz album we are releasing to celebrate 30 years of Salvos. These are jazz arrangements of Italian songs that have a place in our hearts written and played by the Eddie Roberts Quartet. If you are interested please drop me an email for the date. Please, do not think this is some wishy washy covers lite band playing frothy starbucky vanilla latte Mcjazz, this band plays hot, scalding espresso swing, hot as hell, black as night and sweet as sin, Ouch, It’s loud.

Next week we close Salvos for 3 days for a refurb and hopefully open the fresh new and improved model on Thursday.
While we are closed we are going to open our Salumeria which is a couple of doors down and offer a real Italian style dining experience which, if we like it, we are going to do all the time. When in Italy you can eat in places where often you sit down and something tasty is put before you to nibble on, a bottle of the owners choice of wine is always a winner then some antipasto arrives followed by a nice plate of pasta then a little main and some dessert or cheese, do you have a choice? Who cares, as long as it’s great. Sometimes there is a choice of dishes but the daily dishes are the ones to have so its easy to just say yes to all recommendations.
On Monday Tuesday and Wednesday evening we are going to offer a no choice menu of a couple or 3 antipasto dishes, a pasta dish, a main course, a dessert and a nice cup of coffee, all served Family and Friends Style. The price will probably be £15 and the house wine on offer is an absolute cracker. Anyone who is fussy about good food will love it, anyone who is just fussy should wait until Thursday when they can choose from a menu.
The only option we will offer is meat/no meat menu. I know of course the food, wine and atmosphere will be brilliant but it remains to be seen whether the public will take to this way of dining, I really hope so because, as you will know if you have experienced this type of dining in Italy, Spain or France, it is a wonderful way to enjoy a meal.

This Sunday all 10 chefs at Salvos got together, along with me, John and assistant Manager Jenn for an informal pasta workshop and tasting . This allows us to taste, compare and discuss the merits, differences and history of pasta. It goes without saying (even though I am saying it) that its also an excuse to eat, drink good wine and neck lots of bottles of Peroni. The day started groggily with me waking up late after one of my rare D.J gigs(the eyes have gone and I can no longer read the labels on the 45’s in the dark) at the Hi Fi club in town.
As I foolishly volunteered to cook for the chefs I had to Knock up some fresh egg pasta and prep a few sauces at home as I haven’t got the hang of turning on the range at Salvos(I’ve only been there 30 years). We had a fruitful couple of hours and after leaving me with just one bottle of my favourite Montepulciano the gang graciously retired to the Skyrack where I suspect they argued the finer points of egg vs durum pasta, whether the best place for production is Sicily, Abbruzzo, Puglia or Naples and does hand made pasta help in the development of a firm chest in the young and old alike. Once you engage an Italian in conversation about pasta you really open a can of little worms(vermicelli in Italian.